WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama made an emotional, moral and economic case for extending long term unemployment benefits yesterday, kicking off his first skirmish of the year with Republicans. The spat over prolonging the lifeline to 1.3 million Americans, among millions more also looking for work, represents the first political test of wills in Washington at the start of a mid-term election year. “I can’t name a time when I met an American who would rather have an unemployment check than the pride of having a job,” Obama said, surrounded by people who lost their benefits when Congress failed to act last year. “The unemployed are not lazy, they are not lacking in motivation, they are coping with the aftermath of the worst economic crisis in generations,” Obama said at the White House.
Former Miss Venezuela shot dead
CARACAS: Assailants shot dead a former Miss Venezuela and her ex-husband in the latest high-profile case of violent crime in the South American nation, authorities said. Monica Spear, 29, who was also a soap opera actress, and Henry Berry, 39, died in an attempted robbery on the highway between Puerto Cabello and Valencia in central Venezuela. The 2004 Miss Venezuela winner lived in the United States but was vacationing in Venezuela. The pair’s 5-year-old daughter survived the attack on Monday, but with a bullet wound in her leg.
Prince William back at university
LONDON: Britain’s Prince William started a 10-week course in agricultural management at Cambridge University yesterday, in a bid to prepare him for future duties. The 31-year-old Duke of Cambridge arrived at the prestigious institution to begin the course, which is intended to give him an understanding of agricultural business and rural communities. Like many students he travelled by train to Cambridge in eastern England from London for his first day — but unlike others the university’s vice chancellor was on hand to greet him.
Nurse jailed over Saudi murder dies
LONDON: A British nurse jailed in Saudi Arabia over the murder of her Australian colleague in 1996 died in Scotland yesterday after suffering a brain haemorrhage, her lawyer said. Lucille McLauchlan, 47, was sentenced to eight years and 500 lashes over the brutal murder Yvonne Gilford, although she did not receive the lashes and served only 17 months before receiving a royal pardon. Her British colleague, Deborah Parry, had been sentenced to death but was also pardoned. When they returned to Britain the women protested their innocence, saying their confessions to the murder were extracted under duress. McLauchlan collapsed on Sunday at her home in Broughty Ferry, a suburb of Dundee in Scotland, and was taken to hospital, her lawyer William Boyle said. She died early yesterday surrounded by her family. Gilford, 55, was stabbed 13 times, battered and suffocated at a military hospital in Dhahran on December 11, 1996. Agencies
