CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – If there's any place where tea partiers in Congress might hesitate to call for cuts in Social Security and Medicare to shrink the federal debt, Florida's retirement havens should top the list.
Even here, however, Republican lawmakers are racing toward a spending showdown with Democrats exhibiting little nervousness about deep cuts, including those that eventually would hit benefit programs long left alone by politicians.
In fact, many GOP freshmen seem bolder than ever. It's Democrats, especially in the Senate, who are trying to figure out how to handle the popular but costly retirement programs. Congress, meanwhile, is rapidly nearing critical decisions on the budget and the nation's debt ceiling.
In southeast Florida last week, first-term GOP Rep. Allen West, a tea party favorite, called for changes that some might consider radical: abolish the Internal Revenue Service and federal income tax; retain tax cuts for billionaires so they won't shut down their charities; stop extending unemployment benefits that "reward bad behavior" by discouraging people from seeking new jobs.
As for entitlements, West told a friendly town hall gathering in Coral Springs, if Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid "are left on autopilot, if we don't institute some type of reform, they'll subsume our entire GDP" by 2040 or 2050. GDP, or gross domestic product, measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States.
Social Security, the largest federal program, mainly benefits retirees. Medicare provides health coverage for older people. Medicaid helps those with low incomes. Combined, the three consume about 40 percent of the budget. Their costs are growing rapidly. Social Security and Medicare benefits now exceed the payroll taxes that fund them.
West, who's likely to draw serious Democratic opposition next year, showed scant interest in edging toward the center on anything. He didn't take issue with the man who said congressional Democrats "have joined with the radical Islamists," or with the woman who said President Barack Obama "certainly doesn't support Israel."
In Greenville, S.C., a different Republican freshman with tea party ties, Rep. Trey Gowdy, also suggested during last week's congressional break a paring back of social programs.
According to a Greenville News account posted on his website, Gowdy "described a recent school classroom where most children indicated they think it's the government's job to provide health care, Social Security and education. 'We've got to do something about the sense of entitlement,' Gowdy said."
Gowdy's office later said he thinks Social Security "is a key aspect of a broad effort to fundamentally reform our entitlement system, but any solution must honor our commitment to current retirees."
Indeed, West and many other Republicans say current and soon-to-be retirees should see no benefit cuts. Their calls for changing Medicare and Social Security often lack specifics, and it's unclear whether the divided Congress will tackle the programs' long-term problems or postpone action, as has happened many times before on Capitol Hill.
West's desire to slash spending seems to stop at his district's doorstep. The Coral Springs audience cheered loudly when he said he helped secure a $21 million grant for a new runway at the nearby Fort Lauderdale airport.
"Grant money is not pork," West said. He issued a press release saying the runway project "will generate at least 11,000 jobs" by 2014 and cost $791 million.
While West spoke in Coral Springs, several dozen Republicans had wine and hors d'oeuvres in Palm Beach as they awaited a speech by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. There was ample sympathy in the room for raising the eligibility age for Social Security benefits.
Obama's debt commission recommended gradually increasing the full retirement age, from 67 to 69, over the next 65 years.
"No one is going to be hurt by it," said Steve Stevens, 80, a retired real estate developer. If people, rich or poor, count on Social Security to fund their retirement, he said, "it's very poor planning."
Obama's debt commission has recommended gradually increasing the full retirement age, from 67 to 69, over the next 65 years.
Cynthia Steele, 51, said anyone making more than $100,000 a year should not receive Social Security benefits, even if it affected her and her friends.
In Washington, Democrats are conflicted. Thirty-two Senate Democrats joined 32 Republicans in urging Obama to negotiate a broad-based spending plan that includes changes to Social Security and Medicare.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he opposes cuts in Social Security benefits.
The centrist Democratic group Third Way says the public is ready to embrace gradual changes to entitlement programs and that Republicans are winning the issue so far.
"We don't believe Republicans 'going too far' will be their Waterloo," the group said in a memo. "The party seen as most serious on the issue will win the day."
If Republicans and Democrats cannot agree soon on spending plans for this year and next, the government could face its first partial shutdown since 1996. That prospect worries leaders of both parties, and they are watching to see if last week's recess hardened of softened lawmakers' positions.
West suggested there is room for compromise, but not much.
"I'm not for shutting down the government," he told the Coral Springs crowd. But he said Obama must lead the budget negotiations, or else.
If there is a shutdown, West said, "it's going to be because the president is not engaged."
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Trump "screwed" Gadhafi in a real estate deal
(CNN) – Donald Trump, whose flirtations with a presidential bid continue, says he has special experience dealing with Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi.
Speaking on Fox News Monday, Trump says he has more of a track record than anyone in the Republican presidential field when it comes to dealing with foreign leaders and dignitaries: "I sell them real estate for tremendous amounts of money. I mean, I've dealt with everybody."
Trump, who has said he will decide on a presidential bid by June, said he is particularly happy with the fact he "screwed" Gadhafi on a past real estate deal.
"I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn't let him use the land," Trump boasted. "That's what we should be doing. I don't want to use the word 'screwed', but I screwed him."
Speaking on Fox News Monday, Trump says he has more of a track record than anyone in the Republican presidential field when it comes to dealing with foreign leaders and dignitaries: "I sell them real estate for tremendous amounts of money. I mean, I've dealt with everybody."
Trump, who has said he will decide on a presidential bid by June, said he is particularly happy with the fact he "screwed" Gadhafi on a past real estate deal.
"I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn't let him use the land," Trump boasted. "That's what we should be doing. I don't want to use the word 'screwed', but I screwed him."
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Concern in Tokyo over radiation in tap water
TOKYO – Radiation leaking from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant has caused Tokyo's tap water to exceed safety standards for infants to drink, officials said Wednesday, sending anxiety levels soaring over the nation's food and water supply.
Residents cleared store shelves of bottled water after Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said levels of radioactive iodine in tap water were more than twice what is considered safe for babies. Officials begged those in the city to buy only what they needed, saying hoarding could hurt the thousands of people without any water in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
"I've never seen anything like this," clerk Toru Kikutaka said, surveying the downtown Tokyo supermarket where the entire stock of bottled water sold out almost immediately after the news broke, despite a limit of two, two-liter bottles per customer.
The unsettling new development affecting Japan's largest city, home to around 13 million people, added to growing fears over the nation's food supply.
Radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has seeped into raw milk, seawater and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips, from areas around the plant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was halting imports of Japanese dairy and produce from the region near the facility. Hong Kong went further and required that Japan perform safety checks on meat, eggs and seafood before accepting those products.
Officials are still struggling to stabilize the nuclear plant, which on Wednesday belched black smoke from Unit 3 and forced the evacuation of workers, further delaying attempts to make needed repairs. The plant, 140 miles (220 kilometers) north of Tokyo, has been leaking radiation since the quake and tsunami knocked out its crucial cooling systems.
The crisis is emerging as the world's most expensive natural disaster on record, likely to cost up to $309 billion, according to a new government estimate. Police say an estimated 18,000 people were killed.
Concerns about food safety spread Wednesday to Tokyo after officials said tap water showed elevated radiation levels: 210 becquerels of iodine-131 per liter of water — more than twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels per liter for infants. Another measurement taken later at a different site showed the level was 190 becquerels per liter. The recommended limit for adults is 300 becquerels.
"It is really scary. It is like a vicious negative spiral from the nuclear disaster," said Etsuko Nomura, a mother of two children ages 2 and 5. "We have contaminated milk and vegetables, and now tap water in Tokyo, and I'm wondering what's next."
Infants are particularly vulnerable to radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer, experts say. The limits refer to sustained consumption rates, and officials urged calm, saying parents should stop giving the tap water to babies, but that it was no problem if the infants already had consumed small amounts.
They said the levels posed no immediate health risk for older children or adults.
"Even if you drink this water for one year, it will not affect people's health," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
Dr. Harold Swartz, a professor of radiology and medicine at Dartmouth Medical School in the U.S., said the radiation amounts being reported in the water are too low to pose any real risk, even to infants who are being fed water-based formula or to breast-fed infants whose mothers drink tap water.
Although the amounts are well above established limits, that doesn't automatically mean there's a health threat, he said.
"We live in a world that has natural background radiation that's many times greater than the amounts we're talking about here," Swartz said.
Still, because it's easy to avoid tap water, it makes sense for Japanese parents with infants to do so, he said.
Radioactive iodine is also short-lived, with a half-life of eight days — the length of time it takes for half of it to break down harmlessly.
Richard Wakeford, a public health radiologist at the University of Manchester in Britain, blamed the spike in radiation on a shift in winds from the nuclear plant toward Tokyo. He predicted lower levels in coming days once the wind shifts back to normal patterns. "I imagine that bottled water is now quite popular in Tokyo," he said.
Tokyo's municipal government said it would distribute 240,000 bottles of water to households with infants. They estimated that there are currently 80,000 babies in the affected area, with each infant getting three bottles of 550 milliliters.
Edano pleaded with shoppers to restrict purchases of bottled water to the bare necessity, urging them to think of tsunami victims in need.
"We have to consider Miyagi, where there is no drinking water at all," he said, referring to a stricken region. "Under these conditions, we would appreciate it if people would avoid buying more water than they need."
The latest data showed sharp increases in radioactivity levels in a range of vegetables. In an area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of the nuclear plant, levels for one locally grown leafy green called kukitachina measured 82 times the government limit for radioactive cesium and 11 times the limit for iodine.
The death toll from the disaster continued to rise, with more than 9,500 bodies counted and more than 16,000 people listed as missing.
With supplies of fuel and ice dwindling, officials have abandoned the traditional practice of cremation in favor of quick, simple burials. Some are interred in bare plywood caskets and others in blue plastic tarps, with no time to build proper coffins. The bodies will be dug up and cremated once crematoriums catch up with the glut, officials assured families.
In Higashimatsushima in Miyagi prefecture, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, soldiers lowered plywood coffins into the ground, saluting each casket.
Some relatives placed flowers on the graves. Most remained stoic, folding hands in prayer. Two young girls wept inconsolably, hugged tightly by their father.
"I hope their spirits will rest in peace here at this temporary place," said mourner Katsuko Oguni, 42.
Masaru Yamagata, a Higashimatsushima official, said the crematorium cannot keep up with demand.
"Giving the grieving families coffins is the most we can do right now," Yamagata said. "Every day, more dead bodies are found, and we need more coffins quickly."
Hundreds of thousands remained homeless, squeezed into temporary shelters without heat, warm food or medicine and no idea what to call home after the colossal wave swallowed up communities along the coast.
The tsunami also heavily damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility, with explosions and fires in four of the plant's six reactors sending radioactive steam into the air.
Progress in cooling down the troubled plant has been intermittent, disrupted by rises in radiation, elevated pressure in reactors and overheated storage pools.
The plant's operator had restored circuitry to bring power to all six units and turned on lights at Unit 3 late Tuesday for the first time since the disaster — a significant step toward restarting the cooling system.
It had hoped to restore power to cooling pumps at the unit within days, but experts warned the work included the risk of sparking fires as electricity is restored through equipment potentially damaged in the tsunami.
And then on Wednesday, black smoke suddenly billowed from Unit 3, prompting another evacuation of workers from the plant in the afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said. They said there had been no corresponding spike in radiation at the plant.
Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said officials did not know the reason for the smoke.
Tokyo Electric manager Teruaki Kobayashi said the pump for Unit 3 had been tested and was working Wednesday. But officials weren't sure when they would be able to turn the power on to the pump.
Nuclear agency official Kenji Kawasaki said workers would not be allowed to return to the plant until Thursday morning, since smoke was still rising as of late Wednesday night.
As a precaution, officials have evacuated residents within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant and advised those up to 19 miles (30 kilometers) away to stay indoors to minimize exposure.
And for the first time, Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary, suggested that those downwind of the plant should stay indoors with the windows shut tight — even if just outside the zone.
___
Associated Press writers Tomoko A. Hosaka, Yuri Kageyama and Jay Alabaster in Tokyo, Tim Sullivan in Higashimatsushima, Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, Lindsey Tanner in Chicago and Foster Klug in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
Residents cleared store shelves of bottled water after Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said levels of radioactive iodine in tap water were more than twice what is considered safe for babies. Officials begged those in the city to buy only what they needed, saying hoarding could hurt the thousands of people without any water in areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
"I've never seen anything like this," clerk Toru Kikutaka said, surveying the downtown Tokyo supermarket where the entire stock of bottled water sold out almost immediately after the news broke, despite a limit of two, two-liter bottles per customer.
The unsettling new development affecting Japan's largest city, home to around 13 million people, added to growing fears over the nation's food supply.
Radiation from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has seeped into raw milk, seawater and 11 kinds of vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower and turnips, from areas around the plant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was halting imports of Japanese dairy and produce from the region near the facility. Hong Kong went further and required that Japan perform safety checks on meat, eggs and seafood before accepting those products.
Officials are still struggling to stabilize the nuclear plant, which on Wednesday belched black smoke from Unit 3 and forced the evacuation of workers, further delaying attempts to make needed repairs. The plant, 140 miles (220 kilometers) north of Tokyo, has been leaking radiation since the quake and tsunami knocked out its crucial cooling systems.
The crisis is emerging as the world's most expensive natural disaster on record, likely to cost up to $309 billion, according to a new government estimate. Police say an estimated 18,000 people were killed.
Concerns about food safety spread Wednesday to Tokyo after officials said tap water showed elevated radiation levels: 210 becquerels of iodine-131 per liter of water — more than twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels per liter for infants. Another measurement taken later at a different site showed the level was 190 becquerels per liter. The recommended limit for adults is 300 becquerels.
"It is really scary. It is like a vicious negative spiral from the nuclear disaster," said Etsuko Nomura, a mother of two children ages 2 and 5. "We have contaminated milk and vegetables, and now tap water in Tokyo, and I'm wondering what's next."
Infants are particularly vulnerable to radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer, experts say. The limits refer to sustained consumption rates, and officials urged calm, saying parents should stop giving the tap water to babies, but that it was no problem if the infants already had consumed small amounts.
They said the levels posed no immediate health risk for older children or adults.
"Even if you drink this water for one year, it will not affect people's health," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
Dr. Harold Swartz, a professor of radiology and medicine at Dartmouth Medical School in the U.S., said the radiation amounts being reported in the water are too low to pose any real risk, even to infants who are being fed water-based formula or to breast-fed infants whose mothers drink tap water.
Although the amounts are well above established limits, that doesn't automatically mean there's a health threat, he said.
"We live in a world that has natural background radiation that's many times greater than the amounts we're talking about here," Swartz said.
Still, because it's easy to avoid tap water, it makes sense for Japanese parents with infants to do so, he said.
Radioactive iodine is also short-lived, with a half-life of eight days — the length of time it takes for half of it to break down harmlessly.
Richard Wakeford, a public health radiologist at the University of Manchester in Britain, blamed the spike in radiation on a shift in winds from the nuclear plant toward Tokyo. He predicted lower levels in coming days once the wind shifts back to normal patterns. "I imagine that bottled water is now quite popular in Tokyo," he said.
Tokyo's municipal government said it would distribute 240,000 bottles of water to households with infants. They estimated that there are currently 80,000 babies in the affected area, with each infant getting three bottles of 550 milliliters.
Edano pleaded with shoppers to restrict purchases of bottled water to the bare necessity, urging them to think of tsunami victims in need.
"We have to consider Miyagi, where there is no drinking water at all," he said, referring to a stricken region. "Under these conditions, we would appreciate it if people would avoid buying more water than they need."
The latest data showed sharp increases in radioactivity levels in a range of vegetables. In an area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of the nuclear plant, levels for one locally grown leafy green called kukitachina measured 82 times the government limit for radioactive cesium and 11 times the limit for iodine.
The death toll from the disaster continued to rise, with more than 9,500 bodies counted and more than 16,000 people listed as missing.
With supplies of fuel and ice dwindling, officials have abandoned the traditional practice of cremation in favor of quick, simple burials. Some are interred in bare plywood caskets and others in blue plastic tarps, with no time to build proper coffins. The bodies will be dug up and cremated once crematoriums catch up with the glut, officials assured families.
In Higashimatsushima in Miyagi prefecture, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, soldiers lowered plywood coffins into the ground, saluting each casket.
Some relatives placed flowers on the graves. Most remained stoic, folding hands in prayer. Two young girls wept inconsolably, hugged tightly by their father.
"I hope their spirits will rest in peace here at this temporary place," said mourner Katsuko Oguni, 42.
Masaru Yamagata, a Higashimatsushima official, said the crematorium cannot keep up with demand.
"Giving the grieving families coffins is the most we can do right now," Yamagata said. "Every day, more dead bodies are found, and we need more coffins quickly."
Hundreds of thousands remained homeless, squeezed into temporary shelters without heat, warm food or medicine and no idea what to call home after the colossal wave swallowed up communities along the coast.
The tsunami also heavily damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility, with explosions and fires in four of the plant's six reactors sending radioactive steam into the air.
Progress in cooling down the troubled plant has been intermittent, disrupted by rises in radiation, elevated pressure in reactors and overheated storage pools.
The plant's operator had restored circuitry to bring power to all six units and turned on lights at Unit 3 late Tuesday for the first time since the disaster — a significant step toward restarting the cooling system.
It had hoped to restore power to cooling pumps at the unit within days, but experts warned the work included the risk of sparking fires as electricity is restored through equipment potentially damaged in the tsunami.
And then on Wednesday, black smoke suddenly billowed from Unit 3, prompting another evacuation of workers from the plant in the afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials said. They said there had been no corresponding spike in radiation at the plant.
Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said officials did not know the reason for the smoke.
