Obama: War pullout plan on schedule

May 13, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON

The war in Afghanistan will get worse before it gets better, President Barack Obama warned Wednesday, but he declared his plan to begin withdrawing U.S. forces next year remains on track.

Standing alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama said, “What I’ve tried to emphasize is the fact that there is going to be some hard fighting over the next several months.”

The two leaders spoke at a White House news conference as U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan prepare to push hard into the Taliban’s birthplace in Kandahar Province in June.

GOP picks Tampa for convention

OXON HILL, Md.

Republicans chose Tampa as the site of their 2012 presidential convention Wednesday, hoping the swing state of Florida will help them defeat President Barack Obama.

A Republican National Committee panel recommended the Gulf Coast city during a closed-door meeting, rejecting GOP strongholds of Salt Lake City and Phoenix. The decision came amid calls from Hispanic groups and others to boycott Arizona after it adopted a law to crack down on illegal immigrants, although party members insisted their decision against Phoenix was not linked to that legislation.

“We got it!” RNC Secretary Sharon Day, a Floridian, shouted into a hotel hallway as she danced out of the closed-door meeting.

Kagan on defensive with Republicans

WASHINGTON

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan defended herself Wednesday against Republican charges she’s not fit to be a justice as she met for the first time with senators who hold the key to her confirmation.

Publicly mum as she made the rounds on Capitol Hill, Kagan sought during a series of private meetings to beat back GOP suggestions that she’d be a liberal rubber stamp for President Obama, who named her Monday to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

“She’s been politically active throughout her life, she’s identified with the American liberal position, she clerked for two activist judges,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel that will hold hearings on Kagan’s nomination.

LA boycotts Arizona business over law

LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles on Wednesday became the largest city yet to boycott Arizona over its tough new law targeting illegal immigration in a move that likely will affect some $8 million in contracts with the state.

The city council voted 13-1 to bar Los Angeles from conducting business with Arizona unless the law is repealed. The vote followed an emotional council discussion during which many members noted that their ancestors were U.S. immigrants.

7 children, 2 adults hacked to death

HANZHONG, China

A man charged into a kindergarten in northwestern China with a cleaver Wednesday and hacked to death seven children and two adults — the fifth such rampage in less than two months. The attacker then went home and killed himself.

The assault, which left 11 other children hospitalized, occurred despite heightened security countrywide. It was not clear if security had been increased at the school on the outskirts of Hanzhong, a relatively poor area in the heart of China. Images taken from local TV and posted online showed the school, which had about 20 students, in a tumble-down, two-story farmhouse.

Sociologists say the recent attacks that have left 17 dead and scores wounded reflect the tragic consequences of ignoring mental illness and rising stress resulting from huge social inequalities in China’s fast-changing society.

Associated Press