Nation Briefs July 4, 2010
Arrests linked to Calif. police attacks
HEMET, Calif. - Authorities say there have been two arrests linked to a series of booby trap attacks on police in a small Southern California town.
The Press-Enterprise reported detectives served a series of warrants Friday night and arrested 40-year-old Nicholas John Smith of Hemet and 36-year-old Steven Hansen of Homeland.
At a news conference Saturday, police said Smith is being held on suspicion of making a booby trap and assault on a police officer with intent to commit murder. Hansen is being held for parole violation and weapons charges.
Since Dec. 31, Hemet law enforcement officials have been targeted seven times through booby traps and arson attacks.
Clinton: 'Steel Vise' crushing activists
KRAKOW, Poland - Intolerant governments across the globe are "slowly crushing" activist and advocacy groups that play an essential role in the development of democracy, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday.
She cited a broad range of countries where "the walls are closing in" on civic organizations such as unions, religious groups, rights advocates and other nongovernmental organizations that press for social change and shine a light on governments' shortcomings.
Among those she named were Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Venezuela, China and Russia.
"Some of the countries engaging in these behaviors still claim to be democracies," Clinton said at an international conference on the promotion of democracy and human rights. "Democracies don't fear their own people. They recognize that citizens must be free to come together, to advocate and agitate."
Before an audience of several hundred senior government officials, Clinton recalled Winston Churchill's warning 60 years ago at Fulton, Mo., that an iron curtain was descending across Europe. She noted that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, that curtain no longer remains.
"But we must be wary of the steel vise in which governments around the world are slowly crushing civil society and the human spirit," she said. Social activists, Clinton said, are being harassed, censored, cut off from funding, arrested, prosecuted or killed.
Hilton's pal ordered to leave country
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa - The former Playboy playmate convicted of possessing marijuana while accompanying Paris Hilton to a World Cup game is persona non grata in South Africa.
Ronnie Mamoepa, a spokesman for the immigration department, said Saturday that Jennifer Rovero had two weeks to leave the country, and would not be welcome back for at least two years.
Hilton had been arrested with Rovero after Friday's Brazil-Netherlands match in Port Elizabeth on suspicion of possession of marijuana, then had the case dropped at a midnight court hearing.
Rovero, a former Playboy playmate of the month, "acknowledged to be in possession of cannabis, and pleaded guilty," said Brig. Sally De Beer, a spokeswoman for South African police.
VP Biden visits Iraq amid impasse
BAGHDAD - Vice President Joe Biden returned Saturday to Iraq to coax its government into picking a new prime minister, months after elections left the nascent democracy in a state of gridlock as the U.S. prepares to pull out its troops.
Biden's trip - his fifth since he was elected vice president, and his second this year - signals Washington's growing impatience with Iraq's stalled political process since the March 7 vote. The Iraqi election failed to produce a clear winner, and competing political alliances have been angling to secure an edge in parliament - mostly through backroom deals that leave voters out of the process.
The vice president was upbeat upon arrival, downplaying concerns that the impasse would lead to a crisis.
"This is local politics," Biden told reporters in brief remarks at the sprawling U.S. military base west of Baghdad known as Camp Victory. "This is not a lot different than any other government."
He added: "I remain, as I have from the beginning, extremely optimistic about the government being formed here."
- The Associated Press