Tokyo Electric manager Teruaki Kobayashi said the pump for Unit 3 had been tested and was working Wednesday. But officials weren't sure when they would be able to turn the power on to the pump.
Nuclear agency official Kenji Kawasaki said workers would not be allowed to return to the plant until Thursday morning, since smoke was still rising as of late Wednesday night.
As a precaution, officials have evacuated residents within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant and advised those up to 19 miles (30 kilometers) away to stay indoors to minimize exposure.
And for the first time, Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary, suggested that those downwind of the plant should stay indoors with the windows shut tight — even if just outside the zone.
___
Associated Press writers Tomoko A. Hosaka, Yuri Kageyama and Jay Alabaster in Tokyo, Tim Sullivan in Higashimatsushima, Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, Lindsey Tanner in Chicago and Foster Klug in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
Liz Taylor Dead at 79
LOS ANGELES – Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen persona, stormy personal life and enduring fame and glamour made her one of the last of the old-fashioned movie stars and a template for the modern celebrity, died Wednesday at age 79.
She was surrounded by her four children when she died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, said publicist Sally Morrison.
"My Mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love," her son, Michael Wilding, said in a statement.
"We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts."
"We have just lost a Hollywood giant," said Elton John, a longtime friend of Taylor. "More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being."
Taylor was the most blessed and cursed of actresses, the toughest and the most vulnerable. She had extraordinary grace, wealth and voluptuous beauty, and won three Academy Awards, including a special one for her humanitarian work. She was the most loyal of friends and a defender of gays in Hollywood when AIDS was still a stigma in the industry and beyond. But she was afflicted by ill health, failed romances (eight marriages, seven husbands) and personal tragedy.
"I think I'm becoming fatalistic," she said in 1989. "Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic."
Her more than 50 movies included unforgettable portraits of innocence and of decadence, from the children's classic "National Velvet" and the sentimental family comedy "Father of the Bride" to Oscar-winning transgressions in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Butterfield 8." The historical epic "Cleopatra" is among Hollywood's greatest on-screen fiascos and a landmark of off-screen monkey business, the meeting ground of Taylor and Richard Burton, the "Brangelina" of their day.
She played enough bawdy women on film for critic Pauline Kael to deem her "Chaucerian Beverly Hills."
But her defining role, one that lasted long past her moviemaking days, was "Elizabeth Taylor," ever marrying and divorcing, in and out of hospitals, gaining and losing weight, standing by Michael Jackson, Rock Hudson and other troubled friends, acquiring a jewelry collection that seemed to rival Tiffany's.
She was a child star who grew up and aged before an adoring, appalled and fascinated public. She arrived in Hollywood when the studio system tightly controlled an actor's life and image, had more marriages than any publicist could explain away and lasted long enough to no longer require explanation. She was the industry's great survivor, and among the first to reach that special category of celebrity — famous for being famous, for whom her work was inseparable from the gossip around it.
The London-born actress was a star at age 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18, a superstar at 19 and a widow at 26. She was a screen sweetheart and martyr later reviled for stealing Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds, then for dumping Fisher to bed Burton, a relationship of epic passion and turbulence, lasting through two marriages and countless attempted reconciliations.
She was also forgiven. Reynolds would acknowledge voting for Taylor when she was nominated for "Butterfield 8" and decades later co-starred with her old rival in "These Old Broads," co-written by Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
Taylor's ailments wore down the grudges. She underwent at least 20 major operations and she nearly died from a bout with pneumonia in 1990. In 1994 and 1995, she had both hip joints replaced, and in February 1997, she underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. In 1983, she acknowledged a 35-year addiction to sleeping pills and pain killers. Taylor was treated for alcohol and drug abuse problems at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Her troubles bonded her to her peers and the public, and deepened her compassion. Her advocacy for AIDS research and for other causes earned her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993.
As she accepted it, to a long ovation, she declared, "I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame."
The dark-haired Taylor made an unforgettable impression in Hollywood with "National Velvet," the 1945 film in which the 12-year-old belle rode a steeplechase horse to victory in the Grand National.
Critic James Agee wrote of her: "Ever since I first saw the child ... I have been choked with the peculiar sort of adoration I might have felt if we were in the same grade of primary school."
"National Velvet," her fifth film, also marked the beginning of Taylor's long string of health issues. During production, she fell off a horse. The resulting back injury continued to haunt her.
Taylor matured into a ravishing beauty in "Father of the Bride," in 1950, and into a respected performer and femme fatale the following year in "A Place in the Sun," based on the Theodore Dreiser novel "An American Tragedy." The movie co-starred her close friend Montgomery Clift as the ambitious young man who drowns his working-class girlfriend to be with the socialite Taylor. In real life, too, men all but committed murder in pursuit of her.
Through the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s, she and Marilyn Monroe were Hollywood's great sex symbols, both striving for appreciation beyond their physical beauty, both caught up in personal dramas filmmakers could only wish they had imagined. That Taylor lasted, and Monroe died young, was a matter of luck and strength; Taylor lived as she pleased and allowed no one to define her but herself.
"I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me," Taylor said around the time she turned 50.
She had a remarkable and exhausting personal and professional life. Her marriage to Michael Todd ended tragically when the producer died in a plane crash in 1958. She took up with Fisher, married him, then left him for Burton. Meanwhile, she received several Academy Award nominations and two Oscars.
She was a box-office star cast in numerous "prestige" films, from "Raintree County" with Clift to "Giant," an epic co-starring her friends Hudson and James Dean. Nominations came from a pair of movies adapted from work by Tennessee Williams: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly, Last Summer." In "Butterfield 8," released in 1960, she starred with Fisher as a doomed girl-about-town. Taylor never cared much for the film, but her performance at the Oscars wowed the world.
Sympathy for Taylor's widowhood had turned to scorn when she took up with Fisher, who had supposedly been consoling her over the death of Todd. But before the 1961 ceremony, she was hospitalized from a nearly fatal bout with pneumonia and Taylor underwent a tracheotomy. The scar was bandaged when she appeared at the Oscars to accept her best actress trophy for "Butterfield 8."
To a standing ovation, she hobbled to the stage. "I don't really know how to express my great gratitude," she said in an emotional speech. "I guess I will just have to thank you with all my heart." It was one of the most dramatic moments in Academy Awards history.
"Hell, I even voted for her," Reynolds later said.
Greater drama awaited: "Cleopatra." Taylor met Burton while playing the title role in the 1963 epic, in which the brooding, womanizing Welsh actor co-starred as Mark Antony. Their chemistry was not immediate. Taylor found him boorish; Burton mocked her physique. But the love scenes on film continued away from the set and a scandal for the ages was born. Headlines shouted and screamed. Paparazzi snapped and swooned. Their romance created such a sensation that the Vatican denounced the happenings as the "caprices of adult children."
The film so exceeded its budget that the producers lost money even though "Cleopatra" was a box-office hit and won four Academy awards. (With its $44 million budget adjusted for inflation, "Cleopatra" remains the most expensive movie ever made.) Taylor's salary per film topped $1 million. "Liz and Dick" became a couple on a first name basis with millions who had never met them.
They were a prolific acting team, even if most of the movies aged no better than their relationship: "The VIPs" (1963), "The Sandpiper" (1965), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967), "The Comedians" (1967), "Dr. Faustus" (1967), "Boom!" (1968), "Under Milk Wood" (1971) and "Hammersmith Is Out" (1972).
Art most effectively imitated life in the adaptation of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" — in which Taylor and Burton played mates who fought viciously and drank heavily. She took the best actress Oscar for her performance as the venomous Martha in "Virginia Woolf" and again stole the awards show, this time by not showing up at the ceremony. She refused to thank the academy upon learning of her victory and chastised voters for not honoring Burton.
Taylor and Burton divorced in 1974, married again in 1975 and divorced again in 1976.
"We fight a great deal," Burton once said, "and we watch the people around us who don't quite know how to behave during these storms. We don't fight when we are alone."
In 1982, Taylor and Burton appeared in a touring production of the Noel Coward play "Private Lives," in which they starred as a divorced couple who meet on their respective honeymoons. They remained close at the time of Burton's death, in 1984.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London on Feb. 27, 1932, the daughter of Francis Taylor, an art dealer, and the former Sara Sothern, an American stage actress. At age 3, with extensive ballet training already behind her, Taylor danced for British princesses Elizabeth (the future queen) and Margaret Rose at London's Hippodrome. At age 4, she was given a wild field horse that she learned to ride expertly.
At the onset of World War II, the Taylors came to the United States. Francis Taylor opened a gallery in Beverly Hills and, in 1942, his daughter made her screen debut with a bit part in the comedy "There's One Born Every Minute."
Her big break came soon thereafter. While serving as an air-raid warden with MGM producer Sam Marx, Taylor's father learned that the studio was struggling to find an English girl to play opposite Roddy McDowall in "Lassie Come Home." Taylor's screen test for the film won her both the part and a long-term contract. She grew up quickly after that.
Still in school at 16, she would dash from the classroom to the movie set where she played passionate love scenes with Robert Taylor in "Conspirator."
"I have the emotions of a child in the body of a woman," she once said. "I was rushed into womanhood for the movies. It caused me long moments of unhappiness and doubt."
Soon after her screen presence was established, she began a series of very public romances. Early loves included socialite Bill Pawley, home run slugger Ralph Kiner and football star Glenn Davis.
Then, a roll call of husbands:
• She married Conrad Hilton Jr., son of the hotel magnate, in May 1950 at age 18. The marriage ended in divorce that December.
• When she married British actor Michael Wilding in February 1952, he was 39 to her 19. They had two sons, Michael Jr. and Christopher Edward. That marriage lasted 4 years.
• She married cigar-chomping movie producer Michael Todd, also 20 years her senior, in 1957. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Francis. Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958.
• The best man at the Taylor-Todd wedding was Fisher. He left his wife Debbie Reynolds to marry Taylor in 1959. She converted to Judaism before the wedding.
• Taylor and Fisher moved to London, where she was making "Cleopatra." She met Burton, who also was married. That union produced her fourth child, Maria.
• After her second marriage to Burton ended, she married John Warner, a former secretary of the Navy, in December 1976. Warner was elected a U.S. senator from Virginia in 1978. They divorced in 1982.
• In October 1991, she married Larry Fortensky, a truck driver and construction worker she met while both were undergoing treatment at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. He was 20 years her junior. The wedding, held at the ranch of Michael Jackson, was a media circus that included the din of helicopter blades, a journalist who parachuted to a spot near the couple and a gossip columnist as official scribe.
But in August 1995, she and Fortensky announced a trial separation; she filed for divorce six months later and the split became final in 1997.
"I was taught by my parents that if you fall in love, if you want to have a love affair, you get married," she once remarked. "I guess I'm very old-fashioned."
Her philanthropic interests included assistance for the Israeli War Victims Fund, the Variety Clubs International and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
She received the Legion of Honor, France's most prestigious award, in 1987, for her efforts to support AIDS research. In May 2000, Queen Elizabeth II made Taylor a dame — the female equivalent of a knight — for her services to the entertainment industry and to charity.
In 1993, she won a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute; in 1999, an institute survey of screen legends ranked her No. 7 among actresses.
During much of her later career, Taylor's waistline, various diets, diet books and tangled romances were the butt of jokes by Joan Rivers and others. John Belushi mocked her on "Saturday Night Live," dressing up in drag and choking on a piece of chicken.
"It's a wonder I didn't explode," Taylor wrote of her 60-pound weight gain — and successful loss — in the 1988 book "Elizabeth Takes Off on Self-Esteem and Self-Image."
She was an iconic star, but her screen roles became increasingly rare in the 1980s and beyond. She appeared in several television movies, including "Poker Alice" and "Sweet Bird of Youth," and entered the Stone Age as Pearl Slaghoople in the movie version of "The Flintstones." She had a brief role on the popular soap opera "General Hospital."
Taylor was the subject of numerous unauthorized biographies and herself worked on a handful of books, including "Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir" and "Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry." In tune with the media to the end, she kept in touch through her Twitter account.
"I like the connection with fans and people who have been supportive of me," Taylor told Kim Kardashian in a 2011 interview for Harper's Bazaar. "And I love the idea of real feedback and a two-way street, which is very, very modern. But sometimes I think we know too much about our idols and that spoils the dream."
Survivors include her daughters Maria Burton-Carson and Liza Todd-Tivey, sons Christopher and Michael Wilding, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A private family funeral is planned later this week.
___
Associated Press Writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report.
She was surrounded by her four children when she died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, said publicist Sally Morrison.
"My Mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love," her son, Michael Wilding, said in a statement.
"We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts."
"We have just lost a Hollywood giant," said Elton John, a longtime friend of Taylor. "More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being."
Taylor was the most blessed and cursed of actresses, the toughest and the most vulnerable. She had extraordinary grace, wealth and voluptuous beauty, and won three Academy Awards, including a special one for her humanitarian work. She was the most loyal of friends and a defender of gays in Hollywood when AIDS was still a stigma in the industry and beyond. But she was afflicted by ill health, failed romances (eight marriages, seven husbands) and personal tragedy.
"I think I'm becoming fatalistic," she said in 1989. "Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic."
Her more than 50 movies included unforgettable portraits of innocence and of decadence, from the children's classic "National Velvet" and the sentimental family comedy "Father of the Bride" to Oscar-winning transgressions in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Butterfield 8." The historical epic "Cleopatra" is among Hollywood's greatest on-screen fiascos and a landmark of off-screen monkey business, the meeting ground of Taylor and Richard Burton, the "Brangelina" of their day.
She played enough bawdy women on film for critic Pauline Kael to deem her "Chaucerian Beverly Hills."
But her defining role, one that lasted long past her moviemaking days, was "Elizabeth Taylor," ever marrying and divorcing, in and out of hospitals, gaining and losing weight, standing by Michael Jackson, Rock Hudson and other troubled friends, acquiring a jewelry collection that seemed to rival Tiffany's.
She was a child star who grew up and aged before an adoring, appalled and fascinated public. She arrived in Hollywood when the studio system tightly controlled an actor's life and image, had more marriages than any publicist could explain away and lasted long enough to no longer require explanation. She was the industry's great survivor, and among the first to reach that special category of celebrity — famous for being famous, for whom her work was inseparable from the gossip around it.
The London-born actress was a star at age 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18, a superstar at 19 and a widow at 26. She was a screen sweetheart and martyr later reviled for stealing Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds, then for dumping Fisher to bed Burton, a relationship of epic passion and turbulence, lasting through two marriages and countless attempted reconciliations.
She was also forgiven. Reynolds would acknowledge voting for Taylor when she was nominated for "Butterfield 8" and decades later co-starred with her old rival in "These Old Broads," co-written by Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
Taylor's ailments wore down the grudges. She underwent at least 20 major operations and she nearly died from a bout with pneumonia in 1990. In 1994 and 1995, she had both hip joints replaced, and in February 1997, she underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. In 1983, she acknowledged a 35-year addiction to sleeping pills and pain killers. Taylor was treated for alcohol and drug abuse problems at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
Her troubles bonded her to her peers and the public, and deepened her compassion. Her advocacy for AIDS research and for other causes earned her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993.
As she accepted it, to a long ovation, she declared, "I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame."
The dark-haired Taylor made an unforgettable impression in Hollywood with "National Velvet," the 1945 film in which the 12-year-old belle rode a steeplechase horse to victory in the Grand National.
Critic James Agee wrote of her: "Ever since I first saw the child ... I have been choked with the peculiar sort of adoration I might have felt if we were in the same grade of primary school."
"National Velvet," her fifth film, also marked the beginning of Taylor's long string of health issues. During production, she fell off a horse. The resulting back injury continued to haunt her.
Taylor matured into a ravishing beauty in "Father of the Bride," in 1950, and into a respected performer and femme fatale the following year in "A Place in the Sun," based on the Theodore Dreiser novel "An American Tragedy." The movie co-starred her close friend Montgomery Clift as the ambitious young man who drowns his working-class girlfriend to be with the socialite Taylor. In real life, too, men all but committed murder in pursuit of her.
Through the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s, she and Marilyn Monroe were Hollywood's great sex symbols, both striving for appreciation beyond their physical beauty, both caught up in personal dramas filmmakers could only wish they had imagined. That Taylor lasted, and Monroe died young, was a matter of luck and strength; Taylor lived as she pleased and allowed no one to define her but herself.
"I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me," Taylor said around the time she turned 50.
She had a remarkable and exhausting personal and professional life. Her marriage to Michael Todd ended tragically when the producer died in a plane crash in 1958. She took up with Fisher, married him, then left him for Burton. Meanwhile, she received several Academy Award nominations and two Oscars.
She was a box-office star cast in numerous "prestige" films, from "Raintree County" with Clift to "Giant," an epic co-starring her friends Hudson and James Dean. Nominations came from a pair of movies adapted from work by Tennessee Williams: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly, Last Summer." In "Butterfield 8," released in 1960, she starred with Fisher as a doomed girl-about-town. Taylor never cared much for the film, but her performance at the Oscars wowed the world.
Sympathy for Taylor's widowhood had turned to scorn when she took up with Fisher, who had supposedly been consoling her over the death of Todd. But before the 1961 ceremony, she was hospitalized from a nearly fatal bout with pneumonia and Taylor underwent a tracheotomy. The scar was bandaged when she appeared at the Oscars to accept her best actress trophy for "Butterfield 8."
To a standing ovation, she hobbled to the stage. "I don't really know how to express my great gratitude," she said in an emotional speech. "I guess I will just have to thank you with all my heart." It was one of the most dramatic moments in Academy Awards history.
"Hell, I even voted for her," Reynolds later said.
