GOP hopes judge will let DeLay get off Texas ballot
Washington – Former Rep. Tom DeLay is on the ballot, then off, then back again. The convoluted course for the once-powerful House majority leader began with a primary victory in March. Then came his resignation from Congress in June and a recent push by Texas Democrats to keep DeLay on the ballot, infuriating Republicans.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, planned to hear the case today.
After his primary victory, DeLay announced in April he would resign from the Houston-area congressional seat he had held for more than two decades. On June 9, the combative DeLay delivered a no-regrets speech to the House as he left the Capitol Hill stage.
Texas Republicans quickly maneuvered to choose a replacement candidate to face Democrat Nick Lampson in November, but the state’s Democrats cut in. After all, DeLay was too juicy a campaign target, what with his felony indictment on money-laundering charges, four run-ins with the House Ethics Committee and ties to convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Democrats sued to force DeLay to stay on the general-election ballot. A federal judge agreed.
Republicans appealed and are seeking an expedited ruling.
RENO, Nev.
Small blaze flares into one of season’s largest
A brush fire in Nevada 50 miles northeast of Winnemucca has exploded from less than 30 square miles to 292 square miles since Thursday, making it one of the nation’s biggest wildfires of the season, fire information officer Susan Marzec said Sunday. It posed a potential risk to the tiny towns of Midas and Tuscarora as well as scattered ranches. The fire was just 5 percent contained.
Also only 5 percent contained was a blaze just west of Sisters, Ore., that charred nearly 9 square miles. Three subdivisions, housing about 1,500 people, had been evacuated.
In Montana, a wildfire in the eastern part of Glacier National Park came within a mile of structures Sunday. The fire was estimated at 13 square miles Saturday evening but could “at least double” in size, officials said.
Wildfires continued to rage Sunday in the Nebraska Panhandle. Officials were most concerned about fires near Chadron, where three homes were destroyed, several others damaged and the campus of Chadron State College seriously threatened.
HARTFORD, Conn.
Lamont gains backing of New York Times
The New York Times on Sunday backed Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont in his Democratic primary challenge of Sen. Joe Lieberman, criticizing the three-term incumbent for his support of President Bush’s national-security policies.
The Hartford Courant and the Connecticut Post on Sunday backed Lieberman.
The Times said Lieberman’s efforts “to appear above the partisan fray” have turned him into one of the administration’s most useful allies.
The most recent Quinnipiac Poll shows Lamont in a statistical dead heat with Lieberman.
The Courant wrote of Lieberman that “to dismiss this moderate – a vanishing breed in a Congress sundered by extremism on both sides – for dissenting on a single issue would be a terrible waste. And a mistake.”
The Connecticut Post called Lieberman “a proven leader.”
KABUL, Afghanistan
NATO takes over from U.S.-led forces
NATO troops assumed command today of military operations in southern Afghanistan from the U.S.-led coalition, the coalition said.
“Today’s transfer of authority demonstrates to the Afghan people that there is a strong commitment on the part of the international community to further extend security into the southern region’s provinces,” said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commander of U.S.-led coalition forces.
The 8,000-strong NATO deployment in the south includes some U.S. troops and British, Canadian and Dutch troops under a British commander, Lt. Gen. David Richards.
The mission coincides with the deadliest surge in fighting in Afghanistan since late 2001, which has left hundreds of people, mostly militants, dead.
In the south, 30 suspected Taliban members were killed over the weekend.
On Saturday, a joint force of coalition and Afghan troops killed 20 suspected Taliban militants who had attempted an ambush, a coalition statement said. Ten others were killed in separate clashes and bombings.
There were no casualties among coalition or Afghan forces.
MOGADISHU, Somalia
Islamic militants open airport after a decade
The first commercial flight in a decade departed Mogadishu’s newly reopened international airport Sunday, demonstrating how Islamic militants have pacified the once-anarchic capital and much of southern Somalia.
Local airlines had been operating from private airstrips outside the capital.
Now, Islamic militiamen are guarding the airport for commercial passengers, said Sheik Muq tar Robow, deputy defense chief for the Islamic group.
“This is a historic flight for me,” passenger Hawa Abdi Hussein said before boarding a Somalia-based Jubba Airways plane to the United Arab Emirates. “I think we at last gained peace and security.”
