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Sunday, April 3, 2011
The Morning Scoop - How Mad Pastor Terry Jones Oozed Back
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In a statement Saturday, President Obama declared last month's Koran-burning in Florida "an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry," but said it did not warrant the murders of 20 people in Afghanistan, including seven U.N. workers. Meanwhile, the act's ramifications were still being felt in Afghanistan, where angry mobs still incensed at Florida pastor Terry Jones' incineration of their holy text continued rioting Saturday, leaving nine more people dead and bringing the death toll to 20—with more than 80 injured. "No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people," Obama said before closing out his statement with a call for common humanity. The Daily Beast's Leon Dische Becker talks to the fringe preacher about how he pulled off the bloody stunt.
Japan officials now say it could take months to get Fukushima Daiichi under control, followed by years of cleanup and containment. Workers attempted to use concrete to seal a crack in a pit at the No. 2 reactor that was spewing radioactive fluid directly into the Pacific Ocean. When that method failed, they turned to water-absorbent polymers to stop the leak. But it now appears there may be another source of leakage. Meanwhile, the plant's operator discovered the bodies of two workers who had been missing since the day of the earthquake and tsunami. They are the first two workers at Fukushima Daiichi to have died in the aftermath of the disasters. TEPCO linked the deaths of Kazuhiro Kokubo, 24, and Yoshiki Terashima, 21, to the tsunami, saying the workers lost great amounts of blood and went into shock.
Now would be a bad time to start a power grab. The battle lines seem to have stabilized at the oil town of Brega after days of Gaddafi's forces pushing back rebel gains. But a split may be forming in the rebel leadership. Khalifa Haftar, a former army colonel who recently returned to Libya after living in Falls Church, Virginia, was initially welcomed by the transitional government for training and disciplining the inexperienced rebel fighters. Saturday, however, Abdul Hafidh Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel government, played down Haftar's role, saying that Abdul Fattah Younis commanded the army. A military source says the statement upset the public and that Benghazi is now calling for Ghoga's departure. Relations between Haftar and Younis have been tense since Younis joined the army in early March. Younis was Gaddafi's interior minister until he defected in February to join the rebels, while Haftar took part in the coup that brought Gaddafi to power and was a hero in Libya's war with Chad before going into exile as an activist against the regime. The troops themselves differed as to whether they were being lead by Haftar or Younis, but seemed unconcerned by the disagreement.
Syrian President Bashar Assad appointed a former agriculture minister to head a new government. Adel Safar will choose a new cabinet after Assad disbanded the old one in an attempt to appease protesters calling for reform. Safar is seen as a respectable official in a regime with a reputation for corruption. The protests began when several schoolchildren were arrested for scrawling graffiti, but quickly turned into a wider call to reform one of the most authoritarian regimes in the region. So far, Assad has responded harshly, with government forces arresting hundreds, according to Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, and killing at least 80.
Check your flight status: Southwest Airlines may cancel 300 additional flights on Sunday, having already canceled the same number of departures Saturday. The move, while necessary based on safety fears, will cost the carrier millions. The airline immediately grounded 79 planes from its Boeing 737 fleet after one with a three-foot-long hole in its fuselage was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday. Some 118 passengers and five crew members on a flight from Phoenix to Sacramento landed safely in Yuma, Arizona, though at least two on board were treated for minor injuries. "There was a hole in the fuselage about three feet long. You could see the insulation and the wiring," a woman identified as Cindy told a local CBS television affiliate in Sacramento.
An intimate look at the French president and his ties to the incestuous world of French intellectuals who helped launch the war in Libya.
The Title IX Complaint Against Yale by Jessica Bennett Sixteen students have filed a Title IX complaint against Yale, alleging a "hostile sexual environment" for women. Jessica Bennett on Yale's dark history of sexual misconduct.
The East Is Red: Diane von Furstenberg's High-Fashion China Bash by Melinda Liu The designer dazzles Shanghai with her sumptuous Red Ball, which was both a fabulous party and a celebration of East and West that underlines the growing importance of China as a high-fashion market, writes Melinda Liu.
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