Greater drama awaited: "Cleopatra." Taylor met Burton while playing the title role in the 1963 epic, in which the brooding, womanizing Welsh actor co-starred as Mark Antony. Their chemistry was not immediate. Taylor found him boorish; Burton mocked her physique. But the love scenes on film continued away from the set and a scandal for the ages was born. Headlines shouted and screamed. Paparazzi snapped and swooned. Their romance created such a sensation that the Vatican denounced the happenings as the "caprices of adult children."
The film so exceeded its budget that the producers lost money even though "Cleopatra" was a box-office hit and won four Academy awards. (With its $44 million budget adjusted for inflation, "Cleopatra" remains the most expensive movie ever made.) Taylor's salary per film topped $1 million. "Liz and Dick" became a couple on a first name basis with millions who had never met them.
They were a prolific acting team, even if most of the movies aged no better than their relationship: "The VIPs" (1963), "The Sandpiper" (1965), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967), "The Comedians" (1967), "Dr. Faustus" (1967), "Boom!" (1968), "Under Milk Wood" (1971) and "Hammersmith Is Out" (1972).
Art most effectively imitated life in the adaptation of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" — in which Taylor and Burton played mates who fought viciously and drank heavily. She took the best actress Oscar for her performance as the venomous Martha in "Virginia Woolf" and again stole the awards show, this time by not showing up at the ceremony. She refused to thank the academy upon learning of her victory and chastised voters for not honoring Burton.
Taylor and Burton divorced in 1974, married again in 1975 and divorced again in 1976.
"We fight a great deal," Burton once said, "and we watch the people around us who don't quite know how to behave during these storms. We don't fight when we are alone."
In 1982, Taylor and Burton appeared in a touring production of the Noel Coward play "Private Lives," in which they starred as a divorced couple who meet on their respective honeymoons. They remained close at the time of Burton's death, in 1984.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London on Feb. 27, 1932, the daughter of Francis Taylor, an art dealer, and the former Sara Sothern, an American stage actress. At age 3, with extensive ballet training already behind her, Taylor danced for British princesses Elizabeth (the future queen) and Margaret Rose at London's Hippodrome. At age 4, she was given a wild field horse that she learned to ride expertly.
At the onset of World War II, the Taylors came to the United States. Francis Taylor opened a gallery in Beverly Hills and, in 1942, his daughter made her screen debut with a bit part in the comedy "There's One Born Every Minute."
Her big break came soon thereafter. While serving as an air-raid warden with MGM producer Sam Marx, Taylor's father learned that the studio was struggling to find an English girl to play opposite Roddy McDowall in "Lassie Come Home." Taylor's screen test for the film won her both the part and a long-term contract. She grew up quickly after that.
Still in school at 16, she would dash from the classroom to the movie set where she played passionate love scenes with Robert Taylor in "Conspirator."
"I have the emotions of a child in the body of a woman," she once said. "I was rushed into womanhood for the movies. It caused me long moments of unhappiness and doubt."
Soon after her screen presence was established, she began a series of very public romances. Early loves included socialite Bill Pawley, home run slugger Ralph Kiner and football star Glenn Davis.
Then, a roll call of husbands:
• She married Conrad Hilton Jr., son of the hotel magnate, in May 1950 at age 18. The marriage ended in divorce that December.
• When she married British actor Michael Wilding in February 1952, he was 39 to her 19. They had two sons, Michael Jr. and Christopher Edward. That marriage lasted 4 years.
• She married cigar-chomping movie producer Michael Todd, also 20 years her senior, in 1957. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Francis. Todd was killed in a plane crash in 1958.
• The best man at the Taylor-Todd wedding was Fisher. He left his wife Debbie Reynolds to marry Taylor in 1959. She converted to Judaism before the wedding.
• Taylor and Fisher moved to London, where she was making "Cleopatra." She met Burton, who also was married. That union produced her fourth child, Maria.
• After her second marriage to Burton ended, she married John Warner, a former secretary of the Navy, in December 1976. Warner was elected a U.S. senator from Virginia in 1978. They divorced in 1982.
• In October 1991, she married Larry Fortensky, a truck driver and construction worker she met while both were undergoing treatment at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. He was 20 years her junior. The wedding, held at the ranch of Michael Jackson, was a media circus that included the din of helicopter blades, a journalist who parachuted to a spot near the couple and a gossip columnist as official scribe.
But in August 1995, she and Fortensky announced a trial separation; she filed for divorce six months later and the split became final in 1997.
"I was taught by my parents that if you fall in love, if you want to have a love affair, you get married," she once remarked. "I guess I'm very old-fashioned."
Her philanthropic interests included assistance for the Israeli War Victims Fund, the Variety Clubs International and the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
She received the Legion of Honor, France's most prestigious award, in 1987, for her efforts to support AIDS research. In May 2000, Queen Elizabeth II made Taylor a dame — the female equivalent of a knight — for her services to the entertainment industry and to charity.
In 1993, she won a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute; in 1999, an institute survey of screen legends ranked her No. 7 among actresses.
During much of her later career, Taylor's waistline, various diets, diet books and tangled romances were the butt of jokes by Joan Rivers and others. John Belushi mocked her on "Saturday Night Live," dressing up in drag and choking on a piece of chicken.
"It's a wonder I didn't explode," Taylor wrote of her 60-pound weight gain — and successful loss — in the 1988 book "Elizabeth Takes Off on Self-Esteem and Self-Image."
She was an iconic star, but her screen roles became increasingly rare in the 1980s and beyond. She appeared in several television movies, including "Poker Alice" and "Sweet Bird of Youth," and entered the Stone Age as Pearl Slaghoople in the movie version of "The Flintstones." She had a brief role on the popular soap opera "General Hospital."
Taylor was the subject of numerous unauthorized biographies and herself worked on a handful of books, including "Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir" and "Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry." In tune with the media to the end, she kept in touch through her Twitter account.
"I like the connection with fans and people who have been supportive of me," Taylor told Kim Kardashian in a 2011 interview for Harper's Bazaar. "And I love the idea of real feedback and a two-way street, which is very, very modern. But sometimes I think we know too much about our idols and that spoils the dream."
Survivors include her daughters Maria Burton-Carson and Liza Todd-Tivey, sons Christopher and Michael Wilding, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A private family funeral is planned later this week.
___
Associated Press Writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Yemen's weakened president abandoned by own tribe
SANAA, Yemen – The U.S.-backed president of Yemen suffered a devastating political blow on Sunday when his own powerful tribe demanded his resignation, joining religious leaders, young people and the country's traditional opposition in calls for an end to his three decades in power.
Massive crowds flooded cities and towns around the impoverished and volatile nation, screaming in grief and anger as they mourned dozens of protesters killed Friday when President Ali Abdullah Saleh's security forces opened fire from rooftops on a demonstration in the capital.
Saleh appeared to be trying to hold on, firing his entire Cabinet ahead of what one government official said was a planned mass resignation, but making no mention of stepping down himself. Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations and its human rights minister had announced their resignations earlier in the day.
Experts said that Saleh, who has cooperated closely with U.S. military operations against his country's branch of al-Qaida, had lost the support of every major power base in Yemen except the military.
Many said he would now be forced to choose between stepping down and confronting demonstrators with even deadlier force.
"We're talking a new set of dynamics that are driving the conflict into either the resignation of Saleh or a very serious clash between the two sides," said Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of the Brookings Doha Center. "The U.S. should work now on an orderly transition in Yemen and press Saleh to find an arrangement that doesn't allow chaos."
Sharqieh said from Washington that it was far from clear what would replace Saleh if he goes. Options could include a military-run transitional government and an adminstration of traditional political opposition parties.
Sharqieh described the Obama administration as "extremely worried."
Saleh and his weak government have faced down many serious challenges, often forging tricky alliances with restive tribes to delicately extend power beyond the capital. Most recently, he has battled an on-and-off, seven-year armed rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south, and an al-Qaida offshoot that is of great concern to the U.S.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which formed in January 2009, has moved beyond regional aims and attacked the West, including sending a suicide bomber who came terrifyingly close to blowing up a U.S.-bound airliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear. The device failed to detonate properly.
Yemen is also home to U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have offered inspiration to those attacking the U.S., including Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens in a 2009 shootout at Fort Hood, Texas.
"The U.S. just cannot afford losing Yemen," Sharqieh said.
The Yemeni government appeared to shy away from more violence for the moment, disbanding police and special forces around Sanaa University, which has been the center of the deadly crackdown, and replacing them with a largely unarmed force.
"From now on, we will be controlling the entrances and exits of the square by orders from the supreme military command," said Lt. Col. Mohammed Hussein.
Soldiers with sticks checked people arriving to join crowds of thousands who carried the flag-wrapped bodies of the slain through the square where on Friday, gunmen hidden on rooftops fired methodically into protesters. Police sealed off a key escape route with a wall of burning tires and more than 40 people, including children, perished, many shot in the head and neck.
The day after the bloodshed, the head of Saleh's Hashed tribe met with religious leaders at his home on Saturday and emerged with a statement of support for the protesters' demands that the president step down.
"We hail with all respect and observance, the position of the people at the (Sanaa University) square," Sheik Sadiq al-Ahmar said late Saturday.
Al-Ahmar does not command the automatic loyalty of tribal members but his positions are deeply influential, Sharqieh said.
The tribal leader now stands with opposition parties who have gone from negotiating Saleh's eventual departure to demanding his immediate resignation.
The parties said they would not be satisfied by Saleh's pledges not to run for re-election in 2013 or to hand power to his son.
"Our only choice now is the removal of the regime soon. We stand by the people's demand," opposition leader Yassin Said Numan told The Associated Press.
The opposition will under no circumstances agree to a dialogue with Saleh after Friday's violence, spokesman Mohammad al-Sabri told The Associated Press.
"The president must understand that the only way to avoid more bloodshed and strife in this country is for him to leave. Nobody will have any regrets about him," he said.
The president has now been left almost entirely dependent on external support, mainly from the United States, which sends Yemen hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to battle the potent al-Qaida offshoot in the country's mountainous hinterlands, political analyst and researcher Abdelkarim al-Khiwani said.
The U.S. has condemned violence against Yemeni protesters.
People living in apartment buildings around the square tossed down flowers at Sunday's funeral procession. Electricity was cut off for about three hours in Yemen's major cities, and activists accused the government of trying to block people from seeing television coverage of the march. Cell service was also interrupted.
Massive crowds flooded into the Sanaa University square and solidarity demonstrations were held across the country in regions including Aden, Hadramawt, Ibb, Al-Hudaydah, Dhamar and Taiz.
Human Rights Minister Huda al-Ban said she was stepping down to protest the government's "horrible, coward and perfidious crime." And a Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press that UN Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi had sent in his letter of resignation.
Health Minister Abdul-Karim Rafi told reporters the killing of protesters was "a crime unacceptable by logic or could be justified."
He said 44 protesters were killed and 192 wounded, 21 critically.
Prosecutor-General Abdullah al-Ulty said that 693 protesters were hurt and some bodies have not yet been identified.
Mohammed Naji Allaw, a lawyer and activist, said the government offering money to victims' families to not cooperate with the investigation, and was pressuring them not to participate in the funeral procession.
_____
Michael Weissenstein and Zeina Karam in Cairo contributed to this report.
Massive crowds flooded cities and towns around the impoverished and volatile nation, screaming in grief and anger as they mourned dozens of protesters killed Friday when President Ali Abdullah Saleh's security forces opened fire from rooftops on a demonstration in the capital.
Saleh appeared to be trying to hold on, firing his entire Cabinet ahead of what one government official said was a planned mass resignation, but making no mention of stepping down himself. Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations and its human rights minister had announced their resignations earlier in the day.
Experts said that Saleh, who has cooperated closely with U.S. military operations against his country's branch of al-Qaida, had lost the support of every major power base in Yemen except the military.
Many said he would now be forced to choose between stepping down and confronting demonstrators with even deadlier force.
"We're talking a new set of dynamics that are driving the conflict into either the resignation of Saleh or a very serious clash between the two sides," said Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of the Brookings Doha Center. "The U.S. should work now on an orderly transition in Yemen and press Saleh to find an arrangement that doesn't allow chaos."
Sharqieh said from Washington that it was far from clear what would replace Saleh if he goes. Options could include a military-run transitional government and an adminstration of traditional political opposition parties.
Sharqieh described the Obama administration as "extremely worried."
Saleh and his weak government have faced down many serious challenges, often forging tricky alliances with restive tribes to delicately extend power beyond the capital. Most recently, he has battled an on-and-off, seven-year armed rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south, and an al-Qaida offshoot that is of great concern to the U.S.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which formed in January 2009, has moved beyond regional aims and attacked the West, including sending a suicide bomber who came terrifyingly close to blowing up a U.S.-bound airliner with a bomb sewn into his underwear. The device failed to detonate properly.
Yemen is also home to U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have offered inspiration to those attacking the U.S., including Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens in a 2009 shootout at Fort Hood, Texas.
"The U.S. just cannot afford losing Yemen," Sharqieh said.
The Yemeni government appeared to shy away from more violence for the moment, disbanding police and special forces around Sanaa University, which has been the center of the deadly crackdown, and replacing them with a largely unarmed force.
"From now on, we will be controlling the entrances and exits of the square by orders from the supreme military command," said Lt. Col. Mohammed Hussein.
Soldiers with sticks checked people arriving to join crowds of thousands who carried the flag-wrapped bodies of the slain through the square where on Friday, gunmen hidden on rooftops fired methodically into protesters. Police sealed off a key escape route with a wall of burning tires and more than 40 people, including children, perished, many shot in the head and neck.
The day after the bloodshed, the head of Saleh's Hashed tribe met with religious leaders at his home on Saturday and emerged with a statement of support for the protesters' demands that the president step down.
"We hail with all respect and observance, the position of the people at the (Sanaa University) square," Sheik Sadiq al-Ahmar said late Saturday.
Al-Ahmar does not command the automatic loyalty of tribal members but his positions are deeply influential, Sharqieh said.
The tribal leader now stands with opposition parties who have gone from negotiating Saleh's eventual departure to demanding his immediate resignation.
The parties said they would not be satisfied by Saleh's pledges not to run for re-election in 2013 or to hand power to his son.
"Our only choice now is the removal of the regime soon. We stand by the people's demand," opposition leader Yassin Said Numan told The Associated Press.
The opposition will under no circumstances agree to a dialogue with Saleh after Friday's violence, spokesman Mohammad al-Sabri told The Associated Press.
"The president must understand that the only way to avoid more bloodshed and strife in this country is for him to leave. Nobody will have any regrets about him," he said.
The president has now been left almost entirely dependent on external support, mainly from the United States, which sends Yemen hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to battle the potent al-Qaida offshoot in the country's mountainous hinterlands, political analyst and researcher Abdelkarim al-Khiwani said.
The U.S. has condemned violence against Yemeni protesters.
People living in apartment buildings around the square tossed down flowers at Sunday's funeral procession. Electricity was cut off for about three hours in Yemen's major cities, and activists accused the government of trying to block people from seeing television coverage of the march. Cell service was also interrupted.
Massive crowds flooded into the Sanaa University square and solidarity demonstrations were held across the country in regions including Aden, Hadramawt, Ibb, Al-Hudaydah, Dhamar and Taiz.
Human Rights Minister Huda al-Ban said she was stepping down to protest the government's "horrible, coward and perfidious crime." And a Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press that UN Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi had sent in his letter of resignation.
Health Minister Abdul-Karim Rafi told reporters the killing of protesters was "a crime unacceptable by logic or could be justified."
He said 44 protesters were killed and 192 wounded, 21 critically.
Prosecutor-General Abdullah al-Ulty said that 693 protesters were hurt and some bodies have not yet been identified.
Mohammed Naji Allaw, a lawyer and activist, said the government offering money to victims' families to not cooperate with the investigation, and was pressuring them not to participate in the funeral procession.
_____
Michael Weissenstein and Zeina Karam in Cairo contributed to this report.
'Supermoon' Dazzles: Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years Amazes Skywatchers
The largest full moon in more than 18 years – a so-called "supermoon" – did not disappoint eager skywatchers around the world Saturday when it rose, big and bright, into Earth's night sky.
The full moon of March was 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers) on Saturday, March 19 just 50 minutes after it hit its full phase, making it the biggest and brightest full moon since 1993. The "supermoon" phenomenon occurred because the moon was in its full phase and just 50 minutes past perigee – the point of its orbit that brings it closer to Earth. [Supermoon Photos From Around the World]
This year's biggest full moon also gained notoriety after erroneous claims that it would spark waves of natural disasters around the world.
NASA scientists and others dismissed the fringe lunar disaster claims as nonsense, but did admit the moon should look spectacular. Saturday's full moon appeared 14 percent larger and 30 percent bigger than the smallest full moons Earth sees, though the difference wasn't immediately apparent to some skywatchers.
And for moon lovers graced with clear skies, that's exactly what happened according to overwhelming number of email reports received by SPACE.com from around the world.
In New York City, avid skywatcher Tony Hoffman watched the moon rise from a bedroom window and caught a lucky shot when an airplane passed by. [See Tony Hoffman's photo]
"It was beautiful as it rose, though it didn’t look particularly large to me, then again, I wasn’t expecting it to," I was fortunate enough to catch a jetliner’s passage in front of it," Hoffman told SPACE.com. "I don’t usually photograph the Moon when it’s so low, but tonight it paid off."
Just outside New York City, in northern New Jersey, the bright moon offered a serene view for me and my family. We caught an amazing view of it low on the horizon, and then stopped at a hilltop vista to see the full moon with the lights and skyscrapers of Manhattan and Newark in the distance.
Big moon rising
Skywatcher Ian Griffin watched the moon as it rose over his village of Brill in the United Kingdom and soaked in the amazing view. In his photos, a huge moon hangs low in the horizon awash in dusky colors. [See Ian Griffin's moon photo]
Griffin wasn't the only one to send SPACE.com an account of a huge rising moon.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., skywatcher Susan Wagener watched as the moon climbed up from behind the horizon, catching a stunning view of the so-called "moon illusion" in which the moon appears to be much larger near the horizon than it does overhead.
