ARAb StAtES diSMAyEd At WESt'S cOMPlAcENcy - Kuwait Times

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
A water dropping helicopter gets ready to make a drop
on a fire burning in Point Mugu State Park during a
wildfire that burned several thousand acres in Ventura
County, California.—AP
California wildfire
burns 15-mile
path to Pacific
LOS ANGELES: A Southern California wildfire carving a path to
the sea grew to more than 15 square miles and crews prepared
yesterday for another bad day of gusting winds and searing
weather.
“We’re going to be at Mother Nature’s mercy,” Ventura County
fire spokesman Tom Kruschke said. The wind-whipped fire erupted
Thursday in the Camarillo area, damaging 15 homes and a
cluster of recreational vehicles in a parking lot.
About 2,000 Ventura County homes remained threatened and
evacuations remained in force although the fireline edged southwards
toward Malibu. It was about 20 miles from the coastal
enclave at daybreak. The blaze was 10 percent contained but the
work of more than 900 firefighters and deputies was just beginning,
fire officials said.
The weather forecast called for parching single-digit humidity,
highs in the 90s in some fire areas and morning winds of 20 to 30
mph with gusts to 45 mph - slightly down from a day earlier.
There’s still a chance of “explosive fire spread” before winds
begin tapering off in the afternoon and cooler weather begins to
kick in, said Curt Kaplan, a National Weather Service meteorologist
in Oxnard.
While winds calmed overnight, the fire that had burned about
12 1/2 square miles by Thursday night had increased to around
15 1/2 square miles by dawn. “It has grown throughout the
night,” Kruschke said. “The fire has been coming down canyons
all along Pacific Coast Highway and that’s where we’ve been concentrating
a lot of our effort.” Air tankers were expected to
resume water and fire retardant drops after daybreak, which
showed molten lines of flames along the oceanside ridges and a
vast, black charred landscape behind. Few homes were in the
immediate area.
Although the flames were generally heading seaward, the
threat to homes behind its edge remained from hotspots and
wind-driven embers, Kruschke said. “The fire can jump up at any
time and any place,” he said.—AP
AUSTIN, Texas: The powerful US gun lobby
has spent much of the past year under
siege, defending gun rights following mass
shootings in Colorado and Connecticut
and fighting mounting pressure for stricter
laws across the country. Now, after a major
victory over President Barack Obama with
the defeat of a gun control bill in the US
Senate, the National Rifle Association will
gather in gun-friendly Texas this weekend
for its annual convention.
“If you are an NRA member, you
deserve to be proud,” Wayne LaPierre, the
NRA’s brash chief executive wrote to the
organization’s 5 million members last
week, telling them they “exemplify everything
that’s good and right about
America.” Obama pushed for ambitious
gun control measures after 20 young children
and six adults were shot to death in
December at a Connecticut school by a
gunman with a legally purchased highpowered
rifle. But lawmakers in Congress,
under pressure from the NRA and its vocal
members, kept the proposals from moving
forward.
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam
predicted the convention will draw the
largest crowd in its history. “The geography
is helpful,” Arulanandam said. “The
current (political) climate helps.”
The NRA couldn’t have picked a friendlier
place to refresh the troops. More than
70,000 people are expected to attend the
three-day “Stand and Fight”-themed event,
which includes a gun trade show, political
rally and strategy meeting. Texas, with its
frontier image and fierce sense of independence,
is one of the strongest gun
rights states in the country. More than
500,000 people are licensed to carry concealed
handguns, including Gov. Rick
Perry, who once bragged about shooting a
coyote on a morning jog. And concealed
handguns are allowed the state Capitol.
Friday’s big event is a political forum
with speeches from several conservative
leaders, including Perry, former Republican
vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, former
presidential candidate Rick Santorum
and Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who
has become one of the top conservative
voices in Washington since being elected
last year. LaPierre speaks to the convention
today.
For NRA member Mike Cox, a concealed
handgun license instructor, the recent
Senate vote showed not only the power of
the NRA but demonstrated the need to
recruit more members.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm right now,”
Cox said. “This isn’t over by any means.”
