WORLD & NATION || Blast ends hope for miners’ survival
Blast ends hope for miners’ survival
GREYMOUTH, New Zealand
Elation over a possible rescue attempt quickly turned to anguish for the families of 29 New Zealand miners missing underground since last week when a second powerful blast ended any hope for another mine miracle.
Wednesday’s massive explosion deep inside the mine on New Zealand’s South Island came five days after the men were caught underground by a similar blast. Even in the unlikely event that any had survived the first one, police said none could have lived through the second.
Conservatives reject condom explanation
NEW YORK
Faced with a changing outlook from Pope Benedict XVI on condoms and their role in preventing the spread of HIV, many prominent conservative Roman Catholics in the U.S. are rejecting the Vatican’s own explanation of what the pope said.
Several orthodox Catholics said they would accept only a more formal papal pronouncement. Others insisted that journalists were purposely misrepresenting Benedict’s comments. Some questioned whether the papal spokesman, the Rev. Frederico Lombardi, accurately quoted the pope.
Bishops and the experts who advise them were scrambling to make sense of the news.
“It’s a mess,” said John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, which advises church leaders, hospitals and Vatican offices. “I’m not ready to say that the pope said what Lombardi said.”
Jury convicts DeLay
AUSTIN, Texas
Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — once one of the most powerful and feared Republicans in Congress — was convicted Wednesday on charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.
Jurors deliberated for 19 hours before returning guilty verdicts against DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to life in prison on the money-laundering charge.
After the verdicts were read, DeLay hugged his daughter, Danielle, and his wife, Christine. There was no immediate comment from him or his attorneys.
Color-coded terror warnings to end
WASHINGTON
Goodbye danger defined as yellow, orange and red.
The Homeland Security Department is looking to scrap the five-tiered color-coded terror-warning system in favor of a streamlined one with as few as two alerts. The post-9/11, Bush-era system has been criticized as too vague to be useful in communicating the terror threat to the public.
One option under consideration is to go to two threat levels instead of five: elevated and imminent. When the threat level would change to imminent under the new model, government officials would be expected to be as specific as possible in describing the threat without jeopardizing national security.
Somalis convicted
NORFOLK, Va
Five Somali men accused of attacking a U.S. Navy ship off Africa’s coast were convicted Wednesday on federal piracy charges in what the government said was the first piracy conviction in a U.S. courtroom in nearly 200 years.
The verdict was handed down by a jury in U.S. District Court. The five men, who wore earphones, stood silently as the verdict was read to them by an interpreter. They face mandatory life terms at a sentencing hearing set for March 14 in Norfolk.
Associated Press