"We watched the moon rise last night from our condo on the 23rd floor of Plaza Towers in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan with our 4 1/2-year-old granddaughter, Matilyn Sizemore," Wagener told SPACE.com. "We talked about the moon and how it's different sizes during different times of the month and year. Matilyn's favorite moon is the half-moon she told us."
In one of Wagener's photos, the bright curve of the moon peeks out from behind the horizon, its edge distorted by atmospheric interference. Another image shows the moon hanging low over Grand Rapids. [See Susan Wagener's moon photo]
"For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near trees, buildings and other foreground objects," SPACE.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao explained in a recent column. "The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect."
Skywatcher Sandy Adams caught similar views of the rising moon over the U.S. capitol of Washington, D.C. [See Sandy Adams' supermoon photo]
Omar Mendoza, of Hermosillo, Sonora in Mexico, snapped his version of the view to show a reddish-hue moon rising behind hills in the distance.
"So beautiful, my moon," Mendoza told SPACE.com.
The next comparable full moon to offer a view like Saturday's "supermoon" won't occur until Nov. 14, 2016, according to Rao. [Infographic: 'Supermoon' Full Moons Explained]
Supermoon around the world
While SPACE.com received a flood of supermoon accounts, the theme was the same: an amazingly bright moon. While some skywatchers did not immediately notice the moon's larger size on Saturday night, they were all dazzled by its brightness.
"That was sure a beautiful moon," said Abbe Arenson of Sanford, Fla. "The moon while bright and beautifully big, still did not seem larger upon rising (about 8 p.m.) than that night of January 19th when it rose. But as I just went outside, it is very definitely closer to the Earth - usually the moon by this time, 12:45 a.m., is very small up there."
In Tasmania, Australia, observers Marlene and Tim B were worried that cloud cover would obscure their view of the moon. Those fears, it turned out, were unfounded. Marlene's photo shows a moon so bright it overwhelmed the frame.
"What struck my husband and I was that it was difficult to look at. That is how bright it appeared. The glow that emanated from the moon surpassed any full moon that we have observed in a very long time," Marlene told SPACE.com in an email. "It appeared slightly larger; I suppose that was due to the close proximity of the Earth … it was absolutely entrancing. Who would have believed that you could take a picture at night, without using a flash, and get a picture of the moon like that!!!!!"
Another bright view of the moon came from Gina Farthing in Crimora, Va., who snapped photos of the bright moon through some trees that appeared to glow with the lunar backlighting.
"We live in the Blue Ridge mountains, so didn't get to see it at the horizon," Farthing said. "But it did appear slightly larger coming over the mountain."
In Ekaterinburg Russia, photographer Dmitry Benbau took the opportunity to snap a close-up of the moon full disk. The bright and full moon, he said, was "very exciting."
In Shallotte, North Carolina, photographer Tavi Greiner made the supermoon of March a family affair. Greiner's amazing photos show the moon low over the Shallotte River.
"I took my entire family down to the river tonight, to experience tonight's 'Super Moon,' and was pleasantly surprised to see many of the locals out for a look, as well," Greiner told SPACE.com "It was really nice to see so many people looking up!"
Editor's Note: SPACE.com received an overwhelming number of first-hand accounts and photos from readers who made stunning observations of the moon. While it is impossible to recount all of those experiences, you can see many of the photos in our Supermoon 2011 Photo Gallery, with more being added all the time
The full moon of March was 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers) on Saturday, March 19 just 50 minutes after it hit its full phase, making it the biggest and brightest full moon since 1993. The "supermoon" phenomenon occurred because the moon was in its full phase and just 50 minutes past perigee – the point of its orbit that brings it closer to Earth. [Supermoon Photos From Around the World]
This year's biggest full moon also gained notoriety after erroneous claims that it would spark waves of natural disasters around the world.
NASA scientists and others dismissed the fringe lunar disaster claims as nonsense, but did admit the moon should look spectacular. Saturday's full moon appeared 14 percent larger and 30 percent bigger than the smallest full moons Earth sees, though the difference wasn't immediately apparent to some skywatchers.
And for moon lovers graced with clear skies, that's exactly what happened according to overwhelming number of email reports received by SPACE.com from around the world.
In New York City, avid skywatcher Tony Hoffman watched the moon rise from a bedroom window and caught a lucky shot when an airplane passed by. [See Tony Hoffman's photo]
"It was beautiful as it rose, though it didn’t look particularly large to me, then again, I wasn’t expecting it to," I was fortunate enough to catch a jetliner’s passage in front of it," Hoffman told SPACE.com. "I don’t usually photograph the Moon when it’s so low, but tonight it paid off."
Just outside New York City, in northern New Jersey, the bright moon offered a serene view for me and my family. We caught an amazing view of it low on the horizon, and then stopped at a hilltop vista to see the full moon with the lights and skyscrapers of Manhattan and Newark in the distance.
Big moon rising
Skywatcher Ian Griffin watched the moon as it rose over his village of Brill in the United Kingdom and soaked in the amazing view. In his photos, a huge moon hangs low in the horizon awash in dusky colors. [See Ian Griffin's moon photo]
Griffin wasn't the only one to send SPACE.com an account of a huge rising moon.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., skywatcher Susan Wagener watched as the moon climbed up from behind the horizon, catching a stunning view of the so-called "moon illusion" in which the moon appears to be much larger near the horizon than it does overhead.
"We watched the moon rise last night from our condo on the 23rd floor of Plaza Towers in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan with our 4 1/2-year-old granddaughter, Matilyn Sizemore," Wagener told SPACE.com. "We talked about the moon and how it's different sizes during different times of the month and year. Matilyn's favorite moon is the half-moon she told us."
In one of Wagener's photos, the bright curve of the moon peeks out from behind the horizon, its edge distorted by atmospheric interference. Another image shows the moon hanging low over Grand Rapids. [See Susan Wagener's moon photo]
"For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near trees, buildings and other foreground objects," SPACE.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao explained in a recent column. "The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect."
Skywatcher Sandy Adams caught similar views of the rising moon over the U.S. capitol of Washington, D.C. [See Sandy Adams' supermoon photo]
Omar Mendoza, of Hermosillo, Sonora in Mexico, snapped his version of the view to show a reddish-hue moon rising behind hills in the distance.
"So beautiful, my moon," Mendoza told SPACE.com.
The next comparable full moon to offer a view like Saturday's "supermoon" won't occur until Nov. 14, 2016, according to Rao. [Infographic: 'Supermoon' Full Moons Explained]
Supermoon around the world
While SPACE.com received a flood of supermoon accounts, the theme was the same: an amazingly bright moon. While some skywatchers did not immediately notice the moon's larger size on Saturday night, they were all dazzled by its brightness.
"That was sure a beautiful moon," said Abbe Arenson of Sanford, Fla. "The moon while bright and beautifully big, still did not seem larger upon rising (about 8 p.m.) than that night of January 19th when it rose. But as I just went outside, it is very definitely closer to the Earth - usually the moon by this time, 12:45 a.m., is very small up there."
In Tasmania, Australia, observers Marlene and Tim B were worried that cloud cover would obscure their view of the moon. Those fears, it turned out, were unfounded. Marlene's photo shows a moon so bright it overwhelmed the frame.
"What struck my husband and I was that it was difficult to look at. That is how bright it appeared. The glow that emanated from the moon surpassed any full moon that we have observed in a very long time," Marlene told SPACE.com in an email. "It appeared slightly larger; I suppose that was due to the close proximity of the Earth … it was absolutely entrancing. Who would have believed that you could take a picture at night, without using a flash, and get a picture of the moon like that!!!!!"
Another bright view of the moon came from Gina Farthing in Crimora, Va., who snapped photos of the bright moon through some trees that appeared to glow with the lunar backlighting.
"We live in the Blue Ridge mountains, so didn't get to see it at the horizon," Farthing said. "But it did appear slightly larger coming over the mountain."
In Ekaterinburg Russia, photographer Dmitry Benbau took the opportunity to snap a close-up of the moon full disk. The bright and full moon, he said, was "very exciting."
In Shallotte, North Carolina, photographer Tavi Greiner made the supermoon of March a family affair. Greiner's amazing photos show the moon low over the Shallotte River.
"I took my entire family down to the river tonight, to experience tonight's 'Super Moon,' and was pleasantly surprised to see many of the locals out for a look, as well," Greiner told SPACE.com "It was really nice to see so many people looking up!"
Editor's Note: SPACE.com received an overwhelming number of first-hand accounts and photos from readers who made stunning observations of the moon. While it is impossible to recount all of those experiences, you can see many of the photos in our Supermoon 2011 Photo Gallery, with more being added all the time
Friday, March 18, 2011
Charlie Sheen adds 12 more dates to his live tour
LOS ANGELES – Charlie Sheen's "Violent Torpedo of Truth" is growing.
Sheen is adding a dozen more dates to his live show, which is now set to stretch into Canada and continue through May 3.
The outspoken actor announced his first two live performances last week on his Twitter account. Those shows in Detroit and Chicago sold out quickly.
Earlier this week, Sheen added an additional five dates. He tacked on a dozen more late Thursday, including stops in Toronto, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Sheen has not revealed the content of the show, other than to call it "the REAL story."
Tickets for the latest dates go on sale Saturday.
Sheen is adding a dozen more dates to his live show, which is now set to stretch into Canada and continue through May 3.
The outspoken actor announced his first two live performances last week on his Twitter account. Those shows in Detroit and Chicago sold out quickly.
Earlier this week, Sheen added an additional five dates. He tacked on a dozen more late Thursday, including stops in Toronto, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Sheen has not revealed the content of the show, other than to call it "the REAL story."
Tickets for the latest dates go on sale Saturday.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Charlie Sheen expands live tour to 5 more cities
LOS ANGELES – Charlie Sheen is bringing his live show to five more venues, including New York's famed Radio City Music Hall.
Sheen is adding five dates to his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour. Tickets go on sale Thursday for performances in Ohio, Connecticut, Boston and New York City.
The actor's shows in Detroit and Chicago on April 2 and 3 sold out quickly. Additional performances are scheduled for April 5 in Cleveland, April 6 in Columbus, Ohio, and April 8 at Radio City Music Hall. He will also perform at the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, Conn., and at Boston's Agganis Arena on April 12.
Sheen was fired last week from the hit CBS show "Two and a Half Men." He then sued the show's producers for $100 million for breach of contract
Sheen is adding five dates to his "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour. Tickets go on sale Thursday for performances in Ohio, Connecticut, Boston and New York City.
The actor's shows in Detroit and Chicago on April 2 and 3 sold out quickly. Additional performances are scheduled for April 5 in Cleveland, April 6 in Columbus, Ohio, and April 8 at Radio City Music Hall. He will also perform at the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, Conn., and at Boston's Agganis Arena on April 12.
Sheen was fired last week from the hit CBS show "Two and a Half Men." He then sued the show's producers for $100 million for breach of contract
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
How California would fair in a major quake
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California will experience unthinkable damage when the next powerful quake strikes, probably within 30 years, even though the state prides itself on being on the leading edge of earthquake science.
Modern skyscrapers built to the state's now-rigorous building codes might ride out the big jolt that experts say is all but inevitable, but the surviving buildings will tower over a carpet of rubble from older structures that have collapsed.
Hot desert winds could fan fires that quakes inevitably cause, overwhelming fire departments, even as ancient water pipelines burst, engineers and architects say.
Part of the lesson from the disaster that hit Japan on Friday is that no amount of preparation can fully protect a region such as California that sits on top of fault lines.
Even so, critics fear the state may have long skimped on retrofitting older buildings. Yet the cost of cleaning up after a big quake is likely to be much higher than the cost of even the most expensive prevention, they warn.
"Everybody is playing a gamble that something like this won't happen," said Dana Buntrock, associate professor of architecture, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Buntrock, like many others, sees California's past as a present danger. The university is spending more than $300 million to retrofit and renovate its ancient sports stadium, tucked into the hills overlooking the bay.
"There are places where two walls that were aligned in the 1920s have moved a half meter apart," she said.
But the steps that the school is taking are not as common in California as the overwhelming risks might suggest.
The concrete high-rises that rose in the years after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake were made without adequate reinforcing steel, while homes and apartment complexes that are built atop of ground-floor parking lots are among the most vulnerable structures in the state.
Japan's 8.9 earthquake and the tsunami it unleashed destroyed entire villages and left 10,000 or more dead. That sends shivers up the spines of the engineers and architects who follow California's strategy to withstand a big quake that experts say will surely hit the state one day.
"The question is not if but when Southern California will be hit by a major earthquake -- one so damaging that it will permanently change lives and livelihoods in the region," according to a 2008 study by the United States Geological Survey study.
It predicted 2,000 deaths and $200 billion in damage from a 7.8 southern California quake on the San Andreas Fault.
Geologists say a big earthquake in California would probably top out at a magnitude 8 as the state's fault structures are different from Japan's.
A quake of the 7.8 magnitude in the USGS study would have about 30 times less power than the one that struck Japan.
Forecasters in 2008 saw a 99 percent chance of a 6.7 magnitude quake within three decades, and 46 percent chance of a 7.5 or greater, with Southern California the likely center.
A monster California quake of magnitude 8 had only about a 4 percent probability -- except in far Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. That area has a 10 percent chance of experiencing a magnitude 8 to 9 quake -- Japan-sized -- in the next 30 years.
A repeat of San Francisco's 7.9 magnitude quake in 1906 could take up to about 900 lives, injure thousands and destroy 3,000 residential buildings, a recent report for the city found.
Even a smaller 7.2 quake would cause $30 billion in building damage, $10 billion more in additional costs -- and if fires sweep the city, damage could rise by $4 billion, the report sponsored by the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection concluded. About 27,000 of the city's 160,000 buildings would become unsafe to occupy.
One of the authors of the report, geotechnical engineer Thomas Tobin, reflected that the hot winds of Santa Ana winds blowing from the desert into Los Angeles could intensify a disaster created by a southern California quake.
"If it happens to be a large earthquake on a hot, dry day with the wind blowing, the losses could be huge," he said.
COLLAPSING BOX
Tobin lists several types of "killer buildings" that would sustain the most damage in a California temblor, including older high rises and complexes featuring ground-floor parking:
* Most "tall, beautiful older buildings" built before 1980 that dot the San Francisco skyline were made without reinforcing steel, Tobin said.
* "Soft story" buildings with a ground-floor open garage or retail space also lack adequate bracing. The sturdier box of the upper floors likely would come crashing down on the "soft story."
* "Tilt up" buildings of concrete slab that are pushed upright to create a big box, such as for a grocery store, are among the most vulnerable. Some localities have mandated relatively low-cost reinforcement. Tobin says San Francisco has not.
* Unreinforced brick buildings would collapse easily.
Some of the fixes for such structures are relatively inexpensive, such as tying together tilt-up buildings, he said. So-called "soft story" apartment buildings with five units would cost $10,000 to $20,000 per apartment to fix.
Local governments can offer powerful financial incentives to encourage landlords to make changes, he said, but most don't.
That said, shoring up high rises is pricey, Tobin allows, and retrofitting has been inconsistent.
While California nuclear plants are built to withstand earthquakes and shut down when the earth shakes, the Union of Concerned Scientists, which supports nuclear energy to counter global warming, wants tougher safety measures.
PAST PERFORMANCE
Japan's experience suggests that even the best preparations are no match for the power of nature.
Matthew Hornbach, a geophysicist research associate at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, said he was shocked by the scale of disaster across the Pacific.
"You don't get better prepared than Japan and to see what's going on there now is, I think, a real wake-up call, really, to the U.S.," he said.
California and Japan tend to track each other in requirements for new buildings, but Japan tends to tear down and rebuild frequently, leaving them with a much smaller stock of older buildings, said UC Berkeley's Buntrock.
California's history of repairing quake damage varies.
Former California Governor Pete Wilson said that he waved environmental and other regulations after the 1994 Northridge earthquake - magnitude 6.7. As a result, he managed to get the Los Angeles U.S. 10 highway, the worlds' busiest road, up and running in two months, versus some estimates of two years.
But the Bay Bridge, which partially collapsed in the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake that shook the San Francisco Bay Area five years earlier is still being replaced, said Randy Rentschler, director of legislation and public affairs at the San Francisco-area Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
"One lesson that we can give them (Japan) is how not to do it," Rentschler said. "It took us how many years to do the Bay Bridge? - and it's still under construction," he added.
Aside from the obvious issue of cost, Rentschler said that debate over what to do slowed improvements.
"Local citizens' groups were raising hell about all kinds of things, and they were permitted to get away with it," he said. The replacement for the damaged span of the two-part bridge is set to open in 2013 and engineers say it is designed to withstand an event that occurs once every 1,500 years.
A final lesson from Japan is that the cities are not necessarily the most vulnerable areas. Rural areas of Japan closest to Friday's quake were destroyed by tsunamis while Tokyo fared much better.
Frank Vernon, a geophysics professor and seismology specialist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, described a similar fault far from San Francisco, hundreds of miles up the West Coast.
"The most important lesson in the U.S. and North America is the reminder that we have a similar subduction zone called Cascadia up on the coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and very northern California which could do the same thing," he said.
"Some day we will be having this same type of earthquake near our shores," he said.
(For more environmental news see our Environment blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/environment)
(Additional reporting by Kevin Gray, Pascal Fletcher and Tom Brown in Miami and Dan Levine, Jim Christie and Braden Reddall in San Francisco, Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty)
Modern skyscrapers built to the state's now-rigorous building codes might ride out the big jolt that experts say is all but inevitable, but the surviving buildings will tower over a carpet of rubble from older structures that have collapsed.
