Helene hits Mexico's Gulf Coast, quickly weakens as it moves inland as tropical depression
VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) -- Tropical Storm Helene quickly weakened into a tropical depression Saturday after moving ashore on Mexico's Gulf Coast, then degenerated into a rain storm by night without bringing reports of significant damage.
Authorities had worried Helene's rains could pose a threat to areas where thousands of people are recovering from flooding spawned last week by Hurricane Ernesto, but the Veracruz state civil defense office said none of the region's numerous rivers had overflowed. Some streets flooded in low-lying neighborhoods of the port city of Veracruz.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the system still had winds of about 30 mph (45 kph) late Saturday. It was 85 miles (140 kilometers) west-northwest of the port of Tampico, and was expected to dissipate Sunday.
The storm came ashore early Saturday in a lush coastal region of oil centers and tourist resorts with hundreds of towns and villages lying beside streams and rivers that can swell dangerously in heavy rain. Many were evacuated as Ernesto approached last week, and flood damage left some 10,000 people homeless.
The U.S. hurricane center said an additional 2 inches (5 centimeters) to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain could fall across northern Veracruz, southern Tamaulipas and eastern San Luis Potosi state.
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Russian clerics forgive Pussy Riot after band's 2-year sentence for anti-Putin rant in church
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's top Orthodox clerics on Saturday asked for mercy for the punk band Pussy Riot for its anti-government protest in a Moscow cathedral, but the church's forgiveness is unlikely to change the band's punishment in a case that caused an international furor over political dissent.
Despite its plea for clemency for the three rock activists, a leading cleric called the demonstration "awful" and defiant of the powerful church that is the heart of Russia's national identity.
The case, which ended Friday with the three band members' conviction for hooliganism and sentence to two years each in prison, became an emblem of Russia's intolerance of dissent and was widely seen as a warning that authorities will tolerate opposition only under tightly controlled conditions.
Tikhon Shevkunov, who is widely believed to be President Vladimir Putin's spiritual counselor, said on state television Saturday that his church forgave the singers after their "punk prayer" in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow in February.
"We did forgive them from the very start. But such actions should be cut short by society and authorities," said the cleric, who heads Moscow's Sretensky Monastery.
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Both presidential campaigns jockey for advantage over Medicare, a dicey subject for both
THE VILLAGES, Fla. (AP) -- Who loves Medicare more? President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's running mate vied for that distinction Saturday as Medicare became the latest flashpoint in a presidential campaign of flying elbows.
The issue is dicey for both sides: Obama is steering billions from the entitlement to help pay for the expansion of coverage under his health care law; Paul Ryan is a champion of overhauling Medicare to make the traditional program no longer the mainstay for tomorrow's seniors -- just one of many old-age health insurance choices.
But that didn't stop them from going head on.
On a day Romney devoted to raising campaign cash in Massachusetts, Ryan accused Obama of raiding the Medicare "piggybank" to pay for his health care overhaul and he warned starkly that hospitals and nursing homes may close as a result. The Wisconsin congressman introduced his 78-year-old mother to an audience of seniors in Florida and passionately defended a program that has provided old-age security for two generations of his own family.
"She planned her retirement around this promise," Ryan said as Betty Ryan Douglas looked on. "That's a promise we have to keep."
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Obama, Romney compete for undecided voters while securing and energizing their core supporters
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rushing toward their party conventions, the rival presidential campaigns are trying to invigorate core supporters while reaching out to a sliver of undecided voters who harbor doubts about President Barack Obama yet aren't sold on Republican Mitt Romney.
In the past week the campaigns have engaged in a vigorous debate over Medicare, pushing aside the economy and jobs, for the moment. Romney has charged Obama with running a campaign based on hatred, Obama has renewed a fight over Romney's tax returns, and the issue of government spending has blossomed again.
These are the August seeds that candidates are planting with fence-sitting voters even as the campaigns try to get backers excited in time for the conventions. Republicans will gather in Tampa, Fla., in a week, and Democrats will be in Charlotte, N.C., in the first days of September.
Romney's selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as a running mate gave supporters extra motivation beyond their deep-seated antipathy toward Obama. In calling out Obama as a divisive, angry campaigner, Romney stoked Republicans' dislike of the incumbent and tried to cut into an Obama advantage, his likability even among voters who take a dim view of his policies or his performance as president.
At one point, Romney urged Obama to "take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago." The Obama campaign said Romney's remarks were "unhinged."
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Bill would authorize VA coverage of in vitro fertilization for wounded US veterans, spouses
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The roadside bomb that exploded outside Andrew Robinson's Humvee in Iraq six years ago broke the Marine staff sergeant's neck and left him without use of his legs. It also cast doubt on his ability to father a child, a gnawing emotional wound for a then-23-year-old who had planned to start a family with his wife of less than two years.
The catastrophic spinal cord injury meant the couple's best hope for children was in vitro fertilization, an expensive and time-consuming medical procedure whose cost isn't covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Robinson and his wife were forced to pay out of pocket, with help from a doctor's discount and drugs donated by other patients.
