World/Nation Briefs June 12, 2012
Commerce
secretary to take leave of absence
WASHINGTON - Commerce Secretary John Bryson said Monday he will take a medical leave of absence to undergo tests and evaluations after suffering a seizure in connection with a succession of traffic accidents in the Los Angeles area.
Bryson informed President Barack Obama that he was taking a medical leave "so that I can focus all of my attention on resolving the health issues that arose over the weekend," according to a statement released by the department. Deputy Secretary Rebecca Blank will serve as acting commerce secretary in Bryson's absence.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement that Obama's thoughts were with Bryson and his family.
The 68-year-old former utility executive struck a car stopped for a train - twice - on Saturday afternoon and then rammed into another vehicle with his car a few minutes later. He was found unconscious in his vehicle, and government officials said Monday he had had a seizure, which could play a role in whether he's charged with felony hit-and-run.
Australian official blames dingo in famed 1980 case
CANBERRA, Australia - Settling a notorious 1980 case that split the nation and led to a mistaken murder conviction, an Australian coroner ruled Tuesday that a dingo took a baby from a campsite in the Outback, just as her mother said from the beginning.
The eyes of Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and her ex-husband, Michael Chamberlain, welled with tears as the findings of the fourth inquest into the disappearance of their 9-week-old daughter, Azaria, were announced in court. Lindy Chamberlain served more than three years in prison for the baby's death, but was later cleared and has always maintained that a wild dog took her.
Azaria disappeared from a campsite near Ayers Rock, the red monolith in the Australian desert now known by its Aboriginal name Uluru. The case became famous internationally through the 1988 movie "A Cry in the Dark."
Many Australians initially did not believe that a dingo was strong enough to take away the baby. Public opinion swayed harshly against the couple; some even spat on Chamberlain-Creighton and howled like dingoes outside her house.
House schedules contempt vote on AG Eric Holder
WASHINGTON - A House committee looking into a flawed gun-smuggling probe in Arizona announced Monday that it will consider holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress next week for failing to produce some documents the panel is seeking.
The committee has scheduled a contempt vote for June 20.
To date, the Justice Department has produced 7,600 pages of material to the committee.
Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says Congress needs to examine records regarding the Justice Department's conduct following public disclosures in early 2011 that hundreds of guns illicitly purchased at gun shops on the U.S. side of the border wound up in Mexico, many of them at crime scenes.
The Justice Department says many of the documents being sought deal with open criminal investigations and prosecutions - matters relating to sensitive law enforcement activities that cannot be disclosed.
Tactical team to help search for shooting suspect
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Authorities searching for a man charged with fatally shooting three people near Auburn University swarmed a house Monday where they believe he's hiding, firing tear gas and sending a tactical team on cautious forays inside.
The tactical team had searched the lower portions of the house and was making deliberate moves into the attic where suspect Desmonte Leonard was believed to be hiding, said Montgomery Public Safety Director Chris Murphy. He declined to give a timetable for them to bring someone out.
Police had hoped to flush out the person with tear gas and verbal commands, but sent in the tactical team after getting no response. They've used thermal imaging and other technology to narrow down what part of the attic he's in. The attic is cramped, complicating investigators' efforts.
Mubarak's health adds tumult to Egyptian politics
CAIRO - Hosni Mubarak's health worsened Monday, with doctors twice having to use a defibrillator on the imprisoned former leader, adding to the tumult in Egypt before this weekend's runoff election for president.
Mubarak, 84, was slipping in and out of consciousness, was suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties, and was in a deep depression, according to security officials at Torah prison where he is serving a life sentence. Doctors there could not find a pulse twice, and used the defibrillator, they said.
The deposed leader, who was being given liquids intravenously, also lost consciousness several times Sunday.
His health crisis came at time of political anxiety in Egypt, with a former prime minister from the Mubarak regime facing an Islamist in a showdown at the ballot box on June 16-17.
- The Associated Press