Ships race to investigate signals in Malaysian jet search; official warns against false hope
PERTH, Australia (AP) - A British navy ship with sophisticated sound-locating equipment arrived Monday in a patch of the southern Indian Ocean to determine whether underwater sounds picked up by a Chinese ship crew using a hand-held device came from the missing Malaysia Airlines black boxes.
Britain reported the HMS Echo had arrived in the new area. It will be in a race against time to determine what the noises are, because the battery-powered pingers that emit sounds from the black boxes are on the verge of dying out.
Meanwhile, the Australian navy ship Ocean Shield, which is carrying high-tech sound detectors from the U.S. Navy, was investigating a sound it picked up in another area about 555 kilometers (345 miles) away. Australian authorities said once it had finished that investigation, it would head the new area to help the HMS Echo.
Searchers on Monday were anticipating good weather, with nine military planes, three civilian planes and a total of 14 ships expected to search for Flight 370, which vanished a month ago.
Hopes of finding the plane were given a boost after a Chinese ship picked up an electronic pulsing signal on Friday and again Saturday. The Ocean Shield detected a third signal in the different area Sunday, the head of the multinational search said.
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Afghan elections hailed as triumph of democracy over violence, though Taliban threat remains
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghans and the international community hailed its presidential election as a triumph of democracy over violence Sunday, despite complaints about ballot shortages and sporadic fraud after millions of people braved a Taliban threat to vote for a new president. But some cautioned against declaring a premature defeat of the Islamic militants.
Securing the vote was a test for Afghan government forces as they prepare to take full responsibility for their own security as the U.S. and allied forces end their combat mission at the end of this year. The consensus was that they largely passed, though there was sporadic violence.
A roadside bomb hit a pickup truck transporting ballot boxes Sunday in the northern province of Kunduz, killing three people, officials said. But the major attacks that had been feared did not materialize.
“This in itself is a victory over violence and a victory over all those who wanted to deter democracy by threats and violence,” said Thijs Berman, the head of the European Union’s election assessment team in Kabul.
Electoral officials, meanwhile, urged patience, saying officials continued to log complaints and tally ballots. The ballots were coming from more than 20,000 polling stations nationwide, some in extremely remote and rural areas. They were being transported to tally centers in all 34 provinces before the results reach Kabul.
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APNewsBreak: Lacking lawmakers’ support, Obama uses executive actions to test workforce ideas
WASHINGTON (AP) - Lacking congressional support to raise wages or end gender pay disparities, President Barack Obama is again imposing his policies on federal contractors, in keeping with presidents’ tradition of exerting their powers on a fraction of the economy they directly control.
Obama will sign an executive order Tuesday barring federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other. The order is similar to language in a Senate bill aimed at closing a pay gap between men and women. That measure is scheduled for a vote this week, but is unlikely to pass.
The president also will direct the Labor Department to adopt rules requiring federal contractors to provide compensation data based on sex and race.
He plans to sign the two executive orders during an event at the White House where he will be joined by Lilly Ledbetter, whose name appears on a pay discrimination law Obama signed in 2009.
The moves showcase Obama’s efforts to seek action without congressional approval and demonstrate that even without legislation, the president can drive economic policy. At the same time, they show the limits of his ambition when he doesn’t have the support of Congress for his initiatives.
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10 Things to Know for Monday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday:
1. ’WHY FORT HOOD AGAIN?’
Pastor Robert Sperbeck echoed the question on many minds as he presided over a memorial service for soldiers killed and injured by a fellow service member who opened fire at the Texas base - the second such rampage there in five years.
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From cost and coverage to finding a free bed, heroin addicts face barriers to treatment
NEW YORK (AP) - As the ranks of heroin users rise, increasing numbers of addicts are looking for help but are failing to find it - because there are no beds in packed facilities, treatment is hugely expensive and insurance companies won’t pay for inpatient rehab.
Some users overcome their addictions in spite of the obstacles. But many, like Salvatore Marchese, struggle and fail.
In the course of Marchese’s five-year battle with heroin, the Blackwood, N.J., man was repeatedly denied admission to treatment facilities, often because his insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost. Then one night in June 2010, a strung-out Marchese went to the emergency room seeking help. The doctors shook their heads: Heroin withdrawal is not life-threatening, they said, and we can’t admit you. They gave him an IV flush, and sent him home.
Marchese, then 26, and his sister called multiple inpatient clinics only to be told: We have no beds. Eventually, Marchese found space at a facility but was released 17 days later when his public funding ran out. Less than three months later, Marchese was found dead of an overdose in his mother’s car.
“Heroin is life-threatening,” said his mother, Patty DiRenzo. “We’re losing kids every day from it.”
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Fast facts about some obstacles to heroin sobriety
Treatment facilities are packed. Inpatient rehab is costly. Insurance companies have refused coverage. Addicts looking to get clean from heroin often face an uphill battle. A look at the process, and some of the obstacles to getting sober:
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- WITHDRAWAL: Once in withdrawal, users feel like their bones are breaking. Fluids leak from every orifice. They sweat and get the chills and shakes. The withdrawal itself doesn’t kill, but if addicts can’t persevere, they often go back to heroin, with lowered tolerance, and many overdose.
