Carroll County Times

NATION/WORLD Wednesday, June 23, 2010, Page A5

Nation
AP PHOTO
Midwest storm damage
Marlene Hein, of Eagle, Wis., stands in the
kitchen of her mother Maryanne Mar-
quardt’s home Tuesday. The house was de-
stroyed by Monday night’s tornado.
Haley, Scott win S.C. runoff
for GOP nominations
COLUMBIA , S.C. — In a break from the
state’s racist legacy, South Carolina Republi-
cans overwhelmingly chose Nikki Haley, an In-
dian-American woman, to run for governor and
easily nominated Tim Scott, in line to become
the former Confederate stronghold’s first black
GOP congressman in more than a century.
Bringing out benefits
Obama releases consumer protections package
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Presi-
dent Barack Obama unveiled a
package of consumer benefits
Tuesday to build support for
his health care overhaul within
a divided nation and warned
Republicans about trying to
repeal his landmark law.
“We’re not going back,” said a
defiant president.
Obama also sparred with the
insurance industry — but this
time he sounded a conciliatory
note, praising insurers for
meeting some requirements of
the law ahead of schedule.
The legislation “is not meant
to punish insurance compa-
nies,” he said, but will bring
them millions of new cus-
tomers.
Still, Obama left no doubt
his administration would ag-
gressively confront what he
called unreasonable premium
hikes.
SAFEGUARDS INCLUDED ublicans who seek to reverse
such protections do so at their
own political peril.
■ Guaranteed coverage for children with pre- existing
health problems. “We’re not going back,” the
president emphasized. “I re-
■ A ban on lifetime coverage limits. fuse to go back. And so do
■ Phasing out annual coverage limits. Starting this countless Americans.”
year, plans can set annual limits no lower than The White House called it a
$750,000. “patients’ bill of rights,” but
■ Prohibiting insurers from canceling the policies of Republicans dismissed Tues-
day’s announcement as a pub-
people who get sick.
■ Guaranteed choice of primary care doctors and pe- lic relations effort.
“This shouldn’t be called a
diatricians from a plan’s network. No prior approval
needed to seek emergency care out- of- network.
health care bill of rights, but a
bill of goods that the Ameri-
can people aren’t buying,” said
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R- Utah.
“There are genuine cost regulations that explain how
“There isn’t enough slick ad-
drivers that are not caused by several provisions of the law
vertising, politically crafted
insurance companies,” Oba- will be carried out, including a events or artful sales pitches
ma said. “But what is also true ban on insurers denying cov-
is we’ve got to make sure that erage to children in poor
that will change that.”
However, many Republicans
this new law is not being used
as an excuse to simply drive
health.
With polls showing Ameri-
agree with at least some of the
consumer protections, which
up costs.” cans split over the health in- were among the least contro-
Marking the first 90 days surance expansion, Obama versial elements of Obam’s
since the bill was signed, the told an invited audience at the $1 trillion, 10-year overhaul
White House rolled out new White House that Rep- legislation.

