World/Nation Briefs July 20, 2012
<p>Firefighters protest against austerity measures announced by the Spanish government in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday. The country is in its second recession in three years and its government borrowing rates are unsustainably high as investors worry the government may face new costs in rescuing the banks. If the government's borrowing rates do not fall back down, it may eventually need a sovereign bailout like those taken by Greece, Ireland and Portugal.</p>
<p>Demonstrators protest against austerity measures announced by the Spanish government in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday. The country is in its second recession in three years and its government borrowing rates are unsustainably high as investors worry the government may face new costs in rescuing the banks. If the government's borrowing rates do not fall back down, it may eventually need a sovereign bailout like those taken by Greece, Ireland and Portugal.</p>
Police seek name of man in Bulgaria airport bombing
BURGAS, Bulgaria - He looked like any other impatient tourist checking the big board at airport arrivals: a lanky, long-haired man in a baseball cap with his hands in the pockets of his plaid Bermuda shorts, a bulky backpack hanging from his shoulders.
Minutes later, authorities say, the man, filmed by security cameras at the Burgas airport, would board a bus filled with young Israeli tourists and blow himself up, killing six others as well. Authorities looked Thursday for clues as to who he was, using his fingerprints, his DNA and his fake Michigan driver's license.
Israel was quick to blame Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah for the attack and a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Thursday night that Hezbollah was believed to be behind the attack. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a sensitive intelligence issue.
The victims included the Bulgarian bus driver and five Israelis, including a pregnant woman.
Racial profiling trial under way in Arizona
PHOENIX - Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's anti-illegal immigration patrols took center stage Thursday in federal court as a group of Latinos set out to prove that his deputies racially profiled them as part of a systemic policy of discrimination.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs who filed a civil lawsuit against Arpaio's department said in opening statements that the evidence will show that Arpaio and his deputies discriminated against Hispanics.
"It's our view that the problem starts at the top," attorney Stan Young said.
Tim Casey, who is defending Arpaio, said the patrols were properly planned out and executed. He said they exceeded police standards. "Race and ethnicity had nothing to do with the traffic stops," Case said.
Arpaio has said people pulled over were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that officers only learned afterward that many were illegal immigrants.
'Serial infector' worker charged in outbreak
CONCORD, N.H. - A hospital worker accused of injecting himself with stolen drugs and contaminating syringes that infected at least 30 patients with hepatitis C was charged Thursday with federal drug crimes.
David Kwiatkowski, a former technician at Exeter Hospital, was arrested Thursday morning at a Massachusetts hospital where he was receiving treatment. U.S. Attorney John Kacavas called Kwiatkowski a "serial infector" who worked in at least six other states, including one in which he is a suspect in a similar incident involving a hospital operating room. Kacavas declined to name any of the other states but said they are not clustered in one part of the country.
Kwiatkowski, originally from Michigan, worked at Exeter's cardiac catheterization lab from April 2011 through this past May, when he was fired. He told investigators that he learned he had hepatitis C in May, but Kacavas said there is evidence he had the liver-destroying disease since at least June 2010.
- The Associated Press