Hot desert winds could fan fires that quakes inevitably cause, overwhelming fire departments, even as ancient water pipelines burst, engineers and architects say.
Part of the lesson from the disaster that hit Japan on Friday is that no amount of preparation can fully protect a region such as California that sits on top of fault lines.
Even so, critics fear the state may have long skimped on retrofitting older buildings. Yet the cost of cleaning up after a big quake is likely to be much higher than the cost of even the most expensive prevention, they warn.
"Everybody is playing a gamble that something like this won't happen," said Dana Buntrock, associate professor of architecture, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Buntrock, like many others, sees California's past as a present danger. The university is spending more than $300 million to retrofit and renovate its ancient sports stadium, tucked into the hills overlooking the bay.
"There are places where two walls that were aligned in the 1920s have moved a half meter apart," she said.
But the steps that the school is taking are not as common in California as the overwhelming risks might suggest.
The concrete high-rises that rose in the years after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake were made without adequate reinforcing steel, while homes and apartment complexes that are built atop of ground-floor parking lots are among the most vulnerable structures in the state.
Japan's 8.9 earthquake and the tsunami it unleashed destroyed entire villages and left 10,000 or more dead. That sends shivers up the spines of the engineers and architects who follow California's strategy to withstand a big quake that experts say will surely hit the state one day.
"The question is not if but when Southern California will be hit by a major earthquake -- one so damaging that it will permanently change lives and livelihoods in the region," according to a 2008 study by the United States Geological Survey study.
It predicted 2,000 deaths and $200 billion in damage from a 7.8 southern California quake on the San Andreas Fault.
Geologists say a big earthquake in California would probably top out at a magnitude 8 as the state's fault structures are different from Japan's.
A quake of the 7.8 magnitude in the USGS study would have about 30 times less power than the one that struck Japan.
Forecasters in 2008 saw a 99 percent chance of a 6.7 magnitude quake within three decades, and 46 percent chance of a 7.5 or greater, with Southern California the likely center.
A monster California quake of magnitude 8 had only about a 4 percent probability -- except in far Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. That area has a 10 percent chance of experiencing a magnitude 8 to 9 quake -- Japan-sized -- in the next 30 years.
A repeat of San Francisco's 7.9 magnitude quake in 1906 could take up to about 900 lives, injure thousands and destroy 3,000 residential buildings, a recent report for the city found.
Even a smaller 7.2 quake would cause $30 billion in building damage, $10 billion more in additional costs -- and if fires sweep the city, damage could rise by $4 billion, the report sponsored by the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection concluded. About 27,000 of the city's 160,000 buildings would become unsafe to occupy.
One of the authors of the report, geotechnical engineer Thomas Tobin, reflected that the hot winds of Santa Ana winds blowing from the desert into Los Angeles could intensify a disaster created by a southern California quake.
"If it happens to be a large earthquake on a hot, dry day with the wind blowing, the losses could be huge," he said.
COLLAPSING BOX
Tobin lists several types of "killer buildings" that would sustain the most damage in a California temblor, including older high rises and complexes featuring ground-floor parking:
* Most "tall, beautiful older buildings" built before 1980 that dot the San Francisco skyline were made without reinforcing steel, Tobin said.
* "Soft story" buildings with a ground-floor open garage or retail space also lack adequate bracing. The sturdier box of the upper floors likely would come crashing down on the "soft story."
* "Tilt up" buildings of concrete slab that are pushed upright to create a big box, such as for a grocery store, are among the most vulnerable. Some localities have mandated relatively low-cost reinforcement. Tobin says San Francisco has not.
* Unreinforced brick buildings would collapse easily.
Some of the fixes for such structures are relatively inexpensive, such as tying together tilt-up buildings, he said. So-called "soft story" apartment buildings with five units would cost $10,000 to $20,000 per apartment to fix.
Local governments can offer powerful financial incentives to encourage landlords to make changes, he said, but most don't.
That said, shoring up high rises is pricey, Tobin allows, and retrofitting has been inconsistent.
While California nuclear plants are built to withstand earthquakes and shut down when the earth shakes, the Union of Concerned Scientists, which supports nuclear energy to counter global warming, wants tougher safety measures.
PAST PERFORMANCE
Japan's experience suggests that even the best preparations are no match for the power of nature.
Matthew Hornbach, a geophysicist research associate at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, said he was shocked by the scale of disaster across the Pacific.
"You don't get better prepared than Japan and to see what's going on there now is, I think, a real wake-up call, really, to the U.S.," he said.
California and Japan tend to track each other in requirements for new buildings, but Japan tends to tear down and rebuild frequently, leaving them with a much smaller stock of older buildings, said UC Berkeley's Buntrock.
California's history of repairing quake damage varies.
Former California Governor Pete Wilson said that he waved environmental and other regulations after the 1994 Northridge earthquake - magnitude 6.7. As a result, he managed to get the Los Angeles U.S. 10 highway, the worlds' busiest road, up and running in two months, versus some estimates of two years.
But the Bay Bridge, which partially collapsed in the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake that shook the San Francisco Bay Area five years earlier is still being replaced, said Randy Rentschler, director of legislation and public affairs at the San Francisco-area Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
"One lesson that we can give them (Japan) is how not to do it," Rentschler said. "It took us how many years to do the Bay Bridge? - and it's still under construction," he added.
Aside from the obvious issue of cost, Rentschler said that debate over what to do slowed improvements.
"Local citizens' groups were raising hell about all kinds of things, and they were permitted to get away with it," he said. The replacement for the damaged span of the two-part bridge is set to open in 2013 and engineers say it is designed to withstand an event that occurs once every 1,500 years.
A final lesson from Japan is that the cities are not necessarily the most vulnerable areas. Rural areas of Japan closest to Friday's quake were destroyed by tsunamis while Tokyo fared much better.
Frank Vernon, a geophysics professor and seismology specialist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, described a similar fault far from San Francisco, hundreds of miles up the West Coast.
"The most important lesson in the U.S. and North America is the reminder that we have a similar subduction zone called Cascadia up on the coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and very northern California which could do the same thing," he said.
"Some day we will be having this same type of earthquake near our shores," he said.
(For more environmental news see our Environment blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/environment)
(Additional reporting by Kevin Gray, Pascal Fletcher and Tom Brown in Miami and Dan Levine, Jim Christie and Braden Reddall in San Francisco, Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty)
Monday, March 14, 2011
Anonymous Releases Bank of America Related Documents
The group of online activists known as "Anonymous" has released a batch of e-mail concerning Bank of America that was given to the group by a whistleblower who worked for a related mortgage and vehicle loan insurer.
The e-mail purportedly comes from a seven-year employee of Balboa Insurance, a company that provides insurance to financial institutions in the mortgage and vehicle finance markets. Balboa was a unit of Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America acquired in 2008. Bank of America said in February it would sell Balboa to QBE Insurance Group.
The former Balboa employee alleges that the e-mail trail indicates that Balboa withheld certain foreclosure information from U.S. federal auditors during the takeovers of the financial institution IndyMac, which the U.S. federal government seized in July 2008, and Aurora Loan Services, a mortgage loan company that was a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers, the failed investment bank. The person also alleges that loan documentation was falsified in order to proceed with foreclosures.
Bank of America officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Anonymous has conducted a range of distributed denial-of-service attacks against websites seen as unsympathetic to the WikiLeaks website as well as many other targets for its campaigns, which have included the Church of Scientology and the music royalty company BMI.
The documents, which consist of a series of e-mails and correspondence between Anonymous and the whistleblower, were posted on a domain called www.bankofamericasuck.com, which now appears offline.
Google's cache of the website, however, is still available. Google's snapshot of the website was taken around 6 a.m. GMT.
The domain was registered through the company GoDaddy in December by a person named "James Jophan" of California. The listed phone number, however, has been disconnected. Although people who register a domain name are required to give contact details, which are listed in so-called "whois" directories," the information is often intentionally inaccurate.
Although bankofamericasuck.com is now down, it does appear the material is getting widely distributed through other domains posted on social networking services such as Twitter.
Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com
The e-mail purportedly comes from a seven-year employee of Balboa Insurance, a company that provides insurance to financial institutions in the mortgage and vehicle finance markets. Balboa was a unit of Countrywide Financial, which Bank of America acquired in 2008. Bank of America said in February it would sell Balboa to QBE Insurance Group.
The former Balboa employee alleges that the e-mail trail indicates that Balboa withheld certain foreclosure information from U.S. federal auditors during the takeovers of the financial institution IndyMac, which the U.S. federal government seized in July 2008, and Aurora Loan Services, a mortgage loan company that was a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers, the failed investment bank. The person also alleges that loan documentation was falsified in order to proceed with foreclosures.
Bank of America officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Anonymous has conducted a range of distributed denial-of-service attacks against websites seen as unsympathetic to the WikiLeaks website as well as many other targets for its campaigns, which have included the Church of Scientology and the music royalty company BMI.
The documents, which consist of a series of e-mails and correspondence between Anonymous and the whistleblower, were posted on a domain called www.bankofamericasuck.com, which now appears offline.
Google's cache of the website, however, is still available. Google's snapshot of the website was taken around 6 a.m. GMT.
The domain was registered through the company GoDaddy in December by a person named "James Jophan" of California. The listed phone number, however, has been disconnected. Although people who register a domain name are required to give contact details, which are listed in so-called "whois" directories," the information is often intentionally inaccurate.
Although bankofamericasuck.com is now down, it does appear the material is getting widely distributed through other domains posted on social networking services such as Twitter.
Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Hacker group plans BofA e-mail release Monday
CHARLOTTE, N.C./WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) – Anonymous, a hacker group sympathetic to WikiLeaks, plans to release e-mails obtained from Bank of America Corp early Monday morning, according to posts on the group's Twitter feed.
The group, unrelated to the document leak website founded by Julian Assange, said it plans to release documents exposing "corruption and fraud" at the largest U.S. bank by assets.
A representative of Anonymous said the documents relate to the issue of whether Bank of America has improperly foreclosed on homes. The representative added that he had not seen the documents, but he has been briefed on their contents.
A Bank of America Corp spokesman said the documents were non-foreclosure related clerical and administrative documents stolen by a former Balboa Insurance employee.
The division -- which BofA has since agreed to sell to Australian insurer QBE Insurance Group -- provides mortgage and auto insurance for banks, and provides home insurance for consumers.
"We are confident that his extravagant assertions are untrue," the spokesman said.
(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Gunna Dickson and Dhara Ranasinghe)
The group, unrelated to the document leak website founded by Julian Assange, said it plans to release documents exposing "corruption and fraud" at the largest U.S. bank by assets.
A representative of Anonymous said the documents relate to the issue of whether Bank of America has improperly foreclosed on homes. The representative added that he had not seen the documents, but he has been briefed on their contents.
A Bank of America Corp spokesman said the documents were non-foreclosure related clerical and administrative documents stolen by a former Balboa Insurance employee.
The division -- which BofA has since agreed to sell to Australian insurer QBE Insurance Group -- provides mortgage and auto insurance for banks, and provides home insurance for consumers.
"We are confident that his extravagant assertions are untrue," the spokesman said.
(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Gunna Dickson and Dhara Ranasinghe)
Cartel greets new Juarez police chief with threat
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – The new police chief in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez received a threat on just his second day on the job, an official said Saturday.
Two previous Ciudad Juarez police chiefs have quit their jobs since 2008 after criminals killed police officers and threatened to kill more unless they resigned. The city across the border from El Paso, Texas, is suffering a bloody turf war between drug cartels that has made it one of the most dangerous places in the world.
City police spokesman Adrian Sanchez said a sign threatening Public Security Director Julian Leyzaola Perez was left beside a man who was found on Friday tortured but alive and wrapped in a blanket.
The message said "this is your first gift" and was signed "the Sinaloa cartel."
Leyzaola was formerly the police chief in Tijuana, where he survived several plots and fought police corruption.
Leyzaola assumed the Ciudad Juarez post on Thursday.
Also Saturday, Mexico's attorney general's office said it had extradited Esteban Rodriguez Olivera to the United States, where he will face charges in New York and Washington, D.C. federal courts for trafficking cocaine and money-laundering.
Rodriguez, also known by nicknames including "Dangers" and "the Blond," is alleged to have run a drug-trafficking operation out of New York linked to Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. He is accused of moving about 100 tons of cocaine into the U.S. between 2004 and 2006.
Two previous Ciudad Juarez police chiefs have quit their jobs since 2008 after criminals killed police officers and threatened to kill more unless they resigned. The city across the border from El Paso, Texas, is suffering a bloody turf war between drug cartels that has made it one of the most dangerous places in the world.
City police spokesman Adrian Sanchez said a sign threatening Public Security Director Julian Leyzaola Perez was left beside a man who was found on Friday tortured but alive and wrapped in a blanket.
The message said "this is your first gift" and was signed "the Sinaloa cartel."
Leyzaola was formerly the police chief in Tijuana, where he survived several plots and fought police corruption.
Leyzaola assumed the Ciudad Juarez post on Thursday.
Also Saturday, Mexico's attorney general's office said it had extradited Esteban Rodriguez Olivera to the United States, where he will face charges in New York and Washington, D.C. federal courts for trafficking cocaine and money-laundering.
Rodriguez, also known by nicknames including "Dangers" and "the Blond," is alleged to have run a drug-trafficking operation out of New York linked to Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. He is accused of moving about 100 tons of cocaine into the U.S. between 2004 and 2006.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Scenes of devastation at heart of Japan disaster
SENDAI, Japan – She scanned the landscape of debris and destruction, looking at the patch of earth where Japan's massive tsunami erased her son's newly built house so thoroughly that she can't even be certain where it once stood.
Satako Yusawa teared up but pulled herself together quickly. Because for the 69-year-old widow, there was this to be thankful for: Her son and his family were out of town when Friday's offshore, 8.9-magnitude quake sparked huge surges of water that washed fleets of cars, boats and entire houses across coastal Sendai like detritus perched on lava.
But her son had borrowed a lot of money to build that house, and had moved in only last month.
"This," she said, "is life."
No one knows yet how many people died in the disaster. Police found 200 to 300 bodies on beaches near Sendai but were still assessing the devastation in the northeastern port of 1 million people, where regional Gov. Yoshihiro Murai was to visit on Sunday. Japan's overall death toll stood at 686, though the government said the eventual tally could far exceed 1,000 as search efforts step up in the coming days.
For those who survived, the bleakest of landscapes unfolded before them.
In Sendai, mud-spattered survivors wandered streets strewn with fallen trees and houses ripped from foundations, alongside smaller relics of destroyed lives — a desk chair, a beer cooler. Power and phone reception remained cut, as rescuers plied through murky waters around flooded structures. Smoke from at least one large fire billowed in the distance.
This is what it looks like when the earth shakes, the water comes and the fires burn: Life is interrupted, reduced for hours and days to basic survival. Conveniences, taken for granted in one of the world's most developed societies, become mere hopes for tomorrow.
[Related: The world’s deadliest tsunamis]
Yusawa said she was having tea at a friend's house when the main quake struck, shaking the ground massively for more than two horrifying minutes.
"We were desperately trying to hold the furniture up," she said, "but the shaking was so fierce that we just panicked."
Yoshio Miura, 65, was in his small trucking company office Friday afternoon when the rumbling started, sending him under a table and dislodging heavy metal cabinets.
"These cabinets fell down right on top of me, and luckily they were stopped by this table," he said, gesturing across an office in shambles, its contents strewn across the floor by the quake and then coated in a thick layer of grime from the tsunami.
"The shaking was mostly side to side, it was very strong. ... Look at what it did to this building!" He points to a large shed that was lifted off its foundation.
Then came the water — massive waves that swept some 6 miles (10 kilometers) inland.
"The flood came in from behind the store and swept around both sides," remembered convenience store owner Wakio Fushima. "Cars were flowing right by."
Wakio's store, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the shore, already was reopened for business, but there was no power and the floors were filthy with tsunami residue.
Many Sendai residents spent the first night outdoors, unable to return to homes damaged or destroyed in the disaster. Some fellow residents and business owners chipped in with help. At an electronics store, workers gave away batteries, flashlights and cell phone chargers. Several dozen people waited patiently outside.
[Related: Reactor leaks spark fears of another Chernobyl]
From a distance, the store appeared to have survived intact. But a closer look revealed several smashed windows and slightly buckled walls.
Inside was chaos. The ceiling of the second floor had collapsed, and large TVs, air conditioners and other products lay smashed and strewn about the aisles.
"Things were shaking so much we couldn't stand up," said Hiroyuki Kamada, who was working in the store when the initial quake hit.
The tsunami hit the city's dock area and then barreled down a long approach road, carrying giant metal shipping containers about a mile (2 kilometers) inland and smashing buildings along the way.
Hundreds of cars and trucks were strewn throughout the area — on top of buildings, wedged into stairwells, standing on their noses or leaning against each other.
Most ships in port managed to escape to sea before the tsunami hit, but a large Korean ship was swept onto the dock.
Cell phone saleswoman Naomi Ishizawa, 24, was working when the quake hit in the mid afternoon. She said it took until nightfall to reach her house just outside Sendai and check on her parents, who were both OK. Their home was still standing, but the walls of a bedroom and bathroom had collapsed and debris was strewn throughout.
And yet, she was lucky. The tsunami's inland march stopped just short of her residence; other houses in her neighborhood were totally destroyed.
Like many people throughout Japan's northeast, she had not heard from others in her family and was worried.
"My uncle and his family live in an area near the shore where there were a lot of deaths," Ishizawa said. "We can't reach them."
