***CONTAMINATED RICE BRIEF: CHECK BIZ LINEUPS***
WASHINGTON
Senate panel OKs arms for Syrian rebels
A Senate panel voted on Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition in the 2-year-old civil war. With a degree of trepidation, the Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for a bill that would provide lethal assistance and military training to vetted rebel groups, and would slap sanctions on anyone who sells oil or transfers arms to the Assad regime such as Iran and Russia. The measure also establishes a $250 million fund to aid in the transition if and when Assad falls. The fate of the bill is uncertain.
ARIZONA
Court strikes down abortion ban
A federal court Tuesday struck down Arizona’s ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy absent a medical emergency. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law violated a woman’s constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy before a fetus is able to survive outside the womb. “Viability” of a fetus is generally considered to start at 24 weeks. Normal pregnancies run about 40 weeks. Nine other states have enacted similar bans starting at 20 weeks or even earlier. Several of those bans had previously been placed on hold or struck down by other courts.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Commander facing adultery charges
The commanding general of Fort Jackson, S.C., has been suspended in connection with charges of adultery and involvement in a physical altercation, the Army says. Brig. Gen. Bryan Roberts reportedly was in an altercation with another woman, not his wife. Roberts was suspended from his job by Gen. Robert W. Cone, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, while the investigation continues. The suspension is the latest in a series of scandals involving senior military officers in recent months.
CHINA
Cadmium contaminated rice surfaces
Authorities are investigating rice mills in southern China following tests that found almost half of the staple grain in one of the country’s largest cities was contaminated with a toxic metal. The mills in Hunan province’s Youxian county were ordered to suspend business and recall their products after samples showed excessive levels of cadmium, according to an official notice issued Tuesday by the county government. The carcinogenic metal can seriously damage the kidneys and cause other health problems.
IRAQ
Car bomb, other attacks kill 20
A car bomb exploded as Sunni worshippers were leaving a mosque after evening prayers Tuesday in Baghdad, the deadliest in a string of attacks that killed at least 20 people nationwide in a week of the most sustained sectarian violence in the country since U.S. troops withdrew more than a year ago. Rising tensions between Sunnis and the Shiite-led government have burst into a new round of bloodshed with 279 people killed since last week and scenes reminiscent of some of the worst carnage during the days when the two Islamic sects battled each other as well as U.S.-led forces in the chaotic years after Saddam Hussein’s ouster.
FRANCE
Man commits suicide at Notre Dame
Visitors were cleared from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a man put a letter on the altar of the 850-year-old monument Tuesday, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head. It’s the first suicide in decades at the landmark site, Monsignor Patrick Jacquin, the cathedral’s rector, said. The man was identified as Dominique Venner, 78. Venner’s blog describes him as a historian and essayist, and includes description of his involvement in the campaign against France’s new law authorizing gay marriage. The blog says he fought with French forces against Algerian independence fighters a half-century ago in a war that ended with France losing its most prized colony.
NEW JERSEY
Goat on the lam snarls traffic
A goat believed to have escaped on its way to a slaughterhouse snarled the morning commute along one of the busiest roadways in northern New Jersey on Tuesday. The small female goat eluded five Jersey City police officers for more than 90 minutes by jumping back and forth over a central divider along the Pulaski Skyway, alternately disrupting traffic along both east and west-bound lanes, city spokesman Stan Eason said. Four vehicles, whose drivers were attempting to avoid the zigzagging goat, were involved in a minor accident, police said. There were no injuries.
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