PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Barack Obama’s qualifications to be president. The U.S. District judge on Friday rejected the suit by attorney Philip J. Berg, who alleged that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible for the presidency. Berg claimed that Obama is either a citizen of his father’s native Kenya or became a citizen of Indonesia after he moved there as a boy. The judge ruled that Berg lacked standing to bring the case, saying any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was “too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters.”
D.C.: Clinton will join campaign
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will campaign for the first time alongside former President Bill Clinton at a rally next week in Orlando, Fla. The two will appear together Wednesday in the perennial battleground state, an Obama campaign spokeswoman said. Orlando sits in an important swing part of the state, where Clinton could help Obama among the white working-class voters who strongly supported his wife.
Despite affair, IMF boss keeps job
The head of the International Monetary Fund will keep his job despite having an affair with a married subordinate, the agency’s executive board concluded. The IMF board issued a statement late Saturday saying that the actions of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn were “regrettable and reflected a serious error of judgment.” However, the 24-member board of directors decided that Strauss-Kahn’s relationship with the former IMF employee was consensual and did not involve any type of sexual harassment, favoritism or any abuse of authority.
California: Successful launch
A rocket carrying an Italian Earth-observation satellite blasted off Friday evening from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The Boeing Delta rocket II lifted off about 7:30 p.m. and made an arc south over the Pacific Ocean as it headed toward orbit. The payload was the third part of a four-satellite system called Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean Basin Observation. The satellites use radar to create images for civil protection, defense, science and commercial purposes.
Virginia: Contract for shipyard
Leaders of the union representing 8,000 hourly workers at the Newport News shipyard said they have tentatively agreed on a contract. The agreement announced Saturday comes one day before the current contract with United Steelworkers Local 8888 is set to expire. Rank-and-file will vote on the proposal today at Hampton University. The Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipyard is the Navy’s only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
Illinois: New unit targets gangs
The head of the nation’s second-largest police department says he is establishing a new unit to deal with gang slayings, which he blames for a murder rate that eclipses that of New York and Los Angeles. The Chicago Police superintendent said Friday that he was setting up the Mobile Strike Force to attack the city’s gangs. The unit will be comprised of roughly 150 veteran officers divided into about a dozen teams and will “disrupt gang crimes through physical arrests, search warrants and gun seizures,” he said.
Ohio: Woman robs 3 banks in week
Police and the FBI said a female robber has hit three Ohio banks in one week — a rare short-term streak of robberies and even rarer for a female criminal. Authorities said the woman handed a note to a teller at a credit union in the Columbus area Thursday saying she had a gun and wanted a lot of cash. Investigators said the same woman robbed two banks earlier in the week, both in the Columbus area. The FBI said only 6 percent of the more than 7,000 bank robberies reported nationally last year were committed by women.
Philippines: Rebels kill 6 soldiers
Communist rebels triggered a land mine and opened fire on a Philippine army unit in an ambush that killed six soldiers in the troubled south, a military spokesman said Saturday. He said at least 30 New People’s Army guerrillas attacked the soldiers Friday as they were on their way to a remote, rebel-influenced village in Compostela Valley province on Mindanao island. The rebels triggered the U.S.-made claymore mine as the soldiers hiked past on a narrow mountain trail and then opened fire, he said.
Taiwan: Eating contest fatality
A student has died after winning an eating contest at a university, apparently choking on Chinese steamed buns filled with cheese and eggs. Newspapers said Chen Chun-ing, 23, dashed to the bathroom after swallowing two buns in a minute. Students found him lying on the floor soon afterward. He was rushed to a hospital but failed to respond to resuscitation efforts. He would have won $60.
From Herald news services
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