Thursday, February 24, 2011
Police: Up to 120 bodies in building
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand
Police say up to 120 bodies may still be inside one of the buildings hardest hit by New Zealand’s devastating earthquake.
That number is not included in the official death toll of 76, which is based on the bodies recovered and brought to a temporary morgue in the stricken city of Christchurch.
Police Superintendent Dave Cliff told reporters Thursday that “between the late 60s and 120 bodies, at the upper limit” were believed to still be inside the Canterbury Television building. That number includes foreign students at an English-language school in the building.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake tore through Christchurch around lunchtime Tuesday, collapsing some buildings completely and badly damaging many others in one of the country’s worst disasters.
Obama awards 6 Purple Hearts
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama awarded six Purple Hearts while visiting with wounded service members Wednesday.
The commander in chief met with 22 patients and their families during a midday visit to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., just outside of Washington, the White House said.
Twenty-one served in Afghanistan; the other served in Iraq.
The visits are closed to media coverage, and the White House does not identify the medal recipients.
Hawaii allows same-sex unions
HONOLULU
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has signed same-sex civil unions into law, granting gay and lesbian couples the same state rights as married partners.
Civil unions in the Rainbow State would start Jan. 1, 2012. Five other states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage.
The new law comes after 20 years of court fights, protest rallies and passionate public debate in a state that long has been a gay-rights battleground.
China charges Internet posters
BEIJING
Activists say China has filed subversion charges against Internet users who re-posted a call for protests modeled on the democracy movements in the Middle East.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said Wednesday at least three people were detained on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”
US drops defense of anti-gay-union law
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama ordered his administration Wednesday to stop defending the constitutionality of a federal law that bans recognition of gay marriage, a policy reversal that could have major implications for the rights and benefits of gay couples and reignite an emotional debate for the 2012 presidential campaign.
Obama still is “grappling” with his personal views on whether gays should be allowed to marry but has long opposed the federal law as unnecessary and unfair, said spokesman Jay Carney.
Ford to recall F-150s
WASHINGTON
Under government pressure, Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will recall nearly 150,000 F-150 pickup trucks to fix air bags that could deploy without warning, a fraction of the vehicles the government contends should be called back and repaired.
The recall covers trucks from the 2005-06 model years in the United States and Canada for what the Dearborn, Mich., company calls a “relatively low risk” of the air bag’s deploying inadvertently.
Associated Press