- LACK OF BEDS: The number of people using heroin in the U.S. nearly doubled from 2007 to 2012 to some 669,000 people, and more people are also now seeking treatment. But of the 23.1 million Americans who needed treatment for drugs or alcohol in 2012, only 2.5 million people received aid at a specialty facility. There simply aren’t enough beds at treatment facilities to meet the demand. There are about 12,000 addiction treatment programs nationwide, according to the nonprofit Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia. Of those, about 10 percent are residential facilities, about 80 percent are outpatient programs and about 10 percent are methadone clinics.
- INSURANCE BATTLES: While most insurance policies state that they allow coverage of up to 30 days in a residential drug treatment center, nobody actually gets those 30 days, said Tom McLellan, CEO of the Treatment Research Institute. The average duration in residential care is 11 to 14 days.
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Near Texas’ Fort Hood, church service becomes tribute to victims of latest mass shooting
KILLEEN, Texas (AP) - The church program pictured an empty road being enveloped by the dark clouds of a sweeping thunderstorm, and the service’s lesson was from Isaiah 35:4, “Be strong, fear not.” The preacher implored those gathered Sunday that they would find hope in God, but also acknowledged the question on everyone’s mind: Why Fort Hood - again?
What would have been a routine Sunday service at Tabernacle Baptist Church just outside the sprawling Texas military base became a tribute to the soldiers killed four days earlier when a fellow service member opened fire. It also offered some catharsis for the community struggling to comprehend Fort Hood’s second fatal shooting rampage in less than five years.
Similar somber religious gatherings were held throughout the military town of Killeen, but there were more questions than answers.
“A lot of us, I think this morning, are asking the question, ’Why? Why would this happen? Why Fort Hood again? Why are these types of things allowed to happen?’” Pastor Robert Sperbeck told dozens gathered at Tabernacle, where 90 percent of the congregation is current or retired military personnel. “The devil is the author of what happened on Wednesday, but we do know the answer, we know there is hope.”
Investigators say Spc. Ivan Lopez, an Army truck driver from Puerto Rico, had argued with soldiers in his unit moments before killing three people and wounding 16 others and then fatally shooting himself. Base officials have said Lopez, who saw no combat during a deployment to Iraq, was being treated for depression and anxiety while being assessed for post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Palestinian teaches Hebrew, tolerance as he builds life after 20 years in Israeli prisons
DEIR JARIR, West Bank (AP) - Facing a classroom of Palestinian 10th graders, Hebrew teacher Esmat Mansour asks his students who is for and against learning the language. A few raise their hands in favor, others against and he asks both sides to explain.
Mansour believes such debates will help motivate young Palestinians to study Israel’s dominant language. They need to know Hebrew to be able to deal with the Israeli occupiers, but also to build bridges in the future, he says.
The 37 year old’s view of the conflict with Israel is the product of a violent past, as he at 16 helped three older teens stab to death an Israeli man in 1993. Mansour was sentenced to 22 years as an accomplice in the killing of 30-year-old Haim Mizrahi, and was granted early release last year, along with dozens of other long-held prisoners, in a deal brokered by the United States.
Now free, Mansour’s new life comes as Mideast peace talks falter. Mansour said he has no regrets, but also that he would never take another life.
“The most important thing is to … value all human life and to learn tolerance,” he said. Then, “we were very young, the political situation was different, we were very much zealots.”
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Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert lead, Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan excel at rockin’ ACM Awards
Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert were tied for the most trophies at the Academy of Country Music Awards with three, but it was Lambert’s husband, Blake Shelton, and co-host Luke Bryan who were on a winning streak on Sunday night.
Bryan and Shelton deftly stole the show with a mix of self-deprecating, celebrity-skewering jokes and two performances apiece. And as Shelton noted, he also gets to share Lambert’s bed.
“Honestly, I think we’re the biggest celebrities in the room,” Shelton said during the show’s funniest moment - a recreation of Ellen DeGeneres’ selfie moment at the Oscars - and it may just be true.
Shelton is the star of “The Voice” and a platinum-selling hitmaker with 11 straight No. 1s. Bryan is the reigning entertainer of the year, and both were up for that award again this year with Lambert, Taylor Swift and George Strait, the genre’s top stars.
They zinged Eric Church over the likelihood of finding marijuana in his dressing room, poked fun at Britney Spears (who performs on the Las Vegas strip) and ribbed Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, in the audience, about his team’s disappointing playoff record (Shelton and Bryan announced the 50th edition of the ACM Awards will be held at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium next year).
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Brawl erupts during charity hockey match between NYC police and firefighters
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) - A large brawl broke out during an annual charity hockey match between New York City police and firefighters on Long Island.
Videos posted online show players from both teams clearing the bench and throwing punches while referees are seen trying to break up the fights. Hockey sticks and gloves are seen littered about the ice.
Newsday (https://bit.ly/QUJcdW ) reports the fights began during the second period of the match at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on Sunday as both teams were tied 3-3. The NYPD eventually won 8-5.
The fire and police departments both declined to comment.
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