World / Nation Briefs April 12, 2012
Contours of Obama-Romney campaign are set
WASHINGTON - For all the turmoil of the long primary season, President Barack Obama is right where he expected to be: taking on Mitt Romney and targeting him as a wishy-washy protector of the rich. With the November outcome likely to hinge on the economy, Obama will now engage more directly with the help of an experienced, well-financed campaign organization.
The campaign for the White House took on a decidedly different feel on Wednesday, a true two-man race for the first time. Yet even as Republican Rick Santorum's withdrawal a day earlier changed the dynamic, beginning the general election in earnest, the contours of the Romney-Obama race had already been becoming clear.
Both sides will keep pounding voters with ferocious arguments over who has the best vision for jobs, economic security and giving Americans a shot at a better life. In sharp and steady doses, directly or through aides, Obama and Romney will also accuse the other of being dishonest with voters and out-of-touch with their daily woes.
Everything gets faster and louder now.
Obama will pick his spots in targeting Romney directly until the election draws closer, needing to juggle the demands of his job and eager to remind everyone that he is the one who is already the president. Obama's Chicago-based campaign, meanwhile, will be working vigorously to challenge Romney and try to define him.
World waits as North Korea readies rocket
PYONGYANG, North Korea - Fighter jets roared through the skies over downtown Pyongyang on Thursday as the world watched to see whether North Korea would defy international warnings and launch a long-range rocket over the Yellow Sea.
The five-day window for the launch of a rocket mounted with an observation satellite opened Thursday as North Koreans woke to details about developments at a Workers' Party conference where leader Kim Jong Un ascended to top posts and brought with him a new generation of officials.
His father, Kim Jong Il, was granted the posthumous title of "eternal general secretary" at the special one-day party conference Wednesday. The immortalization of the late leader provided a glimpse into how North Korea will handle the nation's second hereditary succession and indicates he will be honored much in the same way his father, Kim Il Sung, was made "eternal president" following his 1994 death.
Mirages, tides may have helped Titanic hit iceberg
WASHINGTON - After an entire century that included two high-profile government investigations and countless books and movies, we're still debating what really caused the Titanic to hit an iceberg and sink on that crystal-clear chilly night.
Maybe there's more to blame than human folly and hubris. Maybe we can fault freak atmospheric conditions that caused a mirage or an even rarer astronomical event that sent icebergs into shipping lanes. Those are two of the newer theories being proposed by a Titanic author and a team of astronomers.
But the effort to find natural causes that could have contributed to the sinking may also be a quest for an excuse - anything to avoid gazing critically into a mirror, say disaster experts and Titanic historians.
New theories and research are important "but at its most basic what happened is they failed to heed warnings and they hit the iceberg because they were going too fast," said James Delgado, director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
With this week's 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking, the interest in all things Titanic is steaming faster than the doomed cruise ship on its maiden voyage.
Axl Rose declines induction into rock hall of fame
NEW YORK - The acrimony that helped dissolve Guns N' Roses nearly 20 years ago still lingers.
Axl Rose announced Wednesday that he won't be showing up to see the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and declined the honor for himself.
In a letter to the hall, band fans and "To Whom It May Concern," Rose listed several reasons for not attending Saturday's ceremony in Cleveland, including a feeling that the hall does not respect him.
In declining his own induction, he added: "I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia and please know that no one is authorized nor may anyone be permitted to accept any induction for me or speak on my behalf."
The hall said in a statement that it still plans to induct Rose with the rest of the group. "We are sorry he will not be able to accept his induction in person," it said.
- The Associated Press