US House to vote on Wall Street overhaul

WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives votes Wednesday on the most sweeping overhaul of Wall Street rules since the Great Depression of the 1930s, amid an 11th-hour scramble to ensure passage.

President Barack Obama pressed divided lawmakers to back the legislation, his top domestic priority, promising it "will prevent a crisis" like the global meltdown of 2008 and ridiculing Republican opposition to the bill.

"It's reform that will protect our economy from the recklessness and irresponsibility of a few," the president said in remarks prepared for delivery at a rally in Racine, Wisconsin.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said the upper chamber would not take up the measure before the week-long July 4 recess, amid embattled efforts to rally the 60 votes needed to ensure passage there.

The bill targets Wall Street excesses blamed for the global financial crisis of 2008, which has left US unemployment stubbornly high at nearly 10 percent four months before critical November elections to decide control of Congress.

Obama said the bill would "protect consumers against the unfair practices of credit card companies and mortgage lenders" as well as ensure "taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street's mistakes."

The compromise legislation, finalized by Senate and House of Representative delegates last week after a marathon 20-hour session, marked an important victory for the Democratic president ahead of mid-term elections in November.

It creates a new consumer financial protection agency, an early-warning system to predict and prevent the next crisis, and mechanisms aimed at liquidating rather than saving companies once deemed "too big to fail."

The legislation also closes loopholes in regulations and requires greater transparency and accountability for hedge funds, mortgage brokers and payday lenders, and arcane financial instruments called derivatives.

Obama joined fellow Democrats in hammering House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner for an interview in which he assailed the bill and described it as "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon."

"That's right. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. The same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes and their lives savings," said Obama.

"Americans don't believe the financial crisis was an ant. They know that it's what led to the worst recession since the Great Depression," the president said in his prepared remarks.

"And they expect their leaders in Washington to do whatever it takes to make sure a crisis like this never happens again. The Republican leader might want to maintain a status quo on Wall Street. But we want to move America forward."

Boehner shot back that he "wasn't minimizing the crisis America faced" but "was pointing out that Washington Democrats have produced a bill that will actually kill more jobs and make the situation worse."

Obama should be focused on promoting job growth "instead of my choice of metaphors," he said in a statement.

In Congress, meanwhile, Democrats scrambled to rally the 60 votes needed to get the bill through the Senate, a special challenge after the death this week of Democratic Senator Robert Byrd.

In an unusual move, the White House's allies late Tuesday scrubbed a 19-billion-dollar bank fee from the bill in order to win over Republican Senator Scott Brown, whose support could make the difference in passage.

In a statement early Wednesday, Brown -- who had explicitly opposed the measure because of what he denounced as the "bank tax" -- welcomed the move but withheld his support and said he would "review" the bill over the July 4 break.

Thieves steal trailer with Bengal tiger, 2 camels

MONTREAL — Hundreds of police mobilized Saturday after the theft of a truck, its trailer and its cargo -- a Bengal tiger and two camels from a Canadian zoo, officials said.

The truck and its trailer were stolen from the parking lot of a motel in Saint-Liboire, Quebec, said provincial police spokesman Richard Gagne.

He said the animals from the Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario were being transported when the two employees stopped overnight at the motel. When they woke up, the truck and its animals were gone.

The zoo said it is offering a 20,000 dollar reward for the recovery of the animals, the tiger Jonas, and camels Todd and Shawn.

Gagne said police were mobilized in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick and that authorities across the US border were alerted as well.

Zoo officials feared that the animals might suffer from dehydration in heat around 30 degrees (86 Fahrenheit).

Authorities urged caution in approaching the animals if found. The camels are harmless but the tiger could be dangerous, they noted.

Airplane slips off runway at Ottawa airport

OTTAWA — A United Airlines jet operated under the banner United Express slid off the runway in heavy rain at the Ottawa airport, injuring the pilot, officials said Wednesday.

"At 2:30 pm local time, we were notified that an Embraer aircraft slid off the runway," Ottawa airport authority spokeswoman Krista Kealey told AFP.

