House GOP budget plan draws scorn
House GOP budget plan draws scorn
washington
The new debt-slashing budget plan pushed by House Republicans heated up as a presidential campaign issue Sunday as the proposal’s architect, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, sparred with top Democrats over its political fallout and downplayed the possibility he could be tapped as a vice presidential candidate.
Senior White House adviser David Plouffe dismissed the GOP plan Sunday as “a lot of candy, not a lot of vegetables,” and charged that it would be “rubber-stamped” as law if leading Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is elected.
Gunman’s brother is facing charges
paris
A Frenchman suspected of helping his brother plot attacks against Jewish schoolchildren and paratroopers was handed preliminary murder and terrorism charges Sunday.
But Abdelkader Merah denied any role in the attacks. Investigators looking into France’s worst terror attacks in years believe Merah helped his brother Mohamed prepare the killings and are investigating whether they were linked to an international network of extremists or worked on their own.
Quake hits Chile
santiago, chile
A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck central Chile on Sunday night, the strongest and longest that many people said they had felt since a huge quake devastated the area two years ago. There were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage.
The quake struck at 7:30 p.m. about 16 miles northwest of Talca, a city of more than 200,000 people where residents said the shaking lasted about a minute. Residents were particularly alarmed in Constitucion, where much of the coastal downtown at the mouth of a river was obliterated by the tsunami caused by the 8.8-magnitude quake in 2010.
Suspect arrested in killing of 5 at home
san francisco
A 35-year-old man was arrested Sunday in the gruesome killing of five people in a San Francisco home, police said.
Binh Thai Luc, a San Francisco resident, was taken into custody Sunday and booked on five counts of murder, Police Chief Greg Suhr said.
The bodies of the three women and two men were found early Friday by a woman with access to the home in the southern part of the city. Police said the crime scene was so tangled that police couldn’t determine the cause of deaths.
He declined to release details of the arrest or what led investigators to Luc.
Floods in Ecuador force out thousands
quito, ecuador
Ecuador’s government says floods and mudslides have caused at least 10 deaths so far this year and forced about 4,700 people to flee their homes.
Heavy rains have set off mudslides in areas and caused rivers to overflow.
The government emergency-management office said on Sunday that at least 10 people have died and 14 have been injured during heavy rains since January.
Islamists tighten grip
cairo
Egypt’s newly empowered Islamists have tightened their grip, giving themselves a majority on a 100-member panel tasked with drafting a constitution that will define the shape of the government in the post-Hosni Mubarak era. Led by the Muslim Brotherhood to victory in parliamentary elections, fundamentalists now have their eyes set on the next prize: the presidency.
Associated Press