Wednesday, June 26, 2013
S. Africa: Mandela kin gather at home
JOHANNESBURG
Members of Nelson Mandela’s family and tribal elders gathered Tuesday at the former president’s rural hometown in eastern South Africa, as concern grew for the 94-year-old leader who spent a third day in critical condition in a hospital, local media reported.
The office of President Jacob Zuma said Mandela’s condition remained unchanged after reporting late Sunday that his health had deteriorated to critical, alarming many South Africans as well as people around the world who regard the former president as a symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation.
Longtime rep wins Mass. Senate seat
BOSTON
Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey defeated Republican political newcomer Gabriel Gomez in a special election Tuesday for the state’s U.S. Senate seat long held by John Kerry, a race that failed to draw the attention that the state’s 2010 special Senate election did.
Markey, 66, won the early backing of Kerry and much of the state’s Democratic political establishment, which was set on avoiding a repeat of the stunning loss it suffered three years ago, when Republican state Sen. Scott Brown upset Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley in the election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Fire, explosion at St. Louis building
ST. LOUIS
A fire and explosion that apparently started in an underground electrical transformer sent fireballs and thick black smoke shooting from a street outside one of the largest office buildings in downtown St. Louis late Tuesday afternoon. No injuries were reported.
Several hundred people were evacuated from the 36-story One US Bank Plaza building after explosions occurred in the street outside just before 5 p.m. The building is across from the St. Louis Convention Center, and construction work has been underway in the area for a couple of months.
The cause was not immediately known, but Fire Capt. Daniel Sutter said it originated in an underground vault that houses an electrical transformer. Sutter said the initial suspicion was that the transformer caught fire.
Obama unveils plan to combat warming
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama laid out an ambitious campaign to address climate change Tuesday, mapping a course that would bypass Congress to cut emissions from hundreds of coal-fired electric power plants and setting the stage for a possible rejection of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The effort could shape Obama’s presidential legacy and fulfill a key promise of his 2008 campaign. It also could plunge him into a bruising and potentially costly political battle.
Iraq bombing kills 23 among protesters
BAGHDAD
A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of demonstrators complaining about lack of security in an ethnically disputed northern Iraqi city Tuesday, in the deadliest in a spate of attacks that killed at least 23 people, authorities said.
Iraq is weathering its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed since the start of April. The bloodshed appears to be largely the work of resurgent Sunni militants such as al-Qaida, feeding off Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government.
Combined dispatches