A bill being considered in the Senate would expand the VA's medical benefits package so other veterans, and their spouses or surrogates, don't have to bear the same expense. The department currently covers a range of medical treatment for veterans, including some infertility care, but the legislation specifically authorizes the VA to cover IVF and to pay for procedures now provided for some critically injured active-duty soldiers.
The bill's meant to help wounded veterans start families as they return home from war and to address a harrowing consequence of combat that can radically change a couple's marriage but receives less attention than post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries.
"It's common sense: a male veteran cannot have a kid by himself. It doesn't happen. They need obviously to have it with their wife or a partner," said Robinson, of Florence, N.J., who is now 29 and was injured in a 2006 explosion in Al Anbar province. "So for the VA to say, 'Oh, we can only cover this part of it,' it just kind of doesn't make sense."
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Security concerns for weapons plant spotlighted by incursion stunt at 'Fort Knox of uranium'
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- Officials like to refer to the Y-12 National Security Complex as the Fort Knox for highly enriched uranium, which is why an unprecedented incursion by an 82-year-old nun and two fellow protesters has critics mocking the notion that the weapons plant is secure.
Operations resumed last week after being shut down over the embarrassing incident 18 days earlier. The Department of Energy has called on the contractor that runs the sensitive facility just west of Knoxville to explain why it shouldn't be replaced.
Y-12 makes uranium parts for every warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, dismantles old weapons and is the nation's primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium.
Officials insist that despite the more than two hours that the protesters went unchallenged on the facility, there was never any danger of them getting to materials that could be detonated on site or used to assemble a dirty bomb.
The Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, or HEUMF, is designed to withstand earthquakes up to a 7.7 magnitude, tornado-force winds of up to 200 mph or the impact of a general aviation aircraft. It could also withstand a ground attack, officials said.
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Nomads in Niger sell camels, end way of life as economy unravels
SAKABAL, Niger (AP) -- In a part of the world where the worth of a man is measured by his animals, Tuareg nomad Soumaila Wantala has come to this market to do the unthinkable: Sell his last camel.
He crouches in the shade of a thorn tree as traders haggle over the 4-year-old male animal, Yedi. When the sale is complete, Yedi rears his enormous neck and lets out a cry, like the deep, subterranean call of a whale. It takes three men to drag the camel out of the arena, as if he understands the fate that has just befallen his master.
In markets all over Niger, hungry people are selling hungry animals for half their normal value, giving up on the milk and money of tomorrow so that their children can eat today. Their plight is a sign of how far the economy of the desert has broken down, leaving its people unable to feed themselves in drought after drought.
This is a community so tied to its animals that children play with miniature camels or cows cut from rock. It's in livestock that a man settles disputes, pays the dowry for his future bride and leaves an inheritance to his sons.
So to see a nomad sell his last camel is like watching someone sell their house and car, liquidate their 401(k) and empty their bank account all at once, just to buy groceries.
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AP PHOTOS: Hungry people in Niger are selling hungry animals as the economy unravels
In markets all over Niger, hungry people are selling hungry animals for half their normal value, giving up on the milk and money of tomorrow so that their children can eat today. Their plight is a sign of how far the economy of the desert has broken down, leaving its people unable to feed themselves in drought after drought.
This is a community so tied to its animals that children play with miniature camels or cows cut from rock. It's in livestock that a man settles disputes, pays the dowry for his future bride and leaves an inheritance to his sons.
So to see a nomad sell his last camel is like watching someone sell their house and car, liquidate their 401(k) and empty their bank account all at once, just to buy groceries.
Here are some images from the African Sahel.
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United Airlines Newark-Berlin flight lands safely after 'mechanical issue,' no injuries
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Authorities say a United Airlines flight has landed safely at Newark after taking off from the airport for Berlin then returning when something apparently went wrong with the engine.
Airline spokesman Joe Micucci said the Boeing 757 "experienced a mechanical issue with the engine" after takeoff from Newark Liberty International Airport at 5:50 p.m. Saturday. He said Flight 96 landed safely about 8:10 p.m.
The plane was carrying 173 passengers and crew members. A Port Authority spokesman said no one was injured.
Kathleen Bergen of the Federal Aviation Administration said the plane crew initially reported "an issue" with the plane's left engine but the aircraft then began operating normally. She said that as a precaution, fuel was burned off west of Newark before the plane landed.
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Constable killed in shootout near Texas A&M remembered as compassionate, humble, selfless
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Compassionate. Humble. A good friend. A dedicated public servant.
Those were some of the words that family and friends used during a funeral service Saturday to fondly remember a law enforcement officer who was among three people killed in a shootout near Texas A&M University.
More than 3,000 people attended the service for Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann at an arena on the A&M campus in College Station. Among those in attendance were law enforcement officers from across the state, including Lubbock in West Texas and Hidalgo County in South Texas. A choir of more than 80 people from Bachmann's Methodist church in College Station sang during the service.
"Brian would sacrifice himself for the benefit of others, always," his mother, Carmen Bachmann, said as she stood on a stage above her son's flag-draped coffin.
Authorities say Bachmann was fatally shot Monday by Thomas Alton Caffall III. The 41-year-old constable was trying to serve Caffall with a court summons for being two months behind on rent. Other officers fatally shot the 35-year-old Caffall.
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