World/Nation Briefs October 9, 2012

Syria's cross-border attacks send message

BEIRUT - Syria's cross-border attacks on Turkey in the past week look increasingly like they could be an intentional escalation meant to send a clear message to Ankara and beyond, that the crisis is simply too explosive to risk foreign military intervention.

With Turkey eager to defuse the crisis, the spillover of fighting is giving new life to a longshot political solution, with the Turks floating the idea of making President Bashar Assad's longtime vice president, Farouk al-Sharaa, interim leader if the president steps aside.

A military option - which would involve foreign powers that already have expressed a deep reluctance to getting involved in the crisis - is still not on the table, analysts say, despite six consecutive days of Turkish retaliation against bombardment from inside Syria.

Van der Sloot says girlfriend is pregnant in Peru

LIMA, Peru - A newspaper reported Monday that Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch man who is serving a 28-year-sentence for murdering a young Peruvian woman, says he is going to be a father.

His lawyer said the inmate does have a conjugal visitor, but he could not confirm she is pregnant.

The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf said Van der Sloot, a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway, told the paper in a telephone call Saturday that "a test has proved" the pregnancy.

Van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Altez, told The Associated Press that a woman named Leidy Figueroa Uceda "is registered as a conjugal visitor of Joran. She is registered in the visitors books of the Piedras Gordas prison in Lima."

He denied, however, that he had told the newspaper he could confirm the pregnancy.

Meningitis: Up to 13,000 got shots of recalled steroid

NEW YORK - As many as 13,000 people received steroid shots suspected in a national meningitis outbreak, health officials said Monday. But it's not clear how many are in danger.

Officials don't know how many of the shots may have been contaminated with meningitis-causing fungus tied to the outbreak. And the figure includes not only those who got them in the back for pain - who are most at risk - but also those who got the shots in other places, like knees and shoulders.

Those injected in joints are not believed to be at risk for fungal meningitis, said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said there was no breakdown available of how many had the shots in the back or in joints.

The CDC count of cases reached 105 on Monday, including eight deaths. A ninth death was reported late Monday by a Nashville, Tenn., hospital.

Tennessee has the most cases, followed by Michigan, Virginia, Indiana, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio.

Austrian's skydive could aid astronauts

ROSWELL, N.M. - Skydiver Felix Baumgartner's attempt at the highest, fastest free fall in history today is more than just a stunt.

His planned 23-mile dive from the stratosphere should provide scientists with valuable information for next-generation spacesuits and techniques that could help astronauts survive accidents.

Jumping from more than three times the height of the average cruising altitude for jetliners, Baumgartner hopes to become the first person to break the sound barrier outside of an airplane. His team has calculated that to be 690 mph based on the altitude of his dive.

His medical director Dr. Jonathan Clark, a NASA space shuttle crew surgeon who lost his wife, Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia accident, says no one knows what happens to a body when it breaks the sound barrier.

Chavez's plans for Venezuela could be crimped

CARACAS, Venezuela - During his re-election campaign, President Hugo Chavez promised to deepen the "21st century socialism" that has meant an ever-greater state role in the economy. That message won him a surprising 11-percentage point win in what many had thought would be a tight race.

Still, he's set to start a fourth presidential term under challenging economic circumstances. The government's free-spending ways, bankrolling the generous social programs that aided his re-election, may be seriously crimped.

Chavez faces immediate economic time bombs beginning with a rapidly expanding public debt, one of Latin America's highest inflation rates and a weakening currency.

Many economists believe Chavez will have no choice but to devalue the currency, the bolivar, by about half early next year at the latest. That will make the money in people's pockets suddenly worth a lot less and likely drive inflation while putting imported consumer goods out of reach for poorer Venezuelans.

Sandusky and his victims to speak at sentencing

BELLEFONTE, Pa. - Jerry Sandusky and at least some of his victims plan to address the judge at his sentencing, a proceeding that may last less than two hours, lawyers said after a closed-door meeting to iron out logistics ahead of today's hearing.

Sandusky lawyer Joe Amendola said "it's as certain as certain can be" that the former Penn State assistant football coach will speak to Judge John Cleland and assert his innocence before he is sentenced on 45 counts of child sexual abuse.

"What I anticipate he'll say is he's innocent," Amendola said outside the courthouse Monday afternoon.

Amendola said he did not expect any others to speak on Sandusky's behalf, although friends and family members - including his wife, Dottie - have written letters of support. Dottie Sandusky plans to attend the hearing, he said.

- The Associated Press