New York – Relatives of firefighters killed at the World Trade Center in 2001 reproached Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani in a video Wednesday, pairing footage of the falling twin towers with charges that the city’s former mayor was woefully unprepared for Sept. 11, causing needless firefighter deaths.
The parents and siblings of some of the 343 firefighters killed in the terrorist attacks released the video with the International Association of Fire Fighters, which opposes Giuliani’s candidacy.
Giuliani’s campaign denounced the images, saying that the former mayor had a long history of supporting firefighters’ health and safety and that the international union releasing the video supports only Democratic presidential candidates.
Additional nation/world news briefs:
MOSCOW
Pristine carcass of baby mammoth found
The well-preserved carcass of a 10,000-year-old baby mammoth has been unearthed in the northern Siberian permafrost, a discovery scientists said could help in climate change studies.
The 4-foot gray-and-brown carcass, discovered in May by a reindeer herder in the Yamal- Nenets region, has its trunk and eyes virtually intact and even some fur remaining, said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Zoological Institute.
Scientists believe mammoths lived from 4.8 million years ago to about 4,000 years ago. Studies suggest climate change or overkill by human hunters as possible reasons leading to their extinction.
MANILA, Philippines
Troops’ beheadings may be retaliation
At least 14 government troops were killed in some of the heaviest fighting with Muslim insurgents in the southern Philippines in recent months, officials said Wednesday.
Military officials said they had recovered the bodies of 14 marines after clashes with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants late Tuesday in Tipo-Tipo, a hinterland town on Basilan island, and that at least 10 of them had been beheaded.
Maj. Gen. Ben Mohammad Dolorfino suggested that the marines had been beheaded by Abu Sayyaf in retaliation for the slaying of the son of one of the group’s leaders.
WASHINGTON
House bill reworks student loan system
The House on Wednesday approved legislation to cut federal subsidies for student loan companies by $19 billion and plug that funding into expanded student aid, in what lawmakers called the single biggest investment in college aid since the GI bill.
The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., would increase maximum loan amounts available under one federal program, slash interest rates on others and provide certain public employees with loan forgiveness.
Bishop said the bill’s effect would be felt not just by students but by higher education institutions.
The College Cost Reduction Act passed the House 273-149, with 47 Republicans supporting the bill.
BOSTON
Beauprez to campaign for Romney in Iowa
Former GOP Rep. Bob Beauprez of Colorado threw his support to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in his bid for the presidency, campaign officials said Wednesday.
Beauprez planned to travel to Iowa this week to campaign for Romney in the state that is scheduled to hold the nation’s first presidential caucus on Jan. 14.
