8A j The BirminghamNews Tuesday, May 18, 2010NATION/WORLD

WORLD BRIEFS“Ten percent in these trying times isdifficult for any city employee to bear . . .I’m not terribly surprised about somethinglike this taking place, but I had no idea itwould be 10 percent.”Police Sgt. Dexter Cunningham

Fog hinderssearch efforts

SALANG PASS, Afghanis-tan — Dense fog hinderedrescuers who fanned outacross mountainous terrainon Monday to search forthe wreckage of an Afghanpassenger plane that van-ished with 44 passengerson board. There was no im-mediate word of casualties.Afghan authoritiessearched the Salang Pass, amajor route through theHindu Kush mountainsthat connects the capital tothe north. Late Mondaynight, they said they sus-pected the plane may havegone down farther south,closer to its destination ofKabul International Air-port.

Flight safetyrules relaxed

LONDON — Aviation au-thorities introduced re-laxed flight safety rulesMonday to minimize moredisruptions caused by avolcano eruption in Ice-land, as three of Europe’sbusiest airports reopenedafter a dense volcanic ashcloud dissipated. Britain’sCivil Aviation Authorityagreed with airlines, regu-lators and engine manufac-turers on new rules thatwould let planes fly for alimited time throughhigher ash densities thancurrently allowed. Therules — which go into ef-fect today — are subject toairlines getting a guaranteefrom their engine makersthat their aircraft can safelytolerate the ash.

President’s partygets big majority

SANTO DOMINGO, Do-minican Republic — Thepresident’s party seemedheaded toward a much big-ger majority in Congress.With more than half theballots from Sunday’s votecounted, the DominicanLiberation Party of Presi-dent Leonel Fernandez ap-peared likely to win all butone of the Senate’s 32seats.

No ban on 9in parliament

BAGHDAD — A commis-sion that disqualifiedscores of prospective law-

makers in the run-up to theMarch 7 parliamentaryelections announced Mon-day that it was unable toban nine others after thevote. The attempted dis-qualification of the candi-dates — now newly electedmembers of parliament —for alleged connections toSaddam Hussein’s out-lawed Baath Party wasamong the factors that pre-vented Iraqi officials fromcertifying the results of theelection.

British air crewstrike unlawful

LONDON — Britain’sHigh Court ruled that aplanned strike by BritishAirways cabin crews wasunlawful, stopping theplanned lengthy walkoutjust hours before it was dueto begin. BA said Mondaythat flights over the nextfew days will still be dis-rupted because it is too lateto unwind contingencyplans already put in placeto cope with the planned20-day walkout.

32 trappedin mine

ANKARA, Turkey — Anexplosion ripped through amajor coal mine in north-ern Turkey on Monday, tra-pping 32 workers under-ground, authorities said.The blast took place at theKaradon mine near theBlack Sea port of Zongul-dak. There was no immedi-ate word on its cause.

Organizer freein Haiti case

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti— The last of 10 Americansdetained while trying totake 33 children out of Haitifollowing the Jan. 12 earth-quake was released Mon-day after a judge convictedher and sentenced her tothe time she had alreadyserved in jail. Laura Silsby,the organizer of the ill-fatedeffort to take the children toan orphanage being set upin the Dominican Republic,returned to her jail cellbriefly to retrieve belong-ings before quickly headingto the Port-au-Prince air-port. “I’m praising God,”Silsby said as she waited fora flight out of Haiti. She de-clined further questions.

From wire reports

MAYOR:Bell to cutcity salariesFrom Page 1A

city officials and a policeofficer.

Inside the meeting, sev-eral workers expressedfrustration and anger abouttheir shrinking paychecks,coupled with rising healthcare costs this year. Themeeting became loud dur-ing the question-and-an-swer session with themayor, several said.

Outside the auditorium,some workers shruggedtheir shoulders. Othersshowed their frustrationthrough shouts and jeers.Several said the lowest-paid workers are shoul-dering the burden, whilethe cuts won’t harm thehigher-salaried workers.

“Why do we have to haveall these directors? Why dowe have to have all thesetop jobs? Cut from there,”said Lovell Trannon, a pub-lic works employee.

“He didn’t ask the peopleif they could accept it,”Trannon said of Bell. “Hedoesn’t know if we’re al-ready starving.”

