Giffords not likely to lose seat
TUCSON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- It's unlikely a state law would be used to strip U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of her seat as she heals from a near-fatal gunshot wound, Arizona observers say.
The law states if a public officeholder doesn't "discharge the duties of office" for three straight months, the office becomes vacant until a special election is held to fill it. It doesn't say exactly what it would take for an officeholder to qualify as having discharged his or her duties.
Giffords is in serious condition after having been shot through the brain Jan. 8 by a gunman who killed six people and wounded 12 others besides the 40-year-old Democrat.
"We should let people recover before anybody makes a judgment about whether she's fit to serve," Republican state Sen. Frank Antenori told The Washington Post. "I don't hear anybody making those discussions."
While the newspaper reported Monday staff for Gov. Jan Brewer and Giffords had no immediate response to queries about the law, Jay Heiler, an informal adviser to Brewer, said it was "unimaginable" the governor would call for a special election to replace Giffords. Most likely, Heiler said, state lawmakers would be called into special session to change the law to give her more time to heal.
"This is a statutory provision that was written without vision of a case such as this and could lead to injustice," said Heiler, a former assistant attorney general and chief of staff to former Republican Gov. Fife Symington.
Clinton calls women's progress inevitable
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told Arab students sexist attitudes persist, even in the United States, but women will keep pushing forward.
"There still are attitudes, even in my country, about a woman's place, a woman's role," Clinton said when interviewed last week by the hosts of the Middle East Broadcasting Corp.'s "Kalam Nawaem" ("Sweet Talk") show, which is modeled on the U.S. TV show "The View," at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. "… And yet it doesn't represent the trends, the historic trends. … I really think that we're getting to a point where we'll see less and less of that going forward."
She praised the United Arab Emirates, which she was visiting at the time of the Jan. 10 interview.
"I'm in a country that has made a real commitment to education and to the inclusion of women in many if not all, aspects of society," she said.
She also lamented stereotypes of Arab women as oppressed, saying there needs to be "a much more comprehensive and complex view of women's roles in this part of the world or in many parts of the world."
"I think it comes from a lack of awareness or understanding that needs to be slowly but surely changed. ... I can't take all 300 million Americans on my plane. But through the media, I can communicate a different message."
Men have set selves on fire in 4 countries
CAIRO, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A restaurateur set himself on fire in Egypt Monday in a form of protest also chosen recently by men in Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia, officials said.
The Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm reported a witness said the Egyptian man was shouting chants against the country's secret service as he doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze on a street in front of Parliament.
"Security service, my rights are lost in this country," he was heard saying.
The witness told the newspaper the man was engulfed in flames, which guards put out with extinguishers.
The man, identified as Abdou Abdel Moneim Gaafar, 49, owner of a restaurant in Qantara, was being treated at a hospital. His condition wasn't known.
The New York Times said the Mauritania News Agency had reported a man in his 40s, identified as Ya'coub Ould Dahoud, resorted to self-immolation Monday in a car in front of that country's Parliament. Four men in Algeria have set fire to themselves in the past week, the Times said.
The fiery protests follow the Dec. 17 self-immolation of a Tunisian youth that triggered widespread protests that led to the resignation of President Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali.
More fees likely to zap air travelers
SHOREWOOD, Wis., Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A new year means the potential advent of new fees for U.S. air travelers as airlines examine ways to generate more revenue, industry analysts say.
George Hobica, creator of Airfarewatchdog.com, said airlines will be looking for a way to pass along climbing fuel prices to passengers through fees on the shrinking number of services that, at least for now, are free, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday.
"We have a feeling that we could see a number of these fees come to light in 2011," Hobica said.
Among services that are likely candidates for fees are charging traveling with an infant, talking to an employee at the check-in counter, baggage fees based on weight, changing the name on a ticket, help at check-in and bringing a carry-on bag, he said.
While nearly all domestic carriers charge for checked baggage, Spirit Airlines last year started charging for bags carried onto the plane.
They also are eyeing the possibility of charging for bags checked for international flights, Jay Sorensen, president of IdeaWorks, a Shorewood, Wis., consulting group that works with the airline industry, told the Chronicle.
Passengers, legislators and travel industry groups have complained about the fees. In a September comment to the Department of Transportation, Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition pushed for the agency to require airlines to provide all fee information on their Web sites.
"It is critically important that consumers understand the all-in price of a ticket before a purchase decision is made and before they arrive at the airport. Comparison-shopping, a major consumer benefit in commercial air transportation, has been severely impaired during the past 24 months," he said.
