DAMASCUS, Syria, April 28 (UPI)
— The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President
Bashar Assad’s palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus,
Maariv reported.
The report said the Israeli jets entered Syria’s airspace close to 6
a.m Saturday and flew over Assad’s palace in Damascus and other security
facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.
The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian army air defense battery
positioned in the city fired at the Israeli jets that left Syria’s
airspace unscathed. FSA rebels posted a video showing smoke rising up
from the headquarters for chemical weapons. There were no reports of the
extent of damage or casualties.
Neither Damascus or Jerusalem responded to the report.
In January, foreign media reported Israeli jets bombed a weapons
convoy parked outside a military research institute near Damascus
allegedly en route to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
On
the eve of President Barack Obama’s visit to Mexico, the United States
is enjoying a resurgence of good will among the Mexican public, with a
clear majority favorably inclined toward their northern neighbor and
more now expressing confidence in Obama.
A national opinion survey of Mexico by the Pew Research Center,
conducted March 4-17 among 1,000 adults, finds that roughly two-thirds
(66%) of Mexicans have a favorable opinion of the U.S. – up from 56% a
year ago and dramatically higher than it was following the passage of
Arizona’s restrictive immigration law in 2010, when favorable Mexican
attitudes toward the United States slipped to 44%.
Obama also receives higher ratings than he did in recent years. About
half (49%) of Mexicans express confidence in the American president to
do the right thing when it comes to world affairs, compared with 42% who
said the same in 2012 and 38% in 2011. Still, Mexicans’ confidence in
Obama has yet to return to the level in his first days in office in
2009, when 55% gave him a high rating.
Mexicans are also now more of the view that the U.S. takes their
country’s interests into account when deciding international policy.
About half (51%) say Washington considers their country’s interests,
while 45% say it does not. In 2012, opinion leaned in the opposite
direction – 56% said the U.S. did not consider Mexico’s interests,
compared with 40% who said it did. Bilateral
issues, particularly the deepening of economic and commercial relations
between the U.S. and Mexico, are expected to be among the key items on
the agenda when Obama meets with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
this week. The survey finds that, overall, 70% of Mexicans consider the
deep economic ties between the two countries to be good for Mexico, down
slightly from 76% in 2009, when Pew Research last asked this question.
When asked specifically about the influence the U.S. is currently
having on economic conditions in their country, views are more mixed.
One-third of Mexicans say the U.S. is having a positive impact on
national economic conditions in Mexico, while 28% think the U.S. is
having a bad impact on their country’s economy.
Views on Immigration
More than 11 million Mexicans live in the U.S., including about 6 million who are in the country illegally.1
Mexicans are divided on whether this is good or bad for their country;
44% say it is good for Mexico that many of its citizens live in the
U.S., and an equal share say this is bad for Mexico.
About six-in-ten Mexicans (61%) say they would not move to the U.S.
even if they had the means and opportunity to do so. However, a sizable
minority (35%) say they would move to the U.S. if they could, including
20% who say they would emigrate without authorization. Mexicans
are less likely than they were a year ago to say that people from their
country who move to the U.S. have a better life there; 47% say life is
better in the U.S., compared with 53% in 2012. About one-in-five (18%)
say Mexicans have a worse life in the U.S., while 29% say it is neither
better nor worse. However, among those who have close friends or
relatives living in the U.S., 70% say these friends or relatives have
achieved their goals, while just 25% believe they have been
disappointed. Three-in-ten Mexicans say they personally know someone who went to
the U.S. but returned to Mexico because the person could not find work.
About a quarter (27%) know someone who has been deported or detained by
the U.S. government for immigration reasons in the last 12 months.
Fewer See Progress on Drug War
Less
often than a year ago, Mexicans say their government is making progress
in its campaign against drug traffickers; 37% say this is the case,
compared with 47% in 2012. An additional 29% now say the government is
losing ground against the cartels, and 30% see no change in the way
things are going. As in the past, Mexicans overwhelmingly support the
use of the Mexican army to fight drug traffickers; 85% are in favor of
this approach. There
is also support for some cooperation from the U.S. in the fight against
Mexican drug cartels. About three-quarters (74%) would welcome U.S.
assistance in training Mexican police and military personnel. A majority
(55%) would also approve of the U.S. providing money and weapons to the
country’s police and military, although this position has lost some
support in recent years; 61% backed this form of U.S. assistance in 2012
and 64% did so in 2011. However, there is little enthusiasm for the
deployment of U.S. troops to Mexico to fight drug traffickers; just 34%
of Mexicans would welcome this approach, while 59% would oppose it.
