Nation, World Briefs: Schwarzenegger signs off on budget

Published 10:18 pm Friday, February 20, 2009

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a $130 billion budget Friday that raises sales and income taxes across the board for the first time in 17 years and slashes spending by one of the sharpest rates in modern California history. The governor’s signature — along with additional line-item vetoes he made to the state’s prisons and the offices of other public officials elected statewide — reduces spending from the state’s main pool of tax dollars by 11 percent over a two-year period. That brings the state’s budget back to the level it was in the 2005-06 fiscal year, at the height of the housing bubble. However, the state’s dollars buy less than before because salaries are higher, medical treatments more expensive and California’s population is larger.

D.C.: Obama backs Bush policy

President Barack Obama sided with the Bush administration Friday, saying detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights. In a two-sentence court filing, the Justice Department said it agreed that detainees at Bagram Airfield cannot use U.S. courts to challenge their detention. The filing shocked human rights attorneys.

Arizona: Jaguar tracked

A jaguar was captured southwest of Tucson this week during an Arizona Game and Fish Department research study. The study was actually aimed at monitoring black bear and mountain lion habitats. The male cat has been fitted with a satellite tracking collar and released. The collar will provide biologists with location updates every few hours and it is hopeful that this data will provide information on a little-studied population segment of this species. This is the first time in the United States that a jaguar has been able to be followed in this manner.

Ohio: Chimp victim at clinic

The Cleveland Clinic says it may take up to a week to evaluate the injuries a Connecticut woman suffered when a friend’s pet chimpanzee mauled her. The hospital said Friday that 55-year-old Charla Nash is in critical but stable condition with injuries described as “severe trauma to her face, scalp and hands.” She’s being evaluated by a team of plastic surgeons, nurses and eye and bone specialists. Nash was attacked Monday at her friend’s home in Stamford, Conn., and was flown to the Cleveland Clinic on Thursday.

Tennessee: Bus drags boy

A Tennessee boy is recovering after he broke his leg when his jacket got caught in a school bus door and dragged him for about 100 feet. The 9-year-old boy also was treated for cuts and bruises after Friday’s accident. A Knox County sheriff’s spokeswoman said the boy was not a regular rider of the bus. He tried to step into the bus after a girl who was a regular rider, but the door closed, catching his jacket. The bus has been impounded for state inspection.

Sri Lanka: Rebel plane attack

Defying the government’s efforts to destroy them, Sri Lanka’s rebels sent two planes on a surprise raid over the capital Friday night before anti-aircraft fire shot both of them out of the sky, the military said. One plane crashed into a government office building in the heart of Colombo, killing the pilot and a bystander and wounding more than 40 others. The other came down in a suburb, killing that pilot as well, the military said. The brazen raid by the Tamil Tigers’ tiny air wing came amid an all-out army offensive that forced the rebels out of nearly all their strongholds in the north and left them on the brink of defeat in their quarter-century separatist war.

Swaziland: AIDS epidemic

A new report says 42 percent of pregnant women in Swaziland are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The small southern African nation has the highest AIDS rate in the world and average life expectancy is just 37 years as a result. In 2007, 39 percent of pregnant women were infected with the HIV virus. A government report released Friday said the increase in 2008 was partly because more women were taking medication and so living longer.

Mexico: New travel advisory

The U.S. State Department has renewed a travel advisory warning Americans about an increase in violence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The alert does not recommend staying away from the country or any particular part of it, but advises American to stay away from prostitution and drug-dealing areas. It recommends visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas.

From Herald news services