Iran test fires missiles amid global flap over its nuclear ambitions
TEHRAN (AP) — Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said it successfully test-fired short-range missiles Sunday in drills meant to show Tehran is prepared to crush any military threat from another country.
The display of force comes days after the U.S. and its allies warned Iran over a newly revealed nuclear facility it was secretly constructing.
Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said Iran had perfected its short range missiles to make them more accurate in tactical battlefield situations and defend the country from any attacks.
"We are going to respond to any military action in a crushing manner and it doesn't make any difference which country or regime has launched the aggression," state media quoted Salami as saying. He said the missiles successfully hit their targets.
The tests came two days after the U.S. and its allies disclosed that Iran had been secretly developing a previously unknown underground uranium enrichment facility and warned the country it must open the nuclear site to international inspection or face harsher international sanctions.
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Swiss arrest Roman Polanski on US warrant; faces possible extradition to US over 1977 sex case
ZURICH (AP) — Director Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, authorities said Sunday.
Polanski was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the festival when he was apprehended Saturday at the airport, the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. It said U.S. authorities have sought the arrest of the 76-year-old director around the world since 2005.
"There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming," ministry spokesman Guido Balmer told The Associated Press. "That's why he was taken into custody."
Polanski, the director of such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby," fled the U.S. for France in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with the underage girl.
Polanski has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges' refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.
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William Safire, Nixon speechwriter, conservative NY Times columnist, language guru, dies at 79
NEW YORK (AP) — William Safire, the conservative columnist and word warrior who feared no politician or corner of the English language, died Sunday at age 79.
The Pulitzer Prize winner died in Maryland, his assistant Rosemary Shields said. He had been diagnosed with cancer, but she declined to say when that had happened or what type of cancer he had.
Safire spent more than 30 years writing on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times. In his "On Language" column in The New York Times Magazine and more than a dozen books, Safire traced the origins of words and everyday phrases such as "straw-man," "under the bus" and "the proof is in the pudding."
New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in a statement: "For decades, Bill's columns on The Times's Op-Ed Page and in our Sunday Magazine delighted our readers with his insightful political commentary, his thoughtful analysis of our national discourse and, of course, his wonderful sermons on the use and abuse of language. Bill will be greatly missed."
Michael Oreskes, senior managing editor of The Associated Press, who served as a correspondent and Washington bureau chief of the Times during Safire's years as a columnist, said the conservative writer was a mentor and friend to a generation of Washington journalists of all political persuasions.
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Conservative Merkel roars to 2nd term in German election due to strong coalition partner
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday won the center-right majority that eluded her four years ago — nudging Europe's biggest economic power to the right as it claws its way out of a deep recession.
Voters sent the nation's main left-wing party, the Social Democrats of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, into opposition after 11 years as part of the government. It was the party's worst parliamentary election result since World War II.
"There is no talking around it: this is a bitter defeat," a subdued Steinmeier said, vowing to lead a strong opposition.
The conservative Merkel managed to end her four-year "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats thanks to a very strong showing by her new coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democrats. Her own Christian Democrats produced an underwhelming showing.
"Tonight we can really celebrate," said a beaming Merkel, greeted by chants of "Angie! Angie!" from supporters. "(But) there are many problems in our country to be solved."
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Targeted by suicide bomb, Afghan Cabinet minister threatens to quit post, deplores insecurity
KABUL (AP) — A powerful member of President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet threatened to quit after a suicide car bomb attack targeted him Sunday, killing five people, in the latest Taliban attempt to destabilize Afghanistan's struggling government. Two Americans were among six NATO troop deaths elsewhere.
Shortly after the bombing in the western city of Herat, Energy Minister Ismail Khan railed against the dramatic rise in violence in Afghanistan, saying that thousands of new refugees are seeking shelter in Herat because of militant attacks in outlying districts. Five civilians died in the failed assassination attempt, police said.
Two days ago, Khan said, a young man was hanged by militants only a couple miles (kilometers) outside a NATO base and Afghan government center. Kidnappings of wealthy family members are on the rise, including the abduction of girls, he said.
Khan said government security agents had warned him that insurgents planned to target him. Two earlier assassination attempts had been foiled, he said.
"Very clearly I want to say that if the government does not form a clear strategy to bring peace and security, and the situation continues like this, I will not participate in the Cabinet anymore," Khan said.
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Attorney: Long-secret security tapes of 1995 Oklahoma City bombing appear edited
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.
"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
Trentadue gave copies of the tapes to The Oklahoman newspaper, which posted them online and provided copies to The Associated Press.
The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.
"Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence," Trentadue said.
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More school: Obama says kids need longer school days, shorter summers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
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Big job losses, spike in early retirements claims from seniors swamp Social Security system
WASHINGTON (AP) — Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s.
The deficits — $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 — won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit.
Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.
What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.
"A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire," said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If they were younger, we would call them unemployed."
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'Meatballs' sticks to top of movie menu with $24.6M; 'Surrogates' takes second with $15M
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Movie fans lined up for a second helping of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," which took in $24.6 million to remain No. 1 at the box office for a second straight weekend.
The Sony animated tale raised its domestic haul to $60 million after 10 days in theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" fended off Bruce Willis' action thriller "Surrogates," a Disney release that debuted at No. 2 with $15 million.
Opening in third place with $10 million was MGM's "Fame," a new take on the 1980s music and dance hit about students at a school for performing arts.
Michael Moore's documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" opened strongly in limited release with a $240,000 weekend haul in just four theaters, raising its total to $306,586 since premiering Wednesday. The Overture Films release expands nationwide Friday.
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Yankees clinch AL East and home field through postseason, beat Boston 4-2 for 100th win
NEW YORK (AP) — Andy Pettitte and the New York Yankees wrapped up the AL East title and home-field advantage throughout the postseason with a neat bow, beating the Boston Red Sox 4-2 Sunday for their 100th win of the season.
Hideki Matsui's go-ahead single in the sixth inning energized the damp fans and put them on notice that a party was coming. The first real celebration at the new Yankee Stadium began with a most familiar scene — Mariano Rivera on the mound, closing out another clinching victory.
Catcher Jose Molina leaped up from behind the plate even before Rivera had fielded Jacoby Ellsbury's soft comebacker for the final out. The Yankees swarmed Rivera on the first-base side of the mound while players in the bullpen streamed in.
Nick Swisher wasted no time putting on an AL East Champions hat. The crowd responded with a standing ovation as the Yankees began walking off the field, with captain Derek Jeter at the front and several teammates pulling on gray championship T-shirts.
The Yankees won their first division title since 2006 and, after missing the playoffs last year, let loose with wild champagne sprays in the locker room. Several players wore goggles to protect against the sting.
Source: AP News
