TheState.com: Nation

‘One child,’ one quake, China’s double heartache

Fri, 16 May 2008 21:20 EDT

WUFU, China — After their daughter was born, Bi Kaiwei and his wife, Meilin, decided to adhere to China’s one-child policy and its slogan, “Have fewer kids, live better lives.”

For them and other couples who lost an only child in this week’s massive earthquake, the tragedy has been doubly cruel. Robbed of their sole progeny and a hope for the future, they find it even harder to restart their shattered lives, haunted by guilt, regret and gnawing loss.

“She died before becoming even a young adult,” said Bi, an intense, wiry chemical-plant worker, standing beside the grave of 13-year-old Yuexing — one of dozens sprinkled amid fields of ripened spring wheat and newly planted rice. “She never really knew what life was like.”

Yuexing, a bright sixth-grader, was in school when Monday’s quake struck, bringing the Fuxin No. 2 Primary School crashing down, killing her and 200 other students. Teachers had locked all but one of the school’s doors during break time, parents said, leaving only a single door to escape through.

Many among the more than 22,000 people killed across central China were students. Nearly 6,900 classrooms collapsed, government officials said Friday, in an admission that highlighted a chronically underfunded education system especially in small towns and compounded the anger of many Chinese over the quake.

Myanmar death toll nearing 78,000

Fri, 16 May 2008 21:20 EDT

YANGON, Myanmar — The official death toll nearly doubled to 78,000 from Myanmar’s killer cyclone as heavy rains Friday lashed much of the area stricken two weeks ago, further hampering relief efforts.

Aid workers shackled by the country’s military regime struggled to get even the most basic data about the needs of up to 2.5 million survivors. The Red Cross warned that a lack of clean water may swell the ranks of the dead.

Myanmar state television said the official death count from the May 3 cyclone was 77,738, with 55,917 others missing.

The toll was nearly double the 43,000 previously reported, but the TV announcement suggested it might be close to a final figure. It said the government had “carried out search and rescue and relief work and collection of data, promptly, immediately and extensively.”

The release of the figures led to dire warnings from the United Nations and renewed calls for the military regime to allow international aid workers access to devastated areas.

Oil prices hit new highs, likely to keep rising

Fri, 16 May 2008 21:20 EDT

NEW YORK — As President Bush wrapped up a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Friday, the country’s oil minister announced the desert kingdom had opened its taps and was pumping an additional 300,000 barrels of crude a day.

Back in Washington, the Bush administration bowed to congressional pressure and agreed to temporarily stop filling a key government oil stockpile, potentially increasing supply even further.

One day, two moves designed to allay concerns about an overheated oil market that’s squeezing drivers and inflating the prices of all sorts of goods.

The response from oil traders? They did what they’ve been doing for months now, and pushed crude oil and gasoline futures to new highs.

“All in all, we’re seeing another strong move here on little fundamental news,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates, an oil trading advisory firm in Galena, Ill.

Clyburn defends his decision to hire felon

Thu, 15 May 2008 23:06 EDT

WASHINGTON— U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Thursday defended his decision to hire a convicted felon, recently released from federal prison, who was charged with bribery and extortion.

Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat and the No. 3 U.S. House leader, said former Orangeburg County Council chairman John Rickenbacker has paid his debt to society and deserves a new political lease on life.

“My father was a minister,” Clyburn said. “My faith is very important to me. I do believe in redemption. As a public servant, I believe in rehabilitation. I do believe in the Scripture when it says, ‘Judge not lest ye be judged.’”

Rickenbacker, 56, pleaded guilty in April 2007 to accepting $50,000 from an FBI agent posing as a consultant to a company seeking to buy the Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg.

Rickenbacker was released last month from the Alston Wilkes Society halfway house in Columbia after serving one year and a day in federal prison, most of the time in a minimum-security facility in Bennettsville.