Ottawa police said "preliminary information indicates that the aircraft failed to negotiate the runway and crashed beyond the tarmac threshold," according to a statement.

The flight with 33 passengers and three crew onboard originated from Dulles airport in the US capital, Washington.

"None of the passengers were seriously hurt, but the pilot suffered minor injuries, and is being transferred to hospital," Kealey said.

Paramedics and fire crews were at the scene. An investigation into the accident would be conducted, Kealey said.

Taliban kill four Afghan policemen

KANDAHAR , Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents killed four Afghan policemen Saturday in two separate attacks in their spiritual heartland in southern Afghanistan, officials told AFP.

Militants shot at a police vehicle in Khakrez district of Kandahar province, killing three policemen and wounding one, district governor Abdul Qayoum told AFP.

Separately, militants riding a motorbike gunned down another policeman in Kandahar city on Saturday morning before escaping, deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Shah said.

The policeman had been off-duty and was walking in civilian clothes near the city centre when he was assassinated, Shah said.

Targeted killings have increased in Kandahar this year and militants have been blamed for assassinations of several pro-government elders and people working for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's western-backed government.

Pakistan arrests Taliban planning Karachi attacks: officials

KARACHI — Pakistani police said they had arrested two Taliban militants on Friday who were planning "terror attacks" in the prosperous financial hub Karachi.

The two members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were arrested during a police raid in the Baldia area, senior police official Omar Shahid told AFP.

"The police are interrogating the two men, Inamullah Mehsud, a resident of North Waziristan tribal region, and his local facilitator Sajjadullah Mehsud," Shahid said.

Pistols, explosives and bomb-making accessories had been recovered in the raid, he said.

The men were planning to bring a suicide bomber to the city from North Waziristan, but "the arrests foiled their attempts to strike terror in Karachi," Shahid said.

Karachi, Pakistan's richest city, has been largely spared Islamist violence but is plagued by crime and particularly kidnappings, which some analysts say are used by militants to bankroll the insurgency in the country's northwest.

However bomb attacks on Shiite Muslims killed 76 people in Karachi earlier this year and recent riots and a surge in political shootings have sparked fears that the city may again descend into violence.

A local intelligence official also confirmed Friday's arrests.

Security has plummeted over the last three years in Pakistan: militants have killed more than 3,000 people since July 2007 and Washington has put the country on the frontline of its war on Al-Qaeda.

Pakistan is under intense pressure from the United States to do more to eliminate Islamist networks that have carved out training grounds and havens in the northwest for preparing attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.

Cancelling Iran opposition protests 'regrettable': Clinton

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday called "regrettable" the Iranian opposition's cancellation of anti-government protests planned for this weekend, the anniversary of last year's disputed presidential election.

"It is not only regrettable that the opposition cancelled demonstrations... but it demonstrates very clearly why the Iranian regime has caused so much concern throughout the world," she told reporters here on a visit to the island nation.

Iranian opposition leaders earlier Thursday called off rallies planned for Saturday in part "to protect the lives and properties of the people," Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi said in a joint statement.

In recent weeks both Mousavi and Karroubi had renewed calls for fresh presidential elections and said they rejected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's authority.

"When you look at the combination of their repression of their people, manipulation of their own elections, the fact they are an exporter and supporter of terrorist activities around the world, and the pursuit of nuclear weapons, it adds up to a very dangerous combination," Clinton said.

"And therefore we stand in solidarity with the people of Iran as we have since the beginning of the administration," she added.

After losing to Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election, Mousavi and Karroubi quickly dismissed the result as having been massively rigged, sparking street protests that rocked the Islamic republic last summer and winter.

Security forces cracked down heavily on dissent, with dozens of protesters killed, hundreds arrested and scores of prominent reformists, journalists and rights campaigners put on trial -- with many receiving stiff jail sentences.

Authorities in Tehran have vowed to crack down on any new opposition protests.

Referring to the new UN sanctions slapped on Iran Wednesday over its nuclear program, Clinton said the measures "are designed to target those who are behind the government actions that have increased human rights abuses, like the revolutionary guard.

