Veterans still struggling to find their bearings

My plan was to check in on Greg Valentini, who fought for the U.S. Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But I couldn't get into his locked apartment building Monday afternoon in Hollywood. He hadn't answered my phone calls or emails, and it was too hot to wait on the street.

Just as I was about to give up on him, a young man approached on foot, stood under Valentini's window and gave a yell.

"Greg!" called the man, whose name is Jacob Alatriste.

"You think he's in there?" I asked.

"Yes," said Alatriste, who was carrying a baseball jersey he'd picked up from the dry cleaners as a favor for his friend. "I was in there with him earlier. But he's got the air conditioner on, and he probably can't hear anything."

Alatriste knew that I'd written several columns about Valentini, who crashed hard after leaving the military and ended up living in a tent next to Long Beach Airport. When Valentini got caught stealing to feed a drug habit, he landed in a residential recovery program called the Hollywood Center, run by Volunteers of America for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alatriste, himself a veteran of the Iraq war, had gone through the same program. Now, like Valentini, he's still trying to get his bearings.

But it hasn't been easy. Alatriste, 28, told me how he'd just tangled with some tough guys at a nearby sober-living house and gotten himself kicked out.

"So where are you going to live?" I asked.

"I guess I'm going to be homeless for a while," said Alatriste, who told me he has a job but hasn't saved enough to get a place.

As we talked, two more of Valentini's friends approached. Robert Rissman, 24, who fought in Iraq, is currently in the Hollywood Center program. He was with his pregnant fiancee, Marilyn Flores, 19, and I realized that even if Valentini never opened the door, I was still getting a look at the challenges of returning to civilian life after deployment.

Rissman was in a jam, partly of his own making and partly because bureaucracy can easily get in the way of good intentions. He had completed the program and gotten a coveted housing voucher, but it lapsed before he could save up enough money to meet his part of the rent. He went back to the Hollywood Center, but his next application for a voucher was rejected, so now he's contemplating his next move.

"I'm just a veteran's fiancee," Flores said.

I asked where she was living.

"In my car," she said, pointing up the street to a 1999 Isuzu, and explaining how she curls up in the back of the vehicle at night, despite being more than six months pregnant. "Sometimes I couch surf."

Rissman wants to finish school and get a good job, he said, but at the moment all he's got is a 50% disability check for service-related post-traumatic stress disorder.

Flores would like to find a decent studio apartment near MacArthur Park, which she thinks they could get for $700 a month, but Rissman said he doubted that.

"Because you're depressed," she said.

"No, because I've been disappointed many times," he answered.

As we spoke, I noted that the U.S. flag was flying from the porch of a sweet little cottage across the street, perhaps in early celebration of the Fourth of July.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Snowden still looking for place to go after ruling out Russia

MOSCOW — With his prospects for refuge narrowing, Edward Snowden withdrew an application for asylum in Russia, apparently deciding that he couldn't abide by President Vladimir Putin's insistence that he stop leaking U.S. secrets, a Kremlin spokesman said Tuesday.

"True, Snowden did voice a request to stay in Russia," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "At the same time, having found out yesterday about Russia's position outlined by President Putin … he rejected his intention and his request to get a chance to stay in Russia."

Putin had said Monday that the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor must stop activities "aimed at damaging our American partners" if he wanted to be granted asylum in Russia.

"As far as we know he is not going to give those up," Peskov said of Snowden.

Putin had also said that, regardless of Snowden's application, Russia would not turn him over to U.S. authorities for prosecution.

The WikiLeaks organization, which is helping Snowden, said Tuesday that the fugitive has applied for asylum in 20 other countries, but many of them appear to be unlikely refuges and several announced that they would not accept him. The countries listed by WikiLeaks were: Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela.

Most of those countries have extradition agreements with the United States, which has issued a warrant for Snowden's arrest.

On Tuesday, a plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales home from a summit of major gas exporters at the Kremlin was rerouted to Austria after France and Portugal refused to let it cross their airspace because of suspicion the Snowden was aboard, Bolivia's foreign minister told the Associated Press.

Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca denied that Snowden was on the plane, which landed in Vienna. Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told the AP that Snowden is not with Morales and that the Bolivian president was spending the night at a Vienna hotel.

"We don't know who invented this lie. We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales," Choquehuanca was quoted as saying from Vienna.