While Bell said he wasoptimistic that the cutswere temporary, he saiddeeper cuts could come ifrevenue collections don’tmeet expectations. Layoffswould be a last resort, hesaid, but he hasn’t takenthat option off the table.

Police Sgt. Dexter Cun-ningham — president ofthe Fraternal Order of Po-lice, a group that has longsupported Bell’s mayoralcampaigns — lamented thecut for his members. Cun-ningham said FOP will askto meet with the mayor todiscuss a plan to reduce theburden of pay cuts.

“Ten percent in thesetrying times is difficult forany city employee to bear,”he said. “There are someproposals that we wouldlike to present to him froma revenue point of view thatmay in fact help with thecity’s revenue stream. I’mnot terribly surprised aboutsomething like this taking

place, but I had no idea itwould be 10 percent.”

Bel l ’s chief of staff ,Chuck Faush, said the paycuts are not subject to theJefferson County PersonnelBoard’s approval becausethey are across the boardfor merit system employ-ees.

“What we understand isthat the mayor can recom-mend across the board andthe council has to act onthat, just as anything else inthe budget,” Faush said.

Bell, who is taking thecut in his own pay, said hedoes not control the CityCouncil’s pay or that of itsstaff, but he said it wouldbe a good gesture if theyalso took the cuts.

C o u n c i l w o m a n L a -shunda Scales, who at-tended the mayor’s meet-ing, said the council isalready cooperating withplans to trim the budget.

“It is very important forthe city of Birmingham em-ployees and the generalpublic to know that the Bir-mingham City Council gaveback $580,000 of its budgetin order to cure the deficit,in comparison to the may-or’s $20,000 in budgetcuts,” she said, referring toBell’s plan for a late reduc-tion in the 2010 budget. “Asa council we are trying todo everything humanlypossible to not allow theemployees that work forthe city at the lowest-pay-ing rate to be adversely im-pacted by decisions madeunder a previous adminis-tration.”

Councilman Jay Rober-son, who had staff at Mon-day’s meeting, said he isagainst the cuts. He calledBell’s approach heavy-handed and said other op-tions should be consideredfirst.

“I am not in support ofcutting our employees by10 percent at all,” he said.

Employee pay reduc-tions were first mulled lastDecember when RoderickRoyal, then acting mayor,proposed four-day fur-loughs. The council neveracted on that plan.

E-MAIL: jbryant@bhamnews.com

AP

Supporters of Thai Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipholpay last respects at his funeral Monday in Bangkok.Sawasdiphol, themilitary strategist of the RedShirts, diedMonday from a gunshot wound from asniper attack last week.

Amid Thai chaos,talks of cease-fireBy THANYARAT DOKSONEThe Associated Press

BANGKOK — The tensestandoff between thou-sands of Thai protestersand soldiers entered itssixth day Tuesday after ne-gotiators for both sidesspoke for the first timesince Bangkok was grippedby spasms of violence.

T h e U n i t e d N a t i o n surged a negotiated solu-tion, saying “there is a highrisk that the situation couldspiral out of control.” How-ever, despite tentative talkMonday of a cease-fire, thegovernment’s chief negoti-ator said the two sides re-main far apart.

At least 37 people havedied in the government be-gan a blockade last week onthe protesters’ sprawlingcamp — which has occu-pied an upscale commer-cial district for more than amonth in a bid to force thegovernment from power.

Another governmentdeadline passed Mondayfor the thousands of pro-testers to vacate the barri-caded protest zone or faceup to two years in prison.More unrest flared outside

the barricades in variousparts of the downtown areaMonday, with troops firinglive ammunition at protes-ters who were lighting tiresto hide their positions.

The Thai governmentsaid late Monday that itwould accept a cease-fireoffer from a “Red Shirt”protest leader if their fight-ers end raging street battlesand return to their maincamp.

Red Shirt protest leaderNattawut Saikuwa, whocalled the government’schief negotiator, KorbsakSabhavasu, on his mobilephone Monday, Korbsaksaid. It was the first directtalks between the two sidessince the fighting startedThursday, though Korbsaksaid it was unlikely toachieve much as the twosides still remained farapart.

Nattawut’s response wasnot immediately known.Calls to his phone went un-answered.

The U.N. high commis-sioner for human rightscalled for restraint on bothsides and more talks.