Most Mexicans (56%) blame both the U.S. and their own country for the drug violence in Mexico; 20%
say the U.S. is mostly to blame and 17% blame Mexico. When Pew Research
first asked this question in 2009, far more blamed the U.S. (25%) than
blamed Mexico (15%), while about half (51%) said the countries shared
responsibility.
Mixed Ratings for Peña Nieto on Key Issues
Peña
Nieto, whose election as president in 2012 marked the return to power
of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after 12 years in the
opposition, is generally viewed positively in Mexico; 57% say he is
having a good influence on the way things are going in the country,
while 38% see his influence as bad.
However, Mexicans expressed mixed views of Peña Nieto’s handling of
some key issues. In particular, the same share approves as disapproves
of the way the president is dealing with the economy (46%). Similarly,
47% approve of his handling of organized crime and drug traffickers,
while 45% disapprove. And when it comes to dealing with corruption, 44%
approve of Peña Nieto’s approach and 48% disapprove.
Not surprisingly, on all three issues, those who are affiliated with
the PRI offer more positive ratings of the president than do those who
are affiliated with Felipe Calderón’s National Action Party (PAN). At
least six-in-ten supporters of the PRI approve of the president’s
handling of the economy (68%), organized crime and drug traffickers
(62%) and corruption (62%). In contrast, 46% of PAN supporters approve
of the way he is dealing with the economy and corruption, and 51% give
him high marks for his handling of drug cartels.
The survey in Mexico is part of the larger cross-national Spring 2013
Pew Global Attitudes survey conducted under the direction of Princeton
Survey Research Associates International.
Results for the survey in Mexico are based on 1,000 face-to-face interviews conducted
March 4 to 17, 2013. The survey is representative of the country’s adult
population. It uses a multi-stage cluster sample stratified by region
and proportional to population size and urban/rural population. All
interviews were conducted in Spanish.
The margin of sampling error is ±4.1 percentage points. For the
results based on the full sample, one can say with 95% confidence that
the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or
minus the margin of error. In addition to sampling error, one should
bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in
conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of
opinion polls.
DALLAS (AP) -- A tour of the George W. Bush Presidential
Library and Museum begins in a bright area representing his early
domestic agenda, but with one turn, visitors find themselves in a
darkened room surrounded by chilling reminders of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
This contrast, symbolizing Bush's
abrupt shift in priorities less than eight months into his first term,
is among the most poignant exhibits at a museum being dedicated this
week that also chronicles the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hurricane
Katrina, the Florida recount and various other historical events.
Bush
told The Associated Press last week that he wanted to make sure the
part of the museum devoted to 9/11 was powerful enough to remind
visitors of how much the world changed that day.
"It's
very emotional and very profound," Bush said. "One of the reasons it
has to be is because memories are fading rapidly and the profound impact
of that attack is becoming dim with time, and we want to make sure
people remember not only the lives lost and the courage shown but the
lesson that the human condition overseas matters to the national
security of our country."
The George W. Bush
Presidential Center, which includes the library and museum along with
Bush's policy institute, will be dedicated Thursday on the campus of
Southern Methodist University in Dallas. All the living presidents,
including President Barack Obama and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush,
plan to attend. It will open to the public on May 1.
The
museum uses everything from news clips to interactive screens to
artifacts to tell the story of Bush's eight years in office. A container
of chads - the remnants of the famous Florida punch cards - is part of
an exhibit about the 2000 election, which Bush won after the Supreme
Court ordered Florida to stop its recount process more than a month
after Election Day.
In the 9/11 display,
called the "Day of Fire," video images from the attacks flash around a
twisted metal beam recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade
Center. The exhibit also includes the bullhorn Bush used days later to
address a crowd of rescue workers at ground zero: "I can hear you. The
rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings
down will hear all of us soon."
Longtime Bush
adviser Karen Hughes was standing just a few feet away from the
president when he began making the unplanned speech. Hughes said she
remembers turning to Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe
Allbaugh and saying, "That's going to be in his library someday."
Brendan
Miniter, who served as the liaison for the Bushes as the museum's
exhibits were developed, said the idea was to present the facts and "let
them speak for themselves." He said they also did not want to shy away
from more controversial aspects of the administration.