California legalizes same-sex marriages

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:55 EDT

SAN FRANCISCO — A sharply divided California Supreme Court Thursday legalized same-sex marriage, a historic ruling that will allow gay and lesbian couples across the state to wed as soon as next month — and also will inflame the social, political and moral debate over gay unions.

In a 4-3 ruling written by Chief Justice Ronald George, the court struck down California laws that restrict marriage to heterosexual couples, finding the restriction unconstitutional.

The California and Massachussetts Supreme Courts are the only top courts in the country to uphold the right of gay couples to marry.

“The California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples,” the court said in a 121-page decision.

Outside the courthouse, gay-marriage supporters cried and cheered as the news spread.

Woman indicted in MySpace suicide

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:50 EDT

LOS ANGELES — A Missouri woman was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis, who allegedly helped create a MySpace account in the name of someone who didn’t exist to convince Megan Meier she was chatting with a fictional 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, was charged with conspiracy and fraudulently gaining access to someone else’s computer.

Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006, allegedly after receiving a dozen or more cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.

“The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl’s weaknesses,” Hernandez said. “Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she’s responsible for her actions.”

Experts: Hunger crisis demands better farming

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34 EDT

WASHINGTON — The world’s deep hunger crisis could go on for years, and in the long run it’ll take a new scientific agricultural revolution to help farmers in the poorest countries produce enough food, experts said Wednesday at congressional hearings.

The experts said the world must reverse the decline since the 1980s in international support for agriculture in the developing world. Although it’s important to look at short-term fixes, such as more humanitarian aid and a re-examination of trade and biofuels policies, in the long run the world will need scientific advances in agriculture, especially for Africa, they said.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the impact of the food crisis is “one of the most pressing global issues of our time.”

“Some say there are only seven meals between civilization and potential anarchy. At the seventh meal lost, people are reduced to fending for their survival, and the survival of their children, fraying the very moorings of society,” she said.

Some of the causes of the jump in world food prices are expected to continue: the trend in large countries such as China for people to eat more meat and dairy products, thus requiring more feed for livestock; higher oil prices; and more grain used for biofuels.

Polar bears declared endangered

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited dramatic declines in sea ice over the past three decades and projections of continued losses. This means that the polar bear is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future, he said.

But Kempthorne cautioned it would be “wholly inappropriate” to use the protection of the bear to reduce greenhouse gases or to broadly address climate change.

The Endangered Species Act “is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy,” said Kempthorne, reflecting President Bush’s view.

The secretary cited conclusions by department scientists that sea-ice loss will likely result in two-thirds of the polar bears disappearing by mid-century. The bear population across the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland has doubled from about 12,000 to 25,000 since 1960, but he noted that scientists now predict a significant population decline.

Republicans reeling after third House loss

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34 EDT

WASHINGTON — Stunned House Republicans vowed campaign changes Wednesday and debated the wisdom of attacking Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Barack Obama in congressional races after their third straight election defeat in once-friendly territory.

“The political atmosphere ... is the worst since Watergate and far more toxic than the fall of 2006 when we lost 30 seats,” Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia wrote the leadership in a bluntly worded memo.

“Clearly, I think we’ve got to do a better job” going into the November elections, said the Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner, one day after Democrat Travis Childers won a Mississippi congressional victory. That seat had been in Republican hands since the 1994 landslide that swept the GOP into power.

Several lawmakers and aides said a change was possible but far from certain at the National Republican Congressional Committee, where Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole is chairman. Party leaders also said they were on the verge of distributing a campaign season manifesto to their rank and file setting out conservative positions on taxes and other issues.

Davis, a former campaign committee chairman who is retiring at the end of this year, noted that polls show Americans overwhelmingly believe the country is headed down the wrong track, President Bush is unpopular, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee enjoyed a cash advantage of $44 million to $7 million as of March 31.

Cat o’ nine tales: Testing feline personality

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34 EDT

It happens to all of us. You fall in love with someone’s looks ... but then he’s not quite what you expected. Even, sometimes, if he’s a cat.

