World/Nation Briefs March 6, 2012
Israeli leader, Obama differ on options for Iran
WASHINGTON - Taking sharply different stands, President Barack Obama on Monday urged pressure and diplomacy to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized his nation's right to a pre-emptive attack. Even in proclaiming unity, neither leader gave ground on how to resolve the crisis.
Seated together in the Oval Office, Obama and Netanyahu at times tried to speak for each other, and other times spoke past one another. The president and prime minister are linked by the history and necessity of their nations' deep alliance, if not much personal warmth, and both sought to steer the Iran agenda on their terms.
"I know that both the prime minister and I prefer to resolve this diplomatically," Obama said. "We understand the costs of any military action."
If he agreed, Netanyahu said nothing about sanctions or talks with Iran, or Obama's position that there still is time to try to deter Iran peacefully. Instead, Netanyahu drew attention back to Obama's acknowledgement that Israel is a sovereign land that can protect itself how it sees fit.
Super Tuesday: Is it Santorum's last stand?
On the eve of their Super Tuesday showdown, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum strained for an edge in Ohio on Monday and braced for the 10 primaries and caucuses likely to redefine the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Newt Gingrich, though winless for more than a month, campaigned in Tennessee and issued a stream of signals that he intended to stay in the race.
In a race marked by unpredictability, Romney's superior organization and the support of an especially deep-pocketed super PAC allowed him to compete all across the Super Tuesday landscape and potentially pick up more than half of the 419 delegates at stake.
Santorum cast the race in biblical terms, his David vs. Romney's Goliath. Even that "is probably a little bit of an understatement," he added.
By contrast, Romney projected confidence. "I hope that I get the support of people here in Ohio tomorrow, and in other states across the country. I believe if I do, I'll get the nomination," he said.
Holder offers first justification for killing al-Awlaki
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the decision to kill a U.S. citizen living abroad who poses a terrorist threat "is among the gravest that government leaders can face," but justified lethal action as legal and sometimes necessary in the war on terror.
Holder's comments broke the administration's silence on the legal justifications for its decision to kill American-born al-Qaida operative Anwar al-Awlaki five months ago in Yemen. In a speech at Northwestern University law school in Chicago, he described al-Awlaki as concocting plans to kill Americans but he never explicitly acknowledged the administration responded by targeting the cleric for death.
Instead the attorney general outlined a three-part test for determining when a targeted killing against a U.S. citizen is legal. He said the government must determine after careful review that the citizen poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the U.S., capture is not feasible and the killing would be consistent with laws of war.
The Obama administration has refused to release the Justice Department legal opinion on al-Awlaki's killing under the Freedom of Information Act and is in court opposing efforts to have it made public.
Syrian refugees feared slaughter in their homes
QAA, Lebanon - Syrian refugees fleeing to neighboring Lebanon on Monday said they feared they would be slaughtered in their own homes as government forces hunted down opponents in a brutal offensive against the opposition stronghold of Homs.
With world pressure at a peak in the boiling crisis, U.S. Sen. John McCain called for airstrikes against Syria. He said the United States has a moral and strategic obligation to force out Assad and his loyalists.
The U.N. refugee agency said Monday that as many as 2,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon over the last two days to flee the violence in their country.
One dead, 6 hurt in nursing home meth lab fire
ASHTABULA, Ohio - A fire chief in northeast Ohio says a drug lab in the room of a nursing home resident has caused a fire that killed one person and injured six others.
Ashtabula fire Chief Ron Pristera says the man died Monday, following the Sunday night fire at Park Haven Nursing Home. He says the lab was making methamphetamine. Pristera says the man was among three residents and two non-residents hospitalized. Two other people were treated at the scene.
Auditor's records show the home was built in 1950 and had 31 rooms. Pristera says 39 names were on its roster.
- The Associated Press