Morales had said in an interview with Russia Today television that Bolivia would be willing to consider granting asylum to Snowden.

Among the other remaining possibilities was Venezuela, whose president, Nicolas Maduro, was also at the Moscow summit.

Maduro told reporters that he was unaware of Snowden's asylum application and intended to return home with "numerous agreements related to investments in the oil and gas sphere" — but apparently not with Snowden. Maduro, a persistent critic of the United States who has inherited the mantle of the late President Hugo Chavez, did praise Snowden for telling "the big truth to prevent wars."

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski posted a message on Twitter that he would not grant the request. Brazil, Germany and India were among other countries that said they would not accept Snowden.

Leonid Kalashnikov, deputy head of the foreign relations committee of the lower house of Russia's parliament, said that Putin doesn't want to quarrel with the United States over Snowden.

"The way the Kremlin presents it, Putin wants to save face before the nations by not bowing to the United States. But at the same time, he doesn't want to sacrifice what positive aspects still remain in U.S.-Russian relations over the fugitive," Kalashnikov said. "I am very sorry for Snowden, who keeps being rejected by the countries he was counting on for protection.

"His situation is dire but not hopeless, as the Kremlin will now do its best to find a safe place for him in a third country."

sergei.loiko@latimes.com

The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Candlelight vigil honors fallen Arizona firefighters

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — As darkness fell over the mountains and more than 550 firefighters battled a deadly blaze in nearby Yarnell, about 3,000 people gathered at the high school football field Tuesday evening to honor the 19 firefighters who died on the fire line.

People held handmade signs reading, "We stand united," "We love our 19 heroes," or simply "19." Many wore purple ribbons and clothes in memory of the fallen.

Relatives of the lost firefighters, including widow Juliann Ashcraft, who spoke with The Times earlier in the day, sat near a stage in the center of the field.

As the service began, the Rev. John Dickerson asked the families to stand and face the packed field and bleachers.

"We want you to know we love you and we're here to support you," he said as the crowd applauded.

Many of the firefighters who died Sunday were in their 20s. Some had young families.

"We will tell their children for years to come, 'Your daddy is a hero,'" Dickerson said. "Your loved ones laid down their lives. Tonight you are loved by their community."

The crowd included many firefighters, some of whom wore gear from stations in Arizona, New Mexico and California.

Some wore black T-shirts with the logo of the fallen crew, the Granite Mountain hotshots. One man wearing the T-shirt said he had belonged to the crew, but didn't want to speak. He had tears in his eyes.

Dawn Cooley, 39, an office manager in Prescott, arrived with a shred of yellow tied around her wrist. It was part of a local hotshot uniform that one of the firefighter's wives had given her.

Cooley's ex-husband helped start the Granite Mountain hotshot crew back in 2002. When she saw relatives of the crew at the field, she hugged them.

"I don't know what to do," she said. "After things calm down a bit, I'm sure I can get in there and help."

She came to the vigil "to show respect."

"These boys laid it on the line. They don't know who they're protecting." Thinking of her ex, she said, "I'm glad he wasn't out there, but I'm sad that they were."

Nearby, the Rev. Steve Francis of Mountaintop Christian Fellowship mingled with the crowd, hugging friends. He wore a tag that said, "Prayer." He helped organize the event after spending the past few days meeting with families of the fallen.

Francis serves as fire department chaplain: It fell to him to notify the families.

"They're so young," he said, choking up as he remembered their reactions. "You need to be able to hold someone at that time and let them know it's OK to be angry with God. God doesn't promise the world is a safe place."

The families are grieving at different paces, with some still in shock, he said.

"We want them to know the community supports them, but beyond that, the community is hurting. They're asking, 'God, why would you do this?' So this is as much for them, to heal," he said.

At sunset, organizers gathered a bunch of purple balloons and released them during a moment of silence. As they ascended into the sky, a trumpeter began to play Taps. 

Near the end of the event, organizers acknowledged the surviving hotshot crew member, Brendan McDonough, calling out his name and asking him to stand. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.

"I was surprised he came — losing all his buddies, the whole crew," said Debbie Habatone, 46, a student and artist from Prescott. "I was really glad to see him there, to know he came out."

[Updated, 9:47 p.m. July 2: This post has been updated to include the crowd honoring the surviving hotshot.]

