Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Romney: Obama cozies up to Kremlin
LOS ANGELES
Sharpening his attacks, Mitt Romney on Tuesday accused President Barack Obama of trying to ingratiate himself with the Kremlin as part of a pattern of “breathtaking weakness”’ in foreign policy.
“The Russians clearly prefer to do business with the current incumbent of the White House,” Romney wrote in an opinion piece on the website of the magazine Foreign Policy.
The article represented an escalation of an attack Romney first leveled after Obama told outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev he needed “space” to deal with missile-defense issues because he would have more “flexibility” after the November elections.
Romney then drew criticism Tuesday from Medvedev after he labeled the Russians as America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe” in a Monday interview. The Russian president said Romney’s comment “smacked of Hollywood” and recalled the bygone Cold War era.
Greater security for SAT and ACT
MINEOLA, N.Y.
The millions of students who take the SAT or ACT each year will have to submit photos of themselves when they sign up for the college entrance exams, under a host of new security measures announced Tuesday in the aftermath of a major cheating scandal on Long Island.
The two companies that administer the tests, the College Board and ACT Inc., agreed to the precautions under public pressure brought to bear by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, who is overseeing the investigation. The measures take effect in the fall.
hLorax missing from Seuss home
SAN DIEGO
They took the Lorax, made of bronze, the thieves they came, and now he’s gone.
A 2-foot statue of Dr. Seuss’ Lorax character was stolen from the San Diego backyard garden of the 90-year-old widow of the beloved author whose real name was Theodore Geisel.
Audrey Geisel noticed the statue and its tree-stump base were missing from the garden and likely were stolen over the weekend.
Property manager Carl Romero told U-T San Diego on Tuesday that he found footprints indicating the thieves had dragged the 300-pound statue to an access road and lifted it over a fence.
Pope prays for freedom in Cuba
HAVANA
Pope Benedict XVI prayed for freedom and renewal “for the greater good of all Cubans” before the nation’s patron saint Tuesday, but the island’s communist leaders quickly rejected the Roman Catholic leader’s appeal for political change after five decades of one-party rule.
The exchange came hours ahead of a meeting with President Raul Castro behind closed doors on the pontiff’s second day on the island.
Combined dispatches