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FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2012 PAGE 5A
Obama cautious on gun control
B R I E F
Senate Majority Leader Reid says the body will not consider gun legislation this year.
President Barack Obama waves as he arrives to speak at a fundraiser at The House of Blues in New Orleans, Wednesday. New gun laws are unlikely to be enacted.
By JULIE PACE Associated Press
AP PHOTO
Burning issue
A public worker on strike sets fire to a mask in the likeness of Brazil President Dilma Rousseff during a protest in Brazil, Thursday. According to the Public Workers Union, thousands of federal workers are on strike nationwide to demand a 22 percent increase in pay and for retired workers’ pensions to match current workers’ pay.
WASHINGTON — Even as the issue of guns shifts to the forefront of the presidential campaign, the White House and the Senate’s top Democrat made it clear Thursday that new gun legislation will not be on the political agenda this year. Instead, President Barack Obama intends to focus on other ways to combat gun violence — a position not unlike that of his rival, Mitt Romney. Days after the mass shootings in Colorado, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama still supports a ban on the sale of assault weapons, a restriction that expired in 2004. But he added: “There are things we can do short of legislation and short of gun laws that can reduce violence in our society.”
AP PHOTO
Carney’s comments came the day after Obama, in a speech to an AfricanAmerican group Wednesday in New Orleans, embraced some degree of additional restrictions on guns. He acknowledged that not enough had been done to keep weapons out of the hands of crimi-
nals and pledged to work with lawmakers from both parties to move forward on the matter. Carney also spoke as a prominent gun control group called on Obama and Romney to lead a search for solutions to gun violence. The Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence said both candidates owe voters concrete plans and appealed to them not to duck the issue. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that the Senate would not consider the gun issue this year, even though he agreed with Obama’s remarks in New Orleans. “With the schedule we have, we’re not going to even have a debate on gun control,” Reid told reporters. The White House and Reid’s stance illustrate a reality in Washington, where advocating for restrictions on gun ownership is viewed as a political liability. Acknowledging opposition in Congress to new limits, Carney said Obama will work to enhance existing gun laws. “While there is that stalemate in Congress there are other things we can do,” he said. Obama told the National Urban League in New Orleans that he was willing to work with both parties in Congress to find a national consensus that addresses violence.
Palestinian refugees in Syria join battle
LONDON
Twitter rife with problems
eople across much of the planet briefly experienced problems acP cessing Twitter on Thursday, a day
before the 2012 Olympic Games are expected to cause a spike in use of the micro-blogging site. The San Francisco-based company acknowledged the problem, saying in a statement that its engineers were “currently working to resolve the issue,” although it didn’t go into further detail. It is the second time in just over a month that the site has been hit by problems. Visitors to the site on Thursday were greeted with a half-formed message saying that “Twitter is currently down.”
Growing violence and a sense of freedom draw in a group that has been outside. By BEN HUBBARD Associated Press
DENVER
Shooting response mixed
As police officers pleaded for all available medics to converge on the scene of the Colorado movie theater massacre last week, a two-man ambulance crew and their rig were idling just a few miles away. While some ambulances were quickly called to duty, it took dispatchers more than 20 minutes into the crisis to ask the Cunningham Fire Protection District and other nearby agencies to provide aid at the multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora. By the time the Cunningham crew arrived, it was more than a half hour after authorities got first word that a gunman opened fire at a packed midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 people and injuring dozens of others. ATLANTA
Chick-fil-A refuses to yield
Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain known for putting faith ahead of profits by closing on Sundays, is standing firm in its opposition to gay marriage after touching off a furor earlier this month. Gay rights groups have called for a boycott, the Jim Henson Co. pulled its Muppet toys from kids’ meals, and politicians in Boston and Chicago told the chain it is not welcome there. Across the Bible Belt, where most of the 1,600 restaurants are situated, Christian conservatives have thrown their support behind the Atlanta-based company, promising to buy chicken sandwiches and waffle fries next week on “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.” The latest skirmish in the nation’s culture wars began when Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press that the company was “guilty as charged” for backing “the biblical definition of a family.” MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
Leaders debate constitution
Somali leaders are debating a new constitution that protects the right to have an abortion to save the life of the mother, and an international law group says the draft guarantees more fundamental rights than the U.S. Constitution. That’s one reason some women are celebrating the document and hardline conservatives are protesting some of its more liberal promises. But some of the rights introduced, such as the right to medical care or clean, potable water, will be hard for the government to guarantee in a country where basic needs like food are not always met. While other elements, such as banning the circumcision of girls, a practice the U.N. says more than 95 percent of women have undergone, will take years to banish.
AP PHOTO
Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney walks out of 10 Downing St. after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, Thursday.
