Bush helps renovate center on African trip

Bush helps renovate center on African trip

DALLAS

Former President George W. Bush has been helping to renovate a women’s cancer-screening center in Zambia during a weeklong trip to Africa.

Bush, clad in a T-shirt and jeans, painted and hauled lumber at the Ngungu Health Center in Kabwe, about 90 miles north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka. The center will start screening and treating women today for cervical cancer and pre-cancer.

The former president and his wife, Laura, are in Africa to promote a partnership between the George W. Bush Institute, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, UNAIDS and Susan G. Komen for the Cure that aims to fight cervical and breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.

Fatal crash grounds firefighting aircraft

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.

The deadly crash of a military cargo plane fighting a South Dakota wildfire forced officials to ground seven other Air Force air tankers, removing critical firefighting aircraft from the skies during one of the busiest and most destructive wildfire seasons ever to hit the West.

The C-130 from an Air National Guard wing based in Charlotte, N.C., was carrying a crew of six and fighting a 6.5-square-mile blaze in the Black Hills of South Dakota when it crashed Sunday, killing at least one crew member and injuring others.

President Barack Obama offered thoughts and prayers to the crew and their families. “The men and women battling these terrible fires across the West put their lives on the line every day for their fellow Americans,” he said in a statement.

Official: Odds against undoing health care law

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky.

It’s on his to-do list, but U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the odds are against repealing the health care law championed by President Barack Obama.

The Kentucky Republican said Monday it’s hard to unravel something of the magnitude of the 2,700-page health care law, WHAS-TV reports.

“If you thought it was a good idea for the federal government to go in this direction, I’d say the odds are still on your side,” McConnell said. “Because it’s a lot harder to undo something than it is to stop it in the first place.”

Syrian opposition makes push to unite

CAIRO

The Arab League chief urged exiled Syrian opposition figures to unite at a meeting Monday as a new Western effort to force President Bashar Assad from power faltered. Another 85 soldiers, including a general, fled to Turkey in a growing wave of defections.

Turkey’s state-run Andolou news agency said the group of defectors also included 14 other officers, ranging from one colonel to seven captains. It is one of the largest groups of Syrian army defectors to cross into Turkey since the uprising against Assad began.

Associated Press