World Nation Briefs February 16, 2013
Obama talks about middle class opportunity
CHICAGO - Pressing his case in the town that launched his political career, President Barack Obama called Friday for the government to take an active, wide-ranging role in ensuring every American has a "ladder of opportunity" into the middle class.
Speaking at Hyde Park Academy in Chicago, Obama sought support for proposals, unveiled this week in his State of the Union address, to increase the federal minimum wage and ensure every child can attend preschool. He also pitched plans to pair businesses with recession-battered communities to help them rebuild and provide job training.
"In too many neighborhoods today, whether here in Chicago or in the farthest reaches of rural America, it can feel like for a lot of young people the future only extends to the next street corner or the outskirts of town, that no matter how much you work or how hard you try, your destiny was determined the moment you were born," Obama said.
Ensuring that no child is denied the ability to go as far as his or her talents will allow means removing some of the roadblocks from early in life, Obama said, calling for intensified efforts to promote healthier family environments. He called for removing financial disincentives to marry and reforming child support laws in hopes that more children will grow up in stable homes - and, specifically, with a responsible father in the picture.
Holding himself up as an example, Obama reflected on the absence of his father during his childhood, but said he had advantages not enjoyed by others, such as the at-risk young men from an anti-violence school program he met just after arriving in Chicago.
Former cop was hiding across street in manhunt
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner hid in a mountain condominium as a door-to-door manhunt took place outside and, after he finally made his break, apparently killed himself with a gunshot wound to the head amid a fierce gunbattle with police.
Dorner is believed to have entered the condo through an unlocked door sometime Feb. 7, soon after he arrived in the area of Big Bear Lake after killing three people. He then locked the door and stayed hunkered down for six days until the condo's owners came to clean it, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Friday.
Soon after he arrived in the mountain resort area 80 miles east of Los Angeles, deputies knocked on the door but left when they found the door locked and no sign of a break-in, McMahon said.
"Our deputy knocked on that door and did not get an answer, and in hindsight it's probably a good thing that he did not answer based on his actions before and after that event," the sheriff said of Dorner.
When the owners arrived, he tied them up and fled in their car, leading to a chase, a shootout that killed a sheriff's deputy and, ultimately, Dorner, who died in a cabin where he barricaded himself for his last stand.
Pistorius weeps in court, faces murder charge
PRETORIA, South Africa - In a courtroom, not an Olympic stadium, there was no click-click-click of Oscar Pistorius' prosthetic limbs. His only sound Friday was loud, uncontrollable sobs as prosecutors charged him with premeditated murder in the shooting death of his model girlfriend.
Pistorius, 26, the double-amputee sprinter who won world acclaim by competing in last summer's London Olympics, did not speak or enter a plea. He held his head and wept as he heard the charge, which carries a life sentence.
A statement released later by his family and agent said Pistorius disputed the murder charge "in the strongest terms."
The track star's arrest in the Valentine's Day killing of 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp shocked South Africa, where Pistorius was a national hero dubbed the Blade Runner for his high-tech prosthetics and revered for overcoming his disability to compete in the London Games.
Legion of Christ records show shady fundraising
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Documents released Friday shed light on the inner workings of a secretive and now-disgraced Roman Catholic order called the Legion of Christ, including new details on how the organization solicited money from an elderly widow, eventually persuading her to bequeath it $60 million.
The documents, previously sealed in a lawsuit brought before Superior Court in Rhode Island, include thousands of pages of testimony from high-ranking leaders at the Legion, its members and relatives of wealthy widow Gabrielle Mee. They are the first depositions of high-ranking Legion officials.
Pope Benedict XVI took over the Legion in 2010 after a Vatican investigation determined that Maciel had lived a double life, including fathering three children by two women. The pope ordered a wholesale reform of the order and named a papal delegate to oversee it.
- The Associated Press