hReagan centennial bill

hReagan centennial bill

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed one for the Gipper.

With the stroke of a pen Tuesday, Obama created the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission, an 11-person panel that will plan and carry out activities to mark the 100th anniversary, in 2011, of the president’s birth.

His widow, Nancy, watched as Obama signed the bill in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House.

Obama invoked the 40th president’s trademark optimism, calling him a leader who understood that the bonds that unite Americans are stronger than the disagreements that divide them, the political parties included.

Charged in doctor’s death

WICHITA, Kan. — An activist abortion opponent was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the death of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, and the prosecutor said the evidence in the case ruled out the death penalty.

Scott Roeder, 51, was shown via a video link from the Sedgwick County Jail. He fiddled with the charging documents on a podium in front of him and said “OK” three times as Judge Ben Burgess read the charges and explained the court process.

Burgess ordered Roeder to be held without bond and said he was not allowed to communicate with Tiller’s family or two witnesses he purportedly assaulted.

Deaths in Afghanistan rise

KABUL — U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have risen to 65 so far this year, up from 36 over the first five months of 2008 — though U.S. and coalition troops have also killed hundreds more militants, an Associated Press tally shows.

As newly arriving Marines enter the violent Afghan south — the spiritual home of the Taliban and the country’s major drug-producing region — the military said Tuesday that U.S. deaths will likely increase even further this summer.

In Washington, the U.S. general chosen to take over as commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan said he believes the war is “winnable, but I don’t think it will be easily winnable.” Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal said at his confirmation hearing that avoiding civilian casualties is key to success.

Requests for more funds

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday night asked Congress for $2 billion to help prepare for a possible swine-flu pandemic, a request that came on top of up to $2 billion already pending in House-Senate talks on a huge war-funding bill.

President Barack Obama also sent lawmakers a request for $200 million in humanitarian aid to Pakistan, where 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes, in large part because of the government’s campaign against insurgents.

The requests, if granted, would likely bring the cost of Obama’s funding bill for military and diplomatic efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan to more than $100 billion.

Guantanamo Bay suicide

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — A 31-year-old Yemeni was found dead in his cell at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, an apparent suicide, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.

Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih would be the fifth prisoner to take his life at the detention site since the Pentagon began ferrying terror suspects there more than seven years ago.

The death late Monday spurred fresh criticism of U.S. detention policy and demands that President Barack Obama make good on his vow to close the prison by January.

Release angers India

ISLAMABAD — The founder of the group India blames for last year’s Mumbai siege was ordered freed in a court ruling Tuesday that raised new tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors and drew criticism of Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism.

The ruling to end the six-month house arrest of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed comes at a time when Washington and other Western allies would prefer that Pakistan focus on dislodging Taliban militants in the border region with Afghanistan — rather than its decades-old rivalry with India.

Combined dispatches