World/Nation Briefs September 29, 2014
Obama could veto GOP-run Senate's biggest goals
WASHINGTON - How much difference will it make if Republicans win the Senate majority on Nov. 4, joining the GOP-run House against a Democratic White House?
Congress' persistent gridlock is due largely, but not entirely, to the current power split in the two chambers. But even if Republicans add Senate control to their safe House majority, big legislative roadblocks will remain.
President Barack Obama still can veto legislation.
Should Democrats lose six or more Senate seats, ceding the majority, they can use the power of the filibuster to thwart dozens of GOP initiatives. Republicans have employed this tactic from the minority side.
In the House, House Republicans' deep philosophical divisions will remain. That will further complicate efforts by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to pass bills without help from Democrats, who generally demand significant concessions.
At least 31 people believed dead in Mt. Ontake volcano eruption
TOKYO - Finally reaching the ash-covered summit of a still-erupting volcano in central Japan, rescue workers made a grim discovery Sunday: 31 apparently dead people, some reportedly buried in knee-deep ash.
Four victims were brought down and confirmed dead, one day after Mount Ontake's big initial eruption, said Takehiko Furukoshi, a Nagano prefecture crisis-management official. The 27 others were listed as having heart and lung failure, the customary way for Japanese authorities to describe a body until police doctors can examine it.
Officials provided no details on how they may have died.
It was the first fatal eruption in modern times at 10,062-foot Mount Ontake, a popular climbing destination about 130 miles west of Tokyo on the main Japanese island of Honshu. A similar eruption occurred in 1979, but no one died.
Rescue helicopters hovered over ash-covered mountain lodges and vast landscapes that looked a ghostly gray, like the surface of the moon, devoid of nearly all color but the bright orange of rescue workers' jumpsuits.
India Prime Minister Modi says country won't look back
NEW YORK - India's new prime minister, once shunned by Washington, received a raucous reception in a famed New York sports arena Sunday where he appealed for help from Indian-Americans to help develop his country's economy, vowing that under his leadership, the South Asian nation wouldn't look back.
A day after addressing a hushed U.N. General Assembly, where headphone-wearing delegates rarely break into a smile, Narendra Modi received a tumultuous welcome from upward of 18,000 people at Madison Square Garden. He struck a chord by announcing plans to simplify the immigration bureaucracy for Indians living abroad, and called on them to "join hands to serve our mother India."
A dazzling, Bollywood-style show warmed up the crowd before Modi appeared. About 30 U.S. lawmakers attended - ringing the stage as the Indian leader came into the auditorium under a spotlight like a boxing champion. The event had the feel of a political rally, and the audience periodically broke out into chants of "Modi! Modi!"
Today, Modi will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House, a meeting that both sides hope can improve strained relations between the world's two largest democracies.
Being courted by Washington marks a major change since 2005, when the U.S. denied Modi a visa for his alleged complicity in sectarian violence in his home state of Gujarat.
Tourism to Israel drops sharply after Gaza war with Hamas
JERUSALEM - It was supposed to be a record-breaking year for tourist visits to Israel. But all that changed when the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas prompted jittery travelers to cancel trips en masse, leaving empty hotel rooms and barren tourist sites in their wake.
The summertime fighting delivered a serious hit to Israel's thriving tourism industry, causing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars and sparking concern that aftershocks may continue well after the war.
"Our challenge is how to prevent more cancelations. Despite a month having passed since the war, there is still an image among tourists that it is not safe to travel here," said Oded Grofman of the Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association.
Israel's war against Hamas came at the beginning of the peak tourist season, which includes July and August and runs through the Jewish High Holiday season and early winter.
Israel launched the war July 8 in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and to destroy a network of tunnels used to attack Israelis. More than 2,100 Palestinians and 72 people on the Israeli side were killed.
- The Associated Press