SAN FRANCISCO — Cindy Sheehan, an icon of the anti-war movement, has qualified to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her seat in Congress.
Sheehan, 51, says Pelosi failed to persuade her party to end funding for the Iraq war. She also accused the speaker of failing to hold the administration accountable for the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Sheehan, who lost her son in the war, is best known for beginning a vigil outside President Bush’s Texas ranch in August 2005.
San Francisco election officials on Monday said Sheehan turned in 214 more valid signatures than the 10,198 she needed to qualify for the November ballot as an independent candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat.
Maryland: Cult starved boy who wouldn’t say ‘amen,’ police say
A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia this spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say “amen” after meals, Baltimore police said. Members also viewed Javon Thompson as “a demon,” court documents said. Ria Ramkissoon, Javon’s mother, was charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the boy’s death, and Baltimore police said Monday that three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged with first-degree murder. Javon would have been about 19 months old when police say adults stopped feeding him in December 2006.
Georgia: No guns at Atlanta airport
A federal judge on Monday upheld a gun ban at Atlanta’s airport, dealing a blow to gun rights groups who argued a new Georgia law authorized them to pack heat in certain parts of the airport. U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob expressed concern that allowing guns at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport could cause significant economic damage and could be a “serious threat to public safety and welfare.” The legal showdown erupted when the state law that allows people with a concealed weapons permit to carry guns into restaurants, state parks and on public transportation took effect on July 1.
Iraq: Refugees get free flight home
Several hundred Iraqi refugees flew home from Egypt on Monday on the Iraqi prime minister’s plane, the first government-organized flight aimed at accelerating the return of Iraqis now that violence has waned. Many of those returning on the free flight, however, said they had come back only because they were broke after years of living outside Iraq and that they still feared the dangers in their homeland. An estimated 2.5 million fled Iraq’s turmoil after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Afghanistan: Suicide bomber kills 3 civilians
A suicide bomber rammed his car into a NATO convoy in Kabul on Monday, killing three civilians and wounding at least a dozen people, including some soldiers, officials said. Clashes and an airstrike in the south killed 25 militants and eight civilians held hostage by insurgents. Another bomb attack against a NATO convoy in the country’s northwest killed one soldier and wounded several other people, including civilians.
Switzerland: Humpbacks make comeback
The humpback whale, nearly hunted into history four decades ago, is now on the “road to recovery” and is no longer considered at high risk of extinction, an environmental group said today. The International Union for Conservation of Nature — the producer each year of a Red List of threatened species — also upgraded the status of the southern right whale from vulnerable.
Mexico: Mexico City’s anti-crime reforms
Stung by the kidnap-killing of a 14-year-old boy, which may have involved Mexico City detectives, the city’s government Monday announced a program of anti-crime reforms. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard announced the city will create a new police investigative agency to replace its old, corruption-ridden detectives’ unit. The city also will set up an anti-kidnapping hotline. Also, the city hopes to name as many as 300,000 neighborhood anti-crime representatives in this metropolis of 8.7 million. The citizen representatives would evaluate law enforcement efforts.
From Herald news services
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