INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS…INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS…INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

UNIONTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) – Officials in western Pennsylvania are trying to figure out how a man who has been dead for more than two years wound up being reappointed to a county industrial authority board.

Fayette County officials said Wednesday it seemed they never tried checking in with Larry Markwood before reappointing him. He died in August 2012.

County commissioners say they conducted interviews with candidates and received letters from members who want to be reappointed or leave the board, but Markwood slipped through the cracks.

The industrial authority hadn’t met since 2010, so attendance records would have been of no use.

Commissioner Chairman Vincent Zapotosky tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review they’ll be smarter about the reappointment process in the future.

Families plead for lives of IS hostages as swap hopes fade

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – The father of a Jordanian fighter pilot and the wife of a Japanese journalist held by the Islamic State group pleaded for their loved ones’ lives after a possible prisoner swap wasn’t carried out by a deadline of sunset yesterday.

The extremists had demanded that Jordan release a female al-Qaida prisoner from death row, and they purportedly threatened in an audio message to kill the airman if she was not freed by the deadline.

After sundown in the Middle East, there was no word on the fate of Lt Muath al-Kaseasbeh and journalist Kenji Goto, and the families’ agonizing wait dragged on.

“We received no assurances from anyone that he is alive,” Jawdat al-Kaseasbeh, a brother of the pilot, told The Associated Press. “We have no clue about where the negotiations stand now. We are waiting, just waiting.”

The possibility of a swap was raised Wednesday when Jordan said it was willing to trade Sajida al-Rishawi, the al-Qaida prisoner, for the pilot.

Photo: Family Jordan

CAPTION – A man comforts the wife of Jordanian pilot, Lt Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who is held by the Islamic State group militants, during a protest in front of the Royal Palace in Amman, Jordan, yesterday.

Mexico maternity blast kills two, injures dozens

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) – A gas truck blew up outside a maternity hospital in Mexico City yesterday, killing at least two people, injuring dozens and trapping others after the building crumbled.

Rescuers with dogs scoured the rubble of the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in the Cuajimalpa borough for people who were stuck following the huge blast, which rocked the neighborhood.

Officials gave various death tolls during the day, at one point reporting that four babies were killed, but Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said only two people were confirmed dead for now.

“One is a minor and the other a woman,” Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told a news conference, adding that 66 people were injured, including 22 in serious condition

The Red Cross said nine babies were taken to three hospitals in the capital.

Around three-quarters of the building collapsed after the blast, which took place at around 7:00 am after workers were unable to control a pipe leak, Mancera said.

Mancera told MVS Radio that the zone was evacuated “for safety because a lot of the people are babies in the crib area.”

The newborn emergency care area was among those hit, said Adrian Rubalcava, president of Cuajimalpa borough. He said 100 people were in the building at the time of the tragedy.

The truck’s three operators were detained, and two of them were in hospitalized, Mancera said. Their employer was identified as Nieto Express, which as serviced the city since 2007.

Photo: Mexico hospital2

CAPTION – Rescuers work amid the wreckage caused by an explosion in a hospital in Cuajimalpa, Mexico City, yesterday.

US says ‘no’ to handing Guantanamo back to Cuba

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Efforts to improve ties with Cuba will not extend to handing control of Guantanamo Bay back to Havana, the White House said on yesterday.

“The president does believe that the prison at Guantanamo Bay should be closed down,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “But the naval base is not something that we wish to be closed.”

The base, on Cuba’s southeastern tip, is currently the site of a large naval base as well as a deeply controversial prison used to detain terror suspects without trial.

Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday said handing back control of the 45 square mile (116 square kilometre) site was a precondition for normalizing ties with the United States.

Castro and Obama simultaneously announced on December 17 their intention to end a half-century of animosity and normalize ties that broke off in 1961.

The US took control of Guantanamo following a treaty in 1903.

Obama to seek to bust US spending limits by US$74 billion

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama will ask Congress to boost government spending by roughly seven per cent above current limits, the White House said yesterday, setting up a certain clash with Republicans who insist that federal spending must be held in check.

The proposal from the president reflects the White House’s newfound confidence in the economy. It comes two months after the president’s fellow Democrats were routed in November elections that gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress. They are expected to make major changes to Obama’s suggestions.

Obama’s aides believe that improving conditions give Obama credibility to push his spending priorities unabashedly – despite the fact that Republicans still believe government spends far too much.

Federal deficits, gas prices and unemployment are all falling, while Obama’s poll numbers have crept upward. The president has been newly combative as he argues it’s time to ease the harsh measures that were taken to help pull the economy out of recession.

Obama’s budget, to be formally released Monday, will call for US$74 billion more than the levels frozen in place by across-the-board cuts agreed to by both Democrats and Republicans and signed by Obama into law. The White House said his new budget proposals will “fully reverse” the so-called sequestration cuts by increasing spending on both the domestic and military sides by similar amounts.

Under Obama’s proposal, national security programmes would see an increase of US$38 billion over current spending limits, raising the defence budget to US$561 billion. On the domestic side, Obama is calling for US$530 billion in spending – an increase of US$37 billion.

Photo: Obama

CAPTION – President Barack Obama, speaks during the farewell tribute in honour of outgoing Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, at Fort Myer-Henderson Hall in Fort Myer, Virginia. (Photo: AP)