WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to send at least 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan in April to bolster efforts to hold off another expected Taliban offensive in the spring, military officials said Wednesday. The move represents a shift in Pentagon thinking that has been slowly developing after months of repeated insistence that the U.S. was not inclined to fill the need for as many as 7,500 more troops that commanders have asked for there. Instead, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed NATO allies to contribute the extra forces. “Our allies are not in the position to provide them. So we are now looking at perhaps carrying a bit of that additional load,” a spokesman said.
@3. Headline Briefs 14 no:Coast Guard can’t protect tankers
The Coast Guard lacks the resources to adequately protect tankers carrying liquefied petroleum or crude oil from a possible terrorist attack, congressional auditors reported Wednesday. The report by the Government Accountability Office said the Coast Guard is stretched too thin in some cases “to meet its own self-imposed security standards such as escorting ships carrying liquefied natural gas.” The GAO report said past incidents overseas have shown that fuel-carrying tankers are significant terrorist targets.
New Mexico: Richardson quits
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his campaign for the presidency Wednesday after twin fourth-place finishes that showed his credentials could not compete with his rivals’ star power. Richardson planned to announce the decision today, according to two people close to the governor with knowledge of the decision. Richardson’s campaign would not comment on the governor’s decision, reached after a meeting with his top advisers Wednesday in New Mexico.
Georgia: Body linked to drifter
Drifter Gary Hilton, 61, accused of kidnapping and decapitating a 24-year-old hiker in Georgia, is now a suspect in the slaying of a Florida woman whose body was found last month in a national forest, authorities said Wednesday. In Florida, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office said Hilton was a prime suspect in the death of Cheryl Hodges Dunlap, whose body was found Dec. 19 in the Apalachicola National Forest. Authorities say a masked person suspected in Dunlap’s death used her ATM card three times after her disappearance Dec. 1.
Texas: Woman left in wreck
A San Antonio woman was presumed dead and left in a car’s wreckage with a tarp over her body for an hour after a paramedic failed to check her pulse, officials said. But a firefighters association official said Wednesday that the paramedic was acting according to his training when he moved on to help other victims of the accident without checking for the woman’s vital signs. Smith remained in the car’s wreckage for more than an hour Dec. 16 before a medical examiner discovered she was still breathing. She died the next day.
Missouri: Judge rules out Bibles
A rural school district’s long-standing practice of allowing the distribution of Bibles to grade school students is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled. An attorney for the southeastern Missouri school district said Wednesday that he will appeal the judge’s injunction against the practice. For more than three decades, the South Iron School District in Annapolis, 120 miles southwest of St. Louis in the heart of the Bible Belt, allowed representatives of Gideons International to give away Bibles in fifth-grade classrooms.
Mexico: Incursions into the U.S.
The U.S. Border Patrol confirmed 29 recorded incursions into the U.S. by Mexican military or other government agents in the last 12 months, according to a report made public Wednesday by a watchdog group. Judicial Watch, a conservative, U.S.-based public interest group, said Mexican officials were armed in 17 of the 29 incursions between October 2005 to October 2006.
Britain: Neglected horses found
British police and animal welfare authorities rescued 84 neglected horses Wednesday from a farm where they had found 31 dead horses, ponies and donkeys, officials said. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals officials were called to the farm in Amersham, on Friday, the RSPCA said. A 44-year-old man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer and causing criminal damage, Thames Valley Police said.
Japan: Help for elderly inmates
The swelling numbers of elderly inmates in Japan’s prisons has prompted the government to begin a major revamp of its jails to provide elevators, handrails and wheelchair ramps for incarcerated seniors. Renovation plans are set to begin by the end of March in three of the country’s 75 prisons to accommodate seniors who require assistance, the Justice Ministry said this week. The government will spend $76 million to create senior-friendly facilities for about 1,000 inmates, the first step in a program likely to be expanded in the future, ministry officials said.
From Herald news services
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