WASHINGTON, D.C.
Official: No trial for war prisoners
If confirmed as U.S. solicitor general, Elena Kagan will defend government legal policy in the courts.
Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama’s choice to represent his administration before the Supreme Court, told a key Republican senator during hearings Tuesday that she believed the government could hold suspected terrorists without trial as war prisoners.
She echoed similar comments by Atty. Gen. Eric Holder during his confirmation hearing last month. Both agreed that the United States is at war with Al Qaeda, and suggested the law of war allows the government to capture and hold alleged terrorists without charges.
If confirmed as U.S. solicitor general, Kagan, 48, will defend the administration’s legal policy in the courts.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a former Air Force lawyer, said that under the law of war, the government can say: “If you’re part of the enemy force, there is no requirement to let them go back to the war and kill our troops. Do you agree that makes sense?”
Kagan replied, “I think it makes sense, and I think you’re correct that that is the law.”
“So America needs to get ready for this proposition that some people are going to be detained as enemy combatants, not criminals,” Graham concluded.
AUSTRALIA
After wildfires, a helping hand is offered
Firefighter David Tree gives water to a koala after encountering the singed animal Monday in Victoria state’s charred landscape. “He turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with [a look] like, put me out of my misery,” Tree said. On Tuesday, authorities said the death toll is likely to surpass 200 and that they would re-examine a strategy allowing residents to stay and fight wildfires.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Stamp cost to increase
The post office will get an extra 2 cents when you mail a letter starting in May.
The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that the price of a first-class stamp will rise to 44 cents on May 11.
That gives plenty of time to stock up on Forever Stamps, which will continue to sell at the current 42-cent rate until the increase occurs. They will remain valid in the future regardless of rate hikes.
Buffeted by rising costs and declining mail volume, the Postal Service lost $2.8 billion last year and, unless the economy turns around, is headed toward much larger losses this year.
SWITZERLAND
Atom smasher on track
GENEVA — Additional safety features being added to the world’s largest atom smasher will postpone its startup until the end of September, a year after the $10 billion machine was sidelined by a simple electrical fault, the operator said Tuesday.
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The cost of the repairs and added safety features has yet to be determined, but it will be covered by the regular budget of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, spokeswoman Christine Sutton said. The 20-nation organization, known as CERN, has said that repairs will cost at least $21.5 million, but the amount appears to have risen.
AFGHANISTAN
2 NATO soldiers killed
KABUL — A bomb struck a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing two soldiers and wounding one, a spokesman for the alliance said.
An Afghan police spokesman said the attack in Khost province was carried out by a suicide bomber in a vehicle. But a NATO spokesman blamed the attack on a roadside bomb.
The majority of NATO troops in Khost, which borders Pakistan, are American, but the spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force would not confirm the troops’ nationalities.
KENTUCKY
U.S. makes rare offer
WEST PADUCAH — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday the federal government would deviate from normal practice and reimburse Kentucky for 75 percent of the cost of activating its National Guard in last month’s crippling winter storm.
“Normally the National Guard is a state responsibility … and that’s the way it is,” Napolitano said. “But this situation was so broad and so unique — and the need for the Guard to get out there and do those door-to-door wellness checks, particularly in the western parts of the state — are such that I feel it necessary to create an exception.”