Satako Yusawa teared up but pulled herself together quickly. Because for the 69-year-old widow, there was this to be thankful for: Her son and his family were out of town when Friday's offshore, 8.9-magnitude quake sparked huge surges of water that washed fleets of cars, boats and entire houses across coastal Sendai like detritus perched on lava.
But her son had borrowed a lot of money to build that house, and had moved in only last month.
"This," she said, "is life."
No one knows yet how many people died in the disaster. Police found 200 to 300 bodies on beaches near Sendai but were still assessing the devastation in the northeastern port of 1 million people, where regional Gov. Yoshihiro Murai was to visit on Sunday. Japan's overall death toll stood at 686, though the government said the eventual tally could far exceed 1,000 as search efforts step up in the coming days.
For those who survived, the bleakest of landscapes unfolded before them.
In Sendai, mud-spattered survivors wandered streets strewn with fallen trees and houses ripped from foundations, alongside smaller relics of destroyed lives — a desk chair, a beer cooler. Power and phone reception remained cut, as rescuers plied through murky waters around flooded structures. Smoke from at least one large fire billowed in the distance.
This is what it looks like when the earth shakes, the water comes and the fires burn: Life is interrupted, reduced for hours and days to basic survival. Conveniences, taken for granted in one of the world's most developed societies, become mere hopes for tomorrow.
[Related: The world’s deadliest tsunamis]
Yusawa said she was having tea at a friend's house when the main quake struck, shaking the ground massively for more than two horrifying minutes.
"We were desperately trying to hold the furniture up," she said, "but the shaking was so fierce that we just panicked."
Yoshio Miura, 65, was in his small trucking company office Friday afternoon when the rumbling started, sending him under a table and dislodging heavy metal cabinets.
"These cabinets fell down right on top of me, and luckily they were stopped by this table," he said, gesturing across an office in shambles, its contents strewn across the floor by the quake and then coated in a thick layer of grime from the tsunami.
"The shaking was mostly side to side, it was very strong. ... Look at what it did to this building!" He points to a large shed that was lifted off its foundation.
Then came the water — massive waves that swept some 6 miles (10 kilometers) inland.
"The flood came in from behind the store and swept around both sides," remembered convenience store owner Wakio Fushima. "Cars were flowing right by."
Wakio's store, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the shore, already was reopened for business, but there was no power and the floors were filthy with tsunami residue.
Many Sendai residents spent the first night outdoors, unable to return to homes damaged or destroyed in the disaster. Some fellow residents and business owners chipped in with help. At an electronics store, workers gave away batteries, flashlights and cell phone chargers. Several dozen people waited patiently outside.
[Related: Reactor leaks spark fears of another Chernobyl]
From a distance, the store appeared to have survived intact. But a closer look revealed several smashed windows and slightly buckled walls.
Inside was chaos. The ceiling of the second floor had collapsed, and large TVs, air conditioners and other products lay smashed and strewn about the aisles.
"Things were shaking so much we couldn't stand up," said Hiroyuki Kamada, who was working in the store when the initial quake hit.
The tsunami hit the city's dock area and then barreled down a long approach road, carrying giant metal shipping containers about a mile (2 kilometers) inland and smashing buildings along the way.
Hundreds of cars and trucks were strewn throughout the area — on top of buildings, wedged into stairwells, standing on their noses or leaning against each other.
Most ships in port managed to escape to sea before the tsunami hit, but a large Korean ship was swept onto the dock.
Cell phone saleswoman Naomi Ishizawa, 24, was working when the quake hit in the mid afternoon. She said it took until nightfall to reach her house just outside Sendai and check on her parents, who were both OK. Their home was still standing, but the walls of a bedroom and bathroom had collapsed and debris was strewn throughout.
And yet, she was lucky. The tsunami's inland march stopped just short of her residence; other houses in her neighborhood were totally destroyed.
Like many people throughout Japan's northeast, she had not heard from others in her family and was worried.
"My uncle and his family live in an area near the shore where there were a lot of deaths," Ishizawa said. "We can't reach them."
Kia recalls 70,000 Optimas for transmission defect
DETROIT – Kia Motors is recalling more than 70,000 Optima midsize sedans to fix transmission problems that can cause the cars to roll even while they're in park.
The cars are from the 2006 through 2008 model years and were built from Sept. 29, 2005 to June 13, 2007.
In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Kia said that on some of the cars, a transmission shifter cable was installed incorrectly and can become detached from the shifter. If the cable comes off, the car would stay in the last gear used even if the driver puts the transmission in park, the documents said.
"If the driver leaves the vehicle without engaging the parking brake, there is a possibility that the vehicle can roll, creating the risk of a crash," Kia said.
No injuries have been reported from the problem, but Kia has concluded that under "extraordinary circumstances" the cars could roll inadvertently.
Kia plans to start the recall this month and will notify owners by mail. Drivers will be told to always use the parking brake when shifting the transmission into park "especially until they can take their vehicle to the dealer," the documents said.
Dealers will inspect the cable and reinstall it if necessary, free of charge.
Owners who have questions can call Kia at (800) 333-4542.
The cars are from the 2006 through 2008 model years and were built from Sept. 29, 2005 to June 13, 2007.
In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Kia said that on some of the cars, a transmission shifter cable was installed incorrectly and can become detached from the shifter. If the cable comes off, the car would stay in the last gear used even if the driver puts the transmission in park, the documents said.
"If the driver leaves the vehicle without engaging the parking brake, there is a possibility that the vehicle can roll, creating the risk of a crash," Kia said.
No injuries have been reported from the problem, but Kia has concluded that under "extraordinary circumstances" the cars could roll inadvertently.
Kia plans to start the recall this month and will notify owners by mail. Drivers will be told to always use the parking brake when shifting the transmission into park "especially until they can take their vehicle to the dealer," the documents said.
Dealers will inspect the cable and reinstall it if necessary, free of charge.
Owners who have questions can call Kia at (800) 333-4542.
Explosion at Japan nuke plant, disaster toll rises
IWAKI, Japan – An explosion at a nuclear power station Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor amid fears that it was close to a disastrous meltdown after being hit by a powerful earthquake and tsunami.
Friday's double disaster, which pulverized Japan's northeastern coast, has left 574 people dead by official count, although local media reports said at least 1,300 people may have been killed.
Tokyo Power Electric Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, said four workers had suffered fractures and bruises and were being treated at a hospital. A nuclear expert said a meltdown may not pose widespread danger.
Footage on Japanese TV showed that the walls of the reactor's building had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame standing. Puffs of smoke were spewing out of the plant in Fukushima, 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Iwaki.
"We are now trying to analyze what is behind the explosion," said government spokesman Yukio Edano, stressing that people should quickly evacuate a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius. "We ask everyone to take action to secure safety."
The trouble began at the plant's Unit 1 after the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it spawned knocked out power there. According to official figures, 586 people are missing and 1,105 injured. In addition, police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake's epicenter.
The true scale of the destruction was still not known more than 24 hours after the quake since washed-out roads and shut airports have hindered access to the area. An untold number of bodies were believed to be buried in the rubble and debris.
In another disturbing development that could substantially raise the death toll, Kyodo news agency said rail operators lost contact with four trains running on coastal lines on Friday and still had not found them by Saturday afternoon.
East Japan Railway Co. said it did not know how many people were aboard the trains.
Adding to worries was the fate of nuclear power plants. Japan has declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability.
The most troubled one, Fukushima Dai-ichi, is facing meltdown, officials have said.
A "meltdown" is not a technical term. Rather, it is an informal way of referring to a very serious collapse of a power plant's systems and its ability to manage temperatures. It is not immediately clear if a meltdown would cause serious radiation risk, and if it did how far the risk would extend.
Yaroslov Shtrombakh, a Russian nuclear expert, said a Chernobyl-style meltdown was unlikely.
"It's not a fast reaction like at Chernobyl," he said. "I think that everything will be contained within the grounds, and there will be no big catastrophe."
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe.
Pressure has been building up in Fukushima reactor — it's now twice the normal level — and Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters Saturday that the plant was venting "radioactive vapors." Officials said they were measuring radiation levels in the area. Wind in the region is weak and headed northeast, out to sea, according to the Meteorological Agency.
The reactor in trouble has already leaked some radiation: Operators have detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.
Ryohei Shiomi, a nuclear official, said that each hour the plant was releasing the amount of radiation a person normal absorbs in a year.
He has said that even if there were a meltdown, it wouldn't affect people outside a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius — an assertion that might need revising if the situation deteriorates. Most of the 51,000 residents living within the danger area had been evacuated, he said.
Meanwhile, the first wave of military rescuers began arriving by boats and helicopters.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said 50,000 troops would join rescue and recovery efforts following the quake that unleashed one of the greatest disasters Japan has witnessed — a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami that washed far inland over fields, smashing towns, airports and highways in its way.
"Most of houses along the coastline were washed away, and fire broke out there," said Kan after inspecting the quake area in a helicopter. "I realized the extremely serious damage the tsunami caused."
More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures, or states, the national police agency said. Since the quake, more than 1 million households have not had water, mostly concentrated in northeast.
The transport ministry said all highways from Tokyo leading to quake-hit areas were closed, except for emergency vehicles. Mobile communications were spotty and calls to the devastated areas were going unanswered .
Local TV stations broadcast footage of people lining up for water and food such as rice balls. In Fukushima, city officials were handing out bottled drinks, snacks and blankets. But there were large areas that were surrounded by water and were unreachable.
One hospital in Miyagi prefecture was seen surrounded by water. The staff had painted an SOS on its rooftop and were waving white flags.
Kan said a total of 190 military aircraft and 25 ships have been sent to the area, which continued to be jolted by tremors, even 24 hours later.
More than 125 aftershocks have occurred, many of them above magnitude 6.0, which alone would be considered strong.
Technologically advanced Japan is well prepared for quakes and its buildings can withstand strong jolts, even a temblor like Friday's, which was the strongest the country has experienced since official records started in the late 1800s. What was beyond human control was the killer tsunami that followed.
It swept inland about six miles (10 kilometers) in some areas, swallowing boats, homes, cars, trees and everything else.
"The tsunami was unbelievably fast," said Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old truck driver who was inside his sturdy four-ton rig when the wave hit the port town of Sendai.
"Smaller cars were being swept around me," he said. All I could do was sit in my truck."
His rig ruined, he joined the steady flow of survivors who walked along the road away from the sea and back into the city on Saturday. Smoke from at least one large fire could be seen in the distance.
Smashed cars and small airplanes were jumbled up against buildings near the local airport, several miles (kilometers) from the shore. Felled trees and wooden debris lay everywhere as rescue workers coasted on boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of debris.
Basic commodities were at a premium. Hundreds lined up outside of supermarkets, and gas stations were swamped with cars. The situation was similar in scores of other towns and cities along the 1,300-mile-long (2,100-kilometer-long) eastern coastline hit by the tsunami.
In Sendai, as in many areas of the northeast, cell phone service was down, making it difficult for people to communicate with loved ones.
President Barack Obama pledged U.S. assistance following what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster. He said one U.S. aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way. A U.S. ship was also heading to the Marianas Islands to assist as needed, he said.
Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in Kanto that killed 143,000 people in 1923, according to the USGS. A magnitude 7.2 quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.
Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries. A magnitude-8.8 quake that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.
___
Kageyama reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers Malcolm J. Foster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo and Jay Alabaster in Sendai also contributed.
Friday's double disaster, which pulverized Japan's northeastern coast, has left 574 people dead by official count, although local media reports said at least 1,300 people may have been killed.
Tokyo Power Electric Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, said four workers had suffered fractures and bruises and were being treated at a hospital. A nuclear expert said a meltdown may not pose widespread danger.
Footage on Japanese TV showed that the walls of the reactor's building had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame standing. Puffs of smoke were spewing out of the plant in Fukushima, 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Iwaki.
"We are now trying to analyze what is behind the explosion," said government spokesman Yukio Edano, stressing that people should quickly evacuate a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius. "We ask everyone to take action to secure safety."
The trouble began at the plant's Unit 1 after the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it spawned knocked out power there. According to official figures, 586 people are missing and 1,105 injured. In addition, police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake's epicenter.
The true scale of the destruction was still not known more than 24 hours after the quake since washed-out roads and shut airports have hindered access to the area. An untold number of bodies were believed to be buried in the rubble and debris.
In another disturbing development that could substantially raise the death toll, Kyodo news agency said rail operators lost contact with four trains running on coastal lines on Friday and still had not found them by Saturday afternoon.
East Japan Railway Co. said it did not know how many people were aboard the trains.
Adding to worries was the fate of nuclear power plants. Japan has declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability.
The most troubled one, Fukushima Dai-ichi, is facing meltdown, officials have said.
A "meltdown" is not a technical term. Rather, it is an informal way of referring to a very serious collapse of a power plant's systems and its ability to manage temperatures. It is not immediately clear if a meltdown would cause serious radiation risk, and if it did how far the risk would extend.
Yaroslov Shtrombakh, a Russian nuclear expert, said a Chernobyl-style meltdown was unlikely.
"It's not a fast reaction like at Chernobyl," he said. "I think that everything will be contained within the grounds, and there will be no big catastrophe."
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded and caught fire, sending a cloud of radiation over much of Europe.
Pressure has been building up in Fukushima reactor — it's now twice the normal level — and Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told reporters Saturday that the plant was venting "radioactive vapors." Officials said they were measuring radiation levels in the area. Wind in the region is weak and headed northeast, out to sea, according to the Meteorological Agency.
The reactor in trouble has already leaked some radiation: Operators have detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1's control room.
Ryohei Shiomi, a nuclear official, said that each hour the plant was releasing the amount of radiation a person normal absorbs in a year.
He has said that even if there were a meltdown, it wouldn't affect people outside a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius — an assertion that might need revising if the situation deteriorates. Most of the 51,000 residents living within the danger area had been evacuated, he said.
Meanwhile, the first wave of military rescuers began arriving by boats and helicopters.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said 50,000 troops would join rescue and recovery efforts following the quake that unleashed one of the greatest disasters Japan has witnessed — a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami that washed far inland over fields, smashing towns, airports and highways in its way.
"Most of houses along the coastline were washed away, and fire broke out there," said Kan after inspecting the quake area in a helicopter. "I realized the extremely serious damage the tsunami caused."
More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures, or states, the national police agency said. Since the quake, more than 1 million households have not had water, mostly concentrated in northeast.
The transport ministry said all highways from Tokyo leading to quake-hit areas were closed, except for emergency vehicles. Mobile communications were spotty and calls to the devastated areas were going unanswered .
Local TV stations broadcast footage of people lining up for water and food such as rice balls. In Fukushima, city officials were handing out bottled drinks, snacks and blankets. But there were large areas that were surrounded by water and were unreachable.
One hospital in Miyagi prefecture was seen surrounded by water. The staff had painted an SOS on its rooftop and were waving white flags.
Kan said a total of 190 military aircraft and 25 ships have been sent to the area, which continued to be jolted by tremors, even 24 hours later.
More than 125 aftershocks have occurred, many of them above magnitude 6.0, which alone would be considered strong.
Technologically advanced Japan is well prepared for quakes and its buildings can withstand strong jolts, even a temblor like Friday's, which was the strongest the country has experienced since official records started in the late 1800s. What was beyond human control was the killer tsunami that followed.
It swept inland about six miles (10 kilometers) in some areas, swallowing boats, homes, cars, trees and everything else.
"The tsunami was unbelievably fast," said Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old truck driver who was inside his sturdy four-ton rig when the wave hit the port town of Sendai.
"Smaller cars were being swept around me," he said. All I could do was sit in my truck."
His rig ruined, he joined the steady flow of survivors who walked along the road away from the sea and back into the city on Saturday. Smoke from at least one large fire could be seen in the distance.
Smashed cars and small airplanes were jumbled up against buildings near the local airport, several miles (kilometers) from the shore. Felled trees and wooden debris lay everywhere as rescue workers coasted on boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of debris.
Basic commodities were at a premium. Hundreds lined up outside of supermarkets, and gas stations were swamped with cars. The situation was similar in scores of other towns and cities along the 1,300-mile-long (2,100-kilometer-long) eastern coastline hit by the tsunami.
In Sendai, as in many areas of the northeast, cell phone service was down, making it difficult for people to communicate with loved ones.
President Barack Obama pledged U.S. assistance following what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster. He said one U.S. aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way. A U.S. ship was also heading to the Marianas Islands to assist as needed, he said.
Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in Kanto that killed 143,000 people in 1923, according to the USGS. A magnitude 7.2 quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.
Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries. A magnitude-8.8 quake that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.
___
Kageyama reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers Malcolm J. Foster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo and Jay Alabaster in Sendai also contributed.
Friday, March 11, 2011
U.S. border town mayor arrested on gun running charges
EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) The mayor and police chief of a small town on the U.S.-Mexico border were among 11 suspects indicted for allegedly trafficking around 200 guns to Mexico, authorities said on Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney's office in New Mexico said the mayor of Columbus, Eddie Espinoza, the town's police chief Angelo Vega, and village trustee Blas Gutierrez were among those arrested on an 84-count indictment.
"Gutierrez, Espinoza and Vega were duty sworn to protect and safeguard the people of Columbus," U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said in a statement.
"Instead, they increased the risk of harm that the people of Columbus face ... by allegedly using their ... positions to facilitate and safeguard the operations of a smuggling ring that was exporting firearms to Mexico," he added.
Columbus is a small town just north of the border from Palomas, in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua, where more than 4,400 people were killed by drug cartels last year.
The bust followed a year-long investigation led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, together with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Drug Enforcement Administration agencies.
The indictment alleges that between January 2010 and March 2011, the defendants conspired to buy around 200 firearms for illegal export to Mexico.
