Dems want outside probe on treatment of detainees
Washington – House Democrats called on the Bush administration to appoint an independent commission to examine how the U.S. treats detainees in its Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility and other detention centers abroad.
“Our country’s standing in the eyes of the world depends on getting to the bottom of the detainee abuse matter, a fact that will ultimately force Republicans to stop placing obstacles in the path of a full and independent inquiry,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said it’s unnecessary to have another commission and called the Democratic request “strictly politics.”
White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters that “there have been 10 such investigations launched” by the Defense Department and “people are being held to account.”
When asked whether the Pentagon could fairly investigate itself, McClellan said the U.S. military “is committed to adhering to the highest standards of conduct, and they’re committed to upholding our laws and our values, and we appreciate these standards that our men and women in uniform adhere to.”
PASADENA, Calif.
Solar-sail craft may be sending back signals
Scientists said they may have detected a signal from the world’s first solar-sail spacecraft, hours after it suddenly stopped communicating following Tuesday’s launch.
The news came after an all- day search for Cosmos 1, a $4 million experiment intended to show that a so-called solar sail can make a controlled flight. The spacecraft was launched at 1:46 p.m. MDT, and initial data reception was followed by silence.
“Good news,” Bruce Murray, a co-founder of the Planetary Society, said late Tuesday. “We are very likely in orbit. … We seem to have a live spacecraft.”
SEATTLE
Custody issues upset man killed by cops
A man killed by police after he brandished a grenade in the federal courthouse in Seattle had grown increasingly upset and unstable recently as years of frustration with the child custody system mounted, friends said Tuesday.
Perry L. Manley, 52, was shot by police Monday in the courthouse lobby. Authorities said Manley had tried to bypass security while clutching a hand grenade, later found to be inactive.
Manley was a critic of the child support system and the handling of parental custody issues, and he had filed several suits disputing support obligations dating back 15 years. Court documents said he was the divorced father of three children, now adults.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Abducted girl found guarded by 3 lions
A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday.
The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo in Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa. She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9, he said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.
“They stood guard until we found her, and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,” he said.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert, said the girl may have survived because she was crying.
“A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn’t eat her,” Williams said.
MEXICO CITY
Congress weighs voting by migrants
Mexico’s Congress opened a special session Tuesday to discuss absentee voting for Mexicans living abroad, a sensitive issue that they have less than 10 days to resolve.
It is among more than a dozen other legislative issues in the session, called during what is normally a recess period for lawmakers. The lower house is expected to debate a Senate initiative to allow Mexican migrants – estimated at as many as 11 million in the U.S. – to vote by mail.
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico
150 cops to be fired and new chief hired
The mayor of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, said Tuesday that 150 officers will be fired and a new police chief appointed this week as officials try to restore order in this violence-racked border city.
Mayor Daniel Peña said the officers will be dismissed for failing a screening process.
Nuevo Laredo’s 724 police officers were pulled off patrols last week to be investigated for possible links to organized crime after police opened fire on a convoy of federal agents sent to bolster security in the area.
Daytime street killings are commonplace. Authorities say the violence stems from a war between two drug syndicates for control of key smuggling routes into the United States.
SEOUL, South Korea
Protest posters rattle N. Korea delegation
A high-level North Korean delegation arrived in Seoul for talks Tuesday amid renewed optimism over reconciliation between the two Koreas, but the visit got off to a rocky start.
As the North Koreans were heading to the talks, vehicles carrying posters calling for leader Kim Jong Il to be punished and showing him tied up reportedly drove close to their motorcade.
The North Koreans complained about the confrontation, slightly delaying their arrival.
VIENNA
Mad-cow case found in mountain village
A cow in in western Austria has been found to be infected with mad cow disease, Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat announced Tuesday.
“There is absolutely no danger for the population,” she reportedly said.
It was unclear how the cow caught the disease. The farm, in the remote mountain village of Kleinwalsertal, had only six animals. All had been killed and would be tested for the disease.
