Israel rejects threat of U.S. aid freeze
JERUSALEM, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Israel would forego U.S. economic aid rather than be pressured into prematurely advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, its finance minister said Sunday.
Mideast envoy George Mitchell has threatened the United States could freeze aid if Israel fails to advance the talks, Ynetnews.com reported.
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel was trying to resume negotiations with the Palestinians but would give up U.S. aid if it meant accepting unreasonable conditions.
"We don't have to use those (loan) guarantees," Steinitz said. "We are doing very well without them."
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Sunday condemned rocket attacks by Hamas fired from Gaza into Israeli territory.
"Some 20 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel last week," Netanyahu said at the beginning of his cabinet meeting. "The government's policy is clear and any firing of rockets will be seriously retaliated."
Harkin seeks change to filibuster rules
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate filibuster rules make it too difficult for Democrats to exercise the mandate voters gave them in 2008, some Democratic lawmakers said.
The rules requires 60 votes to end the speeches of a filibuster, the threat of which has become so common that congressional leaders assume most bills cannot pass the 100-member Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes.
While Democrats hold majorities in the House and Senate, the 60-vote threshold for action in the Senate has allowed Republicans to block much of President Barack Obama's agenda.
"Even when a party loses (an election), it too easily can prevent the majority elected to govern from legislating," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told Sunday's Los Angeles Times.
Harkin wants to reduce the number of votes needed to end debate from 60 votes on the first attempt, to 57 votes if another vote is held two days later, to 51 votes if debate drags on, the Times reported.
Few senators, however, will be willing to change rules that gives enormous leverage to either party when it finds itself in the minority, Donald Ritchie, the Senate's historian, said.
"It's a real obstacle to getting much done, but it's ingrained into the Senate," Ritchie said.
Karzai tries again to fill cabinet
KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced 16 cabinet nominations Saturday to fill positions left vacant when Parliament refused to approve earlier choices.
Some members of Parliament appeared ready to reject the new nominees, The New York Times reported. When 17 of Karzai's 24 nominees were rejected last week, he was urged to fill the cabinet with people with technical expertise.
But critics say Karzai is still turning to his political allies.
"This is the same as the previous list," said Mir Ahmed Joyenda, an independent who represents Kabul. "It is like a limited company and those people who have supported Mr. Karzai, they each have a share."
Daoud Sultanzoi from Ghazni said the country needs cabinet members "who can build those ministries."
The new list includes three women.
Karzai was elected to a second term in a contentious election. The leading opposition candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out before the runoff election, saying he believed that would be no more fair than the first one.
Hong Kong acid attack injures 30
HONG KONG, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- At least 30 people, some of them children, were hurt Saturday when someone dropped a bottle of corrosive liquid on a crowded Hong Kong street, police said.
The attack occurred at about 9:30 p.m. in Kowloon, China Daily reported, citing Xinhua, the official government news agency. Some of the injured were foreign tourists.
At least 100 people have been hurt in a series of acid attacks in Hong Kong that began in December 2008.
Residents pick up from California quake
EUREKA, Calif., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Power was restored to thousands of homes as residents of Northern California began to assess the damage left by a 6.5-magnitude earthquake, officials said.
Most of the 28,000 homes and businesses that lost power Saturday had electricity restored within hours and the rest were expected to have heat and lights by early Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The 10-second quake snapped power lines, cracked walls and shattered windows but collapsed no buildings and caused no casualties when it hit about 33 miles from Eureka.
The quake was felt as far east as Reno, Nev., as far south as Santa Cruz, Calif., and as far north as central Oregon.
Some homeowners reported toppled chimneys and store managers in a Eureka mall reported broken glass and fallen plaster, while the owner of the Ivanhoe Hotel in Ferndale said the 10-second quake cleared liquor bottles from the shelves in his bar.
"We are sitting in a sea of booze," Dave Magni told CNN.
