World/Nation Briefs October 4, 2011
<p>Zora Bishop, 22, left, and Leanne Golightly, 23, relax in the the autumn sunshine on the South Bank of the River Thames in London, Monday. Britain's mini-heatwave will come to a halt this week, with temperatures set to drop in a matter of days.</p>
Gunmen attack Shiite Muslims in Pakistan, kill 12
QUETTA, Pakistan - Suspected Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslims traveling through southwestern Pakistan early today, killing 12 people and wounding six others in the latest apparent sectarian attack to plague the country, police said.
Sunni militants with ideological and operational links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have carried out scores of bombings and shootings against minority Shiites in recent years, but the past couple weeks have been particularly bloody.
The gunmen who attacked Tuesday were riding on motorbikes and stopped a bus carrying mostly Shiite Muslims who were headed to work at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, said police official Hamid Shakeel.
The attackers forced the people off the bus, made them stand in a line and then opened fire, said Shakeel. The dead included 11 Shiites and one Sunni, he said. The wounded included four Shiites and two Sunnis.
Obama, GOP push and pull on economic plans
WASHINGTON - Seeking to gain political advantage, President Barack Obama insisted Monday that Congress vote on his entire $447 billion economic plan this month, a step promptly rejected by Republicans who called for both sides to find common ground in their competing proposals to stimulate growth.
Obama demanded that Republicans spell out their objections to his plan, expressing confidence that the public supports his call for more spending on public works projects and on job security for teachers and police officers.
Republicans have already specified which pieces of Obama's plan they could support, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that some of those measures would get a vote this month. But he said the Republican-controlled House would not act on the president's jobs bill in its entirety.
The differing approaches highlighted the challenges facing both a president eager to deflect blame for a weak economic recovery and congressional Republicans seeking to counter by projecting an air of cooperation.
- The Associated Press