Obama to commit US to cutting greenhouse gases
Obama to commit US to cutting greenhouse gases
WASHINGTON — Putting his prestige on the line, President Barack Obama will personally commit the U.S. to a goal of substantially cutting greenhouse gases at next month’s Copenhagen climate summit, insisting America is ready to tackle global warming despite intense disagreement in Congress.
Obama will attend the start of the conference Dec. 9, a week from next Wednesday, before heading to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. He will “put on the table” a U.S. commitment to cut emissions by 17 percent over the next decade, on the way to reducing heat-trapping pollution by 80 percent by midcentury, the White House said.
Cutting U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions by one-sixth in just a decade would be likely to hike energy bills, but the administration says there would be important health trade-offs.
Heavy rains soak pilgrims
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — The heaviest rain to hit Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage in years soaked the faithful and flooded the road to Mecca, snarling traffic as millions of Muslims headed for the holy sites. The downpours add an extra hazard on top of intense concerns about the spread of H1N1 flu.
Pilgrims in white robes holding umbrellas, some wearing face masks for fear of the flu, circled the black cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, the opening rite for the hajj.
But the shrine — Islam’s holiest site — and the nearby, rain-soaked streets did not see the usual massive, pushing crowds, because many tried to stay inside nearby hotels or were caught in the traffic jams heading into the city.
Man charged with abusing patients under anesthesia
ATLANTA — A metro Atlanta nurse-anesthetist has been charged with molesting and sodomizing anesthetized patients in dental and medical offices, and police say the videotaped abuse could involve 100 or more victims.
Paul Patrick Serdula, 47, who worked in dental and medical offices across metro Atlanta, was arrested Monday night on child molestation and sodomy charges. The arrest came after authorities found several videos showing him fondling and groping people who were under anesthesia at various offices, said Cobb County police officer Joe Hernandez.
And authorities reviewing the videos to find more victims say the assaults could go back years and involve residents of other states who were treated by Serdula while they were in Georgia.
Israel proposes halt to West Bank construction
JERUSALEM — Israel on Wednesday proposed a 10-month halt to new construction in West Bank settlements as a step toward restarting Mideast peace talks.
Washington welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer, but the Palestinians swiftly rejected it because it did not include a building freeze in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the mainly Arab sector of the city they want as the capital of a future state.
CDC: No evidence vaccine causes serious side effects
ATLANTA — U.S. health officials say there’s no evidence that the H1N1-flu vaccine is causing any serious side effects.
They say the vast majority of reports have been for minor things such as soreness, redness or swelling where the shot was given. From early October through mid-November, about 22 million people were vaccinated.
Officials have been watching whether the new vaccine would cause a rare paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barr syndrome. That condition was seen in higher numbers than usual during a swine-flu vaccination campaign in 1976.
But there have been only 10 such reports so far in those who got the new swine-flu vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the vaccine safety report Wednesday.
Mechanical Santa causes scare in governor’s office
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A package for Tennessee’s governor turned out not too jolly for staffers at the Capitol.
Safety Department spokesman Mike Browning says officials evacuated the building for almost two hours Wednesday when the mail room found a package addressed to Gov. Phil Bredesen that contained moving parts.
Turned out it was a mechanical Santa Claus.
The department’s bomb squad and agents from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were called.
The package was destroyed, revealing the Santa from a company in Georgia.
The governor was not in the building at the time.
Associated Press