PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — The military is opening a $48 million high-tech facility in Pearl Harbor it expects to use for exercises, training and battle simulations.
Commanders may also use the Pacific Warfighting Center to direct forces during disaster relief efforts and war.
Navy Adm. Robert Willard, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told an audience gathered for Tuesday’s opening ceremony that the facility has already helped relief efforts in Haiti.
The military spent $25.8 million to build the center and $22 million on telecommunications infrastructure for the building on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor.
Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye says the country’s allies can use the center to help practice joint operations with the U.S.
California: West Hollywood bans stores from selling pets
The West Hollywood City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban stores from selling cats and dogs in a move aimed at curbing puppy mills and kitty factories. Pet shops will be permitted, however, to offer animals from shelters. City officials acknowledged the new ordinance would have little bite — no pet stores in the city currently sell animals — but they’re hoping other municipalities will follow suit.
New York: Researcher used actors in testimony, state says
A former University at Buffalo addictions researcher hired professional actors to testify on his behalf during an investigation into whether he fabricated data in federally funded studies, state prosecutors said Tuesday. William Fals-Stewart paid three actors to speak by phone during a university misconduct hearing in 2007, and then sued the state for $4 million — which he apparently did not collect — when their false testimony helped exonerate him, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office said. The office charged Fals-Stewart with grand larceny, perjury, identity theft, offering a false instrument and falsifying business records.
D.C.: Obama to create deficit commission, source says
Determined to have a deficit commission with or without Congress’ backing, President Barack Obama plans to announce on Thursday that he is establishing a panel similar to the one lawmakers rejected. Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Senate Whip Alan Simpson would lead the panel, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
Mexico: 5 men decapitated; drug gang link suspected
Mexican authorities have found the decapitated bodies of five men in a western state known for drug gang violence. A Sinaloa state prosecutors spokesman said the bodies and heads were found Tuesday in front of a primary school in the town of Escuinapa. He says two of the heads were missing their ears and two more had a “Z” carved on their backs in an apparent reference to the Zetas drug gang.
U.N.: Cluster bomb ban to be enforced starting in August
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Tuesday that the international convention banning cluster bombs has received the 30 ratifications required and will enter into force on Aug. 1. The ban pertains only to the ratifying nations. Some of the world’s top military powers — including the U.S., Russia and China — have refused to support the convention, arguing that cluster bombs have legitimate military uses. Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately and can lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors.
Vatican: Irish priest sex abuse victims unhappy with pope
Pope Benedict XVI told Irish bishops at a special summit meeting Tuesday to be courageous in confronting the pedophile priest scandal, but took no action on victims’ demands the Vatican take some responsibility. Specifically, bishops said the pope didn’t rule on whether to accept the resignations offered by several bishops for their role in decades of concealment or push for resignations from those resisting calls to step down. Activists troubled by what they contend is a pattern of Vatican denial of responsibility were branding the talks a failure.
From Herald news services
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