Gun control advocates say they will have a
presence around the convention, with
plans for a vigil for victims of gun violence,
a petition drive to support background
checks for gun purchases and a Saturday
demonstration outside the convention
center. Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was
killed in the Colorado theater shooting in
July 2012, met privately with Cruz this
week. She said Cruz refused to budge on
expanding background checks on gun purchases
and told her he considered it the
first step toward government confiscation
INTERNATIONAL
Top US gun lobby to
hold big convention
Over 70,000 to attend ‘Stand and Fight’ event
of guns. “They’re always good at saying the
right thing, ‘I’m so sorry for you loss and da
da da da da,’” Phillips said. “If you’re really
sorry for my loss, do something about it.”
Despite polls that show most
Americans favor some expansion of background
checks, Ladd Everitt, spokesman
for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said
a big challenge is matching the NRA’s
grassroots organizing. “The NRA knows this
issue is very much in play. People were
sickened by that Senate vote,” Everitt said.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who has
supported gun rights in the past, has said
he will reintroduce
the bill to require criminal
and mental health background checks for
gun buyers at gun shows and online. And
despite their loss in Congress, gun control
advocates have scored significant victories
at the state level. Lawmakers in Colorado
passed new restrictions on firearms, including
required background checks for private
and online gun sales and a ban on ammunition
magazines that hold more than 15
rounds. —AP
PROVIDENCE: Gun owner Tonya Ricketts, of Warwick (left) displays a placard
during a rally in front of the Statehouse, in Providence. The National
Rifle Association will gather in gun-friendly Texas this weekend for its
annual convention.—AP
Drought across the West spurs resurgence of faith
BERNALILLO, New Mexico: Along the
irrigation canal that cuts through the
centuries-old New Mexico town of
Bernalillo, a small group of churchgoers
gathers to recite the rosary before tossing
rose petals into the water. Remnants
of a tradition that stretches back to the
days of Spanish explorers, the humble
offerings are aimed at blessing this
year’s meager irrigation season and easing
a relentless drought that continues
to march across New Mexico and much
of the western half of the United States.
From the heart of New Mexico to
West Texas and Oklahoma, the pressures
of drought have resulted in a
resurgence of faith - from Christian
preachers and Catholic priests encouraging
prayer processions to American
Indian tribes using their closely guarded
traditions in an effort to coax Mother
Nature to deliver some much needed
rain.
On Sunday, congregations across
eastern New Mexico and West Texas are
planning a day of prayer for moisture
and rain. “We’re worried, but we’re
maintaining our traditional ways and
cultural ways. Together we pray, and
individually we pray,” said Peter Pino,
administrator of Zia Pueblo. “We
haven’t lost hope in the spiritual world,
that they’ll be able to provide us
resources throughout the year.
“We’re not giving up. That’s pretty
much all we can do at this point.” In its
wake, the drought has left farmland
idle, herds of cattle have been decimated,
the threat of wildfire has intensified
and cities are thinking twice about the
sustainability of their water supplies.
In New Mexico, the renewed interest
in the divine and the tension with
Mother Nature stems from nearly three
years of hot, dry weather. There are
spots around the state that have fallen
behind in rainfall by as much as 24 inches
(61 centimeters), causing rivers to
run dry and reservoirs to dip to record
low levels. In neighboring Texas and
Oklahoma, the story is no different. The
faithful gathered Wednesday night in
Oklahoma City to recite a collection of
Christian, Muslim and Jewish prayers for
the year’s first worship service dedicated
to rain. In Bernalillo, the parishioners
from Our Lady of Sorrows church recited
the rosary as they walked a few
blocks from the church to the irrigation
canal on a recent Friday evening. At the
front of the procession, two men carried
an effigy of San Isidro, the patron saint
of farmers.
“I think people need to pray for rain,”
said Orlando Lucero, a school teacher
and county commissioner who organized
the procession. “We used to do it in
every community and in every parish. It
was a beautiful tradition that disappeared.
Now I’m hoping that we can get
other parishes involved.”
In dry times, it’s natural for farmers
and others who depend on the land to
turn to God, said Laura Lincoln, executive
director of the Texas Conference of
Churches. Still, she and others said praying
doesn’t take away the responsibility
of people to do what they can to ease
the effects of drought.
Church leaders are urging their
parishioners to conserve water and use
better land-management practices like
rotating crops. “We have to play our
part,” said The Rev. William Tabbernee,
head of the Oklahoma Conference of
Churches. “Prayer puts us in touch with
God, but it also helps us to focus on the
fact that it is a partnership that we’re
involved in. We need to cooperate with
God and all of humanity to be responsible
stewards of the gifts God has given
us through nature.” —AP