WASHINGTON — In a rare victory for President Bush since Democrats took control of Congress, the House approved a free-trade agreement with Peru on Thursday in a vote that exposed a major rift within the Democratic ranks. Despite efforts by leading Democrats to persuade a majority of their party to back an amendment that included standards to protect workers and the environment, most Democrats nonetheless voted against it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and 108 other Democrats joined 176 Republicans in approving the measure, 285 to 132.
GOP to punish state delegations
The Republican Party announced Thursday that it will punish five states for scheduling early nominating contests. New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming will lose half of their delegates to the national convention, the chairman of the Republican National Committee said. RNC rules require the punishment for states that hold their nominating contests earlier than Feb. 5. Iowa and Nevada, which plan to hold Republican caucuses, would not be penalized because, technically, the caucuses are not binding on convention delegates.
Capitol gunman gets six years
A man who ran into the U.S. Capitol with a loaded handgun was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison. Carlos Greene, 21, had pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in July to unlawful possession of a firearm, possessing cocaine and resisting arrest. On Sept. 18, 2006, Greene drove his vehicle through a checkpoint on the Capitol grounds. Federal prosecutors say he bailed out of the SUV and ran through the Capitol before civilians stopped him. Capitol police found a .22-caliber pistol and 10 grams of crack cocaine on him, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Curious George dolls recalled
About 175,000 Curious George Plush Dolls were recalled Thursday, becoming the latest popular toy made in China found to be contaminated with dangerous levels of lead. Manufactured by Marvel Toys, the Curious George dolls contain excessive levels of lead in their surface paint, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Children’s products found to have more than 0.06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.
Louisiana: FEMA’s trailer limits
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is barring employees from entering thousands of stored trailers over concerns about hazardous fumes, while more than 48,000 other trailers continue to be used by hurricane victims. FEMA is advising employees not to enter any of the roughly 70,000 trailers in storage across the country, but the directive does not apply to other trailers still in use, an agency spokeswoman said Thursday.
California: Chipper worker dies
Authorities in Orange County are working to recover the remains of a 24-year-old Anaheim man who was killed Wednesday in a wood chipper accident. The tree service worker “was standing at the back end of the chipper, throwing branches into it with his co-workers nearby,” a Tustin police officer said. “One of them looked over, and he was gone.” A deputy coroner said: “We’ll just be trying to gather as much of the remains as we can.”
Argentina: Indian beatification
The first Argentine Indian to be beatified by the Roman Catholic church will be recognized by a papal envoy at a ceremony Sunday. Ceferino Namuncura, the son of a Mapuche Indian chief who died of tuberculosis in 1905 at age 18, has a wide following among Argentina’s poor. Pope Benedict XVI signed a decree in July beatifying Namuncura. Beatification is sometimes the first step to sainthood.
Brazil: Huge oil find reported
Brazil’s state oil company said Thursday that it has discovered as much as 8 billion barrels of light crude in an ultra-deep field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, an amount that could help transform the country into a major world oil exporter. Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s announcement that the Tupi field has between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels of recoverable light oil sent Petrobras shares soaring in New York. The sheer magnitude of the find suggests Brazil could transform itself from a medium-level oil producer “to another level, like Venezuela, Arab nations and others,” a presidential chief of staff said.
Switzerland: Killer to be freed
The high court on Thursday ordered the release of a Russian imprisoned since 2004 for killing an air traffic controller he blamed for the death of his family in a plane crash. The Swiss Federal Tribunal rejected an appeal by prosecutors against the reduction of Vitaly Kaloyev’s sentence. The sentence had been reduced to 51/4 years from eight years. Kaloyev was released because he has served more than two-thirds of his sentence with good behavior. The air controller was the only person on duty when an airliner and a cargo jet collided over Germany in 2002, killing 71 people, mostly children on a holiday trip to Spain.
From Herald news services
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