ALSO:

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollyhf

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Edward Snowden accuses Obama of 'deception'

MOSCOW — Edward Snowden plaintively appealed Monday from his diplomatic limbo in Moscow for relief from what he described as President Obama's use of "deception" and the "bad tools of political aggression" in pressuring other countries to deny him asylum.

In a statement posted on WikiLeaks' website, the fugitive former National Security Agency analyst accused Obama of seeking to make him stateless.

Snowden's first communication in more than a week exuded the strain of being trapped in a diplomatic no man's land and seeing earlier offers of refuge being rescinded.

Russian news media reported Monday that Snowden had applied for asylum in Russia and 14 other countries. But Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that any grant of refuge would be contingent on Snowden ceasing to leak sensitive classified information "aimed at damaging our American partners."

The 30-year-old Snowden had his U.S. passport revoked midway through what has been a monthlong, globe-trotting flight after revealing a massive domestic and international surveillance program by U.S. intelligence.

Snowden has been holed up in a transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for more than a week, without documents that allow him to proceed through passport control, purchase plane tickets on outbound flights or even change currency or access foreign bank accounts.

He accused the U.S. government of threatening his freedom and safety "for revealing the truth."

"This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extra-legal penalty of exile," Snowden wrote. "These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

Snowden remains a U.S. citizen despite having his passport invalidated, and administration officials have said his return to the United States would be facilitated if he decided to face the espionage charges against him.

"The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon," Snowden lamented. "Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person."

He was issued special travel documents by Ecuadorean diplomats in Moscow last week but officials in Quito, Ecuador's capital, canceled them, saying they were improperly provided.

Ecuadorean officials initially hinted that they would give Snowden refuge. But a lucrative trade pact with Washington expired Sunday and fears that it won't be renewed could be behind Quito's apparently revised attitude toward Snowden. Some officials in Quito have renounced the trade pact, saying it would be used by the U.S. as "blackmail." But the special status granted Ecuadorean goods is worth $400 million a year, and as many as 40,000 jobs could be lost without a new deal.

As reverberations from Snowden's disclosures of NSA surveillance continued to echo internationally, Putin offered head-spinning comments about the American fugitive.

"If he wants to go somewhere and somebody will host him — no problem," Putin said at a news conference. "If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners."

Putin acknowledged the oddity of insisting on protection of U.S. secrets, saying he was sincere about muzzling Snowden "no matter how strange it may sound on my lips." Putin added, though, that Snowden appears to have no intention of stopping his leaks, "so he must choose for himself a country to stay in and move there."

There has been widespread speculation that any secret data Snowden is carrying has already been compromised by Chinese and Russian intelligence during his stays in Hong Kong and Moscow.

Snowden met at the airport earlier Monday with Russian consular officials and handed them an appeal to 15 countries for political asylum, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official didn't name the countries, but Kim Shevchenko, a Russian consular official, told the Interfax news agency that Russia was among them.

Igor Korotchenko, editor in chief of the monthly National Defense journal, said Putin was, in effect, offering a peace deal to the United States.

"Putin publicly pledged that if Snowden stays in Russia, the Kremlin will do its best to prevent any public exposures in the Russian mass media of the CIA's and NSA's secret activities," Korotchenko said. "Washington should see this as a fair deal, a much better bargain than if Snowden goes on to Venezuela and continues to expose U.S. special services' operations."

Russia has been hosting a meeting of the world's major gas-exporting countries. Among those attending was Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. There has been speculation that Snowden might fly to Caracas with Maduro to evade being arrested in transit.

sergei.loiko@latimes.com

carol.williams@latimes.com

Loiko reported from Moscow and Williams from Los Angeles.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Texas lawmakers begin special session over abortion bill

AUSTIN, Texas — State troopers lined the halls of the Texas Capitol and 5,000 protesters rallied outside against proposed abortion legislation as lawmakers convened Monday for a second special session that Republican leaders pledged wouldn't descend into chaos like the first.

The Texas House and Senate each met for less than an hour before recessing for the week. That was just long enough to schedule new committee hearings for the proposed restrictions that would make Texas one of the toughest places in the nation to get an abortion.

Less than a week earlier, Democrats scored a rare victory in the GOP-dominated Legislature by running out the clock on the first special session.

Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth was on her feet for more than 12 hours — speaking most of that time — during the Democratic filibuster. When Republicans used parliamentary technicalities to silence her, hundreds of protesters in the public gallery and surrounding Capitol corridors cheered so loudly that work on the bill couldn't be completed before the midnight deadline.

