AN.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. 2012
down
als
PAGE 3
bounce to
awing states may indeed since the convention, a passion-economic y "fails the city" among Republican. polls out a leading 44 percent,
> join run
in Ohio for
Tuesday and
had a slight 47 percent likely to vote, rolling.
better among voters, with a points, sug- its campaign getting the voters to the
at Clinton's day andatives against the United
USE CLEAR SAPER
$18.00
$20.00
BOQ,
otta.
en,
plant Pie
$1.75
$2.00
$3.50
petit Dr
foot Beer
$2.50
$3.50
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
SOUTH AMERICA
Uruguayan congress plans to make abortions legal
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay's congress appeared ready on Tuesday to legalize abortion, a groundbreaking move in Latin America, where no country save Cuba has made abortions accessible to all women during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Compromises made to secure votes disappointed both sides of the abortion divide, which gathered in protest. Once it gets through Uruguay's lower house, the measure would go back to the Senate for approval of changes, but President Jose Mujica has said he will allow it to become law.
The measure would give women the right to a legal abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and decriminalize later-term abortions when the mother's life is at risk or when the fetus is so deformed that it wouldn't survive after birth. In cases of rape, abortions would be legal during the
first 14 weeks.
The goal is to reduce the number of illegal abortions in Uruguay, Congressman Ivan Posada of the center-left Independent Party told his fellow lawmakers Tuesday. Posada wrote the measure and is expected to provide a key 50th vote against the opposition of 49 other lawmakers.
"They talk of 30,000 a year, a hypothetical number, but whatever the number is, it's quite dramatic for a country where 47,000 children are born each year." Posada explained earlier in an Associated Press interview.
A poll this month showed 52 percent of Uruguayans would vote to legalize abortion if the question were put to the people, while 34 percent would vote against it. The survey of 802 people nationwide by the CIFRA consulting firm had a 3.4 percentage point margin of error.
Compromises include requiring women seeking abortions to
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A pro-choice activist, with her body painted, demonstrates a front of the Uruguayan congress in Montevideo, Uruguay Tuesday. The sign reads in Spanish "legal abortion."
justify their request before a panel of at least three professionals — a gynecologist, psychologist and social worker — and listen to advice about alternatives including adoption and support services if she should decide to keep the baby.
AFRICA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Piracy declines; inland towns suffer
HOBYO, Somalia — The empty whiskey bottles and overturned, sand-filled skiffs that litter this once-bustling shoreline are signs that the heyday of Somali piracy may be over. Most of the prostitutes are gone, the luxury cars repossessed. Pirates talk more about catching lobsters than seizing cargo ships.
Armed guards aboard cargo ships and an international naval armada complete with aircraft that carry out onshore raids have put a huge dent in Somali piracy and might even spell the end of the scourge. One piracy expert said it's too early to declare victory. But the numbers are startling: In 2010, pirates seized 47 vessels. This year they've taken only five.
"There's nothing to do here these days. The hopes for a revitalized market are not high," said a pirate in the former pirate haven of Hobyo who gave his name as Hassan Abdi, a high school graduate who taught
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this photo taken Sunday masked Somali pirate Abdi Ali walked past a Taiwanese fishing vessel that washed up on shore after the pirates were paid a ransom and released the crew, in the once-bustling pirate den of Hobyo, Somalia.
English in a private school before turning to piracy in 2009.
Faduma Ali, a prostitute in
the inland town of Galkayo that became a pirate haven, longs for the days when her pirate customers had money. As she smoked a hookah in a hot, airless room last week, she sneered as she answered a phone call from a former customer seeking her services on credit.
"Those days are over. Can you pay me $1,000?" she asked, the price she once commanded for a night's work. "If not, goodbye and leave me alone." She hung up and groaned out loud: "Money."
EUROPE
The caller, Abdirizaq Saleh, once had bodyguards and maids and the attention of beautiful women. When ransoms came in, a party was thrown, with blaring music, bottles of wine, the stimulant called khat and women for every man. Now Saleh is hiding from creditors in a dirty room filled with the dust-covered TVs and high-end clothes he acquired when flush.
"Ships are being held longer, ransoms are getting smaller and attacks are less likely to succeed," Salah said.
Drunk driver in downtown Moscow kills five orphaned teens and two adults
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW—It took a weekend road tragedy to jolt Russia into action over one of its most deadly threats: a chronic culture of drunk driving.
Five orphaned teens were waiting for a bus with their guardians in Moscow on Saturday when a car careened into them, killing all seven. Grief turned to outrage when it emerged that the driver was heavily drunk and had a string of traffic violations on his record — including a DUI arrest two years ago.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and lawmakers have
reacted with proposals to stiffen penalties on drunken drivers, and parliament debated the measures on Tuesday. But with bribery so commonplace and road laws rarely enforced, many wonder whether even the toughest response can change a deep-set culture of reckless driving.
After the crash, police video shows Alexander Maximov stumbling out of his Toyota sedan, which he had been driving at 200 kilometers (125 miles per hour), bloodied and barely able to stand. He appeared in court Monday with his head wounds dressed, but still wearing the blood-speckled sweat-shirt from the day of the accident.
The punishment for killing
while drunken driving in Russia is stiff: The 30-year-old Maximov faces up to nine years in prison. But lawmakers are currently debating whether to make jail sentences even harsher, matching laws in the West.
Even President Vladimir Putin weighed in Tuesday, demanding tougher punishments and condemning Maximov's apparent blithe indifference after the crash.
"This criminal, he's a killer in fact, when speaking to investigators just said: 'I always do what I want,'" Putin said. "There are some things for which people just must be punished."
Many Russians are furious that Maximov, who already had a DUI
penalty on his license from 2010, was allowed back onto the roads in the first place. Drunken driving is punishable there by suspension of the driver's license for up to two years. In much of the West, by comparison, drunken driving is punished with jail time, heavy fines and re-education courses.
It isn't only irresponsible drinking that makes Russia's roads dangerous.
Russia's cities are struggling with fast-growing traffic density, which spurs drivers into pulling crazy stunts to get home as early as possible, such as jumping lights, squeezing through every gap in traffic and opportunistic trailing of racing ambulances.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cars during a rush hour in downtown Moscow on Monday. Five orphaned teens were waiting for a bus with their foster parents in western Moscow when a car careened into them on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour, killing all seven. Russia's cities struggle with quickly growing traffic, which spur drivers to pull crazy stunts in an effort to get home five minutes quicker.