The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We literally would go 5 feet and sit for two hours.”

Jessica Troy, who along with a co-worker, spent more than 16 hours in her car on a 12-mile journey after snow paralyzed Atlanta on Tuesday Article, 1A

U.S.: Russia missile tests violated treaty

WASHINGTON - The United States informed its NATO allies this month that Russia had tested a new ground launched cruise missile, raising concerns about Moscow’s compliance with a landmark arms-control accord.

U.S. officials think Russia began conducting flight tests of the missile as early as 2008. Such tests are prohibited by the treaty banning medium-range missiles that was signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and that has long been viewed as one of the bedrock accords that produced an end to the Cold War.

Beginning in May, Rose Gottemoeller, the State Department’s senior arms-control official, has repeatedly raised the missile tests with Russian officials, who have responded that they investigated the matter and consider the case to be closed. But officials in President Barack Obama’s administration are not yet ready to formally declare the tests of the missile, which has not been deployed, to be a violation of the 1987 treaty.

“The United States never hesitates to raise treaty compliance concerns with Russia, and this issue is no exception,” said Jen Psaki, the State Department spokesman. “There’s an ongoing review process, and we wouldn’t want to speculate or prejudge the outcome.”

Other officials, who asked not to be identified because they were discussing internal deliberations, said that there was no question that the missile tests ran counter to the treaty.

Intelligence chief blasts Snowden, harm

WASHINGTON - The nation’s top intelligence official on Wednesday delivered a scorching attack on Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, and called on him and his “accomplices” to return the trove of classified documents he took from the NSA.

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told lawmakers that Snowden’s disclosures had done grave damage to the country’s security and had led terrorist groups to change their behavior to elude U.S. surveillance. Clapper did not give specifics to bolster his assessment about the damage Snowden had done.

For the second year in a row, Clapper listed cyber attacks as the most significant threat facing the United States - a bigger danger than international terrorism.

Democrats: Near jobless-aid extension

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats are close to gaining enough Republican votes to advance a three-month extension of emergency jobless benefits, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

The Nevada Democrat told reporters that the cost of the three-month extension would be covered by budgetary reductions elsewhere, meeting a major Republican demand.

“I hope we have something on the floor next week,” Reid said. “It’s paid for for three months. The Republicans said they wanted it paid for. We’ve figured out a way to pay for it.”

The revised plan would make changes to pension rules, known as “pension smoothing,” to cover the cost of extended benefits, said a Senate Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal isn’t final.

Reid spoke a day after President Barack Obama called on Congress in his State of the Union address to restore emergency jobless benefits that expired Dec. 28 for 1.6 million Americans.

Inhaling carcinogen in W.Va. said likely

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A state official said Wednesday that he “can guarantee” some West Virginians are breathing in traces of a carcinogen while showering after the chemical spill, but federal health guidelines say people need to breathe “a lot of it” to be a problem.

The chemical that spilled into the water supply ultimately can break down into formaldehyde, Environmental Quality Board official Scott Simonton told a state legislative panel Wednesday. He added that the breakdown can happen in the shower and that formaldehyde is most toxic when inhaled.

But University of Washington public-health dean Dr.

Howard Frumkin, an environmental health specialist, suggested that officials use caution when interpreting the results of the water tests, including asking whether the chemical’s presence existed before the spill.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the chemical “can make you feel sick if you breathe a lot of it.”

Front Section, Pages 4 on 01/30/2014

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