Iran makes dealwith 2 countriesThe Washington Post

Iran reached a surprisenuclear agreement withBrazil and Turkey on Mon-day, a deal that threatens toundermine the Obama ad-ministration’s efforts tostem the Iranians’ nuclearambitions — and, morebroadly, the U.S. diplo-matic strategy.

The deal revives a con-cept first broached by theadministration last year.Iran will send part of itsstockpile of low-enricheduranium to Turkey for safe-keeping, possibly within amonth, in exchange forenough higher-enrichedu r a n i u m t o f u e l a42-year-old, U.S.-built re-search reactor that pro-duces medical isotopes.

Iran will not, however,halt its uranium enrich-ment or enter into substan-tive negotiations on its pro-gram.

Analysts say Iran has ef-fectively created the illu-sion of progress in nuclearnegotiations with the West

without offering what theUnited States and its allieshave long demanded. As aresult, the Obama adminis-tration now faces the un-comfortable prospect of re-jecting a proposal it offerednearly eight months ago, orseeing months of effort toenact new sanctions de-railed.

I f the United Statespresses ahead with a sanc-tions resolution in theUnited Nations, Brazil andTurkey might decide tovote against it, undercut-ting U.S. officials’ desire forinternational unity.

The new deal widens adivide between countriesled by the United Statesand some developing na-tionsover the right of Irana n d o t h e r d e v e l o p i n gcountries to use nuclearenergy.

Countries such as Braziland Turkey ,increasinglyview the Western-led de-bate over Iran’s nuclearprogram as an importanttest case for their own nu-clear ambitions.

we looked into it, we talkedto the gentleman and wehave closed our investiga-tion.”

Sexton said he generallydoesn’t discuss threatcases, but confirmed his of-fice investigated the inci-dent. No federal chargesfollowed the probe.

The teacher was appar-ently teaching his geometrystudents about parallellines and angles, officialssaid. He used the exampleof where to stand and aimif shooting Obama.

“He was talking aboutangles and said, ‘If you’rein this building, you wouldneed to take this angle toshoot the president,’ ” saidJoseph Brown, a senior inthe geometry class.

Efforts to reach the

teacher for comment Mon-day were unsuccessful.

S u p e r i n t e n d e n t P h i lH a m m o n d s s a i d t h eteacher remains at work,and there are no plans fortermination.

“We are going to have along conversation with himabout what’s appropriate,”Hammonds said. “It wasextremely poor judgmenton his part, and a poorchoice of words.”

Caroline Polk, the parentof a ninth-grader at theschool, said she doesn’t be-lieve the teacher ought tobe fired.

“We all make mistakes,and we should be able tolearn from our mistakes,”she said. “What he said wasjust wrong and inappropri-ate. Everyone’s got theirown opinions, but we haveto be aware of our sur-roundings. At this point, itjust needs to be handled ina way that it won’t be re-peated.”

E-MAIL:mleech@bhamnews.com

TEACHER:No charges inmath exampleFrom Page 1A

Food industry coalitionvows to cut trillion caloriesThe Washington Post

WASHINGTON — In a di-rect response to first ladyMichelle Obama’s declaredwar on childhood obesity,an alliance of major foodmanufacturers on Mondaypledged to introduce new,more healthful options, cutportion sizes and trim cal-ories in existing products.

The Healthy Weight Com-mitment Foundation, a co-alition including CampbellSoup, Coca-Cola, GeneralMills, Kellogg, Kraft Foodsand PepsiCo, will slash 1trillion calories by the end of2012 and 1.5 trillion calories

by the end of 2015. The 16members make 20-25 per-cent of the food consumedin the United States.

“This is precisely the kindof real private-sector com-mitment that we need. And Ihope that more will followthe example that they’veset,” Obama said at a newsconference at the Eisen-hower Executive OfficeBuilding.

The announcement is oneof the first substantial re-sults of the first lady’s “Let’sMove!” campaign, whichaims to end childhood obes-ity within a generation. The

industry’s pledge comes twomonths after Obama urgedfood corporations “to movefarther, faster” and less thana week after the WhiteHouse announced the find-ings of its Childhood Obes-ity Task Force.

The industry has beenunder pressure from thefirst lady and from state andlocal governments consid-ering junk-food taxes andother anti-obesity measures.

Missing from the an-nouncement were any spe-cifics on the new productsor cuts that will be made toexisting items.