hCampus bans students over mumps vaccinations

hCampus bans students
over mumps vaccinations

PORTLAND, Maine — The University of Southern Maine began notifying more than 400 students Thursday that they’re being banned from campus for failing to meet the latest vaccination requirements for mumps. Campus officials provided student lists to professors and were trying to reach about 50 on-campus residents to make sure they have another place to go. The 426 students were among about 1,300 full-time or residence hall students on the two campuses who were told to get their vaccinations up to date following an outbreak of mumps in Maine that included at least one university student. The list includes about 20 students who have declined vaccinations on religious or philosophical grounds, said spokeswoman Judie O’Malley.

Senate blocks tax issue

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to block a looming tax increase averaging $2,000 for millions of taxpayers after Senate Republicans succeeded in thwarting a Democratic plan to also raise taxes on investors. The Senate bill, passed 88-5, provides a one-year fix for the alternative minimum tax but without matching the cost of the tax relief with new tax revenues. Without the fix, an estimated 25 million people would be subject to the higher AMT tax, up from 4 million in 2006. The Senate vote puts it at odds with the House, where Democratic leaders, under a principle of not adding to the national debt, demanded that the AMT fix be paid for. Last month, the House passed legislation matching the AMT fix and other tax cuts with about $80 billion in new tax revenues.

Bush writes to Kim Jong Il

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, raising the possibility of normalized relations if he fully discloses his nuclear programs by year’s end, is a turnabout for a president who has labeled the communist regime part of an “axis of evil.” “I want to emphasize that the declaration must be complete and accurate if we are to continue our progress,” Bush wrote, according to an excerpt of the Dec. 1 letter obtained by The Associated Press. The Bush administration sought to play down the diplomatic significance of the letter — the president’s first to the reclusive North Korean leader. Yet, it reflected how U.S. policy toward the nation has shifted from the days when Bush shunned the dictator.

U.S. gets sanction support

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won support from European allies Thursday for new U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. NATO foreign ministers agreed to stay the course in seeking fresh measures at the United Nations to persuade Iran to stop uranium enrichment and reprocessing despite a new U.S. intelligence report that concluded the country halted it nuclear weapons ambitions in 2003. At a working dinner in Brussels, the alliance’s headquarters, the ministers accepted the Bush administration argument that Iran remains a threat and needs to be treated as such, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht told reporters.

Kidnappings up in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti is witnessing a new spate of child kidnappings, with at least 14 youngsters abducted and one killed in the last five weeks, U.N. and Haitian police said Thursday. Child kidnappings make up the majority of the 24 abductions reported in an end-of-year surge in the impoverished Caribbean country, U.N. officials said.

Boycotts hit Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Thousands of lawyers boycotted courts across Pakistan on Thursday, hoisting black flags and staging rallies to demand an end to emergency rule, and police blocked former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from marching to the heavily guarded home of the deposed Supreme Court chief justice. Riot police turned out en masse and blocked the route to the official residence of Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry with concrete and steel barriers and barbed wire.

Associated Press