Michigan Primary: Mitt Romney likely to beat Rick Santorum today

Romney accuses Santorum of 'dirty tricks' in bid to win Michigan

Mitt Romney faces what is arguably his first must-win primary of the 2012 campaign in Michigan today, the start of an eight-day stretch that will determine whether Republicans begin to close ranks around a more moderate frontrunner, rally behind avowed conservative Rick Santorum -- or scramble for a new alternative to face President Obama in November.

A combined 59 delegates are at stake in Michigan and Arizona today, the last two primaries before the playing field expands dramatically a week from today on Super Tuesday, when states with more than 400 delegates will hold votes.

According to an updated tally from the Republican National Committee, Romney has the delegate lead in the GOP race -- 73 to 29 over Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, though only a handful of convention votes are bound this stage.

Arizona appears to be the safer bet for Romney as voters go to the polls. The RealClearPolitics average of public polling has him leading Santorum by more than a dozen points.

The real focus of the past two weeks has been Michigan, which on paper should have been a lock for Romney. He was born in Detroit and grew up in the suburbs, his father was a three-term governor, and Romney carried the state during his 2008 presidential run. Between his own campaign and a "super PAC" run by his allies, he's again outspent the field.

But polls show the race is a dead heat there between Romney and Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who of late has had success in appealing to more conservative GOP voters who remain distrustful of Romney.

Because Michigan apportions its delegates on a district-by-district basis, with only two of the 30 based on the statewide vote, the real prize is the momentum an outright victory would bring to either candidate. Momentum has proved to be fleeting in the GOP contest so far. Romney seemed to have it after what was initially declared a razor-thin win in Iowa, followed by a more substantial triumph in New Hampshire. But updated totals a few weeks after the Iowa vote showed that Santorum had in fact edged Romney there, and Gingrich followed with a strong victory in South Carolina.

Romney again rebounded with back-to-back victories in Florida -- where his organizational and financial advantage proved insurmountable -- and Nevada, only to have Santorum pull off a stunning trifecta in contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

Now, more than at any point thus far, Romney faces the real possibility that a loss would erase whatever is left of the inevitability that had been driving his candidacy. It would undermine him heading into Super Tuesday, raising the specter of a nominating race that would not produce a candidate with a clear delegate advantage before the party's August convention. Many Republicans are worried that a Santorum ticket would be too conservative to defeat Obama.

But if Romney wins today, it would go a long way toward convincing Republicans -- especially some of Romney's own backers -- that he is likely to be the nominee and end talk of finding a new candidate to jump in.

"I'm ready for it to be over tomorrow," Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said this weekend. "If [Romney] wins Arizona, wins Michigan, has a good Super Tuesday – I think there's a path for it being over or close to over. But people have to decide."

One potential wild card in Michigan: the state allows Democratic voters to cast a ballot in the Republican primary. There has been chatter about Obama supporters pushing for a Santorum vote, well aware of the damage it would do to Romney and the GOP by extending the fight.

The polls close in Michigan at 8 p.m. local time. Arizona's polls close at 7 p.m. local time. Alaska district conventions (27 delegates) Georgia primary (76 delegates) Idaho caucuses (32 delegates) Massachusetts primary (41 delegates) North Dakota caucuses (28 delegates) Ohio primary (66 delegates) Oklahoma primary (43 delegates) Tennessee primary (58 delegates) Vermont primary (17 delegates) Virginia primary (49 delegates) Wyoming caucuses (29 delegates, held through March 10)

 Credit to LA Times, Chicago Tribune


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Posted in: U.S. - Canada

US Defense Department admits it dumped some 9/11 remains in a landfill

For the first time, the Defense Department acknowledged Tuesday that some cremated remains of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were dumped in a landfill.

Retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of an independent task force reviewing operations at the military's mortuary at Dover, Del., confirmed the news but said it was only a minor part of his panel's overall report, which he said found that "there were many things that were going wrong there."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta formed the task force in December after an investigation by the Air Force, which runs the facility, found that some remains of U.S. military personnel weren't handled "in accordance with procedures."

The Air Force acknowledged that it had disposed of the incinerated remains of at least 274 service members in the landfill before it ended the practice in 2008. At the time, officials said records went back only to 2003.

But the independent panel found that the practice went back at least to 2001, and it discovered that "several portions of remains" recovered from the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon and at Shanksville, Pa., also ended up in a landfill, where they were put by a contractor. That information was first reported Tuesday morning by The Washington Post.

Asked by NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski whether he had known about the 9/11 victims, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley replied, "This is new information to me."

'Commanders in name only'
Abizaid told reporters that the Air Force's complex command structure led to the problems at Dover by creating "commanders in name only."

But "this was not just an Air Force problem," he said, adding that the entire U.S. military "needs to understand this is a 100 percent no-fail mission."

For one thing, he said, the Dover facility should no longer cremate fallen troops, because "we think it's a bad idea for DoD to be in the cremation business" in the first place.

