Nation & world digest || Source: Ohio auditor to be Kasich’s running mate

Source: Ohio auditor to be Kasich’s running mate

COLUMBUS — Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor is planning to drop her re-election bid and become the running mate of Republican John Kasich in the race for governor, The Associated Press learned Tuesday.

Republican party sources confirmed Taylor’s selection for the AP, and a formal announcement is likely to come later this week, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the campaign.

Taylor, 43, is the Ohio GOP’s highest ranking nonjudicial officeholder and would add youth and diversity to a ticket that seeks to defeat Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland in November. Reports on Taylor’s likely selection were published Tuesday, first in The Columbus Dispatch and later in The Plain Dealer.

Strickland has not yet announced his running mate. On Tuesday, speculation was focussed on Yvette McGee Brown, a former juvenile judge who directs a Columbus nonprofit that advocates for children and families.

Tax on high-wage earners unlikely in health-care bill

WASHINGTON — Democratic officials say House and Senate negotiators working with the White House on a health-care bill appear likely to drop a proposed income-tax increase on high-wage earners. They also may jettison a requirement for large corporations to offer coverage to their employees.

These officials also said that key lawmakers and the White House were hoping to include more money to protect state governments from the cost of an expansion of Medicaid.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

The developments came as the pace of negotiations on health care legislation quickened. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House today.

Iran blames US, Israel for researcher’s death

TEHRAN, Iran — A senior physics professor who publicly backed Iran’s opposition leader was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded as he left for work Tuesday. The government blamed the U.S. and Israel for the attack.

The blast apparently was set off by a remote trigger, but it was unclear why the professor was targeted. The victim was a 50-year-old researcher with no prominent political voice, no published work with military relevance and no declared links to Iran’s nuclear program.

Hard-line backers of the Islamic system have urged stronger measures to try to crush and intimidate anti-government forces. But the Tehran University professor, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, was far from a front-row political player.

He joined a list of 240 faculty members in a declaration supporting opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi before June’s disputed presidential election, but did not take any known high-profile role in the protests after the vote.

Google may leave China

SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc. will stop censoring its search results in China and may pull out of the country completely after discovering that computer hackers had tricked human-rights activists into opening their e-mail accounts to outsiders.

The change-of-heart announced Tuesday heralds a major shift for Google, which has repeatedly said it will obey Chinese laws that require some politically and socially sensitive issues to be blocked from search results that are available in other countries.

Google disclosed in a blog post that it had detected a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China.” Further investigation revealed that “a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists,” Google said in the post written by Chief Legal Officer David Drummond.

Cabbie returns $21,000

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. — A New York City cabdriver is being praised for returning over $21,000 lost by a visitor from Italy.

Seventy-two-year-old Felicia Lettieri, of Italy, left her purse in a Manhattan taxi on Christmas Eve. It contained traveling money for her and six relatives.

The cabbie, Mohammad “Mukal” Asadujjaman, drove about 50 miles, to a Long Island address he’d found in the purse. No one was home, so he left his phone number and later returned with the money.

The 28-year-old driver from Bangladesh said that as an observant Muslim, he could not accept the reward offered by the grateful passenger.

Associated Press