Obama lineage could include slave

Obama lineage could include slave

SALT LAKE CITY

A team of genealogists has found evidence that President Barack Obama could be a descendent of an African slave — but not through the lineage of his black father, the most likely route researchers had followed and exhausted.

The link, genealogists with Ancestry.com said Monday, is, in fact, through an examination of his white mother’s family history.

Ancestry.com says the maternal line traces back to one of the first documented African slaves in the U.S.

The company said Obama could be the 11th great- grandson of John Punch, an African slave in colonial Virginia. He is believed to have had children with a white woman, starting a family line that led generations later to Obama’s mother.

The White House declined to comment Monday.

Northern India has major blackout

NEW DELHI

A massive breakdown of India’s electricity grid cut power to 370 million people in seven northern states Monday, halting trains, cutting water supplies and creating commuter mayhem.

The crisis, which hit soon after midnight, knocked out power to the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh, which has more people than Brazil. By some accounts, it was the worst blackout in India since 2001.

By late afternoon, the government reported that power had been restored.

Ariz. abortion ban set to take effect

PHOENIX

Arizona’s ban on abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy is poised to take effect this week after a federal judge ruled Monday that the new law is constitutional.

U.S. District Judge James Teilborg says the statute may prompt a few pregnant women who are considering abortion to make the decision earlier. But he says the law is constitutional because it doesn’t prohibit any women from making the decision to end their pregnancies.

The ban, set to take effect Thursday, prohibits abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy except in medical emergencies. That’s a change from the current ban at viability, which is the ability to survive outside the womb and which is about 24 weeks.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights and another group filed a notice that they would be appealing Teilborg’s decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Negotiators agree on Iran sanctions

WASHINGTON

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Monday on a new round of stifling sanctions on Iran, targeting energy, shipping and insurance sectors with punitive measures to derail Tehran’s suspected push for nuclear weapons.

Lawmakers filed a final bill late Monday, with a House vote expected as early as Wednesday.

Bill would restrict ammo purchases

NEW YORK

Ten days after the Colorado movie theater massacre, federal lawmakers introduced a bill that would effectively ban people like suspect James Holmes from buying thousands of rounds of ammunition by mail or online.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey was joined Monday on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York to announce the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act.

Under the bill, only licensed dealers would be allowed to sell ammunition. They would have to notify a law- enforcement official within five business days about any sale of more than 1,000 rounds to an unlicensed person.

Combined dispatches