U.S. and Britain seek new sanctions for Iran
WASHINGTON – The United States and Britain are preparing drafts for a punishing new U.N. resolution against Iran that could impose sweeping travel bans on the country’s top military and security officials, require inspections on its cargo flights and ships, forbid all import and export of arms shipments, and freeze the assets of major Iranian banks, according to U.S. and European officials. The new Security Council resolution would be the third against Iran for failing to comply with a U.N. resolution demanding a freeze of Tehran’s uranium enrichment program.
Indian tribes will get trailers
American Indian tribes throughout the country will receive 2,000 unused trailers that were intended for but never given to Hurricane Katrina victims. Thousands of trailers have been idling in Arkansas and Texas, prompting criticism about government waste. They originally were purchased to house people displaced by the hurricane, but FEMA officials said regulations against placing the homes in flood plains prevented their use on the Gulf Coast. In September, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., pushed through legislation allowing FEMA to sell or donate the trailers.
Texas: Lady Bird Johnson ailing
Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson has been hospitalized and is undergoing medical tests, but is awake and receiving visits from family members and friends, a family spokesman said Friday. Johnson, 94, who has been hospitalized with strokes in the past, did not suffer a stroke this time, he said. He did not disclose the symptoms that led to her admission to Seton Medical Center in Austin. He said her doctors are running tests.
DNA clears convicted rape inmate
A court has exonerated a man who spent 10 years in prison for a gang rape that DNA evidence later proved he did not commit. The state Court of Criminal Appeals granted James Curtis Giles a writ of habeas corpus – a right to protest one’s detention – making him the 13th Dallas County man cleared of a crime since 2001 with the help of DNA evidence. The court ruled that “no rational jury” would have convicted Giles in light of new evidence indicating it was “another individual … who committed the offense.”
New York: Airline passenger rights
In what would be the first legislation of its kind by a state, the New York Senate and Assembly have approved a measure that would require airlines operating at New York airports to provide passengers delayed on planes for three hours with water, snacks and working waste-disposal systems. The move comes after thousands were trapped aboard grounded airplanes during storms at Kennedy and other airports. Legislation is pending in Congress to require airlines to allow passengers off a plane after three hours.
California: Ban on bottled water
Is San Francisco water better than bottled water? Mayor Gavin Newsom thinks so. Newsom has issued an executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by Dec. 1. The move was billed as a way to help stem global warming and save taxpayer money. More than a billion bottles end up in the state’s landfills each year, the mayor’s office said.
North Carolina: Army theft charges
Two Army paratroopers are in jail, accused of selling drugs and body armor to an undercover FBI agent who also was offered a military Humvee and a 105 mm howitzer. Joffre “Trey” Cross, 21, and Jason Scott Niewoit, 18, both Army privates in the 82nd Airborne Division, are charged with selling stolen government property, including bullet-resistant vests and morphine, according to U.S. District Court records. They also offered to sell the agent the Humvee and howitzer, documents said.
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