World briefs 11/16/06

Amish girl shot at school not likely to recover

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- One of the five Amish girls who survived last month's school shooting is fully disabled and unlikely to recover. The other four probably have permanent disabilities. "They're kids who are pretty damaged and will have long-term consequences for these wounds," said Dr. D. Holmes Morton, a pediatrician and director of the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pa. Morton described the survivors' injuries on Wednesday. The most seriously injured girl is "not expected to recover much function, if any," Morton said. He said her care mostly involves treating pain and making her comfortable.

Turkey suspends military contacts with France

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey has suspended military relations with France in a dispute over whether the mass killings of Armenians early in the last century amounted to genocide, a top army commander said Wednesday. The move was the latest backlash against French legislation that, if approved by the Senate and president, would criminalize denial that the killings of Armenians in Turkey were genocide. France's Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.

Thunderstorms cause damage in southern U.S.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Lines of thunderstorms hammered the South on Wednesday, turning a skating rink into a hulk of twisted metal soon after 31 preschoolers and four adults fled to the only part of the building that turned out to be safe. One child suffered a broken bone and another a cut to the head, but everyone else emerged unharmed from the crumpled wreck of the Fun Zone Skate Center, which doubled as a day-care facility. "I'm amazed that anyone got out of there," said Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright. Several states were battered by the storms, which unleashed tornadoes and straight-line winds that overturned mobile homes and tractor-trailers, uprooted trees and knocked down power lines. At least one person was killed and several injured. Authorities were unsure whether it was a tornado that hit the skate center about 10:15 a.m.

Chinese hide dogs due to anti-rabies crackdown

BEIJING -- Dog owners in China have been scrambling to hide their pets in the face of a new crackdown that allows only one dog per household and bans breeds taller than 14 inches. Fears have been fueled by Internet pictures and witnesses who say police are beating to death strays and dogs that run afoul of regulations. The current crackdown has touched a nerve in the rapidly modernizing capital. Many of the prohibitions have been on the books since 2003, but only sporadically enforced. The city of 13 million people has 1 million dogs, half of them unregistered, according to state media. A sharp increase in rabies cases nationwide has prompted the renewed vigilance. Only 3 percent of China's dog's are vaccinated against rabies and the disease is nearly always fatal in humans once symptoms develop, though it can be warded off by injections.

Shuttle astronauts get ready for night launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Discovery's astronauts are ready for the first night launch of a space shuttle in four years, the mission's commander said Wednesday. "For us, we don't view it as a really large change," said Discovery commander Mark Polansky, whose crew could blast off to the international space station as early as Dec. 7. NASA required daylight launches for the first three shuttle missions after the Columbia disaster in 2003 to allow clear photography of the external fuel tank in case debris fell from it. The space agency needs to start launching space shuttles at night to meet its schedule to complete construction of the space station by 2010, when the shuttle program ends.

New Pakistani rape laws anger Islamists

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's lower house of Parliament passed amendments to the country's rape laws Wednesday, ditching the death penalty for extramarital sex and revising a clause on making victims produce four witnesses to prove rape cases. Consensual sex outside marriage remains a crime punishable by five years in prison or a $165 fine, said a parliamentary official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. International and local calls for change intensified after the 2002 gang-rape of a woman, Mukhtar Mai, who was assaulted after a tribal council in her eastern Punjab village ordered the rape as punishment for her 13-year-old brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher caste. The amendments -- which still must be approved by the Senate -- enraged Islamic fundamentalists, but won cautious support from human rights activists, who wanted the laws scrapped.

White House resubmits appeals court nominees

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, trying to push through judicial nominations before Republicans lose control of the Senate, resubmitted the names of six nominees Wednesday who Democrats say are too conservative for the federal bench. Five of the nominees were the subject of an angry exchange in August when Democrats charged that their selection was a sop to the president's conservative base. The White House submitted six names: Terrence Boyle of North Carolina and William James Haynes II of Virginia to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.; Michael Brunson Wallace of Mississippi to the 5th Circuit in New Orleans; Peter Keisler to the D.C. Circuit; and William Gerry Myers III and Norman Randy Smith, both of Idaho, for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco. All but Keisler have generated intense opposition from Democrats.

-- From wire reports