The Dover facility is the first point of entry for U.S. service members who are killed or die overseas. It first came under investigation in 2010 after employees complained about how some cases were handled.

Investigators said last year that they had found no evidence that anyone intentionally mishandled the remains, but they concluded that the mortuary staff failed to "maintain accountability" with some remains.

"The standard is 100 percent accountability in every instance of this important mission," the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, said at the time.

"We can, and will, do better, and as a result of the allegations and investigation, our ability to care for our fallen warriors is now stronger,” he said.

 Credit MSNBC

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Posted in: U.S. - Canada

South African Economy Grew 3.2% in Fourth Quarter

South Africa's economy grew 3.2% in the fourth quarter compared with the preceding three-month period, with manufacturing providing a big boost, but the improvement still comes against the backdrop of government forecasts for slower 2012 growth.

The fourth quarter figure was slightly better than the 3.1% that economists had predicted and better than the disappointing growth in the third quarter, revised up to 1.7%. Overall growth for 2011 was 2.9% from the year before.

Despite the quarterly improvement, albeit from a low base in the preceding months, many economists continue to remain cautious on South Africa's growth outlook. Gross domestic product could be constrained by problems in the euro zone and the general uncertain global financial market as well as South Africa's own struggle to reduce its 23.9% unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate, combined with concerns about government overspending and an uncertain policy environment, led Moody's Investors Service Inc. and Fitch Ratings to lower the country's debt outlook to negative in the past six months.

The fourth quarter figure comes on the heels of the treasury's 2012 budget preview last week, where Minister Pravin Gordhan revised down his growth target for 2012, predicting GDP to be 2.7%. The move follows a downward revision by the country's reserve bank.

"Today's GDP figures confirm that the economy remains vulnerable.... Performance remains uneven, with consumers providing the momentum and producers struggling to move forward," economists at Nedbank said.

South Africa's key manufacturing industry contributed 0.6 percentage point to the growth, the country's statistics agency said as it released the data Tuesday. But Investec analyst Ilke van Zyl said manufacturing and mining still remain below their peaks reached in 2008 and 2007 respectively, in terms of value added at constant prices.

Protracted strikes across industries in 2011 dented manufacturing and mining output in the first months of the year and the risk remains for a repeat this year, analysts said.

"The many headwinds faced by the production side of the economy cannot be ignored: global demand is slowing, business confidence remains low, cost-push inflation remains rife and local industrial action is likely to emerge once again in 2012," said Barclays analyst Gina Schoeman, referencing a continuing strike at Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd.'s Rustenburg operation.

 Credit WSJ

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Posted in: Africa

Ohio high school shooting, 4 hurt.

At least four students were injured in a shooting Monday morning at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, according to Cleveland television station WKYC.

Authorities say the alleged gunman is in custody. A spokesperson for the sheriff's office would not confirm whether the shooter is male or a student.

Some students told Fox 8 News they saw two gunmen.

According to WKBN.com, police scanner traffic is reporting three victims are in critical condition and one is stable. Medical helicopters are converging on the Wal-Mart in Chardon, where a landing zone has been set up.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported the shooting happened in the cafeteria, according to a waiting parent, Jessica Bryant, whose daughter had seen it and sent her a text message.

Another parent, Jeannette Roth, said her son told her the shooting happened while students were eating breakfast and waiting for first period. She told the paper a student "stood up and started shooting, and then it was chaos." Nearly 1,200 students attend Chardon High School.

Students fled and locked themselves in classrooms for safety.

Civil deputy Erin Knife, of the Geauga County Sheriff's Office, says the shooting was reported around 7:30 a.m.

Schools in the area are locked down.

Chardon is located about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

 Credit MSNBC

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Posted in: U.S. - Canada

Vladimir Putin warned Western leaders against a military strike on Iran

Prime Minister and presidential front-runner Vladimir Putin warned Western leaders against a military strike on Iran in the latest of a series of articles published before Russia’s March 4 elections.

“Without a doubt, Russia is concerned about the growing threat of a military strike on this country,” Putin said. “If this happens the fallout would be truly catastrophic.”

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency were denied access to Iran’s Parchin military base earlier this month, raising concern over a weapons component to the country’s atomic program that the U.S. and Israel have signaled might prompt an attack.

The Russian prime minister said he supports Iran’s development of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. North Korea’s declared nuclear weapons ambitions are “unacceptable,” he said in the article published in the Russian newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti.

The U.S. has a “fundamentally different understanding of security from ours,” he said.

Putin defended Russia’s veto of an Arab League plan presented to the United Nations to facilitate a political transition in Syria earlier this month. The resolution would act as “a signal for military interference in Syria’s internal processes,” he said.

Syria has come under mounting international pressure as a result of President Bashar Al-Assad’s crackdown on protesters, which is nearing its one-year mark.

Credit: Business Week

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Posted in: Middle East