In Brief | Nation & World 9-8-13

Low-cost ‘bronze’ plans under health law could leave big medical bills

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s health care law appears to mirror a trend in job-based insurance, where employees are being nudged into cost-saving plans that require them to pay a bigger share of their medical expenses.

Two independent studies this week highlighted attractive prices for less-generous “bronze” plans that will offer low monthly premiums but require patients to pick up more of the cost if they get sick.

Consumers might avoid “rate shock” over premiums, but some could end up with bigger bills for the care they receive.

The Obama plans will be available starting Oct. 1 for people who don’t have access to coverage on the job.

Thousands fill
St. Peter’s Square
for Syria peace vigil

VATICAN CITY — Tens of thousands of people filled St. Peter’s Square for a four-hour Syria peace vigil late Saturday, answering Pope Francis’ call for a grassroots cry for peace that was echoed by Christians and non-Christians alike in Syria and in vigils around the world.

The Vatican estimated about 100,000 took part in the Rome event, making it one of the largest rallies in the West against proposed U.S.-led military action against the Syrian regime following the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

Francis spent most of the vigil in silent prayer, but during his speech he issued a heartfelt plea for peace, denouncing those who are “captivated by the idols of dominion and power” and destroy God’s creation through war.

Somali militants kill 15 in bombing at popular Mogadishu restaurant

NAIROBI, Kenya — Militants set off two large explosions Saturday at a popular restaurant in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 15 people and wounding about two dozen, according to Somali and U.N. officials.

The blasts ripped off much of the roof of the Village restaurant — an eatery frequented by government employees, journalists and students and about a half mile from the presidential palace and the National Theatre — according to news reports. Local media said a car bomb detonated first, and as people gathered at the scene, a suicide bomber then blew himself up.

Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militia, which has waged a deadly insurgency even after being pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 by African Union forces, asserted responsibility for the attack.

Court stops Mont. judge from undoing rape sentence

BILLINGS, Mont. — Montana’s Supreme Court Friday blocked a judge from resentencing a former teacher who got 30 days in prison for raping a 14-year-old student, a sentence criticized after the judge said the victim was “older than her chronological age.”

Justices said Judge G. Todd Baugh lacked authority to impose a new sentence on former Billings teacher Stacey Rambold, 54.

An appeal of the case already was pending from prosecutors who contend Rambold should serve two years, at a minimum. But Baugh had sought to undo the sentence on his own after his remarks triggered a public backlash and calls for his resignation.

Rambold’s victim, Cherice Moralez, committed suicide in 2010 while the case was pending. Baugh commented at Rambold’s Aug. 26 sentencing that she was “as much in control of the situation as was the defendant.”

The Supreme Court intervention came in response to an emergency petition from the Attorney General’s Office to stop Baugh’s plans for a Friday afternoon resentencing. Less than an hour before the hearing was to begin, the high court ordered Baugh to cancel it and enter a written sentence for Rambold so the appeal process could proceed.

By wire sources

Recent dive at 1717
pirate ship wreck off Cape Cod points to more sunken treasure

BOSTON — Fog was swallowing his ship’s bow, the winds were picking up and undersea explorer Barry Clifford figured he needed to leave within an hour to beat the weather back to port.

It was time enough, he decided, for a final dive of the season over the wreck of the treasure-laden pirate ship, Whydah, off Cape Cod.

That Sept. 1 dive at a spot Clifford had never explored before uncovered proof that a staggering amount of undiscovered riches — as many as 400,000 coins — might be found there.

Instead of packing up for the year, Clifford is planning another trip to the Whydah, the only authenticated pirate ship wreck in U.S. waters.

“I can hardly wait,” he said.

At NY Fashion Week, basics like the white shirt or black dress
get a new look

NEW YORK — The simple things can be the hardest to do in fashion, because you have to do them well.

Take the white shirt. Designers Peter Som and Max Azria both said a plain white button-down shirt is their favorite thing to see on a woman, and versions of it have been on nearly every catwalk during the previews of Spring 2014 at New York Fashion Week that entered their third day Saturday.

But these basics are far from simple for designers. Prabal Gurung said that with such crisp pieces, you can’t hide behind embellishment or interesting fabric. When it’s simple, it has to be perfect.

“Ease isn’t easy,” echoed Jason Wu, who showed feather-light and sometimes sheer slip dresses that were carefully constructed. “The things you think are going to be simple can sometimes be really hard.”

Lucky magazine Editor in Chief Eva Chen wore a white button-down to previews on Friday and said the versions popping up on runways — whether as detail peeking out from a dress or reflecting spare 90s minimalism — are “nothing if not wearable — with jeans and ballet slippers, with a ballgown, and everything in between.”

