In Brief | Nation & World

Baby golden eagle survives Utah wildfire

SALT LAKE CITY — A baby golden eagle is recovering at a wildlife rehabilitation facility after officials say it miraculously survived a Utah wildfire last month.

Kent Keller told The Salt Lake Tribune he feared the worst when he returned to the nest site west of Utah Lake to retrieve a leg band he had attached to the male eaglet June 1.

But the veteran Utah Division of Wildlife Resources volunteer found the burned bird alive on June 28 behind a charred tree, about 25 feet below the nest that was burned to a crisp in the 5,500-acre Dump Fire near Saratoga Springs.

“I thought there was no chance he would be alive. I was stunned when I saw him standing there,” Keller said. “I thought maybe I could rebuild the nest a little bit, but I took a good look at him and realized that was not going to happen.”

The 70-day-old eaglet had suffered burns on his talons, beak, head and wings. His flight feathers were melted down to within an inch or two of his wing and tail. He’s very underweight at just over five pounds.

After permission was secured from state and federal wildlife agencies, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden assumed care of the eaglet this week.

“I wasn’t sure he was going to make it,” said DaLyn Erickson, executive director of the center. “He kind of had that look like he may have given up.”

But the eagle named Phoenix has since taken to eating beef heart and venison. He’s treated several times a day for his burns and seems to be gaining strength.

USS Iowa opens to public at L.A. port

LOS ANGELES — The fearsome guns of the USS Iowa protected FDR from torpedo attacks and helped destroy the Japanese military in World War II. They shelled North Korea in the 1950s and patrolled the Central American coast during the Cold War.

On Saturday, with the grand opening of the country’s newest battleship museum in the Los Angeles community of San Pedro, the artillery that struck so much fear in America’s enemies got a new role: photo op.

More than 3,000 people walked up the Iowa’s gangplank on its inaugural day and nearly every one seemed to want a photo with its 16-inch guns.

2 killed as Syria violence spills into Lebanon

BEIRUT — Violence from Syria spilled across the nation’s tense border with northern Lebanon, where at least two people were reported killed Saturday, one in a shelling attack from Syria and another in an explosion on the Lebanese side, according to government and media accounts.

Lebanese army troops were dispatched to the border district of Wadi Khaled and put on “high alert,” according to the official Lebanese National News Agency.

Across the border from northern Lebanon lies Syria’s strife-ridden Homs province, one of the epicenters of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The border zone has become a chaotic haven for refugees fleeing Syria and for rebels fighting the Syrian government. The rugged corridor is also a major transit route for smuggled weapons destined for Syrian insurgents.

Shells from the Syrian side Saturday killed a woman and wounded several other people in Wadi Khaled, the Lebanese news agency said. One victim had to have his leg amputated.

In a separate incident, the news agency reported a young girl was killed and five relatives were injured in an unspecified “explosion” in the Akkar border district.

Israelis protest military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox

TEL AVIV, Israel — Among the thousands of Israelis who filled the streets of central Tel Aviv Saturday night to protest the exemption of their ultra-Orthodox countrymen from military service, Yaakov Ben Horim and his best friend were particularly angry.

The two men met 50 years ago, when they served together as combat soldiers during the state of Israel’s infancy.

“We barely knew what the state would look like then — it was, like us, still a child. But we knew that we must serve in the army, if we didn’t serve we wouldn’t have a state,” said Ben Horim. “The idea that a group of Israelis would be exempt — that they would fight to be exempt from serving — would never have occurred to us in those days. But that is because in those days we didn’t know the ultra-Orthodox.”

The issue is one of many, from separating the sexes on buses to tax exemptions for large families, on which secular and religious Israelis have clashed in recent years. At its core is a debate over the role of Judaism in the Jewish State.

Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempt from the two- to three-year compulsory military service most Israelis serve from age 18. For secular Israelis, the exemptions are one of many perks that the ultra-Orthodox receive from the state.

“They get government funds and all sorts of benefits just for being religious. They get money for studying and praying and for having lots of babies. It’s a drain on the state economy that the rest of us have to make up,” said Shiri Manuel, one of the organizer’s of Saturday’s protest.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders argue that they are serving the State by serving god. Tucked away in the winding alleyways of Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood, ultra-Orthodox spent their youths in seminaries studying religious texts. Government policy allows many of them to continue studying their entire lives, by exempting them from many taxes and giving them housing and food subsidies.

Youth coalition at heart of Egyptian uprising disbands

CAIRO — Egypt’s Revolu-tionary Youth Coalition, which drew thousands to Cairo’s Tahrir Square last year until former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, officially announced its dissolution Saturday, raising questions over whether hopes of revolutionary change here are over.

The coalition included different groups from across the political spectrum, from secular liberals to conservative Islamists, and was the first youth political entity launched during the early 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak in 18 days.

But disagreements led to its splintering, members said at an emotional news conference Saturday.

By wire sources