"You're going to see a completely different debate this time around," said Rep. Steve Toth, a Republican from The Woodlands. "We're not under that kind of timeline this time around."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst took no chances with raucous protesters in Monday's special session. Security was much tighter than before, with troopers — some of them in riot gear — throughout the Capitol.

Dewhurst said the Senate would make one major procedural change as well. Rather than follow tradition and require a two-thirds vote to bring up a bill for consideration, he said it would take only a simple majority this session. That could prove crucial because Democrats hold 12 of 31 seats and successfully blocked the abortion law during the regular legislative session.

On the House side, State Affairs Chairman Byron Cook, a Republican, said he would allow less than nine hours of public testimony on the bill. Public protests erupted two weeks ago when he cut off testimony during the last session after 12 hours and denied more than 260 women the chance to speak.

Although there would be no action during the Fourth of July week, committees were set to hold public hearings on the measure.

Cook said his committee could approve the bill early Wednesday. The soonest the bill could pass the full Legislature is July 10, unless the Republican majorities suspend the rules to move it sooner. Gov. Rick Perry could sign the bill into law almost immediately.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

U.S. orders $12.5-million payment to victims of racial harassment

U.S. Department of Justice officials have demanded that Los Angeles County, Lancaster and Palmdale pay a total of $12.5 million to residents who the federal government found were victims of harassment and intimidation in the Antelope Valley.

The demand coincides with last week's accusation by the Justice Department that Antelope Valley authorities conducted a systematic effort to discriminate against African Americans who received low-income subsidized housing and that sheriff's deputies engaged in widespread unlawful searches of homes, improper detentions and unreasonable force.

Assistant County Counsel Roger Granbo, describing the Justice Department's position, said the money would go to people whose civil rights were violated when deputies and housing inspectors visited their homes to check on whether they were complying with the Section 8 rental program requirements.

The payments would come from the two cities, the county's Housing Authority and the Sheriff's Department, he said. Granbo said he has already told federal officials that the county has no intention of paying its share of such a large amount of compensation.

If talks over the amount stall, the two sides could end up in court with the county disputing the breadth of the federal government's findings. Granbo said the Justice Department has refused a request to turn over materials from its investigation, including a statistical report that it says shows blacks and Latinos were more likely than whites to be stopped or searched by deputies.

"These negotiations are going to be very critical," Granbo said. "We're willing to sit down with them and work something out, but that could be a very tedious process if we don't know what those findings are based on."

He said the county has yet to agree on who, if anyone, would be compensated.

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said his city would refuse to pay what he said would amount to at least $10,000 and as much as $40,000 for each person with a claim.

"If the county wants to pay millions, let them do it, but Lancaster isn't going to pay 10 cents of it," Parris said.

Palmdale released a statement saying that the proposed settlement was between federal and county officials and that the city "has not been asked nor has it agreed to any participation in this proposed settlement." The statement said city officials were concerned by the federal government's accusations and have scheduled a meeting with Sheriff Lee Baca next week to discuss them.

Baca's spokesman, Steve Whitmore, said the sheriff would not comment on the federal government's accusations, but that the department adamantly disagreed. Department of Justice officials could not be reached for comment.

The nearly two-year federal civil rights investigation found support for allegations by Antelope Valley residents that black residents were targeted for surprise inspections of subsidized, or Section 8, housing. The checks, which were ostensibly to ensure that residents met the terms of their assistance, often involved deputies, some of them in full SWAT armor.

In a letter to Baca, U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas E. Perez wrote that the department's activities in supporting tough compliance measures against those receiving subsidized housing vouchers were based on "an unsubstantiated and racially stereotypical correlation of race and crime."

One sheriff's supervisor, Perez said, told Justice Department officials that he thought all African Americans who recently moved to the Antelope Valley were gang members. Among many problems Perez cited was that deputies accompanied housing inspectors without legal justification and improperly interviewed people and searched homes before individuals understood their rights.

The conduct, he said, had serious consequences for residents, some of whom were forced from their homes and others who were prosecuted for administrative violations of their program contract.

