Schwarzenegger vetoes bill legalizing same-sex unions
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger followed through Thursday on his promise to veto a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, leaving the issue up to voters or judges who will likely face the volatile issue next year.
“This bill simply adds confusion to a constitutional issue,” the Republican governor said in a veto message.
Schwarzenegger had announced his intention Sept. 7, a day after the Legislature became the first in the country to approve a bill allowing gays and lesbians to wed.
Schwarzenegger said the bill by Democratic Assemblyman Mark Leno contradicted Proposition 22, which was approved by voters in 2000 and said only a marriage between a man and woman is valid.
Schwarzenegger noted that a state appeals court was considering whether the state’s ban on gay marriage is constitutional and that the issue would likely be decided by the California Supreme Court.
“If the ban of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, this bill is not necessary,” he said. “If the ban is constitutional, this bill is ineffective.” Leno, who is openly gay, said Schwarzenegger had missed a historic opportunity to stand up for civil rights.
Controller stripped of
duty over “near-miss”
A veteran air traffic controller was stripped of tower duty at McCarran International Airport while authorities investigated how two commercial airliners nearly collided on a runway.
No one was hurt in the Sept. 22 incident, and more than 100 feet separated the planes in what a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman characterized as a minor runway incursion but what the airport director, Randall Walker, called a “near-miss.”
“They admitted there was a controller error,” Walker said. “One plane was allowed to land where another plane had just crossed.”
The FAA said it did not appear the pilots of America West Flight 539 to Cleveland and Air Canada Flight 593 from Toronto had to take evasive action.
Human error cited
for Jan. copter crash
A helicopter crash in Iraq in January that killed 30 Marines and a sailor – the deadliest air tragedy in more than two years of combat – resulted from human error, not mechanical failure or hostile fire, according to a Marine investigation.
The crew of the CH-53E Super Stallion became disoriented when the weather turned bad, and flew the helicopter into the ground, the investigative report said.
The helicopter was taking troops to western Iraq to guard polling places during the Iraqi elections when it went down in the desert on the night of Jan. 26. A second helicopter made the trip safely.
Jewish organization
rips Southern Baptists
A leading Jewish organization is condemning the Southern Baptist Convention for using a group of “messianic” Jews – people who have already converted to Christianity – in its evangelism.
Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman said the effort is offensive because the Southern Baptists are using Jews who have converted to Christianity “to go after other Jews.” “If people convert, that’s their individual business,” Foxman said. “But don’t use them as a tool to convert other people.” At the heart of the ADL’s complaint is a decision by the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee to ask its missionary boards to study the idea of recognizing the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship as “an evangelistic mission to Jewish people.
Warrant issued for
Chad’s former leader
Belgium has issued an international arrest warrant for Chad’s former leader, Hissene Habre, charging him with atrocities during his 1982-90 rule, the Justice Ministry said Thursday.
Human rights campaigners said the decision would serve as a precedent for prosecution of other exiled leaders accused of abuses.
Habre, who lives in exile in Senegal, is being pursued under a Belgian law that allows prosecutions for war crimes even if they are committed outside the country.
Habre, 63, is accused of torture, murder and other crimes in his eight-year reign.
A commission set up in Chad in 1992 accused Habre’s regime of 40,000 political killings and 200,000 cases of torture.
U.N.: Darfur attack
killed 29 people
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Thursday an unprecedented attack on a displaced persons’ camp in Sudan’s embattled Darfur region reportedly has killed 29 people.
Antonio Guterres, chief of the U.N. agency, cited aid workers’ reports of the attack Wednesday at Aro Sharow camp, which also left 10 seriously injured.
These reports said up to 300 armed Arab men on horses and camels attacked the camp in northwest Darfur and burned about 80 makeshift shelters.
Some 4,000-5,000 Sudanese were believed to be living in the camp and most reportedly fled into surrounding countryside, UNHCR said.
The nearby village of Gosmeina was also reportedly attacked and burned.
Tribute paid to Jews
massacred by Nazis
Weeping survivors clutching red carnations paid tribute Thursday to tens of thousands of Jews massacred by the Nazis 64 years ago at the ravine known as Babi Yar.
At a memorial park erected at the chasm just outside Kiev’s city center, about 200 people bowed their heads and laid flowers at the bronze monument marking the area where the killings took place in September 1941.
Senior Jewish community leaders bemoaned the fact that some of the country’s most senior leaders were unable to attend. The massacre began when Nazi forces occupying Kiev marched Jews to the brink of the ravine and shot them. More than 33,700 were killed in just a few days.
