Nation and world in brief June 18

| New Mexican wire services

6/17/2008 -

Obama answers critics on terrorism

WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama said he'll take no lectures from Republicans on who will keep America safer after GOP rival John McCain's campaign criticized him Tuesday for speaking approvingly of the successful prosecution of terrorists.

A McCain aide said, "Obama is a perfect manifestation of a Sept. 10th mind-set" and does not understand the dangers posed by U.S. adversaries. Obama told reporters the Republicans have no "standing to suggest that they've learned a lot of lessons from 9-11."

Obama said they "helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9-11." He said Osama bin Laden is still at large in part because of their failed strategies.

Midwest states fear levee breaks

GULFPORT, Ill. — The rising Mississippi River interrupted travel on two bridges between Iowa and Illinois and threatened thousands of acres of farmland Tuesday. People stacked millions of sandbags near 27 levees the federal government said were in danger of overflowing.

The river blew a massive hole in a levee near the farming community of Gulfport at about 5 a.m., covering at least 5,000 acres of farmland by late Tuesday morning, Henderson County Chief Deputy Donald Seitz said.

"The whole town will be under water," Seitz said, calling the levee break "very devastating" for the small agricultural community near the Illinois-Iowa line. More than 10,000 acres could eventually flood, he said.

The break forced the closure of the Great River Bridge that connects Gulfport to Burlington, Iowa, via U.S. 34. Two people who were working on the levee were rescued by boat, said Henderson County Sheriff Mark Lumbeck.

Three other people were lifted by helicopter from a rooftop, and seven others climbed onto a 4-wheeler and sped down a railroad track as the levee gave way, Lumbeck said.

Regulators act to curb oil speculation

WASHINGTON — The chief federal regulator of U.S. oil contract trades Tuesday announced steps to restrain price manipulation and excessive speculation that many experts believe are driving up gasoline prices.

Critics complained that Tuesday's action, while welcome, should have come months ago.

"Frankly, they've waited far too long," said Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group.

Testifying before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday, Cooper said the rise in oil prices — about 39 percent this year alone — means speculators are costing American consumers an estimated $1,500 per family in additional spending annually on gasoline.

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission — an obscure regulatory agency now in the global spotlight — announced the change in oil-trading regulations Tuesday. The steps, while limited, would require buyers of U.S. oil contracts on the London-based Intercontinental Exchange to abide by U.S. regulations for the first time. ICE handles about 30 percent of all such contracts.

$11M settlement OK'd in shootings

RICHMOND, Va. — A judge on Tuesday approved an $11 million state settlement with families of most of the victims in last year's Virginia Tech slayings that will avoid a court battle over whether anyone but the gunman was to blame.

Families of 24 victims — out of 32 killed by Seung-Hui Cho — will be compensated under the settlement approved by Circuit Court Judge Theodore J. Markow.

Four families agreed to the settlement, but were not prepared to go before the judge Tuesday. Four other families did not participate: Two have filed notices of lawsuits, and two did not file claims.

SAT essay yields mixed results

MELVILLE, N.Y. — A new report on the SAT's controversial writing test finds it provides colleges with little additional help in predicting how well applicants will do during their first year on campus, beyond help provided by other data such as high-school grades.

However, the study released Tuesday by the SAT's sponsors at the New York-based College Board also concludes that scores from the writing section are a better predictor of students' success than scores from either of the test's older sections in math and reading. The new 45-minute section includes both multiple-choice questions and a 25-minute essay exercise.

Opponents of the SAT were quick to jump on the report's conclusions as evidence that the writing section is a waste of students' time and energy. The addition of that section two years ago greatly extended the time required to complete the college-admissions exam, which previously took three hours. 

Cuban TV shows Fidel Castro

HAVANA — Cuban television is showing images of Fidel Castro chatting in a garden with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the first images of the ailing revolutionary broadcast in six months.

The 81-year-old Castro looks thinner, and his hair and beard are much whiter in the video images, which did not include any audio. But he nevertheless looks vigorous and animated as he talks with his younger brother, President Raúl Castro, and Chávez.

Fidel Castro is dressed in a white running jacket with red and blue trim in the images broadcast Tuesday.

Actress, dancer dies at age 86

LOS ANGELES — Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

She appeared in dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.

Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in 1946's Ziegfeld Follies to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1956's The Band Wagon (with Astaire).

She also forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on television and in nightclub appearances with her husband, singer Tony Martin.