Syria’s president repeats reform vows

Syria’s president repeats reform vows

beirut

Syria’s president said Sunday he was “not worried” about security in his country and warned against any foreign military intervention in a speech designed to portray confidence as the regime comes under blistering international condemnation for its crackdown on dissent.

The remarks by Bashar Assad, who spoke during an interview with state-run television, came just days after the United States and its European allies called for him to step down, and hours after a diplomat said Assad’s regime was “scrubbing blood off the streets” ahead of a U.N. visit.

Coast Guard’s aging fleet: costly problems

pascagoula, miss.

Nearly a decade into a 25-year, $24.2 billion overhaul intended to add or upgrade more than 250 vessels to its aging fleet, the Coast Guard has two new ships to show after spending $7 billion-plus.

It’s facing an uphill battle persuading a budget-conscious Congress to keep pouring money into a project plagued by management problems and cost overruns.

“Congress wants to work with the Coast Guard to meet their needs for its myriad missions, but will not simply supply a blank check,” said GOP Rep. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard.

Spread the faith, pope tells young pilgrims

madrid

Pope Benedict XVI urged more than 1.5 million young people to become missionaries for the faith Sunday, giving them words of encouragement as he concluded a glitch-marred church youth festival and announced that the next edition will be in Rio de Janeiro in 2013.

Benedict told the pilgrims at a Madrid airfield hosting World Youth Day that they should not keep their faith private but participate fully in the life of their parishes and remain in communion with the church.

“So do not keep Christ to yourselves! Share with others the joy of your faith,” he said.

Service remembers 77 killed in Norway

oslo, norway

Norway’s prime minister urged his countrymen to look after one another and be vigilant for intolerance, as the nation concluded a monthlong mourning period with a candlelit memorial service Sunday to the 77 people killed by a right-wing extremist.

Speaking at the ceremony in Oslo, Jens Stoltenberg said “We need you. No matter where you live, no matter which god you worship, each and every one of us can take responsibility and can guard freedom.”

Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian, has admitted carrying out the July 22 killings — first detonating a car bomb that killed eight people outside government offices in Oslo, and then shooting dead 69 others at a youth camp on the island of Utoya, about 25 miles away.

5,000 kids hurt a year in falls from windows

chicago

More than 5,000 U.S. children and teens are injured each year in falls from windows, according to a study that suggests the problem stretches beyond urban high- rises. The research found many children fall from first- and second-story windows.

“This is more than just a big-city problem,” said senior author Dr. Gary Smith of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

The study, appearing today in the journal Pediatrics, is the first nationally representative study of such injuries.

Tropical Storm Irene heads to Puerto Rico

san juan, puerto rico

Tropical Storm Irene barreled toward Puerto Rico late Sunday after hitting St. Croix, packing heavy rains and winds that closed airports and flooded low-lying areas in the Leeward Islands.

The fast-moving storm, moving west-northwest at 15 mph, was taking an unpredictable path that left people in the islands of the U.S. Caribbean anxious about the winds and rain to come.

On its current forecast track, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Irene was expected to pass near or over Puerto Rico late Sunday with maximum winds of 60 mph. It’s expected to strengthen into a hurricane on Monday as it approaches Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Nearly 600,000 people in Haiti still live without shelter after last year’s earthquake.

Associated Press