In one case, a deputy sent photographs of luxury vehicles in the garage of one family receiving subsidized housing to an Antelope Valley-based "I Hate Section 8" Facebook page, federal officials found. The family's home was subsequently vandalized, with "I hate Section 8" followed by a profanity and a racial slur. The family's son had urine thrown at him by someone who shouted, "You dirty Section 8" and a racial slur. The family moved back to inner-city Los Angeles for fear of more harassment, Perez wrote.

"They treated people here like they had no civil rights," said attorney Gary Blasi, a UCLA professor of law emeritus who worked on a lawsuit brought by Public Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm, on behalf of subsidized housing residents who complained about the inspections.

V. Jesse Smith, president of the Antelope Valley Chapter of the NAACP, said the victims of racial discrimination deserve compensation.

"This [money] will better the lives of a lot of people who have been the victims of injustice," he said.

Two studies — one by a sheriff's sergeant and the other by a Lancaster statistician — found no link between crime and Section 8 vouchers, according to Perez's letter. Indeed, the Lancaster analysis asserted that they might keep crime rates lower in some neighborhoods.

Perez credited the Sheriff's Department with making some reforms that stopped the routine practice of deputies accompanying housing inspectors and introducing new rules that ensure that deputies are present at inspections only when necessary and do not actively take part in inspections.

The Justice Department said the civil rights violations occurred amid a climate of hostility toward Section 8 voucher holders expressed by some Palmdale and Lancaster city officials. Perez wrote that one Palmdale councilman said he wanted to make sure that voucher holders did not "swarm the valley." Meanwhile, Lancaster's mayor publicly complained that it was "unfair" that African Americans receive a disproportionately high percentage of vouchers and that his city should be "waging a war" against the program.

Parris, a veteran civil lawyer, said the Justice Department's accusations amount to nothing but hot air. "I have yet to see anything actionable In Lancaster," he said. "I believe the Justice Department is trying to justify its investigation. And, to be frank, it is not there."

Parris said the federal government has done nothing to help reduce gang violence in his city and he credited Lancaster's approach to gangs, subsidized housing and other social issues with helping to reduce crime.

jack.leonard@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

Times staff writer Frank Shyong contributed to this report.

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Car bomb targeting convoy kills 15 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Militants detonated a car bomb near a security forces convoy in the northwest city of Peshawar on Sunday, killing at least 15 people in the latest in a series of extremist attacks to hit the South Asian nation since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rose to power this spring.

Shafeeullah Khan, a senior Peshawar police officer, said militants planted explosives in a Suzuki compact car and parked it on one of Peshawar's busy roads. The bomb exploded as a three-truck convoy carrying Pakistani paramilitary troops passed by, Khan said. Many of the dead were civilians, and at least three were children, he said. The explosives appeared to be detonated by remote control.

Khan did not know whether any of the casualties included members of the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force that provides security throughout the country's troubled northwest. The blast partially damaged the last of the three trucks in the convoy. At least 35 people were injured in the explosion, many in serious condition.

Following his decisive victory in May parliamentary elections, Sharif has promised to rein in the country's insurgents, including the Pakistani Taliban, the group responsible for many of the terror attacks on thousands of civilians and security personnel in recent years. Though he has talked of starting talks with Pakistani Taliban leaders to end the insurgency, the group has continued to launch bombing attacks across the country.

Taliban leaders claimed responsibility for an attack on mountain climbers in the far northern Gilgit region last week that killed 10 foreigners, including one American of Chinese descent, and a Pakistani guide. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack in Peshawar.

After meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in Islamabad on Sunday, Sharif told reporters that Pakistan was "resolved to tackle the menace of extremism and terrorism with renewed vigor and close cooperation with our friends."

Cameron, meanwhile, pledged Britain's support in improving counter-terrorism tactics in Pakistan, including assistance in combating militants' reliance on roadside bombs and support in better securing the country's infrastructure. "The enemies of Pakistan are enemies of Britain, and we will stand together and conduct this fight against extremism and terrorism together."

ALSO:

Iran arrests paragliding Slovaks, alleges they were spying

Edward Snowden: Not the first to be caught in airport limbo

Obama visits Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned

Special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali reported from Peshawar, and staff writer Alex Rodriguez reported from Islamabad.

12.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Yasiel Puig closes out record-setting first month

June at Dodger Stadium has felt like a giant, monthlong party. They may as well name it Yasiel Puig month.

