U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | W.Va.’s Sen. Manchin upbraids Obama

W. Va.’s Sen. Manchin upbraids Obama

WASHINGTON

A freshman Democratic senator accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of failing to provide leadership on a worsening national deficit as top Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill spent more time pointing fingers than seeking common ground on a must-do measure to fund the government for the next six months. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., called on Obama to lead “tough negotiations” on wrapping up last year’s unfinished budget work and said that “right now, that is not happening.”

Yemeni army storms university; 98 wounded

SAN‘A, Yemen

The Yemeni government escalated its efforts to stop mass protests calling for the president’s ouster Tuesday, with soldiers firing rubber bullets and tear gas at students camped at a university in the capital in a raid that left at least 98 people wounded, officials said. The army stormed the San‘a University campus hours after thousands of inmates rioted at the central prison in the capital, taking a dozen guards hostage and calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. At least one prisoner was killed and 80 people were wounded as the guards fought to control the situation, police said.

NPR exec blasts tea party in hidden video

WASHINGTON

A National Public Radio executive was captured on hidden camera calling the tea-party movement racist and xenophobic and said NPR would be better off without federal funding, in an embarrassment likely to fuel the latest round of conservative attacks on public broadcasting.

The video was posted Tuesday by James O’Keefe, the same activist whose undercover videos have targeted other groups opposed by conservatives, such as the community-organizing group ACORN and Planned Parenthood.

It drew swift reaction from Republicans in Congress, who are renewing efforts to cut funding to public broadcasters.

National Public Radio said in a statement that it was “appalled” by the comments from Ron Schiller, the president of NPR’s fundraising arm and a senior vice president for development.

Young Mexican police chief seeks US asylum

EL PASO, Texas

A young woman who received death threats after recently becoming police chief of a violence-plagued Mexican town is in the U.S. and seeking asylum, Mexican and U.S. officials said Tuesday. Marisol Valles Garcia, 20, made international headlines when she accepted the top law-enforcement job in Praxedis G. Guerrero, a township near the Texas border that has been overcome by drug violence. Her predecessor was shot to death in July 2009.

Phila. archdiocese suspends 21 priests

PHILADELPHIA

The Philadelphia archdiocese suspended 21 Roman Catholic priests Tuesday who were named as child-molestation suspects in a scathing grand-jury report last month, a move that comes more than eight years after U.S. bishops pledged swift action to keep potential abusers away from young people. The priests have been removed from ministry while their cases are reviewed, Cardinal Justin Rigali said. The names of the priests were not being released, a spokesman for the archdiocese said.

Associated Press