World/Nation Briefs June 16, 2012

Japan restarts 1st nuclear reactors since tsunami

TOKYO - Japan's government on Saturday approved bringing the country's first nuclear reactors back online since last year's earthquake and tsunami led to a shutdown of reactors nationwide.

Despite lingering safety concerns, the restart could speed the resumption of operations at more reactors across the country. The decision paves the way for a power company in western Japan to immediately begin work to restart two reactors in Ohi town, a process that is expected to take several weeks.

All of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors are now offline for maintenance or safety checks. Public opposition to the resumption of nuclear operations remains high because of the crisis the tsunami touched off at Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

The restart is being closely watched as an indicator of how aggressively the government will act to approve operations at other reactors.

Romney: Obama denying middle class a 'fair shot'

MILFORD, N.H. - Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney launched a multistate bus tour through small-town America on Friday, charging that President Barack Obama hasn't given the middle class "a fair shot."

The tour, unusual for Romney, marked an attempt to upend Obama's core argument against his challenger: that the Republican is disconnected from the ordinary folks he aims to lead.

The five-day excursion by bus - as well as airplane - comes after Romney spent the past few weeks courting wealthy donors and raising millions of dollars to fund his presidential ambitions.

"If there's ever been a president who has not given a fair shot to the middle-income Americans of this great nation, it is Barack Obama," Romney declared from a makeshift podium during an "ice cream social" in Milford's town square. "I understand what it takes to get people to work again. I will do that to help the American people from the richest to the poorest and everybody in between."

Catholic hospitals reject compromiseon birth control

WASHINGTON - Sharpening an election-year confrontation over religious freedom and government health insurance rules, the nation's Catholic hospitals on Friday rejected President Barack Obama's compromise for providing birth control coverage to their women employees.

The Catholic Health Association was a key ally in Obama's health care overhaul, defying opposition from church bishops to help the president win approval in Congress. But the group said Friday it does not believe church-affiliated employers should have to provide birth control as a free preventive service, as the law now requires.

The hospital group's decision calls into question a compromise offered by the president himself only months ago, under which the cost of providing birth control would be covered by insurance companies and not religious employers. While churches and other places of worship are exempt from the birth control mandate, nonprofits affiliated with a religion, such as hospitals, are not.

In a letter to the federal Health and Human Services department, the hospital group said the compromise initially seemed to be "a good first step" but that examination of the details proved disappointing. The plan would be "unduly cumbersome" to carry out and "unlikely to adequately meet the religious liberty concerns" of all its members, the group said.

While some liberal-leaning religious groups see no problem with the birth control rule, Roman Catholic bishops and conservative-leaning groups are treating it as an affront and calling it an attack on religious freedom. Institutions ranging from the University of Notre Dame to Catholic Charities in several states to the Archdiocese of Washington have sued to block the rule.

- The Associated Press