Obama pledges continued aid to Haiti
WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- President Obama promised strong support Wednesday to help Haiti recover and rebuild as the U.S. military pulls forces out of the earthquake-ravaged country.
"The situation on the ground remains dire and people should be under no illusions that the crisis is over," Obama said after a White House meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval.
"And that's why, even as the U.S. military responsibly hands off relief functions to our Haitian and international partners, America's commitment to Haiti's recovery and reconstruction must endure and will endure. ... America will be your partner in the recovery and reconstruction effort."
Preval thanked the United States and other countries for "massive, spontaneous, generous help."
He called for creation of a U.N. disaster relief force that he said would make relief efforts more effective.
"This is why I support the idea of the creation of so-called red helmets within the United Nations, and these would be an observatory, a warning system, a provision system for natural disaster, and a humanitarian force which would be the equivalent of the (peacekeeping) blue helmets."
Such a humanitarian force, he said, would coordinate responses in the first minutes after a disaster.
Another runway Toyota reported
HARRISON, N.Y., March 10 (UPI) -- U.S. transportation officials say they're investigating a report that a Toyota Prius accelerated on its own and crashed into a stone wall in suburban New York.
The crash Tuesday marked the second report of a Toyota speeding out of control in two days. On Monday, a driver could not slow his 2008 Prius as it sped for 30 miles on a California interstate at speeds exceeding 93 mph.
Toyota is recalling 2004-2009 model year Prius hybrids for fixes to prevent the floor mat from trapping the accelerator pedal. A separate recall of 4.5 million Toyotas to fix accelerator pedals doesn't cover the Prius, The New York Times reported.
The incidents are the latest of reports of sudden acceleration problems for Toyota vehicles as the Japanese automaker tries to reassure customers about the effectiveness of the recalls.
"We are at a point here where anytime a Toyota is involved in an accident, the specter of unintended acceleration comes up," Toyota spokesman John Hanson told the Times.
Tuesday's crash of a 2005 Prius involved a 56-year-old woman who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police in Harrison, N.Y. said.
Anthony Marraccini, Harrison's acting police chief, said it appeared the floor mat was not a factor when the car sped out of the driveway for more than 100 feet across two lanes of traffic before crashing into the wall.
As it seeks fixes for the Prius and other models, Toyota urged drivers to remove floor mats if their vehicles haven't been repaired.
Terror witnesses to be deposed in Jordan
FORT WORTH, Texas, March 10 (UPI) -- The defense team for a Jordanian man living in Texas accused of terrorism last year got permission to travel to Jordan to depose witnesses, records showed.
A federal court judge granted the request of Hosam "Sam" Smadi's lawyers to take depositions of up to 16 of Smadi's relatives, social workers, and a doctor and teacher at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Tuesday.
Smadi, 20, who has been living in Italy, Texas, is accused of trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper, the newspaper reported.
The defense said it hopes the witnesses will help to show Smadi is depressed and that he "completely fell apart" when his mother died of brain cancer, and that he had no hostilities to the United States.
"The defendant seeks to present evidence that Hosam Smadi grew up in a religiously tolerant environment in Ajloun, Jordan; that he went to a Christian school, attended Christian services, sang Christian hymns; that his parents taught him that God loves all people regardless of religions," his attorneys said.
Smadi was arrested Sept. 24 after federal officials said he parked what he believed was a car bomb in a garage under the Fountain Place building in Dallas. He was unable to detonate the device because it was a fake provided by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida workers.
Pope's brother admits hitting students
VATICAN CITY, March 10 (UPI) -- Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI, admitted hitting students while he was director of the most prominent Catholic boys' choir in Germany.
Ratzinger apologized for his actions and said he was relieved in 1980 when Germany banned corporal punishment in schools, The Times of London reported. He headed the Regensburger Domspatzen from the early 1960s to 1994.
The allegations of abuse of children in Germany have raised questions about Pope Benedict, who spent his early career as a professor of theology and bishop of Munich before becoming a top Vatican official in 1982.
"I myself handed out slaps repeatedly, although I always had a bad conscience about it," Ratzinger told the Passauer Neue Presse, a Catholic newspaper.
Ratzinger denied knowing boys were sexually abused. He said the choirmaster was "a king without a kingdom" in the school hierarchy and that the tone was set by the "very violent" headmaster who served from 1953 to 1992.
One former student, Franz Wittenbrink, now a composer, has described the headmaster as a sexual sadist. Wittenbrink said the headmaster, identified only as Johann M., would often order two or three boys into his office during the evening.
3rd suspect in church shooting arrested
RICHMOND, Calif., March 10 (UPI) -- A third suspect was arrested in a Valentine's Day shooting incident at a California church in which two teenagers were injured, Richmond police said Wednesday.
Marcel Buggs, 18, of Richmond, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm in the Feb. 14 shooting, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Two suspects, 15 and 16, were arrested last month in connection with the incident at New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ where three males in hooded sweatshirts allegedly entered and stalked an aisle while services were underway. One of the juveniles shot a 14-year-old boy in the shoulder, and his 19-year-old brother in the leg, the Chronicle reported.
The two youths arrested in February have been released, but Sgt. Bisa French of the Richmond Police Department said charges may still be filed.
"We believe we have all the suspects," Sgt. Bisa French of the Richmond Police Department said, adding that the prime suspect had been under surveillance for more than a week.
