Lawmakers turn sights on wolves

Lawmakers turn sights on wolves

BILLINGS, Mont

Two decades after the federal government spent a half-million dollars to study the reintroduction of gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, lawmakers say it’s time for Congress to step in again — this time to clamp down on the endangered animals.

To do so, they are proposing to bypass the Endangered Species Act and lift protections, first enacted in 1974, for today’s booming wolf population.

Which message will voters believe?

WASHINGTON

If you don’t like the economy, blame President Barack Obama and Democrats because they’re making times tougher, Republicans are telling voters entering the four-week homestretch to an election the GOP hopes will return the party to power in Congress.

Look, Democrats say, it’s the Republicans who caused the financial meltdown and recession. Do you want them to do it again? As bad as high unemployment, record home foreclosures and bankruptcies are, they’d be worse if the GOP had succeeded in blocking financial and auto industry bailouts and Obama’s stimulus plan, Democrats claim.

Emanuel to run for Chicago mayor

CHICAGO

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel announced Sunday that he’s preparing to run for mayor of Chicago, a position it was widely known he has long desired. Emanuel made the announcement in a video posted Sunday on his website, ChicagoforRahm.com. He had been careful not to launch his candidacy from Washington and headed to Chicago immediately after President Barack Obama announced his resignation Friday.

Police ID suspects in dual car bombings

ABUJA, Nigeria

Nigeria’s federal police force identified two men Sunday night as the “masterminds” behind the bombings that struck the West African nation’s capital during its independence celebrations. Meanwhile, a lawyer in South Africa confirmed that an ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the group that claimed responsibility for the Friday attack, faces a terrorism charge over his alleged involvement in the plot.

Private-security firms being closed

KABUL

The Afghan government said Sunday it has started dissolving private-security firms in the country by taking steps to end the operations of eight companies, including the firm formerly known as Blackwater and three other international contractors. “We have very good news for the Afghan people today,” presidential spokesman Waheed Omar told reporters in the capital. “The disbanding of eight private security firms has started.”

Palestinian killed as he sneaks into Israel

SAIR, West Bank

Israeli police killed a West Bank construction worker as he tried to sneak into Jerusalem on Sunday, shedding rare light on the risks taken by thousands of Palestinians who are desperate for jobs but are denied permits to enter Israel.

The victim, Izzedine Kawazbeh, a 35-year-old father of five, was shot after scaling Israel’s towering separation barrier by rope and dashing across a wide stretch of road heavily patrolled by Israeli police.

TV exit poll gives Rousseff a wide lead

SAO PAULO

A Brazilian television station’s exit poll is showing that front-running presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff has a wide lead, 51 percent of the vote. Rousseff is the hand-chosen successor to popular President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Associated Press