Oil drilling
Six- term Republican Rep. Bob Inglis fell to
prosecutor Trey Gowdy, making him the 5th
House or Senate incumbent to stumble this
year.
In North Carolina, Secretary of State Elaine
Marshall won the Democratic nomination to
challenge GOP Sen. Richard Burr in the fall. At-
torney Mike Lee took an early lead as Utah Re-
Judge
publicans chose a GOP successor to
vanquished Sen. Bob Bennett in a state that
hasn’t elected a Democratic senator in four
decades. In Mississippi, voters chose Republi-
can Bill Marcy to face Rep. Bennie Thompson.
strikes
San Francisco board passes
cell phone emission law
SAN FRANCISCO — In this city known for
down
ban
producing laws both path- breaking and con-
tentious, legislators have forcefully stepped
into another debate — this time over the po-
tential danger of cell phone use.
With the 10-1 vote in favor of an ordinance
Mayor Gavin Newsom has indicated he will
sign, San Francisco has waded into the as-yet The White House
unresolved debate over the relationship be-
tween long- term use of cell phones and health said it will appeal
problems such as brain tumors. The law re-
quires cell phone retailers to disclose the the decision
phones’ specific absorption rate, or SAR, to
customers. ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAR measures the maximum amount of radi- NEW ORLEANS — A fed-
ation absorbed by a person using a handset. AP PHOTO eral judge struck down the
The Federal Communications Commission Catacomb archeological superintendent Fabrizio Bisconti points to frescoes discov- Obama administration’s six-
limits SAR to an average of 1.6 watts per kilo- ered with the earliest known icons of the Apostles Peter and Paul in a catacomb lo- month ban on deepwater oil
gram of body tissue, but information about ra- drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
diation levels is not usually readily available cated under an office building in a residential neighborhood of Rome Tuesday.
as rash and heavy-handed

Lasers reveal icons of saints

when people purchase phones at stores.
NYC steps up with $44M
for delayed WTC arts center
NEW YOR K — New York City has stepped
into the long- delayed planning for a perform-
ing arts center at ground zero with over $40
million to help build its below- ground founda-
tion.
The Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey’s board approved a deal Tuesday that
would have the city pay it back for the con-
struction at the World Trade Center site.
Authority spokesman Steve Coleman says
some work on the foundation and shared infra-
structure is in progress, but other parts of the
project have not yet been contracted out.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s spokesman An-
drew Brent says the city expects to pay for the
work with funds from the Lower Manhattan
Development Corp. rebuilding agency.
Son of Dallas chief dies
in shootout with police
DALLAS — The city’s new police chief faces
one of the worst tragedies that could befall a
law enforcement officer: living with the knowl-
edge that his dead son was a cop killer.
Just seven weeks after being sworn in as
leader of the Dallas police force, David Brown
learned on Father’s Day that his 27- year- old
son gunned down a suburban officer in a week-
end shootout with police.
Investigators say 37-year- old Lancaster offi-
cer Craig Shaw was killed Sunday just minutes
after Brown’s son fatally shot a stranger in what
authorities say was a random attack.
— Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME — Twenty-first cen-
tury laser technology has
opened a window into the
early days of the Catholic
Church, guiding researchers
through the dank, musty cata-
combs beneath Rome to a
startling find: the first known
icons of the apostles Peter and
Paul.
Vatican officials unveiled
the paintings Tuesday, discov-
ered along with the earliest
known images of the apostles
John and Andrew in an under-
ground burial chamber be-
neath an office building on a
busy street in a working-class
Rome neighborhood.
The images, which date
from the second half of the 4th
century, were uncovered
using a new laser technique
that allows restorers to burn
off centuries of thick white
calcium carbonate deposits
without damaging the brilliant
dark colors of the paintings
underneath. The technique
could revolutionize the way
restoration work is carried out
in the miles of catacombs that
burrow under the Eternal City
where early Christians buried
their dead.
The icons were discovered
“These are absolutely
the first representations
of the apostles.”
Fabrizio Bisconti
Catacombs superintendent of archaeology
on the ceiling of the tomb of
an aristocratic Roman woman
at the Santa Tecla catacomb
near where the remains of the
apostle Paul are said to be
buried.
Rome has dozens of such
burial chambers and they are
a major tourist attraction, giv-
ing visitors a peek into the tra-
ditions of the early church
when Christians were often
persecuted for their beliefs.
Early Christians dug the cata-
combs outside Rome’s walls
as underground cemeteries,
since burial was forbidden in-
side the city walls and pagan
Romans were usually cre-
mated.
The Santa Tecla catacombs
represent some of the earliest
evidence of devotion to the
apostles in early Christianity,
Vatican officials said.
Last June, the Vatican an-
nounced the discovery of the
icon of Paul at Santa Tecla,
timing the news to coincide
with the end of the Vatican’s
year of St. Paul. Pope Benedict
XVI also said tests on bone
fragments long attributed to
Paul “seemed to confirm” that
they did indeed belong to the
Roman Catholic saint.
Tuesday, Vatican archaeolo-
gists announced the image of
Paul was not found in isola-
tion, but was part of a square
ceiling painting that also in-
cluded icons of three other
apostles — Peter, John and
Andrew — surrounding an
image of Christ as the Good
Shepherd.
“They are the first icons.
These are absolutely the first
representations of the apos-
tles,” said Fabrizio Bisconti,
the superintendent of archae-
ology for the catacombs.
Tuesday, saying the govern-
ment simply assumed that
because one rig exploded,
the others pose an imminent
danger, too.
The White House prom-
ised an immediate appeal.
Later Tuesday, Interior Sec-
retary Ken Salazar said in a
statement that within the
next few days he will issue a
new order imposing a mora-
torium that will eliminate
any doubt it is needed and
appropriate.
The Interior Department
had imposed the morato-
rium last month in the wake
of the BP disaster, halting ap-
proval of any new permits
for deepwater projects and
suspending drilling on 33 ex-
ploratory wells.
White House spokesman
Robert Gibbs said President
Barack Obama believes that
until investigations can de-
termine why the spill hap-
pened, continued deepwater
drilling exposes workers and
the environment to “a dan-
ger that the president does
not believe we can afford.”
Several companies that
ferry people and supplies
and provide other services to
offshore rigs argued that the
moratorium was arbitrarily
imposed after the April 20
explosion that killed 11 work-
ers and blew out a well 5,000
feet underwater.

