Firebreak rings Los Alamos nuclear lab
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 30 (UPI) -- Firefighters battling a wildfire near New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory deliberately set part of the lab's perimeter ablaze, officials said.
Firefighters said they believe a blackened ring of burned vegetation will protect the nuclear lab and the radioactive material it houses by denying the wildfire fuel, ABC News reported Thursday.
"We are in the best shape we've been in since thing started," Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug told ABC News.
The fire, which has burned more than 90,000 acres, prompted a mass evacuation, leaving the city of Los Alamos a virtual ghost town.
The laboratory was to remain closed at least through Friday, lab officials said.
A plane equipped with radiation monitors flew over the lab Wednesday -- a move lab authorities said was a precaution.
Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez examined some of the first air-quality tests from the Los Alamos area. Although the sampled indicated a lot of smoke, officials said no radiation had been released.
Senate axes July 4 break to work on debt
WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday the Senate's Fourth of July vacation has been canceled to allow time to work on the debt crisis.
President Barack Obama Wednesday called the issue "urgent," as he implored Democrats and Republicans to work out a deal that would allow the federal government to raise its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by Aug. 2, CNN reported.
Republicans have been pushing for a deal to shrink the federal debt without raising taxes. Democrats have countered that cuts to programs that serve the poor with no sacrifice by wealthy taxpayers is unjust.
GOP senators pushed for a balanced federal budget amendment, saying the government cannot get out from under its crushing debt without a constitutional amendment to force a balanced budget.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., invoked a parliamentary procedure to fast-track a balanced-budget amendment proposal he said had the support of all 47 Senate Republicans.
Democrats said the GOP proposal was designed to benefit the wealthy at the expense of middle-income Americans because it would require a supermajority to increase taxes but only a simple majority for tax cuts, making entitlement programs such as Medicare easy targets, The Washington Times reported.
The arguments came as Democrats and Republicans were locked in a feud over how best -- or whether -- to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
British public unions stage one-day strike
LONDON, June 30 (UPI) -- A one-day strike by four British public employee unions began Wednesday evening with some Border Agency employees at airports.
By Thursday morning, more than 40 percent of the country's public schools were closed or partly shut down. In Wales, more than half the schools were affected.
Authorities warned travelers to expect delays at airports, as immigration agents took part in the strike that involved hundreds of thousands of unionized government workers, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.
The dispute centered on plans by the government to make changes in the pension system.
The strike shut down courts and slowed police services. Streets in central London were to be closed because of a union march and rally.
The strike was called by the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents about 250,000 public employees throughout Britain, and three teachers unions, the National Union of Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the University and College Union. Schools and universities in Scotland and Northern Ireland will not be affected, although other government services will be.
The general secretary of the PCS, Mark Serwotka, said the government appeared unwilling to "compromise on any of the central issues of the strike."
French president seized by the shoulder
BRAX, France, June 30 (UPI) -- An unidentified attacker Thursday seized French President Nicolas Sarkozy's shoulder and pulled him against a barrier, a French television recording showed.
The incident occurred as Sarkozy visited the southwest French town of Brax, CNN reported.
The footage showed four bodyguards wrestling a man to the ground, CNN reported.
The man was taken into custody, but details about him have yet to be released, the Parisian newspaper Le Monde reported.
Sarkozy, seen in the footage shaking hands with people behind a metal barricade, appeared to have been grabbed by the shoulder of his jacket, CNN said.
Sarkozy was in the Lot-et-Garonne region at the time to attend a local mayors' meeting, CNN reported.
Russia considering its own blacklist
MOSCOW, June 30 (UPI) -- A bill before Russia's State Duma would blacklist foreigners deemed to have violated the rights of Russian citizens, officials said.
"This is our acceptable answer to the actions of the West, including the U.S. State Department, which drafts certain blacklists of Russia citizens," Igor Lebedev, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party's faction in the Duma, said in a Moscow Times report Thursday.
The U.S. is considering sanctions on Russian officials implicated in the prison death of attorney Sergei Magnitsky. Also sore points in U.S.-Russian relations are the arrests of Russian businessman Viktor Bout in an arms smuggling investigation and pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko on drug smuggling charges, the report said.
The bill submitted to the Duma Tuesday would ban blacklisted foreigners from entering Russia or doing business there, and would seize assets in Russian banks.
While the bill appeared to be aimed mostly at the United States, the Russian Foreign Ministry also warned Belarus over the detention of Russian citizens during unrest connected to the country's December presidential election.
"Our patience is running out," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said at a Monday meeting with Duma deputies, RIA Novosti reported.
It wasn't clear when the bill might come up for a first reading in the Duma. The Duma adjourns for its summer recess in mid-July.
