Category Archives: Hot Topic
Chicago school administrator charged in student assault – Chicago Tribune
By Caroline Smith
Tribune reporter
6:49 a.m. CST, January 21, 2011
An assistant principal of a Chicago high school on the Northwest Side has been charged with misdemeanor battery in connection with an altercation with a student, police said.
Jaime Jaramillo, who works at Steinmetz Academic Centre, 3030 N. Mobile Avenue, turned himself into police Thursday in connection with the Jan. 12 alleged incident after the student filed a complaint, said Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli.
Details of the alleged battery were not available. WGN-TV identified the student as a 16-year-old girl and said she accused Jaramillo of dragging and pushing her in a school hallway.
Source: Chicago school administrator charged in student assault – Chicago Tribune
Israeli hospital says French envoy treated – The Associated Press
Palestinian protesters confront French FM in Gaza
(AP)
–
6 hours ago
EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip (AP) — Dozens of furious Palestinians protested against the French foreign minister on a visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday, pelting her motorcade with eggs and narrowly missing her with a lobbed shoe.
The protesters, relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, were angry about comments Michele Alliot-Marie reportedly made the day before in support of Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier captured in a cross-border raid by the Islamic militant group Hamas and held in Gaza since 2006.
A member of Alliot-Marie’s entourage was hit in the head and later examined at an Israeli hospital, according to the spokeswoman’s office at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
Protesters were waiting for Alliot-Marie as she crossed from Israel into Gaza through the Erez Crossing, lying on the road and jumping on her vehicle. Hamas police eventually dispersed those protesters, but more gathered outside a United Nations office in Gaza City that was her first stop in the Palestinian territory, and later followed her to a nearby hospital, pelting her motorcade with eggs. AP Television footage showed Alliot-Marie narrowly dodging a shoe thrown by a protester as she climbed into a jeep under heavy guard.
Schalit, the captive soldier, is an Israeli-French dual national and France has repeatedly called for his release.
Alliot-Marie made no public statement Thursday after meeting with Schalit’s parents in Jerusalem, but the soldier’s father, Noam Schalit, said afterward that the minister had called on Hamas to allow the Red Cross to visit his son for the first time. He referred to his son’s capture as a “war crime.”
The Palestinians linked the comments to Alliot-Marie, although she did not say anything publicly before or after the meeting.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the statements reflected a “total bias toward Israel” and ignored the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. “They are the true prisoners of war,” he said.
Hamas is demanding that Israel release hundreds of Hamas prisoners, including militants behind deadly attacks against Israelis, in return for Schalit. Talks facilitated by a German mediator have produced no result. Schalit has been seen by no one but his captors since 2006. A videotape released in 2009 showed him talking and reading a newspaper.
In keeping with the policy of the European Union, which considers Hamas a terror organization, Alliot-Marie did not meet with Hamas officials during her half-day visit.
Speaking at a French cultural center in Gaza, Alliot-Marie called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and security for Israel. She also called on Israel to fully lift all restrictions on goods and people coming and out of Gaza.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Source: Israeli hospital says French envoy treated – The Associated Press
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House GOP group proposes $2.5T in budget cuts – USA Today
Jan 21, 2011
A group of conservative House Republicans is hungry for more spending cuts, unveiling a plan to chop $2.5 trillion from the federal budget.
The proposal by the House Republican Study Committee, which represents about two-thirds of the GOP conference, cuts deeper than leaders such as Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would like.
The group’s plan is driven by voters, including those in the Tea Party movement, who swept Republicans into the House amid promises to cut spending and reduce the nation’s debt.
“If we don’t do something like this, the Republican Party is going to be in trouble electorally in the next two years,” freshman Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., said in The Washington Post.
“The voters sent us here to do this,” he said.
If the study committee had its way, the federal government would no longer support Amtrak, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The federal workforce would also be cut and pay raises for government workers eliminated for five years under the plan.
The group also proposes eliminating about $210 million a year for the District of Columbia that helps the city for such things as lost revenue because federal land isn’t taxed.
“Unless Washington acts soon to cut spending, massive tax hikes, economic stagnation, and national bankruptcy will rob our children of the opportunity to reach for the American Dream,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the study group.
The plan shows a rift developing in the GOP: The group is calling for an immediate $100 billion budget cut, while Ryan has said something around $80 billion is more realistic.
“We want more,” freshman Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., said in The New York Times.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., vowed to have an “open process” when lawmakers try to write a budget.
“I applaud the Republican Study Committee for proposing cuts in federal spending, and I look forward to the discussion on reducing spending that our country so desperately needs to have,” he said in a statement.
Source: House GOP group proposes $2.5T in budget cuts – USA Today
S. Korean Navy Frees Crew of Hijacked Chemical Tanker – Voice of America
Steve Herman
|
Seoul
21 January 2011
Photo: AFP
South Koreans watch a TV breaking news about South Korean navy military operation against Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean in Seoul, 21 Jan 2011
South Korean naval special forces stormed a hijacked ship early Friday and rescued 21 sailors and killed a number of pirates in the Arabian Sea.
Five suspected kidnappers were captured.
President Lee Myung-bak went live on national television to announce the successful conclusion of the five-hour operation, 1,300 kilometers northeast of Somalia.
Mr. Lee told the country South Korea will not tolerate future attacks on any of its nationals.
The president says the military conducted the rescue operation perfectly under difficult circumstances. He says he appreciates the action of the forces and that it sends a message of encouragement.
The Norwegian-owned Samho Jewelry was heading to Sri Lanka from the United Arab Emirates when it was seized last Saturday, 650 kilometers southeast of the port of Muscat.
Mr. Lee added that other countries assisted with the raid but he did not elaborate. News reports say a navy ship from Oman was on the scene to support the South Korean operation.
On board the Malta-flagged chemical tanker was a crew of 11 Burmese, eight South Koreans and two Indonesians. It is operated by South Korea’s Samho Shipping.
Military officials in Seoul say a South Korean naval destroyer, the Choi Young, with 300 special forces aboard, tailed the hijacked ship for days before moving in early Friday.
Army Lieutenant General Lee Seong-ho, at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says at least eight of the kidnappers died while the skipper of the seized ship was shot in the stomach by the pirates. His injuries are not considered life-threatening.
General Lee says three of the rescuers suffered minor injuries as they came under fire from the kidnappers.
The general says the operation demonstrates South Korea’s strong will to never negotiate with pirates.
The government had vowed not endure a repeat of last year’s hijacking of an oil tanker also operated by Samho Shipping.
The Samho Dream and its crew were freed after 217 days, reportedly following a ransom payment of more than $9 million.
That prompted criticism here that the payment would encourage pirates to more aggressively target South Korean vessels.
A number of navies, from both developed and emerging nations, have intensified patrols in the pirate-infested waters surrounding Somalia. Most of the pirates are based in Somalia, which has not had a functioning government for the past 20 years.
Source: S. Korean Navy Frees Crew of Hijacked Chemical Tanker – Voice of America