“People come in and say, I had a black and white tuxedo cat before, so that’s what I want,” says Jim Monsma of the Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington, D.C. “But cats are not all the same. They have widely divergent personalities.”

That’s why the shelter is now using the Feline-ality program, developed by behaviorist Dr. Emily Weiss of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Part of the ASPCA’s Meet Your Match program, which also includes Canine-ality for dogs, the program assesses a variety of behaviors in individual cats. It rates the animals on confidence and sociability, which Weiss’ research has shown are independent of each other.

The program then tallies those assessments to place the cat into nine personality categories, which can be matched with a family’s situation and desires. It’s not unlike a magazine quiz to find out “Which kind of cat are you?”

Left behind: Boy found toddling in airport

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34 EDT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — An immigrant family left a 23-month-old boy in the Vancouver airport and learned he was missing only when contacted during the next leg of the trip.

Jun Parreno, the boy’s father, told The Vancouver Sun the mix-up occurred Monday as he, his wife and two grandparents of the child, J.M., were scrambling between their arrival in Canada and a connecting flight to Winnipeg on Air Canada.

Running late after having to unpack and repack all their luggage, “we had 10 minutes before boarding,” said Parreno, who was emigrating with his family from the Philippines. “We were running for the gate.”

He said he thought his son was with the three other adults, who were running to the gate ahead of him, and they thought the little boy was with him.

Instead, in a scenario similar to the movie “Home Alone,” the toddler was wandering alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gates, said Angela Mah, an Air Canada representative.

O’Connor urges Alzheimer’s aid

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:34 EDT

WASHINGTON — The first woman on the Supreme Court is now the nation’s most prominent Alzheimer’s caregiver.

Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made public her family’s private battle with the mind-destroying illness Wednesday as she urged Congress to speed research in hopes of slowing a coming epidemic.

“Our nation is certainly ready to get deadly serious about this deadly disease,” she told the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

She has a personal stake: “My beloved husband, John, suffers from Alzheimer’s,” she said, her voice briefly wobbling. “He’s not in very good shape at present.”

Her story resonated with senator after senator who told of mothers and fathers crippled and then killed by Alzheimer’s inexorable march — and with a crowd of about 300 onlookers, many wearing purple Alzheimer’s Association sashes, who applauded the calls for aid in a Senate hearing room where such emotion is rare.

Taking pills for daily ills? So are 51% of insured

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:42 EDT

TRENTON, N.J. — For the first time, it appears that more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines regularly for chronic health problems, a study shows.

The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol — problems often linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

The numbers were gathered last year by Medco Health Solutions Inc., which manages prescription benefits for about 1 in 5 Americans.

Experts say the data reflect not just worsening public health but better medicines for chronic conditions and more aggressive treatment by doctors. For example, more people are now taking blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering medicines because they need them, said Dr. Daniel W. Jones, president of the American Heart Association.

In addition, there is the pharmaceutical industry’s relentless advertising. “Unless we do things to change the way we’re managing health in this country ... things will get worse instead of getting better,” predicted Jones, a heart specialist.

Seven bombs kill scores in Indian city

Tue, 13 May 2008 22:27 EDT

JAIPUR, India — In the first terrorist attack in many months, seven bombs went off within minutes of one another on Tuesday evening in the crowded lanes of one of India’s main tourist hubs, the historic city of Jaipur.

Reports of deaths ranged up to 60, with roughly 150 injured, officials said.

The bombs were within a radius of 50 feet, the police said, and may have been planted in the wheels of bicycles, the mangled remains of which were found near many of the blast sites.

There were no claims of responsibility, which is typical of terrorist attacks in India. But the junior minister for home affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal, immediately said “foreign terrorists” were suspected, a phrase understood to refer to India’s neighbor and nuclear rival, Pakistan. Pakistan routinely denies Indian accusations that it is involved in any way in attacks on India.

The explosions began around 7:30 p.m. One went off at a market near a temple dedicated to the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Tuesday is the day of worship set aside for Hanuman, and the temple was crowded with people offering prayers on the way home from work.

