Financial reform faces Senate test
WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- U.S. senators faced a key test vote Monday that could allow for debate on a sweeping financial overhaul designed to re-regulate Wall Street.
Democrats needed at least one Republican to join them to reach the 60-vote benchmark to overcome a filibuster and proceed with formal debate. Senate Republicans, however, said they planned to block efforts to move ahead unless Democrats changed some of the overhaul's central elements, The Washington Post reported.
The Senate bill -- the House passed its version -- would overhaul Wall Street regulation, including oversight of the derivatives market, and establish a consumer protection agency overseeing and enforcing lending rules to prevent unfair practices by banks and credit card companies, among other things.
Republican and Democrats offered differing views of Monday's floor action, the Post said. Democrats could say Republicans are blocking reform and Republicans could say the bill's flaws would harm, not help, the economy.
Senate Democratic and Republican aides said they expected the bill to remain adrift until Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the banking committee, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the committee's ranking Republican, reach agreement or end talks.
U.S. tornado death toll climbs to 12
JACKSON, Miss., April 26 (UPI) -- Tornadoes that sped through the southern United States killed at least 12 people, left dozens injured and carved a trail of destruction, officials said.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, in an apparent reference to a specific location hit by a tornado, described it as "the obliteration of a small community," ABC reported Monday on "Good Morning America."
Officials report counting 61 tornadoes in nine states as the storm moved through Mississippi and into Florida and South Carolina Sunday. Thirty-two twisters were reported in Mississippi, where winds above 160 mph were clocked and one tornado had a base 1 1/2 miles wide.
Federal emergency teams went to tornado-ravaged Mississippi Monday to survey areas where storms killed 10 people and injured dozens, The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger reported.
Baseball pitcher Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros was in Mississippi to look for his mother, Jean Oswalt, who was uninjured, ABC reported. He also worked to clear debris.
"Everything back here was gone," Jean Oswalt said. "It was just kind of like the world had come to an end."
Residents told media outlets they survived by seeking refuge in their bathrooms, kitchens and cars.
In Weir, Miss., Ron Sullivan said he was inside his grocery store with his wife and four customers when a tornado blew through the building, tossing him into a cinder block wall that later collapsed.
"When it hit the building, it literally was an explosion," he said. "It was gone immediately."
Engineers try to cap oil wellhead in gulf
VENICE, La., April 26 (UPI) -- Heavy weather kept a huge oil spill off the U.S. coast and engineers in the Gulf of Mexico considered how to cap a wellhead a mile under water, officials said.
The oil leak discovered Saturday, four days after a fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig, was gushing 42,000 gallons of oil daily into the gulf.
Eleven people who were aboard the rig were missing and presumed dead.
One option by the engineers was to lower a dome-like structure over the well to funnel oil to a collection tank on the surface. The system was used on wellheads damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but had only been used in shallow water and may not work at a depth of 5,000 feet, said Doug Suttles, a spokesman for BP, the rig's lease operator.
"We have the world's experts working with us right now," Suttles told the Houston Chronicle in a story published Monday.
The oil slick had widened to about 600 square miles with heavy weather keeping it about 30 miles away from the Louisiana coastline. More than 1,000 people were working to contain the spill, Suttles said.
Man arrested at airport as Obama departs
ASHEVILLE, N.C., April 26 (UPI) -- Police arrested an armed man near a runway at the Asheville, N.C., airport about the time President Barack Obama's plane was leaving, officials said.
Airport police said Joseph Sean McVey of Coshocton, Ohio, parked his car near a gate close to the terminal Sunday as Air Force One was taxiing, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported Monday. The man didn't get near the president.
Police said McVey was charged with "going armed to the terror of the public."
Officer Donna Player told CNN bail for McVey, 23, was set at $100,000.
Police questioned McVey after noticing his car's Ohio license plate and electronic equipment, including a digital camera and four antennas on the trunk lid, the case summary filed with the court said.
When McVey emerged from the vehicle, an officer saw he was wearing a sidearm, the summary said.
It said a computer check of McVey's driver's license indicated it wasn't valid.
When asked what he was doing, McVey said "he heard the president was in town. He stated he wanted to see the president," the summary said. Officers confiscated McVey's handgun and detained him.
During a search of McVey's vehicle, police said they heard police radio chatter, found a siren under the steering wheel, listings of agency radio frequencies and notations of rifle scope formulas, the Citizen-Times reported.
Airport Police Capt. Kevan Smith said airport police were handling the investigation. He said he didn't know if more charges would be filed.
Lebanese marchers want secular government
BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 26 (UPI) -- An estimated 5,000 people rallied in Beirut for a secular government that would separate religion from politics, organizers said.
The Sunday demonstration, called Lebanon's first "secular pride" parade, was informally organized through social networking sites, such as Facebook, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
The demonstrators said they aimed to change Lebanon's government system, which can approve or deny jobs based on religious affiliation.
"This type of system has brought only war and chaos," said Yasser Andari, a member of Lebanon's Druze community. "We want a government that looks at all people as people."
Amer Saidi, 28, a student at Lebanese American University, said he is an agnostic and vowed to strike religion from his national identity card, an option recently permitted in Lebanon.
"I don't believe religion and politics should be mixed," Saidi said. "Religion should not be used as a political tool."
