Polygamists' kids return on hold
AUSTIN, Texas, May 30 (UPI) -- An agreement to return some children to a West Texas polygamist ranch ran into a snag late Friday when a lawyer objected, the Houston Chronicle said.
More than 450 children were taken to Austin from the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado seven weeks ago to prevent possibly sexually abusive marriages of young girls to older men, but the Texas Supreme Court Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that the removal of the children was illegal. Texas child welfare officials had agreed Friday to return some of the children to the ranch Monday.
"We are disappointed, but we understand and respect the court's decision and will take immediate steps to comply," Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, told the Houston Chronicle and The San Antonio Express-News.
Protective service officials reached an agreement Friday with attorneys to return some of the children to their home Monday. West Texas District Judge Barbara Walther was expected to sign off on the deal, provided that child welfare officials have access to the children 12 hours a day, the Chronicle reported.
However, as the judge was set to approve the agreement, an attorney participating in the proceeding by telephone objected to some points added by the judge and said Walther could cancel her original removal order and return the children or accept an earlier agreement with mothers of the children, the Chronicle said.
After a recess, Walther said she would sign the earlier agreement, but only if it was also signed by 43 mothers who are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and who had sued to have their children returned.
Walther then left the bench without saying when she would return or when another hearing would be held -- leaving the courtroom in turmoil, the newspaper said.
The Texas Supreme Court Thursday upheld a May 22 ruling by the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin that said the state didn't have enough evidence to order into foster care every child who lived at the ranch instead of just the teenage girls considered at risk.
Ban hails cluster bomb treaty
DUBLIN, Ireland, May 30 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday praised the signing in Dublin of a treaty banning the use of cluster bomb munitions.
"I am delighted that the strong calls to address the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions have been answered with the adoption today of this new convention," Ban said in a statement. "I welcome this successful outcome of the Dublin Diplomatic Conference, and congratulate everyone who contributed to the process."
Representatives of 110 nations signed the Cluster Munitions Convention that would require all stockpiles of cluster bombs to be destroyed within eight years. Signatories do not include the United States and other nations where cluster bomb are produced.
Cluster bombs are air-dropped weapons that scatter scores of small "bomblets" across wide areas. Critics say a percentage of the bomblets fail to explode on impact, leaving them to be picked up by civilians who can be maimed or killed when they detonate.
Ban said a signing "brought about a new international standard that will enhance the protection of civilians, strengthen human rights and improve prospects for development."
Congressman wants McClellan to testify
WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Ex-White House spokesman Scott McClellan should testify before a U.S. House panel about his book critical of the president, a Democratic congressman says.
McClellan told CNN Friday he would testify if asked.
Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., said Friday McClellan would offer valuable information about several issues the House Judiciary Committee is investigating, CNN reported.
Among its investigations into President George W. Bush's administration are the use of pre-war intelligence, whether politics was why eight U.S. attorneys were fired and the outing of former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Wexler said.
In his memoirs, McClellan wrote that Bush told him he authorized leaking Plame Wilson's identity to the media.
"The administration has always called for different kinds of privileges to avoid their officials testifying, but because McClellan has put all this information in a book, these privileges, I do not believe, would be available to the administration, so we would have a free flow of information," said Wexler, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.
Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday the White House indicated it could invoke executive privilege to prevent McClellan from testifying, but it has not decided whether it would.
Memo to superdelegates: Commit next week
WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's fading bid to be the Democratic U.S. presidential nominee has a new pressure -- party leaders calling on superdelegates to commit.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have communicated to superdelegates, urging them to decide whether they'll support Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama when primary voting ends Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
"We're going to urge folks to make a decision quickly -- next week," Reid said in a radio interview in his home state. "We agree there won't be a fight at the convention."
Pelosi said if the nomination fight weren't settled by the end of June, she would step in to resolve it.
Clinton trails Obama by about 200 delegates, the Times said, with only primaries in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana remaining. Clinton's campaign had hoped to use the time between the end of the primary season and the convention in August to press her argument that she is more electable than Obama.
Clinton's campaign hopes to jump-start her candidacy Saturday, when the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee meets to resolve a dispute over whether to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan, which she won. The two states lost their delegates because they moved up their primary dates, violating DNC rules.
Phil Singer, a Clinton spokesman, says Clinton would remain a candidate after Tuesday, competing in what he called "the superdelegate primary."
However, one person with ties to the Clinton campaign said she might drop out as soon as Wednesday because it would become futile to lobby superdelegates.