""We hope there will be a response from the Iranian government to their own people's aspirations," she added.

Ahmadi sect pleads for help after Pakistan killings

NEW YORK — A leader of the Ahmadi sect pleaded Thursday for international pressure on Pakistan, warning that extremists were bent on wiping out the community after nearly 100 people were killed.

The Ahmadi community in the United States urged Pakistan to repeal laws restricting the sect and to clamp down on hardline Sunni clerics, who it said have waged a campaign of incitement.

"The time is now for the world to wake up to the realization that the goal of the extremist clerics is to execute a full-scale holocaust," said Naseem Mahdi, the missionary-in-charge of the US Ahmadi community.

"Even today, after this massacre, on television, in the streets, on billboards, in public meetings, the hatred continues to be preached and no one in any governmental body takes steps to stop people from such incitement to murder," he told a news conference in New York.

Militants last week stormed two Ahmadi prayer halls in Lahore, killing 82 worshippers in gun and grenade attacks. Gunmen later raided the hospital where victims were treated, killing four people in a shootout.

Mahdi, who put the death toll at 94, said urged US officials to raise religious freedom with Pakistan, which is receiving a 7.5 billion-dollar US package aimed at building its economy and democratic institutions.

"The US government must take every measure in its power to have all levels of government in Pakistan eliminate the laws and ordinances that have become the tools to facilitate and institutionalize the persecution of Ahmadi Muslims" and have been used against other minorities, he said.

Founded by Ghulam Ahmad, who was born in 1838, the Ahmadi sect believes that Ahmad himself was a prophet and that Jesus died aged 120 in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Pakistan declared them non-Muslims in 1974 and 10 years later they were barred from calling themselves Muslims.

The Ahmadi sect is strongly critical of violence in the name of Islam.

"The extremists have repeatedly used their power over the masses to brutally attack us in the name of the defense of Islam. They try to gain by violence what they fail to gain by argument, reason and rationality," Mahdi said.

Religious violence in Pakistan, mostly between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites, has killed more than 4,000 people in the past decade.

The Ahmadi community has also encountered problems in other countries including Egypt, which earlier this year detained nine members of the sect.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government advisory board, called on Egypt to release them "immediately and unconditionally."

Egypt has held the Ahmadis using a prohibition against insulting Islam along with a controversial emergency powers law.

Neither charge has "any merit whatsoever," said Leonard Leo, the chairman of the US commission.

"Both are a blatant violation of their international right to freedom of religion or belief as well as contrary to Egypt?s own constitutional protections," he said.

Oil clean-up faces hurricane threat: forecast

LOS ANGELES — Five major hurricanes are forecast to slam into the United States this year, potentially hampering efforts to clean up the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill, scientists reported Wednesday.

Forecasters from Colorado State University increased their hurricane outlook for 2010, citing warmer-than-normal tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures and cooling tropical Pacific conditions.

A total of 18 named storms were forecast to form in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and November 30, with five expected to develop as major hurricanes packing winds of 111 mph or greater. Since 1950, an average of 2.3 major hurricanes have formed in the region.

"We have increased our forecast from early April, due to a combination of a transition from El Nino to current neutral conditions and the continuation of unusually warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures," said Colorado State forecaster William Gray.

"We anticipate a well above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall."

Lead forecaster Phil Klotzbach warned that the probability of a major hurricane hitting the US coastline was 76 percent, compared with a last-century average of 52 percent.

Klotzbach said if the hurricane season unfolds as forecast, it could impact the clean-up of the mammoth oil spill in the Gulf, churning tarry waters towards land.

"If the storm tracks to the west of the oil, there is the potential that the counter-clockwise circulation of the hurricane could drive some of the oil further towards the US Gulf Coast," Klotzbach said.

The forecasters said there was a 51 percent chance of a major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast west of the Florida panhandle.

The United States's eastern seaboard also had a 51 percent chance of a major hurricane while the Caribbean was judged to face a 65 percent threat.