Among the weapons allegedly bought by the ring from a gun store in Chaparral, New Mexico, were a cut-down version of the Kalashnikov assault rifle -- the weapon of choice for Mexican drug cartel hit men -- as well as high-capacity magazines and pistols.
Charges brought included conspiracy to smuggle firearms to Mexico, and making false statements while acquiring firearms, which carry a five-year jail term and a fine of $250,000 on conviction.
The United States is presently under pressure to curb the illicit flow of guns to Mexico, where more than 34,000 people have died in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and sent the army to break the powerful cartels.
The operation comes days after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered an investigation into a controversial ATF operation that allowed guns bought in the United States to slip into Mexico, in the hope of nabbing major drug kingpins.
The U.S. Attorney's office said every effort had been made to seize firearms from defendants nabbed in Columbus to prevent them from entering Mexico. It added that no guns were knowingly allowed to cross the border.
(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Jerry Norton)
The U.S. Attorney's office in New Mexico said the mayor of Columbus, Eddie Espinoza, the town's police chief Angelo Vega, and village trustee Blas Gutierrez were among those arrested on an 84-count indictment.
"Gutierrez, Espinoza and Vega were duty sworn to protect and safeguard the people of Columbus," U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said in a statement.
"Instead, they increased the risk of harm that the people of Columbus face ... by allegedly using their ... positions to facilitate and safeguard the operations of a smuggling ring that was exporting firearms to Mexico," he added.
Columbus is a small town just north of the border from Palomas, in Mexico's northern state of Chihuahua, where more than 4,400 people were killed by drug cartels last year.
The bust followed a year-long investigation led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, together with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Drug Enforcement Administration agencies.
The indictment alleges that between January 2010 and March 2011, the defendants conspired to buy around 200 firearms for illegal export to Mexico.
Among the weapons allegedly bought by the ring from a gun store in Chaparral, New Mexico, were a cut-down version of the Kalashnikov assault rifle -- the weapon of choice for Mexican drug cartel hit men -- as well as high-capacity magazines and pistols.
Charges brought included conspiracy to smuggle firearms to Mexico, and making false statements while acquiring firearms, which carry a five-year jail term and a fine of $250,000 on conviction.
The United States is presently under pressure to curb the illicit flow of guns to Mexico, where more than 34,000 people have died in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and sent the army to break the powerful cartels.
The operation comes days after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered an investigation into a controversial ATF operation that allowed guns bought in the United States to slip into Mexico, in the hope of nabbing major drug kingpins.
The U.S. Attorney's office said every effort had been made to seize firearms from defendants nabbed in Columbus to prevent them from entering Mexico. It added that no guns were knowingly allowed to cross the border.
(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Jerry Norton)
'Survivor' star Hatch gets 9 months on violation
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Reality TV star Richard Hatch was ordered back to prison Friday to serve a nine-month sentence for failing to pay taxes on the $1 million he won on the first season of the hit CBS show "Survivor."
Hatch, who is currently appearing on NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," spent more than three years in prison for tax evasion before being released in 2009, and has been serving a three-year term of supervised release. During that period, he was supposed to refile his 2000 and 2001 taxes and pay what he owed, but he never did.
U.S. District Court Judge William Smith on Friday said Hatch, who has strenuously maintained his innocence, had exhibited no remorse and had made no effort to comply with an order that he straighten out and pay his taxes. He imposed a sentence three months longer than what was recommended by prosecutors: six months — the maximum in the federal sentencing guidelines.
He said the term of supervised release, which is supposed to be a time of rehabilitation, did not appear to be doing any good in Hatch's case. He said a substantial sentence was required to send a message to Hatch and others who flout the court's orders.
"You can continue to proclaim your innocence," Smith said. "You don't have the option of engaging in this type of game or negotiation with the court. It needs to be a severe punishment. That's the only thing that will deter you in the future."
He also ordered Hatch serve 26 months supervised release, during which time 25 percent of Hatch's gross income would be garnished and paid to the Internal Revenue Service. Prosecutor Andrew Reich said Friday that Hatch now owes an estimated $2 million to the IRS on the Survivor winnings and other income, including penalties.
Hatch, who lives in Newport, R.I., was ordered to report for his prison term on Monday.
He said outside court that he was disappointed and planned to appeal.
During the hearing, Hatch told Smith that he had fully cooperated with the terms of his release, and that his taxes were extremely complicated and he was working with an accountant to determine from the IRS what he owed. His lawyer said he had only made $26,000 to $27,000 in income since being released from prison, and said he had sought jobs in marketing, on a fishing boat and was currently trying to leverage his charity appearance on "Celebrity Apprentice" into paying jobs in the entertainment industry.
Hatch also told the judge he recently discovered he had a second son and was trying to build a relationship with him. He asked Smith because of that and the job opportunities that could come out of his "Celebrity Apprentice" appearance not to send him back to prison.
NBC said 11 of 12 episodes of "Celebrity Apprentice," which features 16 celebrities competing for charities, have already been taped. It premiered March 6. The finale, which ordinarily features the last two contenders and a winner chosen, is scheduled to air live on May 22.
NBC spokesman Sean Martin said Hatch's legal problems would have no effect on the show.
"The finale will move forward regardless," he said.
Asked outside court whether he was prepared to go back to prison, Hatch didn't answer.
Hatch, who is currently appearing on NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," spent more than three years in prison for tax evasion before being released in 2009, and has been serving a three-year term of supervised release. During that period, he was supposed to refile his 2000 and 2001 taxes and pay what he owed, but he never did.
U.S. District Court Judge William Smith on Friday said Hatch, who has strenuously maintained his innocence, had exhibited no remorse and had made no effort to comply with an order that he straighten out and pay his taxes. He imposed a sentence three months longer than what was recommended by prosecutors: six months — the maximum in the federal sentencing guidelines.
He said the term of supervised release, which is supposed to be a time of rehabilitation, did not appear to be doing any good in Hatch's case. He said a substantial sentence was required to send a message to Hatch and others who flout the court's orders.
"You can continue to proclaim your innocence," Smith said. "You don't have the option of engaging in this type of game or negotiation with the court. It needs to be a severe punishment. That's the only thing that will deter you in the future."
He also ordered Hatch serve 26 months supervised release, during which time 25 percent of Hatch's gross income would be garnished and paid to the Internal Revenue Service. Prosecutor Andrew Reich said Friday that Hatch now owes an estimated $2 million to the IRS on the Survivor winnings and other income, including penalties.
Hatch, who lives in Newport, R.I., was ordered to report for his prison term on Monday.
He said outside court that he was disappointed and planned to appeal.
During the hearing, Hatch told Smith that he had fully cooperated with the terms of his release, and that his taxes were extremely complicated and he was working with an accountant to determine from the IRS what he owed. His lawyer said he had only made $26,000 to $27,000 in income since being released from prison, and said he had sought jobs in marketing, on a fishing boat and was currently trying to leverage his charity appearance on "Celebrity Apprentice" into paying jobs in the entertainment industry.
Hatch also told the judge he recently discovered he had a second son and was trying to build a relationship with him. He asked Smith because of that and the job opportunities that could come out of his "Celebrity Apprentice" appearance not to send him back to prison.
NBC said 11 of 12 episodes of "Celebrity Apprentice," which features 16 celebrities competing for charities, have already been taped. It premiered March 6. The finale, which ordinarily features the last two contenders and a winner chosen, is scheduled to air live on May 22.
NBC spokesman Sean Martin said Hatch's legal problems would have no effect on the show.
"The finale will move forward regardless," he said.
Asked outside court whether he was prepared to go back to prison, Hatch didn't answer.
Calif., Ore. sustained most damage from tsunami
CRESCENT CITY, Calif. – The warnings traveled quickly across the Pacific in the middle of the night: An 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan spawned a deadly tsunami, and it was racing east Friday as fast as a jetliner.
Sirens blared in Hawaii. The West Coast pulled back from the shoreline, fearing the worst. People were warned to stay away from the beaches. Fishermen took their boats out to sea and safety.
The alerts moved faster than the waves, giving millions of people across the Pacific Rim hours to prepare.
In the end, the damage was mainly to harbors and marinas in California and Oregon. Boats crashed into each other, some vessels were pulled out to sea and docks were ripped out. Rescue crews searched for a man who was swept out to sea while taking pictures.
None of the damage — in the U.S., South America or Canada — was anything like the devastation in Japan.
The warnings — the second major one for the region in a year — and the response showed how far the earthquake-prone Pacific Rim had come since a deadly tsunami caught much of Asia by surprise in 2004.
"That was a different era," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. "We got the warning out very quickly. It would not have been possible to do it that fast in 2004."
Within 10 minutes after Japan was shaken by its biggest earthquake in recorded history, the center had issued its warning. The offshore quake pushed water onto land, sometimes miles inland, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people.
As the tsunami raced across the Pacific at 500 mph, the first sirens began sounding across Hawaii late Thursday night.
Police went through the tourist mecca of Waikiki, warning of an approaching tsunami. Hotels moved tourists from lower floors to upper levels. Some tourists ended up spending the night in their cars.
Across the islands, people stocked up on bottled water, canned foods and toilet paper. Authorities opened buildings to people fleeing low-lying areas. Fishermen took their boats out to sea, away from harbors and marinas where the waves would be most intense.
Residents did the same last February, when an 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile prompted tsunami warnings. The waves did little damage then, either.
Early Friday, the tsunami waves reached Hawaii, tossing boats in Honolulu. The water covered beachfront roads and rushed into hotels on the Big Island. Low-lying areas in Maui were flooded as 7-foot waves crashed ashore.
As the sun rose, people breathed a sigh of relief.
"With everything that could have happened and did happen in Japan, we're just thankful that nothing else happened," said Sabrina Skiles, who along with her husband spent a sleepless night at his office in Maui. Their beachfront house was unscathed.
Many other Pacific islands also evacuated their shorelines for a time. In Guam, the waves broke two U.S. Navy submarines from their moorings, but tug boats brought them back to their pier.
In Oregon, the first swells to hit the U.S. mainland were barely noticeable.
Sirens pierced the air in Seaside, a popular tourist town near the Washington state line. Restaurants, gift shops and other beachfront businesses stayed shuttered. Some residents moved to the hills nearby, gathering behind a house.
Albert Wood said he and his wife decided to leave their home late Thursday night after watching news about the Japan quake — the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900.
Wood was expecting the waves to get bigger and more intense than what he saw. Still, he shook his head as the cars lining the hills began to drive west, into the lowlands adjacent to the shore.
"Just if you ask me, they're being too bold," Wood said. "It's still early. They're just not being cautious."
Erik Bergman was back at the shore by 9:30 in the morning. Roughly 100 feet away was a man playing with his dog. Two small children chased seagulls.
"People aren't too nervous," Bergman said.
President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to come to the aid of any U.S. state or territory that needed help. Coast Guard cutters and aircraft were readied to respond as soon as conditions allowed.
In Crescent City, Calif., just south of the Oregon border, the Coast Guard searched for a man who was swept out to sea. He was taking photos near the mouth of the Klamath River. Two friends with him were able to get back to land.
Sheriff's deputies went door to door at dawn to urge residents to seek higher ground.
By midmorning, water rushing into the harbor had destroyed about 35 boats and ripped chunks off the wooden docks, as marina workers and fishermen scrambled between surges to secure property. Officials estimated millions of dollars in damage.
When the water returned, someone would yell "Here comes another one!" to clear the area.
Ted Scott, a retired mill worker who lived in the city when a 1964 tsunami killed 17 people on the West Coast, including 11 in Crescent City, watched the water pour into the harbor.
"This is just devastating. I never thought I'd see this again," he said. "I watched the docks bust apart. It buckled like a graham cracker."
The waves, however, had not made it over a 20-foot break wall protecting the rest of the city. No serious injuries were immediately reported.
On the central coast in Santa Cruz, loose fishing boats crashed into one another and docks broke away from the shore. The water rushed out as quickly as it poured in, leaving the boats tipped over in mud.
Some surfers ignored evacuation warnings and took advantage of the waves ahead of the tsunami.
"The tides are right, the swell is good, the weather is good, the tsunami is there," said William Hill, an off-duty California trooper. "We're going out."
Scientists warned that the first tsunami waves are not always the strongest. The threat can last for several hours and people should watch out for strong currents.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Ken Hudnut said residents along the coast should heed any calls for evacuation.
"Do the right thing," Hudnut said. "Be safe."
___
Associated Press writers contributing to this report include Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Denise Petski and Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles, Garance Burke in San Francisco, Kathy McCarthy in Seattle, Nigel Duara in Seaside, Ore., Jeff Barnard in Crescent City, Calif., Rob Gillies in Toronto, Alicia Chang in Pasadena, Calif., Terry Tang, Michelle Price and Carson Walker in Phoenix. Mark Niesse contributed from Ewa Beach, Hawaii. Song reported from Honolulu.
Sirens blared in Hawaii. The West Coast pulled back from the shoreline, fearing the worst. People were warned to stay away from the beaches. Fishermen took their boats out to sea and safety.
The alerts moved faster than the waves, giving millions of people across the Pacific Rim hours to prepare.
In the end, the damage was mainly to harbors and marinas in California and Oregon. Boats crashed into each other, some vessels were pulled out to sea and docks were ripped out. Rescue crews searched for a man who was swept out to sea while taking pictures.
None of the damage — in the U.S., South America or Canada — was anything like the devastation in Japan.
The warnings — the second major one for the region in a year — and the response showed how far the earthquake-prone Pacific Rim had come since a deadly tsunami caught much of Asia by surprise in 2004.
"That was a different era," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. "We got the warning out very quickly. It would not have been possible to do it that fast in 2004."
Within 10 minutes after Japan was shaken by its biggest earthquake in recorded history, the center had issued its warning. The offshore quake pushed water onto land, sometimes miles inland, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people.
As the tsunami raced across the Pacific at 500 mph, the first sirens began sounding across Hawaii late Thursday night.
Police went through the tourist mecca of Waikiki, warning of an approaching tsunami. Hotels moved tourists from lower floors to upper levels. Some tourists ended up spending the night in their cars.
Across the islands, people stocked up on bottled water, canned foods and toilet paper. Authorities opened buildings to people fleeing low-lying areas. Fishermen took their boats out to sea, away from harbors and marinas where the waves would be most intense.
Residents did the same last February, when an 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile prompted tsunami warnings. The waves did little damage then, either.
Early Friday, the tsunami waves reached Hawaii, tossing boats in Honolulu. The water covered beachfront roads and rushed into hotels on the Big Island. Low-lying areas in Maui were flooded as 7-foot waves crashed ashore.
As the sun rose, people breathed a sigh of relief.
"With everything that could have happened and did happen in Japan, we're just thankful that nothing else happened," said Sabrina Skiles, who along with her husband spent a sleepless night at his office in Maui. Their beachfront house was unscathed.
Many other Pacific islands also evacuated their shorelines for a time. In Guam, the waves broke two U.S. Navy submarines from their moorings, but tug boats brought them back to their pier.
In Oregon, the first swells to hit the U.S. mainland were barely noticeable.
Sirens pierced the air in Seaside, a popular tourist town near the Washington state line. Restaurants, gift shops and other beachfront businesses stayed shuttered. Some residents moved to the hills nearby, gathering behind a house.
Albert Wood said he and his wife decided to leave their home late Thursday night after watching news about the Japan quake — the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900.
Wood was expecting the waves to get bigger and more intense than what he saw. Still, he shook his head as the cars lining the hills began to drive west, into the lowlands adjacent to the shore.
"Just if you ask me, they're being too bold," Wood said. "It's still early. They're just not being cautious."
Erik Bergman was back at the shore by 9:30 in the morning. Roughly 100 feet away was a man playing with his dog. Two small children chased seagulls.
"People aren't too nervous," Bergman said.
President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to come to the aid of any U.S. state or territory that needed help. Coast Guard cutters and aircraft were readied to respond as soon as conditions allowed.
In Crescent City, Calif., just south of the Oregon border, the Coast Guard searched for a man who was swept out to sea. He was taking photos near the mouth of the Klamath River. Two friends with him were able to get back to land.
Sheriff's deputies went door to door at dawn to urge residents to seek higher ground.
By midmorning, water rushing into the harbor had destroyed about 35 boats and ripped chunks off the wooden docks, as marina workers and fishermen scrambled between surges to secure property. Officials estimated millions of dollars in damage.
When the water returned, someone would yell "Here comes another one!" to clear the area.
Ted Scott, a retired mill worker who lived in the city when a 1964 tsunami killed 17 people on the West Coast, including 11 in Crescent City, watched the water pour into the harbor.
"This is just devastating. I never thought I'd see this again," he said. "I watched the docks bust apart. It buckled like a graham cracker."
The waves, however, had not made it over a 20-foot break wall protecting the rest of the city. No serious injuries were immediately reported.
On the central coast in Santa Cruz, loose fishing boats crashed into one another and docks broke away from the shore. The water rushed out as quickly as it poured in, leaving the boats tipped over in mud.
Some surfers ignored evacuation warnings and took advantage of the waves ahead of the tsunami.
"The tides are right, the swell is good, the weather is good, the tsunami is there," said William Hill, an off-duty California trooper. "We're going out."
Scientists warned that the first tsunami waves are not always the strongest. The threat can last for several hours and people should watch out for strong currents.
U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Ken Hudnut said residents along the coast should heed any calls for evacuation.
"Do the right thing," Hudnut said. "Be safe."
___
Associated Press writers contributing to this report include Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Denise Petski and Daisy Nguyen in Los Angeles, Garance Burke in San Francisco, Kathy McCarthy in Seattle, Nigel Duara in Seaside, Ore., Jeff Barnard in Crescent City, Calif., Rob Gillies in Toronto, Alicia Chang in Pasadena, Calif., Terry Tang, Michelle Price and Carson Walker in Phoenix. Mark Niesse contributed from Ewa Beach, Hawaii. Song reported from Honolulu.