Puig capped off his first calendar month as a Major Leaguer in predictable four-for-five fashion Sunday including a bloop triple, a double and two stolen bases. The only surprise came when he struck out on a high fastball in the eighth inning. If ever a cycle seemed imminent, it was then. Even Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said he wouldn't have been surprised to see it.

Puig's 44 hits since being called up on June 3 are not only a monthly rookie record in Dodgers history — breaking Steve Sax's 43 in August of 1982 — but they're the second-highest total for a player's first calendar month in MLB history behind only Joe DiMaggio (48, May 1936).

Puig and DiMaggio are the only two players to collect at least 40 hits and four home runs in that month too.

"I'm really excited to be part of that list," Puig said Sunday, "but more excited that the team is winning."

Puig has injected new life into a beat-up Dodgers team that suddenly finds itself just four games behind the National League West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks. They've won eight of nine scoring 4.33 runs per game in that span. Through their first 72 games, the Dodgers logged just 3.45.

They boast arguably the scariest lineup in the league with red-hot Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Puig forming a pitcher's roadblock that Mattingly compared to "going through Boardwalk and Park Place" in Monopoly. But it's Puig who has undoubtedly served as the catalyst in the Dodgers' turnaround.

He's hit for power, cranking seven home runs, 13 extra-base hits and 16 runs batted in, and  his .436 batting average leads all MLB players with at least 75 plate appearances.

The 26-year-old Cuban sensation is drawing "M.V.Puig" chants after only 26 games, for goodness sake.

"It doesn't seem like he's slowing down," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "He's definitely changed the culture in the clubhouse."

The question becomes what Puig can do the last three months of the regular season. Kemp indicated that he's never experienced a hot streak like this. Closing in on 30 games, the tear is getting to the point where the outrageous production is expected.  

Mattingly said he expects something new from Puig every day. Who knows, maybe he'll come right back and get the cycle Tuesday when the Dodgers open a three-game series in Colorado.

"Honestly I shouldn't doubt him at all but .440s a pretty tough clip to maintain," Mattingly said. "… You kind of expect him to do something every day."

12.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

Wildfire kills 19 firefighters in Arizona

YARNELL, Ariz. — A fast-moving wildfire killed 19 firefighters Sunday afternoon after the blaze raced through an Arizona community, a state forestry official told The Associated Press.

Forestry spokesman Art Morrison said the firefighters were caught by the fire near the central Arizona town of Yarnell about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix. He said the firefighters were forced to deploy their fire shelters, tent-like structures meant to shield firefighters from flames and heat.

The death toll marks the worse loss of life of firefighters in a wildfire since a 1933 blaze in L.A's Griffith Park killed more than two dozen. (National records on wildland firefighter deaths give the death toll as 25, but Los Angeles Fire Department records say 29 lost their lives.)

Earlier Sunday, the 2,000-acre wildfire prompted evacuations of 50 homes in several communities. Later Sunday afternoon, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office expanded the evacuations to include more residents in the town of Yarnell.

Morrison said several homes in the community of Glenisle have been burned. He said no other injuries or deaths have been reported from that area.

About 200 firefighters are fighting the wildfire, which has also forced the closure of parts of state Route 89.

Mike Reichling, Arizona State Forestry Division spokesman, told The Arizona Republic the fire they're calling in federal help to fight the fire.

Roxie Glover, spokeswoman at Wickenburg Community Hospital, said that the hospital has been told to expect people with injuries.

In the afternoon, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office expanded the evacuations to include residents in the Peeples Valley area and in the town of Yarnell.

The wildfire also forced the closure of parts of state Route 89, the Arizona Department of Transportation announced. The department did not have an estimate of how long the closure would last but advised drivers to use U.S. 93 or Interstate 17 as alternate routes.

The Red Cross has opened a shelter at Yavapai College in Prescott, the sheriff's office said.

The fire started Friday but picked up momentum Sunday as the area experienced high temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions.

About two hundred firefighters are now working at the fire, but an additional 130 firefighters and more water- and retardant-dropping helicopters and aircraft are on their way.

In another Arizona fire, a 2-acre blaze that started at a motorcycle salvage yard and spread to a trailer park has destroyed five mobile homes in the Gila County community of Rye, located more than 130 miles east of Yarnell.

Gila County Health and Emergency Services Director Michael O'Driscoll said no one was injured in Rye.

