Justice Thomas bemoans emphasis on abortion

Justice Thomas bemoansemphasis on abortion
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Federal court appointments are being held hostage by the abortion issue, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Friday in advocating a briefer, less intrusive confirmation process. Speaking to law students at the University of Alabama, Thomas said former clerks and other lawyers often tell him they're not interested in federal judgeships because of the potential for bruising confirmation battles. "I think that's a problem when the stars are beginning to say, 'Thank you, but no thanks,'" Thomas said. Thomas, who opposes the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, said the fight he faced during his own confirmation hearings in 1991 went back to abortion politics. Thomas was accused of sexual harassment, charges he referred to at the time as a "high-tech lynching" for an "uppity" black man. "I think we all should be honest with one another that the only issue, the central issue in all of this, is abortion. It's not the other things that people throw out," he said. "The whole judiciary now is being held, in a sense, hostage to that one issue." Without giving specifics, Thomas said the confirmation process should be scaled back and not allow for seemingly every aspect of a nominee's life to be laid bare.
Management guruPeter Drucker dies
LOS ANGELES -- Peter F. Drucker, revered as the father of modern management for his numerous books and articles stressing innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for dealing with a changing world, died Friday, a spokesman for Claremont Graduate University said. He was 95. Drucker died of natural causes at his home in Claremont, east of Los Angeles, said spokesman Bryan Schneider. "He is purely and simply the most important developer of effective management and of effective public policy in the 20th century," former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday. "In the more than 30 years that I've studied him, talked with him and learned from him, he has been invaluable and irreplaceable." Drucker was considered a management visionary for his recognition that dedicated employees are key to the success of any corporation, and marketing and innovation should come before worries about finances. His motivational techniques have been used by executives at some of the biggest companies in corporate America, including Intel Corp. and Sears, Roebuck & amp; Co.
Formerly missing studentreunites with parents
BRASILIA, Brazil -- The parents of a 17-year-old American exchange student found safe in Brazil four days after she went missing said Friday they were relieved with the "good ending." Steve and Stephanie Martin thanked Brazilian authorities whose intense search helped find their daughter, Mykensie, unharmed in northeastern Brazil. The parents arrived in Brasilia on Friday morning to reunite with their daughter, a high school senior from Bend, Ore. "We know she's been in care of such good people," said Stephanie Martin, holding back tears. "I'm so thankful that this ended happily." Mykensie left her host city in the central state of Minas Gerais on Sunday to travel 40 miles by bus to Patos de Minas, where she regularly attended Mormon church services. She was reported missing when she did not return that day. She turned up Thursday at a police station in the coastal city of Salvador, about 690 miles northeast of Brasilia, accompanied by a young Brazilian man identified as Marcos Alves.
U.S., NATO bases arethreat, pact leader says
MOSCOW -- The Russian head of a military pact including several ex-Soviet nations said Friday that the U.S. and NATO bases around Russia were a potential threat to the country, but Moscow has no immediate plans to build up its military presence in Central Asia. While not an immediate danger, those facilities near Russian borders were potentially destabilizing, said Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary general of the six-nation Collective Security Treaty. The pact links Russia with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. "Military bases around Russia may become a threat if attempts are made to exert political and military pressure on our state," Bordyuzha said at a round-table discussion. Russia has expressed concern about NATO's expansion eastward to embrace ex-Soviet allies and former Soviet Baltic nations, but it also has signed an agreement with NATO to expand cooperation on counterterrorism, nonproliferation and peacekeeping. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a Romanian newspaper that Moscow expects NATO to honor its earlier pledge not to deploy significant military forces on the territories of new NATO members.