www.kentuckynewera.com | IN THE NEWS | Friday, Feb. 24, 2012 A5

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MILFORD, Mich. (AP) — Republicanpresidential candidate Mitt Romney triedto upend Rick Santorum’s image as aprincipled defender of conservativeideals Thursday, telling voters in Arizonaand Michigan that the former senator isjust another give-and-take politician.

Romney’s team believes Santorumopened himself to the attacks with asomewhat anguished explanation of hisreluctant vote for a Bush-era school pro-gram in Wednesday’s televised debate.Romney hoped to stop his chief rival’smomentum on a day when Santorum wasquietly raising money.

But President Barack Obama wasn’thelping. His allies aired anti-Romney adsin Michigan while the president cam-paigned in Florida, a crucial swing statethat GOP candidates can’t afford to re-visit until their nominee is settled.

A Romney setback in either Michigan’sprimary or Arizona’s on Tuesday wouldbe embarrassing, or worse. His campaignseemed grateful for Santorum’s unsteadyshowing in what may have been the GOPcampaign’s last big debate.

Romney pounced on Santorum’s expla-nation for supporting President GeorgeW. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” pro-gram, now disliked by many conserva-tives. “It was against the principles Ibelieved in,” Santorum said in the debate.“But, you know, when you’re part of theteam, sometimes you take one for theteam.”

“I wonder which team he was taking itfor,” Romney said Thursday at an Associ-ated Builders and Contractors meeting inPhoenix, before heading to Michigan.“My team is the American people, not theinsiders in Washington.”

Santorum also struggled in the debateto explain his congressional votes for ear-marked spending and for a bill that in-cluded money for Planned Parenthooddespite his “personal moral objection” tothe organization, which provides abor-tions for low-income women.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen apolitician explain in so many ways whyhe voted against his principles,” Romneysaid Thursday.

Romney pounces on Santorum’s voting record

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — PresidentBarack Obama apologized Thursday forthe burning of copies of the Muslim holybook at a U.S. military base this week, asviolent protests raging nationwide led aman dressed in an Afghan army uniformto kill two U.S. troops.

The Afghans’ furious response to theQuran burning — three days of riots inseveral cities nationwide — reflected theanger at what they perceive as foreignforces disrespect for Afghan laws and cul-ture.

In a letter sent to Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai, Obama expressed his ad-ministration’s “regret and apologies overthe incident in which religious materialswere unintentionally mishandled,” WhiteHouse national security councilspokesman Tommy Vietor said. He addedthat the letter was delivered by RyanCrocker, the U.S. ambassador toAfghanistan, Thursday afternoon.

Karzai’s office said Obama called theQuran burnings “inadvertent,” addingthat the U.S. “will take the appropriatesteps to avoid any recurrence, to includeholding accountable those responsible.”

U.S. apologies for the desecration — andan appeal from Karzai for calm — havefailed to temper the anger of Afghans,who staged rallies in seven provincesThursday, sparking clashes with Afghanpolice and security forces that left at leastfive demonstrators dead. Seven protesterswere killed in clashes on Wednesday.

The two NATO service members were

killed in eastern Afghanistan by a mandressed in an Afghan army uniform. Bothtroops were Americans, according to aU.S. official, who confirmed their nation-alities on condition of anonymity becausehe was not authorized to disclose the in-formation.

Mohammad Hassan, an official in Nan-garhar province where the shooting tookplace, said the two Americans were shotby an Afghan soldier after soldiers fired inthe air to disperse protesters outside a U.S.base in the Khogyani district. Two pro-

testers were also killed in the ensuing gun-fire, Afghan officials said.

A rising number of Afghan securityforces, or militants wearing their uni-forms, have shot and killed U.S. and NATOservice members.

The Taliban on Thursday called onAfghans to attack foreign troops, and theirspokesman has issued a statement order-ing its commanders to embrace and pro-tect the families of any Afghan policemanor soldier who turns his gun on foreigntroops. “Call them heroes,” he said.

Protesters also rioted outside a U.S. basein Mehterlam, the capital of Laghmanprovince. Police broke up a demonstrationusing water cannons and batons after pro-testers tried to storm the base.

“Hundreds of our people in Laghmanprovince gathered because of the burningof the holy book by the Americans,” saidprotester Mohammad Issa.