Exercise cuts girls’ risk for cancer

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:42 EDT

WASHINGTON — Get your daughters off the couch: New research shows exercise during the teen years — starting as young as age 12 — can help protect girls from breast cancer when they’re grown.

Middle-aged women have long been advised to get active to lower their risk of breast cancer after menopause.

What’s new: Starting so young pays off, too.

“This really points to the benefit of sustained physical activity from adolescence through the adult years, to get the maximum benefit,” said Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the study’s lead author.

Researchers tracked nearly 65,000 nurses ages 24 to 42 who enrolled in a major health study. They answered detailed questionnaires about their physical activity dating back to age 12. Within six years of enrolling, 550 were diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause. A quarter of all breast cancer is diagnosed at these younger ages, when it’s typically more aggressive.

New rule to help prosecute rapists

Tue, 13 May 2008 21:42 EDT

ELKTON, Md. — Starting next year across the country, rape victims too afraid or too ashamed to go to police can undergo an emergency-room forensic rape exam, and the evidence gathered will be kept on file in a sealed envelope in case they decide to press charges.

The new federal requirement that states pay for “Jane Doe rape kits” is aimed at removing one of the biggest obstacles to prosecuting rape cases: Some women are so traumatized they don’t come forward until it is too late to collect hair, semen or other samples.

“Sometimes the issue of actually having to make a report to police can be a barrier to victims, and this will allow that barrier to cease, to allow the victim to think about it before deciding whether to talk to police,” said Carey Goryl, executive director of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

The practice is already followed at some health clinics, colleges and hospitals around the country and by the state of Massachusetts. But many other jurisdictions refuse to cover the estimated $800 cost of a forensic rape exam unless the victim files a police report.

Beginning in 2009, states will have to pay for Jane Doe rape kits to continue receiving funding under the federal Violence Against Women Act, which provides tax dollars for women’s shelters and law enforcement training. States will decide how many locations will offer anonymous rape exams and how long the evidence should be kept.

Of yellow dogs and Democrats

Tue, 13 May 2008 07:45 EDT

GREENVILLE — U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has likely locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, but political consultant and Clinton family adviser James Carville told about 500 people at Furman University that U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton should fight until the last dog dies.

“I still hear some dogs barking,” said Carville, the flamboyant Louisianan known as the left’s ragin’ Cajun. “I’m for Senator Clinton, but I think the great likelihood is that Obama will be the nominee.

“As soon as I determine when that is, I’ll send him a check.”

In an address peppered with his trademark sharp wit, Carville took questions from students and the public for more than an hour. The topics ranged from energy policy and conservation to Carville’s occasional acting roles. But much of the discussion was about the Democratic presidential campaign.

Carville said voters should wait to see results from today’s West Virginia primary, which Clinton is expected to win, and results from the other contests that extend into early June.

Today in History

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:47 EDT

1932: The body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, N.J.

1943: During World War II, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered.

1958: The United States and Canada signed an agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD).

1978: The Commerce Department said hurricanes no longer would be given only female names.

1998: A day after India’s first atomic test blasts in 24 years, neighboring Pakistan said it was ready to test a nuclear device itself.

Stamp prices up to 42 cents

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:46 EDT

Not that you need it, but here’s one more reason to be frustrated by skyrocketing gas prices:

You’ll be paying a penny more to mail a letter starting today.

Rising fuel prices factored into the new cost of a regular postage stamp — 42 cents.

Legislation passed in 2006 allows the Postal Service to adjust its shipping prices each May for inflation.

“When fuel goes up a penny, it costs us $8 million,” Postal Service spokesman Harry Spratlin said.

Box office results

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:47 EDT

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released today.

1. “Iron Man,” $50.5 million

2. “Speed Racer,” $20.2 million

3. “What Happens in Vegas,” $20 million

4. “Made of Honor,” $7.6 million