Ex-service members can get old rank if they join Army
Washington – For former soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who might be toying with the idea of getting back into uniform, the Army has a new offer: Join us and regain your old rank without repeating basic training.
It’s the latest twist in the Army’s pitch for recruits as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making it increasingly difficult to enlist young people and meet the Army’s need for 80,000 new soldiers a year.
The Army previously had welcomed back former service members, but only under conditions that made it an unattractive proposition to most, namely that they would lose their prior rank and were required to go through basic training again.
Starting this month, the Army sent mailings to 78,000 people who left the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps less than five years ago, including 7,000 officers, as first reported Monday by the private Army Times newspaper.
They can re-enter at their former rank if they have not been out of the service for more than four years, and they are eligible for a signing bonus of up to $19,000, depending on their skill specialty.
“There is no higher calling than service in our armed forces, and this is your opportunity to answer the call to duty again,” the recruiting brochure says. “Make part of your past, part of your future,” it adds.
OAKLAND, Calif.
Two turn selves in for protest vandalism
A man linked by police to a local black Muslim group was among two men who surrendered to police Tuesday for their roles in vandalizing two stores for selling alcohol to blacks.
Investigators said it was too soon to say whether the vandals were connected to Monday’s fire and kidnapping of a clerk at the same store ransacked by a gang of black men in suits and bow ties three days earlier.
Yusef Bey IV, 19, and Donald Cunningham, 73, turned themselves in to face charges of robbery, felony vandalism and terrorist threats. Police will charge four others with similar crimes.
No arrests have been made in the kidnapping or the fire. Employee Abdel Hamdan was found safe in the trunk of a car about 12 hours after the fire.
Last week, Hamdan’s store and a nearby liquor store were vandalized by about a dozen men who demanded that both stores stop selling alcohol to black people, authorities said.
MINNEAPOLIS
Tribal chairman’s son admits role in slayings
The son of a tribal chairman pleaded guilty Tuesday to a criminal charge for his role in shootings that left 10 people dead on an Indian reservation in March.
Louis Jourdain, 17, pleaded guilty in federal court to transmitting threatening interstate communications.
Jourdain is the son of Floyd Jourdain Jr., the tribal chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chip- pewa and a friend of Jeff Weise, 16, who shot and killed nine people, most at Red Lake High School, before killing himself.
MONTREAL
U.S. criticized over global-warming treaty
The United States came under renewed criticism Tuesday as thousands of environmentalists and international officials hammered out rules for a global treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
U.S. comments that it would resist any binding commitment to curb global warming by capping industrial emissions infuriated environmentalists, who accused Washington of trying to derail the U.N. Climate Change Conference. About 120 environment ministers and other government leaders are expected to arrive next week for the final negotiations.
JERUSALEM
Peres-Sharon alliance may be in the works
A deal was emerging Tuesday for elder statesman Shimon Peres to leave the Labor Party, his political home for 60 years, and join Ariel Sharon’s government if the prime minister is re-elected in March.
A Sharon associate and newspaper reports said Peres likely would be charged with developing the Galilee and Negev regions if Sharon retains power.
Speaking in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, Peres declined to confirm his move, saying, “I shall decide tomorrow night.”
Sharon announced last week that he was quitting the hard- line Likud to establish a new centrist movement. Speculation has been rife since Peres lost the Labor leadership Nov. 10 that he would join forces with Sharon ahead of March 28 elections.
ROME
Church tribunal looks into John Paul miracle
The Roman Catholic archbishop of Krakow, Poland, spoke Tuesday of a possible miracle performed by Pope John Paul II in France that a church tribunal will focus on as the Vatican pursues its case for beatification.
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz said “there are no problems with miracles because there are many, but they have picked one because they don’t need more.” Pressed further, Dziwisz added: “Maybe this I can say: They have picked (one in) France.”
CARACAS, Venezuela
Opponents pull out of pro-Chavez vote
Three Venezuelan opposition parties pulled out of congressional elections Tuesday, five days before the vote, saying the conditions are tilted toward President Hugo Chavez’s allies.
The government insisted that Sunday’s elections will be clean, but the parties’ defections appear to set up a major political confrontation before a vote long predicted to be a resounding victory for pro-Chavez candidates.
