Bush keeps mum on Obama

Bush keeps mum on Obama

CALGARY, Alberta — Former President George W. Bush says he won’t criticize President Barack Obama because Obama “deserves my silence,” and says he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office.

Bush’s speech Tuesday at a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta, was his first since leaving office.

He declined to comment about the Obama administration like former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney said Sunday that Obama’s decisions are threatening the nation’s safety.

Bush says he doesn’t know what he’ll do in the long term but says he’ll write a book that will let people determine what they would have done if their most important job was to protect the country.

Daughter testifies in trial

ST. POELTEN, Austria — The woman who bore seven children through incest and was allegedly locked in a squalid dungeon for 24 years confronted her father Tuesday in a videotape shown in court — testimony that could send him to prison for life.

Josef Fritzl, 73, has been charged with murder, enslavement, incest and rape in a case that has drawn media attention from around the world for its shocking allegations.

On Tuesday, jurors, Fritzl and the rest of the court viewed videotaped testimony from his daughter Elisabeth, the key witness against Fritzl. Now 42, she was 18 when he allegedly imprisoned her in the cramped, windowless cell he built beneath the family’s home in Amstetten.

St. Patrick’s Day message

DUBLIN — Half a million Irish natives, immigrants and tourists jammed into Dublin’s city center Tuesday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, a boisterous national holiday that has been darkened this year by recession and violence.

Ireland faces its sternest challenges in decades. Unemployment has soared above 10 percent, the government is increasing taxes and cutting spending to combat the worst budget deficit in Europe, and people are worried by rising emigration and renewed bloodshed.

From their pulpits, cardinals and bishops said the island’s 4 million Catholics must reorder their priorities away from finances and toward family and community.

Church leaders called for communities, in both the Irish Republic and the British territory of Northern Ireland, to isolate the gunmen who are spreading fear and dread. Irish Republican Army splinter groups killed three people this month in Northern Ireland, and eight people have been gunned down in Dublin criminal feuds this year.

Kansas anti-abortion bill

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators approved an anti-abortion bill Tuesday that would ensure that women and girls seeking abortions are able to see ultrasound images or hear their fetus’s heartbeat before the procedure.

The bill now needs the approval of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who has repeatedly vetoed anti-abortion bills in the past. Anti-abortion groups are opposing her appointment by President Barack Obama to serve as U.S. secretary of health and human services, but the bill’s backers are hopeful she’ll sign it to ease her confirmation in the Senate.

Pope: Condoms no answer

YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Pope Benedict XVI said condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and can make the problem worse, setting off criticism Tuesday as he began a weeklong trip to the continent where some 22 million people are living with HIV.

Benedict’s first statement on an issue that has divided even Catholic clergy working with AIDS patients came hours before he arrived in Cameroon’s capital — greeted by thousands of flag-waving faithful who stood shoulder-to-shoulder in red dirt fields and jammed downtown streets for a glimpse of the pontiff’s motorcade.

Benedict also said the Roman Catholic Church was at the forefront of the battle against AIDS.

The pope said a responsible and moral attitude toward sex would help fight the disease, as he answered questions submitted in advance by reporters traveling on the plane. His response was presumably also prepared in advance.

Arrival at space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the international space station Tuesday, delivering one last set of solar wings that should boost the orbiting complex to full power.

The two craft linked up 220 miles above Australia.

“Welcome ... we are dang glad to see you,” said Mike Fincke, the station’s skipper.

The two crews — 10 people in all — shook hands and hugged when the hatches between them swung open.

Before pulling up, commander Lee Archambault guided Discovery through a 360-degree back flip so the station astronauts could photograph its belly. Fincke said even though the station residents didn’t hear the go-ahead to take pictures because of communication system trouble, they got some good shots and the shuttle looked “clean, very nice.”

Associated Press