World
Israel launches satellites over Iran to keep times been rocky, McChrys-
track of its nuclear pro- tal has cultivated the
or sometimes even less than
they received under Sad-
military satellite gram. Afghan leader, encouraging dam Hussein.
him to visit remote areas of Fears that frustration
JERUSAL EM — Israel’s
the country and assume re-
Defense Ministry said it has Afghans support sponsibility for military op-
could lead to bloodshed
launched a military satellite were realized Saturday in
called “Ofek 9,” the latest in U.S. general erations against the Taliban. the oil port of Basra, where
two protesters were killed
a series of spy satellites. KABUL, Afghanistan —
The Defense Ministry Afghan President Hamid Fury over power
after a demonstration over
power outages turned vio-
says the satellite was Karzai gave a strong en- outages tests Iraq lent, prompting security
launched Tuesday evening. dorsement Tuesday to em- forces to open fire.
It said the satellite was sent battled Gen. Stanley BAGHDAD — Iraqis’
The crisis has already led
skyward from the Pal- McChrystal, describing him tempers are rising with to the electricity minister’s
machim air force base on as the “best commander” of their thermometers over resignation and poses a
Israel’s coast south of Tel the war and expressing their government’s failure major test for Prime Minis-
Aviv. hope that he keeps his job to provide reliable electric- ter Nouri al- Maliki as he
The statement said tech- despite a magazine profile ity. And their thermometers struggles to keep his job
nical crews were examining replete with derogatory have topped 120 degrees. amid bickering over the for- AP PHOTO
the data. Defense officials comments about President Billions of dollars have mation of a new govern- Britain BP demonstration
said Ofek 9 is a spy satellite Barack Obama and mem- been spent trying to fix the ment more than three
with a high resolution cam- bers of the U.S. national grid since the 2003 invasion, months after national elec- People dressed as a mock clean- up crew called the
era. It’s to join two other ac- strategy team. but many Iraqis still get less tions. “Greenwash Guerrillas” hold a banner outside the
tive spy satellites. While Obama’s relation- than six hours of electricity National Portrait Gallery in London, Tuesday, where
Israel is known to direct ship with Karzai has some- per day — about the same — Associated Press the BP Portrait Award ceremony is held.