Calif. to probe birth defects
Schwarzenegger surprises poor town by stepping in
FRESNO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered two state agencies to investigate a rash of birth defects that have confounded impoverished Kettleman City for more than a year.
Schwarzenegger’s intervention into a bitter environmental battle came as a surprise and relief to residents and the activists who have been demanding answers.
“This is a tremendous victory for the people of Kettleman City, whose pleas for help have fallen on deaf ears, including the state’s for the past 15 months,” said Bradley Angel, executive director of the environmental justice group Greenaction.
The birth defects became a rallying point last year for residents trying to stop the expansion plans of the West’s largest hazardous waste facility by Chemical Waste Management Inc. Their stories of miscarriages and the photographs they carried of children with facial defects failed to convince the Kings County Board of Supervisors that the expansion should not go forward.
“It seems like we’re finally getting justice,” said resident Maricela Mares-Alatorre, whose family first butted heads with Chemical Waste Management 20 years ago over plans to build an incinerator. “It has been a long time coming.”
Mares-Alatorre and Angel said they hope the governor will stop the permit process.
“We want what everyone in every town wants: health and safety,” Mares-Alatorre said. “To get to see now what is causing the problems here is a big victory for us.”
Officials of Chemical Waste Management said they welcome the investigation and are confident it will show their operation is not to blame for the facial defects in five of 20 children born in the city from September 2007 to November 2008.
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“We are very confident that our facility is protective of human health and the environment, but it is critical that the families in Kettleman City get answers,” spokeswoman Kit Cole said.
The town sits near Interstate Highway 5, a main trucking corridor in California. Some say diesel emissions and pesticides on nearby farm fields could be contributing to the health problems.
Battle over water leads to evacuation
NABI SALAH, West Bank — Palestinians evacuate a family from their home Friday after tear gas fired by Israeli troops filled the house during a protest over water supplies in the West Bank. The water supply is used by Jewish settlers from the nearby settlement of Halamish and is claimed by both sides.
NATION
Cheers, shouts as Hawaii lets civil unions die
HONOLULU — Hawaii lawmakers declined to vote Friday on a bill that would have allowed same-sex civil unions, effectively killing the measure.
State House leaders said a narrow majority of representatives would have voted for civil unions, but they decided to indefinitely postpone a decision on whether to grant gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples.
Civil union supporters in the crowded House gallery on Friday shouted “Shame on you!” while opponents cheered.
WORLD
Angry China warns U.S. about arms for Taiwan
BEIJING — China angrily summoned the U.S. ambassador on Saturday and warned that a plan to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan would harm already strained ties. One Chinese expert said the sale would give Beijing a “fair and proper reason” to accelerate weapons testing.
The planned sale, posted Friday on a Pentagon Web site, is likely to complicate the cooperation the U.S. seeks from China on issues ranging from Iran’s nuclear program to the loosening of Internet controls.
Cutoffs of military ties top the list of possible punishments that Chinese state media and academics have publicly discussed in recent weeks as Beijing repeatedly warned the U.S. against the arms sale.
The U.S. is “obstinately making the wrong decision,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
Last tourists leave Peru
MACHU PICCHU PUEBLO, Peru — The last young backpackers flew away from Machu Picchu as clouds closed in again Friday, leaving Peru to grapple with flood damage that will close its top tourist site for weeks or even months.
Torrential rains caused mudslides and swelled the Urubamba River on Sunday, stripping away long sections of the railway that is the only transportation in and out of the area around the Inca citadel. The road to the ruins from this village at the end of the train line also washed away. Thousands of tourists were stranded.
After a helicopter flew out the final group at 5:15 p.m., the streets of this village of 4,000 people were empty and forlorn.
“There are no travelers here now, and we have nothing to do. Everyone is leaving because there’s no work. Without tourism there’s no reason to be here,” said Jadira Mendez, 29, a maid who had just been laid off.
Audit: U.S. gets little for its $46 million in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — A $46 million dollar American development program in Pakistan’s tribal regions has made little progress since it began in 2008, according to a government audit that shows the challenges facing Washington as it prepares to boost aid there to blunt the appeal of al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Also in the Afghan border region, security forces fought militants Friday in a third day of battles that the government said had killed 44 suspected insurgents. The clashes were taking place in Bajur, an area the Pakistani army declared free of militants in early 2009 after a major offensive.
N. Korea claims American wants to join military
SEOUL, South Korea — An American man detained by North Korea after allegedly entering the communist country illegally has sought asylum and wants to join its military, a news report said Saturday.
South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said the man crossed into North Korea from China on Monday.
It said an unidentified source in North Korea told the newspaper the 28-year-old man said he came to the country because he did not “want to become a cannon fodder in the capitalist military” and “wants to serve in the North Korean military” instead.
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The National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s top spy agency, said it could not immediately confirm the report. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said it had no such information.
On Thursday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported an American was arrested for trespassing and his case was under investigation.
THE NEWSMAKER
Crystal Cathedral selling land, laying off workers
The Southern California megachurch founded by televangelist Robert Schuller Sr. is selling property, laying off workers and pulling its signature TV program “Hour of Power” from some markets to offset a nearly $8 million drop in revenue. “If we can just hang in there and be smart about surviving the downturn in the economy, this storm will pass and we will be OK,” said Sheila Schuller Coleman, above, the Crystal Cathedral’s recently appointed leader.