HEARING TAKEN TO BORDER

Hearing taken to border
LAREDO, Texas -- A Republican-led House panel met at the Mexican border Friday in an unusual field hearing that the chairman said he hopes will push the Senate to focus on enforcing immigration law. "It's elementary that to defend ourselves against our determined and resourceful enemies, our border must be secure," said Rep. Ed Royce, the California Republican who chairs the International Relations Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation. House GOP leaders called the series of hearings last month after the Senate approved a guest worker program and a possible path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. Royce said he favors the path of the House, which approved a bill focusing on enforcement, with no provision for illegal immigrants or future guest workers.
States stockpile meds
WASHINGTON -- South Carolina is in. Utah and Alabama, too. Some states aren't waiting for an Aug. 1 deadline to seek help from the federal government in buying anti-flu medicine for a possible pandemic. "We figure it is certainly better to do it and move forward with the purchase and hope we never have to use it than not and wish that we had," said Jim Beasley, spokesman for South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control. As part of its pandemic preparations, the federal government is stockpiling Tamiflu and other anti-flu medications, which can reduce the symptoms associated with influenza. The Bush administration plans to buy enough to treat 44 million people. States can buy more if they want. The government is negotiating a price with Roche Laboratories, Inc., which makes Tamiflu, and will pay a quarter of the costs, up to a prescribed amount for each state. In all, states could use the subsidy to buy anti-flu medications for an additional 31 million people.
Teen pleads innocent
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- An 18-year-old charged with killing two members of the Tongan royal family and their driver in a high-speed crash pleaded innocent Friday to vehicular manslaughter. Edith Delgado was held in lieu of $3 million bail after her arraignment in San Mateo County Superior Court on manslaughter and speeding charges. Delgado, who received her driver's license in February, was charged with killing Prince Tu'ipelehake, 56, and Princess Kaimana, 46, in the Wednesday night crash on Highway 101 in Menlo Park, about 30 miles south of San Francisco. Vinisia Hefa, 36, who was driving the red Ford Explorer carrying the prince and princess, also was killed, authorities said. If convicted, Delgado faces up to eight years in prison on the manslaughter counts, a prosecutor said.
Sonar lawsuit settled
LOS ANGELES -- Four days after a judge halted the Navy's use of high-intensity sonar in Pacific warfare exercises because of concerns that marine mammals may be harmed, the Navy and environmental groups agreed to terms under which the sonar may be used, lawyers for both sides said Friday. The settlement prevents the Navy from using the sonar within 25 miles of the newly established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument during its Rim of the Pacific 2006 exercises, and also imposes a variety of methods to watch for and report the presence of marine mammals. The environmental groups, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, had obtained a court order Monday temporarily barring the use of the "mid-frequency active sonar."
Coalition soldier killed
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai urged neighboring Pakistan to prevent militants from training on its soil as fighting Friday in southern Afghanistan killed a U.S.-led coalition soldier and at least eight suspected Taliban militants. The violence came amid a surge in attacks by Taliban insurgents trying to reassert control over their former southern heartland. The escalation has prompted Britain to consider sending more forces. Hundreds of people, mostly militants, have died in fighting in recent weeks. Karzai blamed foreign terrorists for the rising violence, and called on Pakistan to dismantle terrorist training grounds on its side of the border. Pakistan, a former Taliban backer but now a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, denies granting sanctuary to the militants.
16 bodies found
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- U.N. peacekeepers on Friday found the bodies of 16 people believed to be killed in a surge of gang violence, the latest sign the Caribbean nation's capital may be slipping back into disorder after months of relative calm. The troops from Sri Lanka the bodies in the southern Port-au-Prince slum of Martissant, a U.N. statement said. The slum was the site of a recent spate of gunbattles between warring gangs. The victims apparently were shot to death in an hours-long gunfight among Haitian gang members fighting for control of the area, said Pierre Esperance, a local human rights activist.
Associated Press
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