The fire was ignited Saturday night at All Bikes Sales located off Highway 87. It spread to neighboring federal Forest Service land but was fully contained within 12 hours of its start.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Seven adults and two children were staying at a shelter set up for people who were evacuated, the Red Cross said.

ALSO:

American student, 21, killed in Egypt demonstrations

Extreme heat: Phoenix forecasters bake cookies in van 

Pennsylvania girl got second lung transplant after first failed

12.19 | 0 komentar | Read More

In South Africa, Obama continues his focus on youth

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — President Obama's first audience of South Africans assembled Saturday in Soweto, and he recalled the protests that tore through the neighborhoods here in 1976, galvanizing the anti-apartheid movement.

The 51-year-old president was among the few in the room old enough to remember.

The town hall, packed with young people at the University of Johannesburg, was the latest in a series of international youth outreach efforts staged by the president. Obama's foreign travel schedule these days can sometimes look like a globe-trotting college tour.

Nearly every presidential stopover includes a speech at a university auditorium, or if logistics demand, an off-campus venue filled with young faces. His weeklong tour through sub-Saharan Africa includes two events at South African universities; Obama will deliver another speech Sunday, at the University of Cape Town, where in the 1960s U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy dramatically declared that world challenges require the "qualities of youth."

"Don't lose those qualities of youth," Obama told the group of 650 young people at the Soweto forum. "Your imagination, your optimism, your idealism. The future of this continent is in your hands."

For all the looking forward, Obama also spent a considerable amount of time looking back, as the nation's iconic elder statesman Nelson Mandela lay critically ill in a Pretoria hospital.

Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are not scheduled to visit the man who served as South Africa's first black president, the White House said, but the Obamas spoke Saturday by phone to his wife, Graca Machel, who has maintained a vigil at his bedside. Obama later met with other family members at the Nelson Mandela Foundation headquarters.

"I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work through this difficult time," Obama said later, using Mandela's clan name, as South Africans often do with affection. "I also reaffirmed the profound impact that his legacy has had in building a free South Africa, and in inspiring people around the world, including me."

Obama's outreach to the under-35 set serves a distinct purpose for a president trying to maintain his youthful image abroad and working to define his foreign policy legacy. The speeches often allow Obama to keep some distance from conflicts or sticky relationships with problematic national leaders. Instead, he offers brighter, but vaguer, notions of hope, calls for political engagement and investment in the future.

Obama also uses such events to send indirect messages to the leaders in question. Obama met Saturday morning with South African President Jacob Zuma, whose African National Congress — the party of Mandela — many observers say has lost its way. Zuma's government is widely viewed as riddled with corruption and is under pressure to engage or lose the support of the next generation of South Africans.

Obama made no references to such issues at a news conference after their meeting. But a couple of hours later, he pointedly urged young people to "hold leaders accountable."

Obama's focus on the future is crucial to his strategy in Africa, where 1 in 3 people are between the ages of 10 and 24, and an estimated 60% of the continent's population is younger than 35. Many live in dire poverty with poor nutrition, housing and schooling, conditions ripe for the political instability that has beset the continent.

The White House said Obama was working to nurture the next generation of African political leaders. It announced on Saturday a new fellowship program that it said would bring 500 young Africans to the United States each year for leadership training and mentoring. The effort is an extension of the Young African Leaders Initiative that Obama launched shortly after taking office.

It is far from clear whether such efforts, or eloquent speeches, will cement the president's legacy with the next generation here.

Other foreign powers, including China, are pouring private investment into Africa, and U.S. influence has been waning. The young people in Soweto on Saturday appeared enamored of Obama's image, although not his policies.

While the young people waiting for Obama at the town hall clapped and sang apartheid-era songs — changing the lyrics of one traditional Zulu song to "Obama is coming!" — the president also was asked detailed questions about his trade, foreign aid and counter-terrorism policies.

A group of young people who participated by videoconference from Nairobi, Kenya, questioned the president's decision to skip their country — a longtime U.S. ally and homeland of Obama's father — on his Africa tour in part because its democratically elected leaders are facing charges before the International Criminal Court. Obama, they said, appeared to be breaking a promise to visit Kenya during his presidency.

At one point in the proceedings, Obama appeared to acknowledge that the fruits of his public relations push would take years to appear.

"You guys are all going to do great things," Obama said. "I'll be retired by the time you do them."

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

12.18 | 0 komentar | Read More