World/Nation Briefs
Derailed plane fuselages pulled out of river
MISSOULA, Mont. - Crews have removed all three commercial airplane fuselages from a river embankment in western Montana after they tumbled off a train in a derailment.
Montana Rail Link spokeswoman Lynda Frost tells the Missoulian that the last of the newly manufactured Boeing 737 fuselages was hoisted up Tuesday. A fuselage is the main body of an aircraft.
Nineteen train cars derailed Thursday, spilling three fuselages into the Clark Fork River near Alberton and three more near the tracks. Frost says the fuselages and their flatbed cars weigh a combined 70 tons each.
The fuselages and other airplane parts were being transported from a manufacturing plant in Wichita, Kansas, to Boeing facilities in Washington state.
Railway officials are investigating the cause of the derailment.
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Obama asks Congress to deal with immigration
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama appealed to Congress on Tuesday for $3.7 billion in emergency spending to deal with the immigration crisis on the nation's southern border, where unaccompanied children have been showing up by the thousands in a human drama that's causing a political storm in Washington and beyond.
Obama himself was flying to Texas today, a trip designed mostly for political fundraising for Democrats but now including a meeting on immigration with Gov. Rick Perry and religious and local leaders in Dallas. He rejected pressure from the Republican governor to visit the border for a firsthand look.
In Washington, Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill seemed open to approving the emergency money, which would go toward hiring more immigration judges and asylum officers, building more detention facilities, boosting deterrence and enforcement and increasing surveillance along the border with Mexico. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Senate would act on it this month.
Obama said in a formal letter of request that the money was needed to "address this urgent humanitarian situation."
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Death toll rises in Gaza from Israeli offensive
JERUSALEM - Israel on Tuesday launched its largest offensive in the Gaza Strip in nearly two years, carrying out a blistering aerial assault on scores of targets and killing 25 people in what officials called an open-ended operation aimed at ending weeks of heavy rocket fire. As Gaza militants unleashed salvos on cities including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel mobilized forces along the border for a possible ground invasion.
The offensive set off the heaviest fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas since an eight-day battle in November 2012. The militants fired about 160 rockets at Israel, including a strike that reached the northern city of Hadera for the first time, while Israel said it attacked more than 150 sites across Gaza.
Palestinian medics reported at least 25 dead, including six killed in an airstrike that flattened an apartment building in southern Gaza and set off widespread panic.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said continued rocket attacks on Israeli communities would not be tolerated.
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Republicans tap Cleveland to host 2016 convention
WASHINGTON - Cleveland won the unanimous backing of a Republican National Committee panel on Tuesday, all but guaranteeing the GOP's 2016 presidential pick will accept the party's nomination in perennially hard-fought Ohio.
The Republicans' site selection committee backed Cleveland over donor-rich Dallas, and the full 168-member RNC is expected to ratify the choice next month. The move reflects the role Ohio - and its 18 electoral votes- plays in presidential campaigns.
"As goes Ohio, so goes the presidential race," said party Chairman Reince Priebus.
The RNC did not announce a start date for the convention but Priebus said that June 28 or July 18, 2016, are the two options under consideration. An earlier-than-normal convention was a priority for Priebus, and leaders of Dallas' bid said the calendar was the main factor running against the Texas city.
- The Associated Press