Officials: Obama to launch 2012 bid

Officials: Obama to launch 2012 bid

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama is about to make one of Washington’s worst-kept secrets official: He wants a second term.

Democratic officials familiar with the president’s plans said Saturday that Obama intends to file papers as early as this coming week with the Federal Election Commission to launch his 2012 re-election campaign. He also will announce his candidacy to supporters by e-mail and text messages.

Syria tightens security after rallies

BEIRUT

Syrian security agents tightened security and made sweeping arrests Saturday as President Bashar Assad tried to cut off two weeks of deadly pro-democracy demonstrations that are threatening his family’s ruling dynasty.

The death toll from two weeks of protests was around 80 people, after at least seven were killed Friday in clashes with security forces. Authorities began arresting dozens of people, mostly in and around the capital, Damascus, in the hours after the protests broke up and into early Saturday, activists said.

Columbia votes to reinstate ROTC

NEW YORK

Student and faculty leaders at Columbia University have voted to welcome the military’s ROTC program back to campus four decades after it was banned during the Vietnam War peace movement.

The University Senate voted 51 to 17 with one person abstaining Friday to “explore mutually beneficial relationships with the armed forces of the United States, including participation in the programs of the Reserve Officers Training Corps.”

4 die in plane crash

ROSWELL, N.M.

Four Gulfstream employees were killed Saturday in a fiery crash of a test twin- engine luxury business aircraft at an airport, authorities said.

Officials with the Savannah-Ga.-based plane company confirmed that two Gulfstream pilots and two flight-test engineers died in the crash. Their names and other background information weren’t immediately released.

Budget talks go on

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama pressed the House and Senate leaders Saturday to agree to a budget in time to avert what he says would be an economically harmful government shutdown but restated his opposition to certain spending cuts and other provisions insisted upon by Republicans.

Obama delivered the message in separate telephone conversations with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the White House said.

Negotiations continued Saturday on a bill to fund government operations through Sept. 30, the end of the budget year. They have zeroed in on cuts in the $33 billion range but haven’t agreed on where to make them.

Associated Press