Romney remark irks Olympic host Brits Presidential hopeful, abroad to show he can handle presidency, also plans event with head of troubled bank. By KASIE HUNT and DAVID STRINGER Associated Press
LONDON — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney caused a stir in Britain on Thursday by questioning whether the country is prepared to host the Olympic Games without a hitch and scheduling a fundraiser with the former head of a troubled bank. The former Massachusetts governor visited with British political leaders as partofalargerefforttoshowhehaswhatit takes to represent the U.S. on the world stage. But instead of highlighting ties with the America’s staunchest ally, Romney may have embarrassed the Brits instead.
British Prime Minister David Cameron offered a blunt retort to Romney and other doubters, saying they will “see beyond doubt that Britain can deliver.” The stir came on the first full day of Romney’s first international tour as the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. With the U.S. still fighting one war and facing foreign policy challenges across the globe, Romney is seeking to convince American voters that he’s prepared to serve as commander and chief, despite limited foreign policy experience. He will visit three allies — England, Israel and Poland — in the coming days while appearing Friday at the Olympic opening ceremonies to help remind voters of his personal Olympic experience. Romney led the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and used the games to launch his political career. But his foreign trip got off to a shaky start.
Romney openly doubted whether Britain could handle the games, saying it was unclear whether issues that have dogged the final preparations could be overcome. Romney backed off his initial comment after meeting with Cameron. “I expect the games to be highly successful,” Romney declared. At the same time, Romney faced scrutiny for a London fundraiser Thursday night that’s expected to attract employees of Barclays, which has been in the spotlight after becoming the first bank to admit its employees were involved in manipulating a key market index. Last month, U.S. and British agencies fined Barclays a total of $453 million. In the wake of that shock, chief executive Bob Diamond resigned. Diamond had been scheduled to attend the fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in the tony Knightsbridge district, but has pulled out. He already had sent Romney a check for $2,500.
Hot, dry weather heightens West Nile virus risk By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO — Life’s a picnic this year for the small, sneaky mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus and pose a deadly risk to humans. Hot, dry weather in the Midwest has created the perfect conditions in still-damp ditches and underground storm water basins where the Culex mosquito breeds. Where there’s water in the droughtplagued Midwest, it’s stagnant water — the Culex mosquito’s favorite breeding habitat. The heat also speeds up the mosquito’s life cycle, which means more breeding and more mosquitoes, and accelerates the West Nile virus replication process.
Look in
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Texas are reporting higher rates of infected mosquitoes compared with past years. More infected mosquitoes mean a higher risk for humans. Minnesota, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas are reporting earlier-than-usual cases of human infection. “I am quite concerned we may be facing one of our most severe seasons for West Nile virus since it arrived in our state in 2002,” said Kristy Bradley, state epidemiologist in Oklahoma, which has had eight confirmed human cases of West Nile infection, with seven of those being the serious, neuroinvasive form of the disease. “The risk is high and people need to listen,” said Linn Haramis, an entomologist
with the Illinois Department of Public Health. “This thing could put you in a wheelchair at age 60 for the rest of your life.” Most people infected with West Nile virus won’t get sick, but approximately one in150 people will develop the severe form of the illness. Symptoms include headache, high fever, neck stiffness, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness and paralysis. The best advice? Wear insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Avoid being outdoors between dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are biting. Install or repair screens to keep mosquitoes outside. Drain standing water to eliminate breeding habitat.
BEIRUT — Like other communities sucked into Syria’s widening civil war, the Yarmouk neighborhood in Damascus has seen death and destruction. Soldiers and snipers have gunned down demonstrators. Some protesters have taken up arms to fight back. But there’s one key difference: Most of Yarmouk’s residents are not Syrian citizens. They are Palestinian refugees. Since the start of the unrest, Syria’s half-million Palestinians have struggled to remain on the sidelines. They’ve said they have little to gain and much to lose by taking sides in the fight between President Bashar Assad’s regime and the armed rebels seeking to end his family’s four-decade rule. But young Palestinian refugees, enraged by this month’s mounting violence and moved by Arab Spring calls for greater freedoms, are now flooding the streets and even joining the rebels despite efforts by the community’s political leadership to keep them out of the conflict. Large protests began two weeks ago in the country’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Yarmouk, a neighborhood of nearly 150,000 refugees crowded into simple apartment buildings on narrow streets in the Syrian capital. Security forces fired on the protesters, killing at least five and setting off a cycle of funerals, demonstrations and further crackdowns. On Thursday, activists said troops posted outside Yarmouk were shelling the area, likely in preparation for a raid. “There are cars that have blown up and homes that have blown up,” a Palestinian activist in Yarmouk who gave his name as Abu Omar said via Skype, booms audible in the background. “We are really in a war zone now.” Violence has struck other Palestinian camps too. More than two-thirds of the 17,500 refugees in the southern city of Daraa fled an attack this month, the U.N. said. While many have returned, food and medicine are lacking. The U.N. says it cannot provide death tolls for Palestinians because of the difficulty of confirming information.
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