"I
suspect that people would have thought that we wouldn't have talked
about say enhanced interrogation techniques or the decision to create
the prison in Guantanamo," he said, adding that former Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice is featured in a video about why the
administration felt both were necessary.
Visitors
also are taken through a timeline of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A
display at the end makes the case against Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein, including that he ignored 17 United Nations Security Council
resolutions demanding he disclose his weapons programs and fired at
British and American pilots monitoring the U.N.-imposed no-fly zone.
The
exhibit also acknowledges the biggest controversy about the
justification for war: No weapons of mass destruction were found.
A
"Decision Points Theater," lined with rows of interactive screens,
seeks to put visitors in the shoes of a president. It provides facts for
them to decide such questions as whether to invade Iraq or provide
bailout money during the financial crisis.
"It's
conflicting," Miniter said. "You go to the Capitol Hill and somebody
will say you need to provide some resources to stabilize the financial
industry, and then somebody else will say no, let it work itself out,
don't do anything."
A "Freedom Wall" in the
museum features pictures including a soldier greeting children, former
first lady Laura Bush supporting women's rights and the Bushes meeting
with freedom advocates.
The impact of AIDS
around the world - a focus of Bush's international outreach efforts - is
illustrated with a large map of the world. Small photographs of the
faces of those suffering from the disease are placed into the shapes of
the continents of the world, with those with more AIDS cases, including
Africa, looming larger.
The museum also
features a section on life at the White House, displaying a ball that
obviously got some heavy use by the Bushes' late dog Barney. A
full-scale replica of the Oval Office leads outside to an actual rose
garden. The center also features a 15-acre park recreating a Texas
prairie.
Bush said his focus will continue to
be the George W. Bush Institute, which has featured programs focused on
education, economic growth, global health and human freedom. Through the
institute, his activities have included yearly bike rides with wounded
military veterans and traveling to Africa as part of an effort among
several groups to fight cervical and breast cancer in sub-Saharan
Africa.
He also recently took up oil painting,
inspired by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Bush, who
was the 43rd president, signs his works "43."
"I'm a beginner and I tell people that the signature on my paintings is worth more than the paintings," Bush said.
Spanish-language television network Univision plans to air a television special that it said reveals more violence than previously known, as well as the stories of how many more Operation Fast and Furious victims were killed, the network announced in a Friday release.
“The consequences of the controversial ‘Fast and Furious’ undercover operation put in place by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in 2009 have been deadlier than what has been made public to date,” the network said. “The exclusive, in-depth investigation by Univision News’ award-winning Investigative Unit — Univision Investiga — has found that the guns that crossed the border as part of Operation Fast and Furious caused dozens of deaths inside Mexico.”
Among other groups of Fast and Furious victim stories Univision says it will tell in the special to air Sunday evening at 7 p.m., is one about how “16 young people attending a party in a residential area of Ciudad Juárez in January of 2010″ were gunned down with weapons the Obama administration gave to drug cartel criminals through Fast and Furious.
“Univision News’ Investigative Unit was also able to identify additional guns that escaped the control of ATF agents and were used in different types of crimes throughout Mexico,” the network added. “Furthermore, some of these guns — none of which were reported by congressional investigators — were put in the hands of drug traffickers in Honduras, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. A person familiar with the recent congressional hearings called Univision’s findings ‘the holy grail’ that Congress had been searching for.”
A video preview published on Friday shows a number of the bodies of people killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as well as victims’ family members pleading with outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon for justice.
Congressional investigators from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Judiciary Committee have been probing Fast and Furious since early 2011, shortly after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered with Fast and Furious weapons. Terry was killed on Dec. 14, 2010, in Peck Canyon, Ariz.
Others whose murders have been connected to Fast and Furious weapons include Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata and Mexican citizen Mario Gonzalez. Gonzalez’s sister, Patricia Gonzalez, was the state prosecutor for the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Attorney General Eric Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.
Mexican government officials have estimated that at least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons.
Holder and President Barack Barack Obama have obstructed the congressional investigations into this scandal. After months of failure to comply with a subpoena for Fast and Furious documents, information and witnesses, Holder was voted on a bipartisan basis into criminal and civil contempt of Congress. Obama has asserted executive privilege over the documents.