“Everyone is so emotional. The burningof the Quran broke our hearts and we areattacking the PRT because they are Amer-ican,” he said, using the acronym for theprovincial reconstruction team.

In Oslo, Norwegian military spokesmanIvar Moen said a Norwegian soldier waswounded after demonstrators threw ahand grenade into a military base inMaimanah, in northwestern Faryabprovince where Norwegian, Latvian,Afghan and U.S. troops are deployed.

The soldier was wounded after up to 200demonstrators hurled rocks at the baseand shouted epithets. Norwegian troopsresponded with warning shots and teargas. Moen said the demonstration wasover, but new protests are expected to-morrow.

In the city of Baghlan in the north,clashes between police and protesters at-tacking the police headquarters left oneperson dead. Police said 10 officers werealso wounded, two from gunshot wounds.

Police said another two protesters werekilled and six wounded in another ex-change of gunfire during a protest insouthern Uruzgan province.

Obama apologizes for Quran burning in Afghanistan

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Afghans shout slogans Wednesday during an anti-US demonstration in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan.Anti-American demonstrations continued in Afghanistan over what the U.S. has said was the inadvertent burn-ing of Muslim holy books at a NATO military base. The effigy depicts U.S. President Barack Obama.

Documents: Boy got gunduring visit with mother

PORT ORCHARD, Wash.(AP) — A prosecutor ispreparing to file chargesagainst a 9-year-old boywho brought a gun to aWashington state elemen-tary school, wounding ayoung classmate when thegun accidentally went off.

The third-grader got theweapon, a .45-caliberhandgun, from hismother’s house, authori-ties said.

The boy was due incourt for a preliminaryhearing Thursday after-noon, nearly 24 hoursafter emergency crews re-sponded to the schoolshooting.

The boy’s classmate, 8-year-old Amina Kocer-Bowman, remained incritical condition at Har-borview Medical Center inSeattle after undergoingsurgery for a gunshotwound.

St. Louis, suburbs clashover homelessness

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Some-times the men emergefrom out-of-town policecruisers that stop at home-less shelters and thenquickly drive off. Othersturn up still wearinggowns from suburban hos-pitals.

Surrounding communi-ties have long been ac-cused of using downtownSt. Louis as a dumpingground to dispose ofhomeless men with

nowhere else to go. But asthe weak economy andforeclosures push morepeople onto the streets,overwhelmed city officialssay enough is enough.They want outsiders tostart taking care of theirown.

Poland, US tussle overAuschwitz barracks

WARSAW, Poland (AP)— Polish and U.S. officialsare engaged in intensetalks to determine the fateof a sensitive object: a bar-rack that once houseddoomed prisoners at theNazis’ Auschwitz deathcamp and is now on dis-play at the United StatesHolocaust Memorial Mu-seum.

Poland is demanding thereturn of the artifact,which has been on loan tothe Washington museumfor more than 20 years andis an important object inits permanent exhibition.But the U.S. museum is re-sisting the demand, sayingthe valuable object should-n’t be moved partly be-cause it is too fragile.

Ridicule helped doomVa. ultrasound bill

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) —Once the word “trans-vaginal” became a bigjoke on “Saturday NightLive” and “The DailyShow With Jon Stewart,”it wasn’t long before Vir-ginia’s conservative Re-publicans realized they

had overreached on abor-tion.

At issue was a billpushed by anti-abortionlawmakers that wouldhave required womenseeking an abortion to un-dergo a transvaginal sono-gram, in which a wand isinserted in the vagina toyield an image of thefetus. The procedure dif-fers from an abdominalsonogram, in which awand is rubbed over thewoman’s belly.

Gov. Bob McDonnell andGOP state lawmakersWednesday abandoned thebill — an abrupt reversalthat demonstrated thepower of political satireand illustrated again howcombustible the issue ofwomen’s reproductivehealth has become.

P&G to cut 5,700 jobs in restructuring

NEW YORK (AP) —Consumer productsmaker Procter & GambleInc. said Thursday it plansto cut 5,700 jobs over thenext year and a half aspart of a cost-cutting plan.

Procter & Gamble says itplans to save $10 billion bythe end of the fiscal yearending in June 2016.

The cost-cutting plan isan attempt to addressmoney problems even asthe Cincinnati companykeeps up spending on ini-tiatives it sees as key forits future growth. Theseinclude marketing newproducts like the single-unit Tide Pods in NorthAmerica and expandingOral B in Latin America.

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