Palestinian leader says Hamas caused prolonged war
Palestinian leader says Hamas caused prolonged war
RAMALLAH, West Bank
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Hamas on Friday for extending fighting with Israel in the Gaza Strip, casting doubt on the future of the Palestinian unity government that the Islamic militant group backs, while Israel’s premier said the end of the war could mark resumption of peace talks with Abbas.
Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that it is still too early to tell “if the new reality” would allow a political process to resume but said he is examining the possibility.
The remarks by the leaders come a few days after Israel and Hamas militants reached a truce after 50 bitter days of fighting.
Obama blasts GOP at Dem fundraisers
PURCHASE, N.Y.
NEWPORT, R.I.
President Barack Obama on Friday blamed dysfunction in Congress on a Republican Party he said is captive to an ideologically rigid, unproductive and cynical faction, urging like-minded Democrats to show up for November’s midterm elections.
Addressing Democratic donors at a fundraiser in Rhode Island and another in New York, Obama said Republicans had realized that blocking all progress led Americans to become cynical about government. Republicans consider that “a pretty good thing” because they don’t believe in government to begin with, Obama said.
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Obama said during a barbecue in Purchase, N.Y. “There has been a certain cynical genius to what some of these folks have done in Washington.”
Border agent fires at militia member
BROWNSVILLE, Texas
The Border Patrol says an agent shot at someone near the Texas-Mexico border who later identified himself as a militia member.
Border Patrol spokesman Omar Zamora said that agents pursuing a group of immigrants east of Brownsville on Friday came upon a man holding a weapon near the river. An agent fired multiple shots but did not hit the armed man. The man then identified himself as a member of a militia.
An unknown number of militia members have come to the Texas border after a surge in illegal immigration.
Zamora said no other details were immediately available.
This month, the Border Patrol warned its agents about militia members after seven of them were initially mistaken for a Texas Department of Public Safety tactical team near Mission.
Victim’s family feels sorry for girl who killed instructor
SAN DIEGO
The accidental killing of a firing-range instructor by a 9-year-old girl learning to shoot an Uzi unleashed a storm of criticism and anger, with much of it aimed at her parents.
But the ex-wife and children of instructor Charles Vacca say they harbor no ill feelings toward the girl and her family. Instead, they feel sorry for the child and want to write her a letter to comfort her.
“That’s truly how we feel,” Vacca’s ex-wife, Anamarie, told The Associated Press by phone.
Charles Vacca was standing next to the girl when she squeezed the trigger at the Last Stop range in White Hills, Ariz., about 60 miles south of Las Vegas.
The recoil wrenched the Uzi upward, and the 39-year-old Vacca was fatally shot once in the head.
Anamarie Vacca said she has not spoken to the girl or her parents since the accident Monday, but her children want to write the letter, “knowing their family has to grieve through the same process.”
Associated Press