Monday, May 23, 2011
Militants storm Pakistani navy base
KARACHI, Pakistan
Islamist militants stormed a naval base in the Pakistani city of Karachi late Sunday, destroying a U.S.-supplied surveillance aircraft, firing rockets and battling commandos sent to subdue them in one of the most brazen attacks in years, officials said.
At least four navy personnel were killed and nine wounded in fighting at the Naval Station Mehran that was going on more than four hours after the strike began, said navy spokesman Irfan ul Haq. He did not know how many militants had been killed or wounded.
Between 10 and 15 attackers entered the high-security facility before splitting up into smaller groups, setting off explosions and hiding in the sprawling facility, he said.
Yemeni leader again balks at leaving
SANAA, Yemen
Armed with guns, knives and swords, supporters of Yemen’s leader trapped U.S., European and Arab ambassadors at a diplomatic mission in new turmoil that swept across the capital Sunday as the president refused to sign an agreement calling for him to step down in 30 days.
Security forces broke up the crowd after several hours of letting them besiege the embassy. But President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s balking at the U.S.-backed deal threatened to wreck hopes for a peaceful resolution to the chaos that has consumed this key Arab nation, where hundreds of thousands have protested for three months, defying a bloody crackdown, to demand his ouster.
Pawlenty announces presidential run
DES MOINES, Iowa
Republican Tim Pawlenty says his presidential campaign will tell the American people the truth and suggests that President Barack Obama doesn’t.
The former Minnesota governor released an Internet video Sunday ahead of a public appearance today in Iowa, where he planned to formally enter the race for the 2012 GOP nomination.
Pawlenty says in the video what aides already had disclosed, saying, “I’m running for president of the United States.” He says the country needs a president who will tell the American people the truth about the severe challenges facing the country and how America can get back on track.
Pawlenty says, “President Obama won’t do that. I will.”
He adds, “Together, we will change this country, and this time it’ll be for the better.”
Agonizing wait continues in La.
BUTTE LAROSE La.
Louisiana residents in the path of diverted floodwaters from the bloated Mississippi River kept up an agonizing vigil as hundreds of homes outside levees are threatened by the slow-moving surge that has swamped houses as high as the rooftops in Mississippi.
Floodwaters intentionally redirected by the Army Corps of Engineers into Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin still haven’t reached a number of small towns along that route. Meanwhile, Vicksburg and other cities upriver in Mississippi reported early signs that water levels were just beginning to slowly ebb as the floodwater bulge heads south to the Gulf of Mexico.
The corps partially opened the Mississippi River’s Morganza floodway May 14 to spare densely populated Baton Rouge and New Orleans from catastrophic flooding, but the water it was diverting from the river into the Atchafalaya Basin still hasn’t crested in Butte LaRose and other small communities in south Louisiana.
Associated Press