Beyond The Hedges

9/16/10 7:00pm

National

Breakfast shooting

Stanley Neace shot and killed five people Saturday morning in the trailer park where he lived in Jackson, Ky. before shooting himself. His five victims included his wife, stepdaughter and three witnesses. It is not entirely clear what led Neace to open fire following an argument with his wife during breakfast, though his landlord said he had begun the process of evicting Neace.

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Source: BBC9/11 remembered

President Barack Obama marked the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with a speech at a memorial event at the Pentagon. He said that the United States was attacked by al-Qaeda, not by a religion. Vice President Joe Biden and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended a similar memorial in New York City, which was followed by rallies in support of and against the proposed Islamic cultural center several blocks from Ground Zero.

Source: BBC

Shourd released from Iran

American Sarah Shourd, one of three hikers imprisoned last summer after crossing the border between Iraq and Iran, was released from Tehran's Evin Prison Tuesday. Shourd's freedom appears to come thanks to the Sultan of Oman, though he has not officially confirmed that he was the source of the $500,000 bail payment which Iran required. Shourd, along with Americans Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, was accused of spying on Iran after being taken captive last July. Bauer and Fattal are still scheduled to face spying charges.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Tea Party candidate wins primary

Christine O'Donnell beat Republican Michael Castle, a nine-term U.S. congressman and two-term Delaware governor, in Delaware's GOP U.S. Senate primary Tuesday. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has committed $42,000 to helping O'Donnell but national Republican officials do not seem to believe she is electable, thanks to her personal history and right-from-center politics in a moderate state.

Source: The New York Times

Schwarzenegger returns from Asia

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger returned Wednesday from a six-day trip to China, Japan and South Korea during which he worked to market Californian products and test-rode the rail systems of all three nations in light of California's planned LA-San Francisco line. California currently has a $19 billion budget deficit, and Schwarzenegger left for the trip despite the state having yet to approve a new spending plan.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Oil platforms to be dismantled

The Obama administration announced a new mandate Wednesday which will require oil companies to dismantle deserted oil platforms and plug abandoned wells. The April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion led to concerns about the possible environmental problems which could result if abandoned platforms and wells are left alone. The mandate goes into effect Oct. 15.

Source: Houston Chronicle

San Bruno pipe fire

Documents released Wednesday by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. show that PG&E first proposed three years ago to replace part of a gas pipeline near the segment which ruptured Sept. 9. However, the money intended for the replacement was redirected. The rupture killed four people and set fire to a residential neighborhood in San Bruno, Calif.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Boeing in space tourism

Boeing announced Wednesday that it will be entering the space tourism industry, with flights to the International Space Station expected as soon as 2015. Boeing recently won an $18 million contract, along with Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, to begin developing and testing a seven-man capsule. While four of the capsule seats will tentatively be filled by astronauts, the other three could be sold to space tourists. The announcement comes in the midst of President Barack Obama's push for further privatization of the space industry.

Source: The New York Times

International

EU deplores French deportations

After accelerating their deportations of illegal Roma gypsies a month ago, France has faced criticism from the European Union, including European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding's apparent comparison of the deportations to those of the Second World War. France says that it does not target a specific ethnic group with the deportations and that it respects EU laws. The accelerated deportations are a result of an incident in July in which a number of Roma attacked a police station after a French gendarme shot and killed a French Roma. The decision to dismantle around 300 illegal Roma camps was made in an emergency ministerial meeting called by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Source: BBC

Khmer Rouge cadre charged

Four of Cambodia's top political leaders under the Khmer Rouge were charged with war crimes Thursday by a U.N.-backed court. At least 1.7 million people, about one-fourth of Cambodia's population in the late '70s, when the Khmer Rouge was in power, were killed by the communist regime. The four, who include the acting prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the minister of social affairs and action and the head of state, have also been charged with crimes against humanity, genocide and violations of Cambodia's criminal code.

Source: CNN

Jonathan to run in Nigeria

President Goodluck Jonathan announced Wednesday on his Facebook page that he intends to compete in January's Nigerian presidential elections. He was never elected to public office, as he took over after the death of former President Umaru Yar'Adua in February. Jonathan is from the Christian and animist southern part of the country. It had been expected that the ruling People's Democratic Party would nominate a candidate from the primarily Muslim north due to the party's tradition of switching between the two regions every two terms. Jonathan has yet to receive the PDP nomination.

Source: BBC

Cuba layoffs

Cuba announced Monday that it will cut almost 500,000 government sector jobs by next March while simultaneously reducing restrictions on private business. The government will encourage those who lose their jobs to either become self-employed or seek employment in the private sector. The Cuban Workers Federation said that the state cannot support businesses with too large payrolls.

Source: CBC

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

Israel and Palestine have agreed to extend peace talks into next week despite neither side having altered its stance on the expiration of a moratorium on Israeli settlements on the West Bank at the end of the month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces the possible withdrawal of the right-wing members of the ruling coalition should settlement fail to resume, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been told by his Fatah party's central committee not to compromise on the issue.

Source: Globe and Mail

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