Trust Ted? Cruz facing growing attacks on credibility
MUSCATINE, Iowa — Ted Cruz needs you to trust him.
Trust is the cornerstone of this fiery conservative’s campaign, which may live or die with his ability to convince voters in Iowa and across the nation that he’s the most consistent and trustworthy among the pack of White House hopefuls.
Yet as he strives for victory in Iowa’s Monday caucuses, a chorus of Republican critics led by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is tearing at the fabric of Cruz’s message.
His GOP opponents cite a history of political opportunism they say is more in line with a used car salesman than the “consistent conservative” he claims to be. In debates, TV ads and on the campaign trail, fellow Republicans are highlighting inconsistencies in Cruz’s policies on immigration, foreign policy and even his dedication to Christian conservative values. They’re also reminding voters that the self-described outsider is an Ivy League-educated lawyer who served in former President George W. Bush’s administration.
“If you are going to campaign as the most principled, the most consistent conservative, then your record better support that,” said Rubio’s senior strategist Todd Harris. “As long as he holds himself out to be holier than thou on all things conservative, we’re going to continue to point out that he’s not.”
———
Donald Trump faces his Iowa test
CLINTON, Iowa — For Donald Trump, Iowa is more than just a race for delegates. It’s a test of whether the celebrity businessman and political newcomer will be able to transform his record crowds into caucus-goers willing to brave the cold on Monday night to cast their votes.
Trump, who appears to have emerged from a dead-heat with rival Ted Cruz to re-capture his position atop state polls, has done little to minimize expectations, predicting again and again that he’ll do better than the polls suggest.
And as he traveled across the state in the final weekend before voting, Trump had a quiet air of satisfaction, with seemingly little worry about the outcome.
“We began this journey — it’s a journey, we did it together — and it’s been an amazing experience,” he told a crowd gathered in the auditorium of a middle school in Clinton Saturday. “Nobody thought it was going to turn out this way.”
But Trump nonetheless implored his supporters to caucus Monday with equal doses of guilt, threats and humor.
———
For Brazil’s rich and poor, disparate response to Zika
RIO DE JANEIRO — Two Brazilian women, two pregnancies, one nightmare. But two very different stories.
Regina de Lima and Tainara Lourenco became pregnant at a scary moment — the dawn of an extraordinary Zika outbreak, as authorities came to suspect that the virus was causing an alarming spike in a rare birth defect called microcephaly. Both have reason to fear for the health of their unborn offspring.
But that is where the similarities end.
Lima is well-off, and took advantage of the options of affluence.
Lourenco lives in a slum. She has no options, except to hope for the best.
———
Dozens killed by bombs in Syria, clouding UN peace session
GENEVA — A triple bombing killed at least 50 people in a predominantly Shiite suburb south of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday even as a U.N. mediator held his first meeting with members of the main opposition group that seeks progress on humanitarian issues before it will join formal talks on ending the five-year civil war.
The attacks were claimed by militants from the Islamic State group, and Syria’s delegate to the U.N.-sponsored peace talks said the violence confirmed the connection between “terrorism” and “some political groups” — a reference to those who oppose President Bashar Assad.
The blasts went off in the Damascus suburb of Sayyda Zeinab, about 600 meters (yards) from one of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims. Syria’s state news agency SANA said the attackers detonated a car bomb at a bus stop and that two suicide bombers then set off more explosives as rescuers rushed to the area.
State TV showed several burning cars and a scorched bus, as well as blown out windows, twisted metal and large holes in the facade of a nearby apartment building. The golden-domed Shiite shrine itself was not damaged.
At least 50 people were killed, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said, with more than 100 wounded.
———
2 Virginia Tech students charged in death of teen girl
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Two Virginia Tech engineering students have been arrested in connection with the death of a 13-year-old girl whose disappearance last week from her Virginia home set off a frantic, four-day search.
Blacksburg Police say David Eisenhauer, 18, was arrested Saturday and charged with first-degree murder and abduction in the death of Nicole Madison Lovell, who disappeared from her home Wednesday. Natalie Keepers, 19, of Laurel, Maryland, was arrested Sunday and faces charges of improper disposal of a body and accessory after the fact in the commission of a felony.
Both are being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail. A spokesman for the Blacksburg Police Department said officials would not know until Monday when the two would make their first court appearances.
Police said they have evidence showing that Eisenhauer and Lovell knew each other before she disappeared.
“Eisenhauer used this relationship to his advantage to abduct the 13-year-old and then kill her. Keepers helped Eisenhauer dispose of Nicole’s body,” Blacksburg police said in a statement.
———
Witness to migrant disaster that killed 37 describes screams
AYVACIK, Turkey — A witness to the drowning of 37 people including babies and other young children off Turkey’s coast described the horror and screams in the moments after the boat carrying the migrants slammed into rocks, saying it was like “somebody was being murdered.”
Gulcan Durdu, who lives on the beach in the Aegean resort of Ayvacik, cried Sunday while recounting for The Associated Press the tragedy that happened at dawn the previous day.
She described being awakened by screaming and wailing after the boat struck rocks and capsized.
“I thought somebody was being murdered,” Durdu told the AP.
Durdu said that she and her husband rushed to try to help survivors and brought a boy to their home to try to warm him up.
———
Israeli Cabinet approves liberal Jewish prayer at holy site
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Cabinet voted Sunday to allow non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a move advocates said marked a historic show of government support for liberal streams of Judaism.
The issue is of particular importance to the Jewish community in the United States, where the more liberal Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism are dominant. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed the plan in an attempt to please American Jews, a key source of support for Israel, despite stiff opposition by ultra-Orthodox and religious nationalist elements in Israel who are key members of his own government.
“I know this is a sensitive topic, but I think it is an appropriate solution, a creative solution,” Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, where members voted on the plan.
According to the government plan, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, Israel will build a new plaza for mixed gender prayer at the Western Wall, adjacent to the Orthodox prayer plaza but separate from it.
The Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella group of Jewish communities, issued a joint statement with the Reform and Conservative movements calling the decision a “dramatic, unprecedented and critical acknowledgement” by Israel that the holy site should incorporate liberal Jewish prayer traditions.
———
Top Yemeni Salafi cleric killed in Aden
SANAA, Yemen — The lifeless body of Yemen’s top Salafi cleric in the southern port city of Aden was found disfigured on Sunday hours after he was abducted following an anti-extremism sermon, security officials told The Associated Press.
Government forces repelled Shiite rebels from Aden last July, but have been unable to restore order there ever since. With government forces now pushing north toward the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, the vacuum in Aden has given rise to affiliates of extremist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, who have grabbed lands and exercised control in various parts of the city for months.
The influential cleric, Samahan Abdel-Aziz, also known as Sheikh Rawi, had delivered a fiery sermon against the al-Qaida and IS branches on Friday, the officials said. His body was found bloodied and bearing signs of torture in Sheikh Othman, an area largely controlled by extremists, they added.
Abdel-Aziz was kidnapped by gunmen outside his mosque late Saturday in the pro-government neighborhood of Bureiqa, they said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media. They remain neutral in the war that has splintered the Arab world’s poorest country.