World/Nation Briefs January 7, 2012

Texas teen back with family after bad deportation

DALLAS - A Texas teenager who was deported to Colombia after claiming to be an illegal immigrant was back in the United States on Friday and at the center of an international mystery over how a minor could be sent to a country where she is not a citizen.

Her family has questioned why U.S. officials didn't do more to verify her identity and say she is not fluent in Spanish and had no ties to Colombia. While many facts of the case involving Jakadrien Lorece Turner remain unclear, U.S. and Colombian officials have pointed fingers over who is responsible.

Jakadrien arrived in Dallas on Friday evening and was reunited with her family. She was flanked by her mother, grandmother and law enforcement when she emerged from the international gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport shortly before 10 p.m.

Eleven die as hot air balloon hits power lines

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A hot air balloon carrying 11 people turned into a horrifying tower of "sheer flame" Saturday after hitting power lines near a rural New Zealand town, police and witnesses said. All aboard were killed in the deadliest air crash in New Zealand in nearly 50 years.

Two of those killed jumped out of the basket in desperation before the fiery balloon plummeted to farmland with a loud bang as it hit the ground. The balloon crashed near the township of Carterton, in a region well known for its hot air ballooning, in clear, bright early morning conditions with minimal wind.

The pilot and five couples from the Wellington area, about 95 miles south of the crash site, were killed. Some of the bodies were badly burned, said Superintendent Mike Rusbatch, a police district commander in Wellington, the capital.

Police reported it appeared the balloon's basket struck power lines that set a fire on board. Witnesses told local media of seeing 32-foot high flames rising from the basket of the dark blue and maroon striped balloon before it plummeted to the farmland below.

Rep. Giffords to honor those killed in shooting

TUCSON, Ariz. -

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has arrived in Tucson, Ariz., to begin commemorating the one-year anniversary of the shooting that killed six people and left her and 12 others wounded.

The Arizona Republic says Giffords' first stop Friday was her congressional office where she participated in an emotional ceremony to honor slain staffer Gabe Zimmerman.

Giffords' staff gathered to dedicate a permanent memorial that will welcome visitors to her office: a life-size photo of Zimmerman and a memorial plaque that rests on a stand below it.

Giffords attended the event along with her husband, Mark Kelly.

She also will appear at a candlelight vigil Sunday to mark the anniversary of the shooting, which occurred during a Jan. 8 meet-and-greet.

Administration offers defense of health care bill

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration defended the health care overhaul in a filing Friday with the Supreme Court that calls the law an appropriate response to a "crisis in the national health care market."

The administration filed a written submission in the high court's biggest case this term, with the potential to affect President Barack Obama's bid for re-election.

The government called on the court to uphold the core requirement that individuals buy insurance or pay a penalty. One federal appeals court struck down the so-called individual mandate as exceeding Congress' power under the Constitution. But two other federal appeals courts upheld the law and agreed with the administration's argument that Congress was well within its power to adopt that requirement.

Florida and 25 other states, as well as the National Federation of Independent Business, told the court in separate briefs that if the justices strike down the individual requirement, they should invalidate the rest of the law as well. Thirty-six Republican senators echoed the states' argument in their own filing.

The law is aimed at extending health insurance coverage to more than 30 million previously uninsured people and would, by 2019, leave just 5 percent of the population uninsured, compared with about 17 percent today, according to the Congressional Budget Office. About half of the increase would come from the individual requirement.

- The Associated Press