White House announces support for women in military draft ADVERTISING White House announces support for women in military draft WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is announcing its support for requiring women to register for the military draft. The administration
White House announces support for women in military draft
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is announcing its support for requiring women to register for the military draft.
The administration has been deliberating for roughly a year about whether to back such a change to the Selective Service. White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price says that because previous barriers to military service are being removed, it makes logical sense for women to be required to register for the draft.
But Price says the Obama administration remains committed to an all-volunteer military.
Under current law, women can volunteer to serve in the military but aren’t required to register for the draft. All adult men must register.
It would take an act of Congress to add women to the Selective Service.
French president rules out 2017 run to help boost Socialists
PARIS (AP) — France’s President Francois Hollande announced in a surprise televised address Thursday that he would not seek a second term in next year’s presidential election, acknowledging that his personal unpopularity might cost his Socialist party the Elysee.
“I have decided not to be a candidate in the presidential election,” Hollande said in the prime time slot, adding that he hoped by stepping aside to give the Socialists a chance to win “against conservatism and, worse still, extremism.”
The 62-year-old president — the country’s least popular leader since World War II — said he was “conscious of the risks” his lack of support posed to a successful candidacy.
“What’s at stake is not a person, it’s the country’s future,” he said.
The announcement Thursday came just a few days after Hollande’s No. 2, Prime Minister Manuel Valls, said he was “ready” to compete in next month’s Socialist primary.
Study: Biggest tornado outbreaks are spawning more twisters
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most extreme tornado outbreaks are mysteriously spawning many more twisters than they did decades ago, a new study claimed.
The once-every-five-years-or-so outbreak that might have involved 12 tornadoes 50 years ago now has on average about 20, said Columbia University applied physics professor Michael Tippett, lead author of the study in Thursday’s journal Science .
The study comes in the end of a year that has been on track to have the fewest tornadoes on record, but is also on the heels of the outbreak Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that killed five people and injured at least 46 in Alabama and Tennessee — precisely the kind of outbreak Tippett studied.
As of now, there were 36 tornado reports Tuesday in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, half of them were the stronger type Tippett studied, said meteorologist Patrick Marsh of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
Tippett and colleagues looked at just the most extreme outbreaks and tornadoes that are above the minimal wind rating and found a steady uptick in the biggest outbreaks since the mid-1960s.
‘A clear shot’ — police kill suspect, rescue children
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state police officer responding to a domestic violence call was fatally shot and his fellow officers were still “taking fire” as they removed him from a home, beginning an 11-hour standoff during which authorities say the gunman used two young children as human shields.
The fallen officer, Reginald “Jake” Gutierrez, had served with the department since 1999 and was highly respected and experienced, Tacoma Police Chief Donald Ramsdell told reporters Thursday.
Dozens of officers had surrounded the home in Tacoma on Wednesday night, urging nearby residents of the working class neighborhood of single-family homes to shelter in place.
Early Thursday, authorities say a deputy got “a clear shot” and killed the suspect as officers rescued an 8-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.
Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said the gunman had refused to surrender during negotiations. His name was not released.
Grief turns to anger amid reports of lack of fuel in crash
MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) — Authorities prepared Thursday to transport the bodies of dozens of victims of this week’s air tragedy in Colombia as grief turned to anger amid indications the airliner ran out of fuel before slamming into the Andes. Bolivian aviation officials announced they were indefinitely suspending the charter company that operated the flight.
Many of the victims were players and coaches from a small-town Brazilian soccer team that was headed to the finals of one of South America’s most prestigious tournaments after a fairy-tale season that had captivated their soccer-crazed nation.
On Thursday, row upon row of caskets, many covered with white sheets printed with the logo of the Chapocoense soccer team, filled a Medellin funeral home in preparation for being flown home, as family members of some victims gathered there to say their final good-byes.
Grieving relatives of the dead spoke out in disbelief after a recording of conversations between a pilot of the doomed flight and air traffic controllers, as well as the account of a surviving flight attendant, indicated the plane ran out of fuel before crashing late Monday, killing all but six of the 77 people on board.
Osmar Machado, whose son, Filipe, a defender on the Chapecoense team, died on his father’s 66th birthday, questioned why the plane, which was flying at its maximum range on the flight from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was transporting the team.
