Saturday, November 16, 2013
Philippine town starts rebuilding
GUIUAN, Philippines
People swept dirt from the pews and wiped clean the mud-covered, ornate tile floors of a church. The sound of hammers hitting nails and the buzzing of chain saws reverberated in the streets. Debris was piled on corners and set ablaze.
And amid all this activity, a stream of bodies continued their final journey toward a hillside mass grave where nearly 170 had been buried by Friday afternoon.
One week after Typhoon Haiyan razed the eastern part of the Philippines, killing thousands and leaving at least 600,000 homeless, resilient residents of the disaster zone were rebuilding their lives and those of their neighbors.
Seattle elects socialist to council
SEATTLE
Seattle voters have elected a socialist to city council for the first time in modern history.
Kshama Sawant’s lead continued to grow Friday, prompting 16-year incumbent Richard Conlin to concede.
Even in this liberal city, Sawant’s win has surprised many here. Conlin was backed by the city’s political establishment. On election night, she trailed by four percentage points. She wasn’t a veteran politician, having run in only one previous campaign.
But in the days after election night, Sawant’s share of the votes outgrew Conlin’s.
“I don’t think socialism makes most people in Seattle afraid,” Conlin said Friday.
While city council races are technically nonpartisan, Sawant made sure people knew she was running as a socialist — a label that would be politically poisonous in many parts of the country.
China to abolish labor camps, ease one-child policy
BEIJING
China’s leaders announced Friday the first significant easing of its one-child policy in nearly 30 years and moved to abolish its labor-camp system — addressing deeply unpopular programs at a time when the Communist Party feels increasingly alienated from the public.
Beijing also pledged to open state-dominated industries wider to private competition and ease limits on foreign investment in e-commerce and other businesses in a sweeping reform plan aimed at rejuvenating a slowing economy.
The extent of the long-debated changes to the family-planning rules and the labor-camp system surprised some analysts. They were contained in a policy document issued after a four-day meeting of party leaders one year after Xi Jinping took the country’s helm.
Bodies believed to be missing family
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.
Four skeletons found in shallow graves in the Southern California desert are believed to be those of a San Diego County family that vanished three years ago, police said Friday, resolving one mystery and raising a host of new questions about what happened to the seemingly happy couple and their two young sons.
The McStay family — 40-year-old Joseph, his 43-year-old wife, Summer, and their sons Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3 — were apparent homicide victims, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.
Police now will try to piece together what led the McStays to disappear and end up 100 miles from their home.
Associated Press