The DOJ’s internal inspector general recently released a report concluding that Holder was not cleared by his currently ongoing investigation, despite a swath of media coverage saying that Holder was “exonerated” by it. Though he did conclude that he couldn’t find evidence or proof Holder knew about Fast and Furious, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified before Congress that almost everyone in Holder’s inner circle at DOJ did know, and that he and his team think it’s odd at best that Holder didn’t.
“We found, as we outlined in the report, we struggle to understand how an operation of this size, of this importance, that impacted another country like it did, could not have been briefed up to the attorney general of the United States,” Horowitz said during a House oversight committee hearing. “It should have been, in our view. It was that kind of a case.”
Former White House National Security Council staffer Kevin O’Reilly — who was intimately involved in Fast and Furious planning with Phoenix ATF officials, according to emails obtained throughout the congressional investigation — has since been reassigned by the Department of State to a detail in Iraq. Obama administration officials have refused to make O’Reilly available to congressional investigators and to Horowitz’s internal DOJ investigation.
On Friday, CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson reported that congressional Republicans are now threatening to subpoena O’Reilly and force his testimony on Fast and Furious.
Univision has aggressively covered Fast and Furious, and its most recent major run-in with the scandal came when network anchor Jorge Ramos grilled Obama in an interview on the scandal, asking him why he hasn’t “fired” Holder. During the interview, Obama made at least one false statement relating to Fast and Furious.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — A packet of information sent to Mayor Mia Love's office that city officials described as racist launched a police investigation Tuesday.
City Manager Mark Christensen described the contents of the thick envelope as "disturbing" and "pretty creepy stuff." He said it included a picture of Love and her husband, Jason, and a hooded Ku Klux Klan character. There also were pictures of aborted fetuses, he said.
"I couldn't tell if it was threatening or anything. It kind of shocked me, what I saw," he said.
Christensen said the city has received others mailings aimed at Love but nothing like the one that arrived Tuesday. He said he turned it over to the police department.
Saratoga Springs Police Chief Gary Hicken said he assigned an officer to investigate.
"I can say it's racial in nature but I can't tell you it's criminal in nature," he said.
Love, a Republican who is locked in a heated battled with Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson in Utah's new 4th Congressional District, took a defiant tone when asked about the mailing.
"I want you to know, I want everyone to know I am comfortable in my skin. I'm comfortable and proud of my heritage. I'm proud of who I am. I know where I'm going and I know what we need to do to get this country back in order again. There isn’t anything that anyone can send me that will distract me from that so they can bring it," she said.
Christensen said the envelope contained fliers, pictures and pages printed from the Internet. He said the city has received mail aimed at Love four or five times before, but the latest envelope caused enough concern to involve police.
Love said she hasn't looked at the details of everything the city has received, but described what she saw as "divisive racially and negative racially."
"If there is a physical threat, I'm sure they will let me know about it. But I want them (police) to be aware and handle that," she said.
Calling herself a "tough cookie," Love said she would do everything she can to protect herself and her family. Hicken said police might increase patrols around Love's house as they would for any resident who receives threats.
Love said she believes she's a target because she poses a problem to the policies of the Obama administration. She said the threats are meant to divert her from the issues in the race.
"I knew that people would come after me," Love said. "I knew that people would try to change and distort information so I'm going to focus on things that are really important."
Williams came across for six decades on concert stages and television shows as the ultimate Mr. Nice Guy, as well known for his warm, genial personal style as for his music.
Andy Williams at the Emmys with Carol Burnett and Harry Belafonte (left), Williams and then-wife Claudine Longet (top right), and Williams in a quiet moment (bottom right).
Andy Williams, one of the last crooners from the golden age of easy-listening pop music, died Tuesday at his home in Branson, Mo. He was 84.
Williams, who had been battling bladder cancer, had divided in time in recent years between La Quinta, Calif., and Branson, where he owned the Moon River Theater — named after the song that had been his signature since 1962.
Williams came across for six decades on concert stages and television shows as the ultimate Mr. Nice Guy, as well known for his warm, genial personal style as for his music.
He had only one major brush with tabloid celebrity, when his ex-wife, Claudine Longet, was charged in 1976 with accidentally killing her new boyfriend, skier Spider Sabich.
Williams, from whom Longet had been divorced a year earlier, escorted her to court, attended the trial and helped pay for her defense.
She was eventually sentenced to 30 days in jail and then married her attorney a few years later. American
singer Andy Williams and his wife Claudine Longet, shown upon arrival
at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, on Dec. 19, 1974 for the Royal
Charity World premiere of "The Man With the Golden Gun.”
