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Pakistan hit by smaller attacks, killing at least 10
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – More extremist attacks shook Pakistan Monday on the heels of a devastating bomb attack at the capital’s best-known hotel. Gunmen took the Afghan consul-general hostage after killing his driver, and suicide bombers killed nine policemen at a checkpoint in the valley of Swat, northwest of the capital.
The bombing of the deluxe Marriott hotel, in which at least 53 died and more than 260 were wounded, was still shrouded in mystery. A little known terrorist group called Fadayeen Islam (“Islamic Commandos”) took responsibility in a tape given to a Dubai-based television news channel, and claimed that there had been 250 U.S. Marines and NATO officials at the hotel.
Security experts said it was highly unlikely that American forces would be stationed at such vulnerable a location.
Children of illegal immigrants find themselves nowhere
HAINA, Dominican Republic – Officially, Carlos Noel does not exist.
Although his French last name is a giveaway that his family roots go back to neighboring Haiti, Noel is not an illegal immigrant living in the shadows like his parents. Noel was born in the Dominican Republic and, according to the constitution, entitled to citizenship.
But under a strict new policy, the Dominican government has refused to issue ID cards to Noel and tens of thousands of others whose parents were illegal immigrants.
That policy, which flouts a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, essentially leaves Noel without a country. The dispute is another example of how countries, including the U.S., are debating how to treat the children of illegal immigrants.
National
Democrats push $50 billion stimulus plan
WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats are pushing for a new $50 billion economic-stimulus plan as a way not only to jolt the economy, but also to help themselves politically in November’s elections.
The plan would include new spending for infrastructure, an extension of unemployment benefits, energy assistance to lower-income families and aid to states to help pay Medicaid health-care costs for the poor.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama touts the plan almost daily.
“This plan can’t just be a plan for Wall Street,” he told a Charlotte, N.C., audience Sunday. “It has to be a plan for Main Street. We have to come together, as Democrats and Republicans, to pass a stimulus plan that will put money in the pockets of working families, save jobs and prevent painful budget cuts and tax hikes in our states.”
Obama concedes that bailout costs may force him to adjust plans
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama said last Tuesday that the huge costs of a financial bailout meant he probably wouldn’t be able to deliver everything he promised in his campaign, at least not as quickly as he’d hoped.
“Does that mean that I can do everything that I’ve called for in this campaign right away? Probably not. I think we’re going to have to phase it in. And a lot of it’s going to depend on what our tax revenues look like,” Obama said on NBC.
Among Obama’s proposals that would add to the federal budget deficit and presumably could be delayed are tax cuts for those who make less than $200,000 a year, an expansion of health care to cover the uninsured and increased spending on the nation’s infrastructure, energy and education.
He said much depended on how much the government would spend on the bailout the first year, and whether those costs were counted as part of the annual budget.
World leaders encourage Georgia leaders to stay execution
ATLANTA – Barring a last minute stay, Troy Anthony Davis will be executed by lethal injection Tuesday for the murder of a Savannah, Ga., police officer. But nearly two decades after the killing, questions linger over whether Davis is guilty.
A campaign spearheaded by Davis’ relatives and Amnesty International brought worldwide attention to the case, prompting well-known figures to speak out. Rallies have been held from Paris to Savannah.
Former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement last week urging the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reverse its decision to deny clemency, saying that the case “illustrates the deep flaws in the application of the death penalty in this country.” Pope Benedict XVI requested that Davis be re-sentenced to life without parole. Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu of South Africa also wrote a letter.
Local/BSU
Boise police make arrest in pizza robbery
Boise police officers arrested a man for Sunday’s robbery of a pizza restaurant. The arrest came thanks to citizens’ tips, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office and the suspect’s family who urged the suspect to turn himself in, according to Boise Police Department Spokeswoman Lynn Hightower.
Police arrested Trevor J. Smith, 21, of Boise and charged him with robbery. The robbery occurred just after 4 p.m. at a pizza restaurant at Five Mile and Ustick Roads. Witnesses told officers a man wearing a suit walked into the restaurant with a handgun demanding money. He left with an undisclosed amount. An immediate investigation provided officers initial leads.
Beating victim died from meningitis
The 22-year-old victim of a house party beating died from bacterial meningitis, Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg reported Monday.
The official cause of death was released about a week after the Sept. 13 attack of Jamar Gattis at his home on the 9500 block of West Weir Hollis Drive.
An autopsy three days after the incident yielded no conclusive results as to the cause of Gattis’ death, but Ada County Coroner Erwin Sonnenberg said the man’s death was “suspicious.”
What investigators and prosecutors are now trying to decide is whether the bacterial meningitis was released into Gattis’ system as a result of the beating, “or is it something that he would have died from anyway,” Ada County Sheriff’s Lt. Bart Hamilton said.
The prosecutor has yet to make a decision, based on the official cause of death, on how to charge four male suspects arrested in the case. The prosecutor is awaiting results from further testing, Hamilton said.
Boise State’s next MFA reading Oct. 4
Poet Renee Gladman and author Pamela Johnston will appear as part of the Boise State University MFA Reading Series in October. Both readings are free and open to the public.
Gladman will read at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in the Farnsworth Room of the Student Union Building. She is the author of “Juice,” “The Activist,” “A Picture Feeling” and, most recently, “Newcomer Can’t Swim.” Atelos will publish a new work, “Toaf,” this fall.
Gladman is the editor and publisher of Leon Works, an independent press for experimental prose and other thought projects based in the sentence, and teaches fiction in the Program in Literary Arts at Brown University.
Johnston will speak at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Student Union Lookout Room.
Johnston grew up in Boise and graduated from the University of Idaho before relocating to the Midwest.
What The?
Just trying to help out, officer
A man was arrested for directing traffic in Hopewell Township, Pa., at 1 a.m. State troopers who arrived on the scene said it was “readily apparent” the man was drunk.
I don’t believe we’ve met, son
A Florida man heard noises coming from his teenage daughter’s bedroom, and went in to discover her with her naked boyfriend. He said later he didn’t even know she had a boyfriend, and that the lad apparently had been sneaking into her room for more than a year. He hit him on the head with a pipe and chased him out of the house.
COMPILED BY ARBITER STAFF