Grammy-winner Bruno Mars to be Super Bowl halftime act

NEW YORK — Grammy-winner Bruno Mars will sing at halftime of the Super Bowl in February, a person familiar with the NFL’s entertainment plans told The Associated Press Saturday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made. The official word is expected to come at an event in New York’s Times Square today.

The NFL’s regular season began Thursday, and the first full slate of games is today.

The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Halftime shows have drawn more than 100 million television viewers in the United States alone in past years.

Beyonce was the star of this year’s Super Bowl halftime show in February in New Orleans, where the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-31.

Rodman met with North Korean leader again, but no release of jailed American seen

BEIJING — Retired NBA star Dennis Rodman left North Korea Saturday, professing his affection for autocratic leader Kim Jong Un and angrily rejecting calls to lobby for the release of imprisoned American citizen Kenneth Bae.

Despite earlier calling on Kim to set Bae free, Rodman said the Christian missionary’s fate was none of his business.

“Guess what? That’s not my job to ask about Kenneth Bae,” Rodman told reporters upon arrival at the airport in China’s capital, Beijing.

“Ask (President Barack) Obama about that. Ask Hillary Clinton,” a visibly agitated Rodman shouted, referencing the former secretary of state.

Chomping an unlit cigar, the typically flamboyant Rodman displayed a stack of photos showing him hugging Kim, laughing and conversing with him over a meal, and the two of them watching a basketball game together.

D.C. tattoo-seekers may soon have to wait a day

WASHINGTON — Some popular impulse purchases — tattoos and body piercings — could soon become less impulsive if District of Columbia health regulators have their way.

A mandatory 24-hour waiting period is among the provisions included in a 66-page package of draft regulations governing the “body art” industry released by the city Health Department Friday.

If the waiting period is adopted, Washington will become one of a very few places in the nation where a person cannot walk into a tattoo parlor and walk out with a tattoo.

Hitler bodyguard Rochus Misch
dies at age 96

BERLIN —­ Rochus Misch, who served as Adolf Hitler’s devoted bodyguard for most of World War II and was the last remaining witness to the Nazi leader’s final hours in his Berlin bunker, has died. He was 96.

Burkhard Nachtigall, who helped Misch ghostwrite his 2008 memoir, told The Associated Press Friday that Misch died Thursday in Berlin after a short illness.

Misch remained proud to the end about his years with Hitler, whom he affectionately called “boss.”

In a 2005 interview with the AP, Misch recalled Hitler as “a very normal man” and gave a riveting account of the German dictator’s last days before he and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves in their bunker in Berlin.

Misch said, “he was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman.”

Militants plan for next Afghanistan war after foreign troops leave

ISLAMABAD — Militants in Pakistan’s most populous province are said to be training for what they expect will be an ethnic-based civil war in neighboring Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw in 16 months, according to analysts and a senior militant.

In the past two years the number of Punjab-based militants deploying to regions bordering on Afghanistan has tripled and is now in the thousands, says analyst Mansur Mehsud. He runs the FATA Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank studying the mix of militant groups that operate in Pakistan’s tribal belt running along much of the 1,600-mile Afghan-Pakistan border.

Mehsud, himself from South Waziristan where militants also hide out, said more than 150 militant groups operate in the tribal regions, mostly in mountainous, heavily forested North Waziristan. Dotted with hideouts, it is there that Al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri is thought by the U.S. to be hiding, and where Afghanistan says many of its enemies have found sanctuary.

While militants from Punjab province have long sought refuge and training in the tribal regions, they were fewer in number and confined their hostility to Pakistan’s neighbor and foe, India.

Abbott, Australia’s conservatives win election, ending
6 years of Labor rule

CANBERRA, Australia — A new government prepared to take control of Australia on Sunday, with policies to cut pledges in foreign aid and to wind back greenhouse gas reduction measures in an effort to balance the nation’s books.

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott also plans to visit Indonesia soon in part to discuss controversial plans to curb the number of asylum seekers reaching Australian shores in Indonesian fishing boats.

Abbott’s conservative Liberal party-led coalition won a crushing victory at elections Saturday against the center-left Labor Party, which had ruled for six years, including during the turbulent global financial crisis.

The Australian Electoral Commission’s latest counting early Sunday had the coalition likely to win a clear majority of 88 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. Labor appeared likely to secure 57.

Abbott, a supremely fit 55-year-old, began his first day as prime minister-elect with an early morning bicycle ride from his Sydney home with friends.

By wire sources