Williams married Debbie Meyer in 1991 and remained with her until his death.
Williams had one of the most successful music-and-TV crossover careers of his generation.
He went solo as a recording artist in 1953 and started his TV career as a regular on the Steve Allen’s “Tonight Show” in 1954.
He hosted his own TV variety show from 1962 to 1971 along with popular holiday specials into the 1990s.
He recorded eight albums of Christmas music, tagging him with the affectionate nickname “Mr. Christmas.”
During the warmer months, he was in great demand for movie theme music. Beyond “Moon River,” he recorded themes as diverse as the dark “Days of Wine and Roses” and the saccharine “Where Do I Begin” from “Love Story.”
His association with “Moon River” began when composer Henry Mancini asked him to sing it at the 1962 Academy Awards. It won the Oscar and quickly became Williams’ most popular song — though it was never released as a single.
His only No. 1 radio hit was a cover version of Charlie Gracie’s 1957 rockabilly song “Butterfly,” but he kept his popularity with easy-listening fans for decades, racking up 18 gold and three platinum albums.
Reflecting his reputation as a mainstream concert artist, Williams sang the National Anthem at the 1973 Super Bowl. He also hosted seven Grammy Awards shows, from 1971 to 1977.
He was politically active, and while he described himself as a “lifelong Republican,” he campaigned in 1968 for his friend Robert F. Kennedy. He sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” at Kennedy’s funeral that year.
Williams hosted his own TV variety show from 1962 to 1971, along with popular holiday specials in to the 1990s.
ANONYMOUS/APAndy Williams performs a song on a television show on May 12, 1961. Emmy-winning TV host and "Moon River" crooner Williams died Tuesday night, Sept, 25, 2012 at his home in Branson, Mo., following a year-long battle with bladder cancer.
In 1972, he campaigned for George McGovern, and when the Nixon administration tried to deport John Lennon, Williams became an outspoken defender of Lennon’s right to stay in the U.S. In later years, he criticized Barack Obama for taking the country “too far left.”
Born in Wall Lake, Iowa, Williams began singing in the Presbyterian church choir and joined his three siblings in the Williams Brothers quartet.
They sang on radio programs in the Midwest and backed Bing Crosby on his 1944 hit “Swingin’ on a Star.” They also appeared in several movies.
Williams went solo in 1953 and had his first hit with “Canadian Sunset” in 1956.
He was also a shrewd businessman. He eventually acquired the masters to all the music from his first label, Cadence, where his colleagues included the Everly Brothers and the Chordettes.
He launched his own label, Barnaby Records, which had hits with Ray Stevens and released the first album of a then-unknown singer named Jimmy Buffett. Earlier, on his TV show, he had introduced the Osmond family.
He opened the Moon River Theater with his brother Don in 1992. It was the first Branson theater not directly tied to country music, and paved the way for a broader range of artists to start playing in Branson.
He was also a major golf fan, hosting a PGA tournament in San Diego from 1968 to 1988.
He is survived by Meyer and three children from his first marriage, Robert, Noelle and Christian.
The Osmond's were a regular feature on The Andy Williams Show
The Federal Voting Assistance Program website published an incorrect deadline for the return of returning military ballots in Wisconsin. Had this error not been corrected, thousands of Wisconsin servicemen and women could have been disenfranchised in this key swing state this November.
The FVAB website incorrectly stated ballots must be returned by November 16. The actual deadline is 4 p.m. November 9. Any military ballots received in that intervening week would not have been counted by local and state election officials.
MacIver News Service contacted the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board about the error on Tuesday and requested comment.
"All Wisconsin absentee ballots are due by 4 p.m. the Friday after the election. The FVAP site was incorrect," said Reid Magney, GAB spokesman in an emailed response to the inquiry.
Ballots must be postmarked no later than Election Day, which in 2012 is Tuesday, November 6th.
According to their website, The FVAP provides U.S. citizens worldwide a broad range of non-partisan information and assistance to facilitate their participation in the democratic process - regardless of where they work or live. The FVAP also administers the Federal responsibilities of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which designates armed forces recruiting offices nationwide as voter registration agencies allowing eligible U.S. citizens to apply for voter registration, or apply to change voter registration data.
The report said the Israeli jets entered Syria’s airspace close to 6 a.m Saturday and flew over Assad’s palace in Damascus and other security facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.
