The nation in brief

Saturday, December 8, 2012

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“They cry wolf every time. It always ends up being resolved. So I just ignore it.”

Mike Granger, a computer programmer for the Navy, as federal agencies sharpen their plans for forced spending cuts if the administration and Congress are unable to avert the “fiscal cliff” Article, 1A

U.S. extends waivers on Iran sanctions

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Friday, in regard to U.S. sanctions, extended waivers it has granted to major Asian petroleum consumers, including China, India and South Korea, for reducing their imports of Iranian oil.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the extensions in a statement. In addition to China, India and South Korea, the waivers will apply to Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan. All nine were originally granted six-month renewable exemptions from the sanctions in June.

The exemptions mean that banks and other financial institutions based in those places will not be hit with penalties under U.S. law enacted as a way of pressuring Iran to come clean about its nuclear program.

A total of 20 countries and Taiwan have been granted the waivers. The others will come up for review in March.

Ex-jailer testifies in WikiLeaks case

FORT MEADE, Md. - An Army private charged with sending reams of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks could have gotten his tight pretrial confinement conditions reduced by clearly explaining why he wasn’t a suicide risk, the former commander of a Marine Corps brig testified Friday.

When Pfc. Bradley Manning did speak up, his crack about hanging himself with his underwear only heightened the concern for his safety, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Denise Barnes said, so she ordered him to be stripped naked each night.

Barnes said she didn’t consider Manning’s comment in early March 2011 serious enough to warrant placing him on suicide watch, but “I felt that I needed not to take that comment lightly, and I didn’t.”

Barnes testified on the ninth day of a hearing to determine whether Manning’s nine months in maximum custody at the base in Quantico, Va., amounted to illegal pretrial punishment. He was always on either suicide watch or injury-prevention status, and Manning claims the conditions were so harsh that the charges, including aiding the enemy, should be dropped.

N.J. wreck evacuees returning home

PAULSBORO, N.J. - A week after a train derailment released a hazardous gas into the air in New Jersey, most residents who live nearby were heading back home Friday.

Officials said that as of noon, air monitors had not detected any vinyl chloride for more than 24 hours, showing it was safe to end mandatory evacuations in Paulsboro, an industrial town across the Delaware River from Philadelphia International Airport.

Residents were being allowed back only after checking in with authorities at the town’s fire hall. They were accompanied by police officers to their homes, which remained behind barricades to keep nonresidents away.

Also Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board said it had completed the on-the-scene part of its investigation and left Paulsboro.

Obama lifts limit on inaugural cash

WASHINGTON - In a reversal from four years ago, President Barack Obama will accept unlimited sums of money from corporations and individuals to pay for events surrounding his inauguration, a spokesman said Friday.

Lobbyists, political action committees and foreign entities, however, will still be banned from underwriting the costs of the gala events, spokesman Addie Whisenant said. The committee also will reject donations from companies that haven’t paid back loans from the 2008 federal bailout of Wall Street, as well as corporate sponsorship deals.

Obama’s second term automatically begins at noon on Jan. 20 under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.

Since that’s a Sunday, a private swearing-in will be held at the White House, followed the next day - the federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday - by a public oath-taking and a series of scaled-back events.

Obama’s second inaugural will be smaller than his first, with no concert on the National Mall. It will, however, still have the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, as well as a National Day of Service and a round of official inaugural balls, although aides say not as many as last time.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 12/08/2012