WORLD
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hezbollah-led protesters paralyzed Lebanon Tuesday, clashing with government supporters.
Burning cars and tires on roads in and around the capital, strikers aimed to topple U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. Three people were killed and dozens injured.
What had been planned as a peaceful way to stop the workday around the country turned into the worst violence since the pro-Syrian Shiite Hezbollah and its allies launched a campaign two months ago to oust the government.
In a televised speech, Saniora called for a special session of parliament to defuse the crisis, and he gave every indication that he intended to stay in office.
“We will stand together against intimidation and confront sedition for the sake of Lebanon,” Saniora said.
NATION
WASHINGTON – President Bush’s push for a new immigration policy and his acknowledgment of global climate change as a serious concern won praise from presidential candidates in both parties Wednesday, even as they split on partisan lines over Iraq.
Bush appealed to Congress in his State of the Union speech to give his Iraq strategy a chance to work, running into a wall of skepticism, especially from Democrats who control the House and Senate.
Democrats chose Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia to deliver the party’s formal televised response to the speech, and the former Republican Navy secretary and Vietnam veteran responded with a blistering attack on the president, the war and the consequences.
“The president took us into this war recklessly,” Webb said. “He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the Army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command.”
STATE & LOCAL
LYNCHBURG – A judge on Tuesday dismissed two lawsuits filed against Randolph-Macon Woman’s College by opponents of the private school’s decision to admit men.
Lynchburg Circuit Judge Leyburn Mosby Jr.’s action was a blow to students and alumnae hoping the lawsuits would reverse the decision by the school’s governing body to begin admitting men this fall.
“We felt very confident in our legal position,” said Ed Fuhr, an attorney representing the school. “We have said from the beginning we felt there was no legal merit to the plaintiffs’ legal claims.”
The first lawsuit, filed by nine students, claimed the school’s board of trustees breached its contract with students by voting in September to make the 115-year-old school coeducational and to adopt a new curriculum.
The lawsuit sought to delay the enrollment of men until at least 2010, when currently enrolled students have graduated.
The students’ attorney, Wyatt Durrette, argued that the students chose to attend the school specifically to obtain a four-year liberal arts degree from a single-sex institution. He said when students enrolled at the school, an implied contract was formed promising the students a liberal arts education at an all-women’s college.