Israel responds to bombing with air attack
GAZA, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- An Israeli military aircraft struck smugglers' tunnels in Gaza early Wednesday after militants set off a deadly bomb on the Israeli border, Palestinians said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned of a "further response" to the militants' bombing, allegedly carried out by a Hamas breakaway group identified with the al-Qaida-affiliated Global Jihad, Haaretz reported.
"What the (Israeli military) did today was not a response but a preliminary action," he said.
The violence along the border between Israel and Gaza left one Israeli soldier and three more wounded Tuesday. A Palestinian farmer also was killed, officials said.
An Israeli military official said the remote-detonated bomb appeared to have been planted along the border by someone who slipped across in the fog, The New York Times reported. Palestinian witnesses said the farmer was killed a short time later, the newspaper said.
The Israeli military subsequently closed the border crossings and troops made a brief incursion into Gaza.
"This is a harsh attack and we cannot accept it," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. "And we will respond."
Palestinian officials said Israel also shelled a house in the village of Khan Yunis, injuring two children.
Israel's initial military campaign, aimed at stopping Hamas from firing rockets into Israel from Gaza, ended Jan. 18 after Israel and Hamas -- which controls Gaza -- proclaimed separate cease-fires. Israeli troops subsequently withdrew to the perimeters of the strip.
U.S. President Barack Obama Monday dispatched George Mitchell, special envoy to the Middle East, on an eight-day trip to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, France and Britain.
Hamas officials told Haaretz the Israeli aircraft struck three times, sending Rafah residents fleeing from their homes.
Ice storm grips major portions of U.S.
OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A growing ice storm Tuesday caused massive power outages and car accidents from northern Texas to Virginia, weather experts said.
In a storm warning alert, AccuWeather.com said the ice storm has hit the Plains and the Ohio Valley to the mid-Atlantic.
"More freezing rain will fall across areas from northern Texas to Kentucky and the Virginias tonight with additional accumulations over one-quarter of an inch possible," the weather site said Tuesday. "It only takes a thin glaze of ice to make roads slippery, but amounts of one-quarter of an inch or more are destructive, downing trees and power lines."
The storm will spread ice and snow all the way to New England by Wednesday, the site said.
In Oklahoma, the storm has closed schools, and power outages are on the rise in the eastern part of the state, local media reported.
The Oklahoman said more than 25,000 electric customers in the state were without power at about 4 p.m., with 13,000 of those in Adair, Cherokee and Sequoyah counties.
Salt spreaders were working icy city streets in Oklahoma City, the newspaper said.
In Dallas, near-freezing temperatures persisted for most of Tuesday. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is expecting an overnight low in the mid-20s by Wednesday morning before skies begin clearing and temperatures inch toward 40, with plenty of rain, the Dallas Morning News said.
"It's not going to be real heavy rain," National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Dunn said, "but it could rain through midnight." He added, "It could be a real mess by Wednesday morning."
Bush denies bevy of pardons, commutations
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Before leaving office, U.S. President George W. Bush rejected clemency pleas from former lawmakers Randall "Duke" Cunningham, Edwin Edwards and Mario Biaggi.
The chief of the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney, confirmed that Bush also rejected clemency for junk bond financier Michael Milken and Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who is serving life sentences for the murder of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout in South Dakota, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Bush left other clemency petitions alone, including those of Illinois Gov. George Ryan; former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel; media mogul Conrad Black; and telecommunications executives Bernard Ebbers and John Rigas.
Cunningham, a Republican congressman from California, is serving more than eight years for bribery. Edwards, a former Democratic governor of Louisiana, is serving 10 years for racketeering. Biaggi was a New York Democratic congressman sentenced to 2 1/2 years in 1987 for accepting an illegal gratuity.
The Times noted that during his presidency, Bush issued far fewer pardons and prison commutations than many other presidents in recent history.
During the Bush administration, 2,498 pardon and 8,573 commutation applications were submitted. The former president granted 189 pardons and 11 commutations, and denied 1,729 pardon applications and 7,498 commutation applications.
Job woes blamed for LA murder-suicide
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Los Angeles police say it appears job and financial problems sparked a murder-suicide that left seven members of a family dead Tuesday.
The gunman reportedly faxed a suicide letter to a Los Angeles television station that said both he and his wife had been fired from their jobs at a hospital and that an unnamed supervisor had told him "you should have blown your brains out," the Los Angeles Times reported.
"This was a financial- and job-related issue that led to the slayings," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kenneth Garner. "In these tough economic times, there are other options. In my 32 years, I've never seen anything like this."
KABC-TV in Los Angeles said it received the two-page fax and contacted authorities. The gunman then apparently reported the shootings to 911.
The couple was found dead inside their home in working-class Wilmington along with five children, including two sets of twins, all under the age of 10. The names of the victims were not immediately released.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram said an attorney told them he had received a phone message from the father earlier in the day about a lawsuit. The suit stemmed from a traffic accident and the family was expected to receive a modest settlement at a hearing Wednesday.
"I'm stunned." Attorney Paul Pierce told the newspaper.