99-Cents Only gets family-led offer to go private
CITY OF COMMERCE, Calif. – Discount store operator 99 Cents Only Stores has received a proposal to take the company private from the company's founding family and investment firm Leonard Green & Partners LP for $19.09 per share.
The offer would value the company at about $1.3 billion.
But Wedbush analyst Joan Storms said in a client note that she believes the offer somewhat undervalues the company. She thinks there is the potential for a sweetened bid in an effort to ward off any possible competing offers.
Storms maintained a "Neutral" rating and raised 99 Cents Only's price target to $20 from $16.
The chain's stock surged $2.95, or 17.7 percent, to $19.63 in afternoon trading. The shares hit a fresh 52-week high of $19.97 earlier in the session.
99 Cents Only said Friday that the would-be acquirers include the Schiffer-Gold family, which owns about 33 percent of its outstanding stock.
David Gold co-founded 99 Cents Only with his wife, Sherry, and serves as its chairman. His son-in-law Eric Schiffer is CEO and his son Jeff Gold serves as president and chief operating officer. Another son, Howard Gold, has served as executive vice president of special projects since 2005, according to a regulatory filing.
Schiffer, David and Jeff Gold are board members. The board also includes Peter Woo, Eric Flamholtz, Marvin Holen and Lawrence Glascott.
In a letter sent to the company, the Schiffer-Gold family indicated that it is ready to contribute a "substantial portion" of its existing stock ownership as part of the proposed acquisition. The letter also says the family has not made any commitment of exclusivity with Leonard Green related to the proposal.
99 Cents Only said its board has yet to evaluate the proposal and that there is no guarantee a definitive offer will be made.
The Commerce, Calif., company said it expects to create a special committee comprised of independent board members to assess the bid.
Leonard Green has set its sights on retail buyouts recently. It was part of the $3 billion J. Crew Group Inc. buyout, along with TPG Capital, that closed on Monday. J. Crew and its CEO Mickey Drexler have a history with TPG, which took a majority stake in J. Crew in 1997 and remained majority shareholder until the preppy apparel retailer went public in 2006.
Leonard Green, which is based in Los Angeles, has also offered $1.6 billion for fabric and craft store chain Jo-Ann Stores Inc. and has reportedly expressed interest in buying warehouse club operator BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.
99 Cents Only currently runs 283 stores, with 210 stores in California, 34 in Texas, 27 in Arizona, and 12 in Nevada.
The offer would value the company at about $1.3 billion.
But Wedbush analyst Joan Storms said in a client note that she believes the offer somewhat undervalues the company. She thinks there is the potential for a sweetened bid in an effort to ward off any possible competing offers.
Storms maintained a "Neutral" rating and raised 99 Cents Only's price target to $20 from $16.
The chain's stock surged $2.95, or 17.7 percent, to $19.63 in afternoon trading. The shares hit a fresh 52-week high of $19.97 earlier in the session.
99 Cents Only said Friday that the would-be acquirers include the Schiffer-Gold family, which owns about 33 percent of its outstanding stock.
David Gold co-founded 99 Cents Only with his wife, Sherry, and serves as its chairman. His son-in-law Eric Schiffer is CEO and his son Jeff Gold serves as president and chief operating officer. Another son, Howard Gold, has served as executive vice president of special projects since 2005, according to a regulatory filing.
Schiffer, David and Jeff Gold are board members. The board also includes Peter Woo, Eric Flamholtz, Marvin Holen and Lawrence Glascott.
In a letter sent to the company, the Schiffer-Gold family indicated that it is ready to contribute a "substantial portion" of its existing stock ownership as part of the proposed acquisition. The letter also says the family has not made any commitment of exclusivity with Leonard Green related to the proposal.
99 Cents Only said its board has yet to evaluate the proposal and that there is no guarantee a definitive offer will be made.
The Commerce, Calif., company said it expects to create a special committee comprised of independent board members to assess the bid.
Leonard Green has set its sights on retail buyouts recently. It was part of the $3 billion J. Crew Group Inc. buyout, along with TPG Capital, that closed on Monday. J. Crew and its CEO Mickey Drexler have a history with TPG, which took a majority stake in J. Crew in 1997 and remained majority shareholder until the preppy apparel retailer went public in 2006.
Leonard Green, which is based in Los Angeles, has also offered $1.6 billion for fabric and craft store chain Jo-Ann Stores Inc. and has reportedly expressed interest in buying warehouse club operator BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.
99 Cents Only currently runs 283 stores, with 210 stores in California, 34 in Texas, 27 in Arizona, and 12 in Nevada.
Comedian Gallagher collapses during Minn. show
ROCHESTER, Minn. – Comedian Gallagher is hospitalized in Minnesota after collapsing during a performance.
Todd Powers, owner of Whiskey Bone's Roadhouse in Rochester, said the 64-year-old Gallagher collapsed in the middle of a show there Thursday night.
Gallagher's manager, Craig Marquardo, says the comedian is in stable condition and will be hospitalized overnight. He says he doesn't yet know what caused Gallagher to collapse.
A witness, Chris Blade, told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that Gallagher had complained of pain in his left arm and shortness of breath earlier in the evening. Blade said Gallagher was responsive when emergency crews were taking him out of the club.
Gallagher, whose real name is Leo Anthony Gallagher, is best known for smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer.
Todd Powers, owner of Whiskey Bone's Roadhouse in Rochester, said the 64-year-old Gallagher collapsed in the middle of a show there Thursday night.
Gallagher's manager, Craig Marquardo, says the comedian is in stable condition and will be hospitalized overnight. He says he doesn't yet know what caused Gallagher to collapse.
A witness, Chris Blade, told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that Gallagher had complained of pain in his left arm and shortness of breath earlier in the evening. Blade said Gallagher was responsive when emergency crews were taking him out of the club.
Gallagher, whose real name is Leo Anthony Gallagher, is best known for smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Billionaire Carl Icahn returns $1.76B to investors
NEW YORK – On the eve of the bull market's second anniversary, billionaire investor Carl Icahn had an unsettling message for his investors: Take your money back. Icahn told investors in his hedge funds that he didn't want to be responsible to them for "another possible market crisis," especially given the rapid increases over the past two years. Stocks have nearly doubled since hitting 12-year lows on March 9, 2009.
Icahn, who has built a fortune from taking stakes in well-known companies and then pressing for changes, also said he was concerned about the economic outlook and political tensions in the Middle East. Icahn's targets over the years have included Yahoo Inc., RJR Nabisco and Revlon.
"While we are not forecasting renewed market dislocation, this possibility cannot be dismissed," Icahn said in a letter to his limited partners. The letter was dated Monday and disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday.
Outside investors make up just 25 percent, or $1.76 billion, of the $7 billion in assets Icahn oversees. Despite losses in 2008, the funds have had returns of 106.9 percent since their inception in 2004. In the first two months of the year the funds have returned 8.7 percent.
Not everyone believes Icahn is returning his investors' money because he's bearish about the markets.
Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank, said Icahn is likely trying to avoid regulatory scrutiny. Under new laws, hedge funds have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and allow the agency to inspect them.
"Why submit yourself to regulatory scrutiny when you don't have to?" asked Ablin. "But I think if he had spelled it out that way, it wouldn't have gone over too well."
Icahn is known as a corporate raider with a personal fortune estimated by Forbes to be worth $11 billion, mostly from forcing changes at companies in which he invests.
"When you have that kind of money, why bother with limited partners? Most hedge fund managers dream of managing just their own money," said Michael R. Levin, who writes the blog The Activist Investor.
In his letter, Icahn said he was bothered by the losses the funds incurred in 2008 and the fact that many of the investors withdrew large amounts of cash at the time.
For the kind of activism that Icahn is involved in, it didn't help that investors were pulling their money out. Activist investors operate in some ways like private-equity funds, said Damien Park, managing partner at Hedge Fund Solutions, which advises investors and companies on shareholder activism.
Park said that such flight of capital hurts their longer term strategies since they need to have ample capital on hand to manage an activist campaign, which can run as long as two or three years.
By allowing his investors to cash out, Icahn is back to relying on his own funds.
"At the end of this, he will still manage a sizable fund and he is still Carl Icahn," says Park.
___
AP Business Writer Rachel Beck contributed to this story
Icahn, who has built a fortune from taking stakes in well-known companies and then pressing for changes, also said he was concerned about the economic outlook and political tensions in the Middle East. Icahn's targets over the years have included Yahoo Inc., RJR Nabisco and Revlon.
"While we are not forecasting renewed market dislocation, this possibility cannot be dismissed," Icahn said in a letter to his limited partners. The letter was dated Monday and disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday.
Outside investors make up just 25 percent, or $1.76 billion, of the $7 billion in assets Icahn oversees. Despite losses in 2008, the funds have had returns of 106.9 percent since their inception in 2004. In the first two months of the year the funds have returned 8.7 percent.
Not everyone believes Icahn is returning his investors' money because he's bearish about the markets.
Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank, said Icahn is likely trying to avoid regulatory scrutiny. Under new laws, hedge funds have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and allow the agency to inspect them.
"Why submit yourself to regulatory scrutiny when you don't have to?" asked Ablin. "But I think if he had spelled it out that way, it wouldn't have gone over too well."
Icahn is known as a corporate raider with a personal fortune estimated by Forbes to be worth $11 billion, mostly from forcing changes at companies in which he invests.
"When you have that kind of money, why bother with limited partners? Most hedge fund managers dream of managing just their own money," said Michael R. Levin, who writes the blog The Activist Investor.
In his letter, Icahn said he was bothered by the losses the funds incurred in 2008 and the fact that many of the investors withdrew large amounts of cash at the time.
For the kind of activism that Icahn is involved in, it didn't help that investors were pulling their money out. Activist investors operate in some ways like private-equity funds, said Damien Park, managing partner at Hedge Fund Solutions, which advises investors and companies on shareholder activism.
Park said that such flight of capital hurts their longer term strategies since they need to have ample capital on hand to manage an activist campaign, which can run as long as two or three years.
By allowing his investors to cash out, Icahn is back to relying on his own funds.
"At the end of this, he will still manage a sizable fund and he is still Carl Icahn," says Park.
___
AP Business Writer Rachel Beck contributed to this story
Phil Collins announces retirement
LONDON – British singer and drummer Phil Collins has taken to his personal website to announce his retirement in a bid to clarify recent speculation over his career.
In a post titled "Breaking News," the multiple Grammy award winner writes that he wants to explain his reasons "for calling it a day" in response to articles claiming why he was quitting the music business.
"Many of the articles printed over the last few months have ended up painting a picture of me that is more than a little distorted," Collins explains.
Collins says he is stopping music so he can be a full time father to his two young sons "on a daily basis" — not because of bad reviews, bad press or because he doesn't "feel loved."
Collins has sold an estimated 100 million albums as a solo artist.
In a post titled "Breaking News," the multiple Grammy award winner writes that he wants to explain his reasons "for calling it a day" in response to articles claiming why he was quitting the music business.
"Many of the articles printed over the last few months have ended up painting a picture of me that is more than a little distorted," Collins explains.
Collins says he is stopping music so he can be a full time father to his two young sons "on a daily basis" — not because of bad reviews, bad press or because he doesn't "feel loved."
Collins has sold an estimated 100 million albums as a solo artist.
Lawyer: Van der Sloot to plead temporary insanity
LIMA, Peru – Joran van der Sloot plans to plead guilty to killing a young Peruvian woman he met gambling but will argue temporary insanity in a bid to significantly shorten his sentence, his defense lawyer said Monday.
Van der Sloot, the key suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba, will use a "violent emotion" defense in the slaying of Stephany Flores, attorney Maximo Altez told The Associated Press.
Altez said he filed papers three weeks ago informing prosecutors of his intent to argue that Van der Sloot became enraged and killed the 21-year-old Peruvian business student last May 30 because she had learned of his relation to Holloway by looking in his laptop.
The 23-year-old Dutchman is accused of first-degree murder, which carries a 15- to 35-year sentence on conviction.
The "violent emotion" plea is typically used in Peru for crimes of passion where a spouse, for example, is surprised in the act of adultery.
If it were to be accepted by a trial judge, Van der Sloot would be sentenced to 3 to 5 years, and Altez said his client could be freed in 20 months.
Peruvian judges and prosecutors rarely speak publicly about their cases and it was not known how they would react to Van der Sloot's planned plea.
A prominent defense lawyer not involved in the case, Mario Amoretti, told the AP that much would rest on how judges received the opinions of psychologists and other experts about the emotional state and history of Van der Sloot.
The lawyer for the victim's family called the proposed plea absurd, saying that given all the factors of the case, Van der Sloot deserved to spend a minimum of 25 years in prison.
"The manner in which the suspect killed Stephany evidenced disproportionate violence," attorney Edward Alvarez said.
The young woman — who was killed in Van der Sloot's Lima hotel room five years to the day after Holloway disappeared — was bludgeoned and asphyxiated, according to the coroner's report.
Alvarez said Van der Sloot also stole money and other items from Flores before fleeing south from the Peruvian capital to Chile, where he was later captured by police.
In a signed confession last year, Van der Sloot described slamming Flores in the face with his right elbow, strangling her for a full minute then taking off his shirt and asphyxiating her. He also contended Flores threw the first blow.
Van der Sloot has admitted, however, to being a congenital liar.
He has several times confessed then recanted a role in the disappearance of Holloway, an 18-year-old Alabama student who was visiting Aruba on a high school graduation trip with classmates when she meet Van der Sloot at a casino.
Because of delays in Peru's judicial process that Alvarez blamed on the defense, Van der Sloot has not yet been formally charged.
The young Dutchman remains in Lima's Castro Castro prison, where his lawyer says he gives English lessons to other inmates.
An attorney for Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, said she considered the planned plea "outrageous." Twitty knows the Flores family will never accept it and she plans to "make whatever noise she has to" to make sure it doesn't happen, the lawyer, John Kelly, added.
"He's a very slippery, smart criminal," Kelly said of Van der Sloot, adding that any suggestion he "flipped out for a moment" in killing Flores was mocked by the meticulous calculation of his attempt to cover up the crime and his escape.
Kelly also emphasized that even if Peruvian justice were to go easy on Van der Sloot he still faces prosecution in the United States on wire fraud and extortion charges.
An Alabama grand jury indicted the Dutchman in June for allegedly trying to extort $250,000 from Twitty in exchange for information on where she could find her daughter's body.
According to court papers, Van der Sloot received a total of $25,000 a few weeks before Flores' death — money it is believed he used to travel to Peru.
___
Associated Press writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report.
Van der Sloot, the key suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean island of Aruba, will use a "violent emotion" defense in the slaying of Stephany Flores, attorney Maximo Altez told The Associated Press.
Altez said he filed papers three weeks ago informing prosecutors of his intent to argue that Van der Sloot became enraged and killed the 21-year-old Peruvian business student last May 30 because she had learned of his relation to Holloway by looking in his laptop.
The 23-year-old Dutchman is accused of first-degree murder, which carries a 15- to 35-year sentence on conviction.
The "violent emotion" plea is typically used in Peru for crimes of passion where a spouse, for example, is surprised in the act of adultery.
If it were to be accepted by a trial judge, Van der Sloot would be sentenced to 3 to 5 years, and Altez said his client could be freed in 20 months.
Peruvian judges and prosecutors rarely speak publicly about their cases and it was not known how they would react to Van der Sloot's planned plea.
A prominent defense lawyer not involved in the case, Mario Amoretti, told the AP that much would rest on how judges received the opinions of psychologists and other experts about the emotional state and history of Van der Sloot.
The lawyer for the victim's family called the proposed plea absurd, saying that given all the factors of the case, Van der Sloot deserved to spend a minimum of 25 years in prison.
"The manner in which the suspect killed Stephany evidenced disproportionate violence," attorney Edward Alvarez said.
The young woman — who was killed in Van der Sloot's Lima hotel room five years to the day after Holloway disappeared — was bludgeoned and asphyxiated, according to the coroner's report.
Alvarez said Van der Sloot also stole money and other items from Flores before fleeing south from the Peruvian capital to Chile, where he was later captured by police.
In a signed confession last year, Van der Sloot described slamming Flores in the face with his right elbow, strangling her for a full minute then taking off his shirt and asphyxiating her. He also contended Flores threw the first blow.
Van der Sloot has admitted, however, to being a congenital liar.
He has several times confessed then recanted a role in the disappearance of Holloway, an 18-year-old Alabama student who was visiting Aruba on a high school graduation trip with classmates when she meet Van der Sloot at a casino.
Because of delays in Peru's judicial process that Alvarez blamed on the defense, Van der Sloot has not yet been formally charged.
The young Dutchman remains in Lima's Castro Castro prison, where his lawyer says he gives English lessons to other inmates.
An attorney for Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, said she considered the planned plea "outrageous." Twitty knows the Flores family will never accept it and she plans to "make whatever noise she has to" to make sure it doesn't happen, the lawyer, John Kelly, added.
"He's a very slippery, smart criminal," Kelly said of Van der Sloot, adding that any suggestion he "flipped out for a moment" in killing Flores was mocked by the meticulous calculation of his attempt to cover up the crime and his escape.
Kelly also emphasized that even if Peruvian justice were to go easy on Van der Sloot he still faces prosecution in the United States on wire fraud and extortion charges.
An Alabama grand jury indicted the Dutchman in June for allegedly trying to extort $250,000 from Twitty in exchange for information on where she could find her daughter's body.
According to court papers, Van der Sloot received a total of $25,000 a few weeks before Flores' death — money it is believed he used to travel to Peru.
___
Associated Press writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report.
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