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Posted at 1:16 p.m., Tuesday, March 13, 2007

National & world news highlights

Associated Press

PACE CLARIFIES HOMOSEXUALITY REMARKS

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's top general said today he should not have voiced his personal view that homosexuality is immoral and should have just stated his support for the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in an interview that has drawn criticism from lawmakers and gay-rights groups.

The written statement by Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not apologize for his stance on homosexuality. In a newspaper interview Monday, Pace likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.

After a flurry of condemnation today, Pace issued a statement acknowledging that the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays is a sensitive subject and said: "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views."

The military lets gay men and lesbians serve if they keep their sexual orientation private. Commanders may not ask, and service members may not tell. More than 10,000 troops, including more than 50 specialists in Arabic, have been discharged since President Clinton signed it into law in 1994.

GONZALES ADMITS MISTAKES; WON'T RESIGN

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales accepted responsibility today for mistakes in the way the Justice Department handled the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors but he rejected calls for his resignation.

At a Justice Department news conference, Gonzales said he would find out why Congress was not told sooner that the White House was involved in discussions of who would be fired and when. He did not, however, back away his stance that the dismissals that did take place were appropriate.

"I stand by the decision and I think it was the right decision," Gonzales said.

The White House said President Bush retains full confidence in the attorney general. "He's a stand-up guy," White House counselor Dan Bartlett said in Mexico, where he was traveling with the president.

Bartlett also contended that the decision to dismiss the prosecutors "was the right decision."

DOCUMENTS FIND DEFECTIVE PUMPS INSTALLED IN NEW ORLEANS

NEW ORLEANS — The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet President Bush's promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The 2006 hurricane season turned out to be mild, and the new pumps were never pressed into action. But the Corps and the politically connected manufacturer of the equipment are still struggling to get the 34 heavy-duty pumps working properly.

The pumps are now being pulled out and overhauled because of excessive vibration, Corps officials said. Other problems have included overheated engines, broken hoses and blown gaskets, according to the documents obtained by the AP.

Col. Jeffrey Bedey, who is overseeing levee reconstruction, insisted the pumps would have worked last year and the city was never in danger. Bedey gave assurances that the pumps should be ready for the coming hurricane season, which begins June 1.

The Corps said it decided to press ahead with installation, and then fix the machinery while it was in place, on the theory that some pumping capacity was better than none. And it defended the manufacturer, which was under time pressure.

MEXICO TELLS BUSH THAT U.S. NEEDS TO DO MORE

MERIDA, Mexico — President Bush sought to soothe strained ties with Mexico today by promising to prod Congress to overhaul tough U.S. immigration policies. But Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized U.S. plans for a 700-mile border fence and said Bush must do more to curb American drug appetites.

Mexico was the last stop on Bush's five-nation Latin American tour, and the one where the political stakes seemed the highest.

Bush walked a high wire: He wants to improve frayed ties over immigration and drug trafficking and the Iraq war, but without alienating supporters back home, particularly Republican lawmakers advocating stiff penalties against undocumented workers.

The president also was distracted by problems at home.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged mistakes were made in the firing of eight federal prosecutors, and that the White House was involved in discussions of who would be dismissed and when.

CLINTON ALLEGES RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY IN N.H.

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton today described past Republican political malfeasance in New Hampshire as evidence of a "vast, right-wing conspiracy."

Clinton's barbed comments revived a term she coined for the partisan plotting during her husband's presidential tenure and echoed remarks she made last weekend in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary.

Her rhetorical red meat to a sympathetic audience of Democratic municipal officials comes as Clinton courts New Hampshire voters and squeezes donors for dollars ahead of a March 31 fundraising report deadline. She also continues to face criticism from the party's liberal base for her failure to repudiate her vote authorizing military force in Iraq.

Clinton asserted today that the conspiracy is alive and well, and cited as proof the Election Day 2002 case of phone jamming in New Hampshire, a case in which two Republican operatives pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and a third was convicted.

"To the New Hampshire Democratic Party's credit, they sued and the trail led all the way to the Republican National Committee," Clinton said.

"So if anybody tells you there is no vast, right-wing conspiracy, tell them that New Hampshire has proven it in court," she said.

ELDERLY MUGGING SPARKS OUTRAGE IN N.Y.

NEW YORK — Here's a tip for the guy who beat up a 101-year-old woman in a walker and took off with her purse: Get out of New York. The vicious mugging, caught on surveillance tape, has sparked outrage in a city where people are accustomed to hearing about strange and violent crimes. Police have launched an all-out manhunt, but it's not just the cops who want the villain's head.

"I could hold him, and let the woman beat him up," said Joe Sarju, 59, who lives in the Queens neighborhood where the attack occurred. "I'd love to beat him, but then they would lock me up."

The heartlessness of the March 4 attack is clearly conveyed on the grainy, black-and-white videotape, which has now been broadcast well beyond New York.

In it, 101-year-old Rose Morat is trying to leave her apartment building to go to church. The mugger, a man who looms over the senior citizen and is holding onto a bicycle, pretends to help her get through the vestibule.

Then, he turns to grab Morat's head and delivers three hard punches to her face, and swipes her purse. The dazed victim tries to reach for her purse when the mugger hits her again, pushing her and her walker to the ground.

HEATHER MILLS WANTS TO DANCE FOR CHARITY

NEW YORK — Heather Mills says her decision to compete on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" is no publicity stunt. Mills, who is divorcing former Beatle Paul McCartney, says she is appearing on the show for charity, not to gain public sympathy.

"I've been chased and hounded for 10 months and told I'm a publicity-seeker, yet I've never gone out and done anything," the activist and former model says in an interview that was to air today on the syndicated TV show "Access Hollywood."

Mills, who lost her leg below the knee in a 1993 motorcycle accident, is the first contestant with an artificial limb to compete on the dance show.

"As much as everyone would love it to go flying, I'm sure it's not going to come off," Mills says. "It can, once it gets hot, start to slide and come off, so I've pulled a sleeve over the top, which doesn't look as cosmetically good."

She adds: "I've got a secondary spare leg just in case I overdo it on the foot and it breaks or something."