Argentine congress passes judicial reform bill

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's Senate passed a court reform law on Wednesday aimed at "democratizing the judiciary," but critics said the move would leave judges vulnerable to political influence.

Under the reform, backed by President Cristina Fernandez and passed by 38 votes to 30, members of the board that chooses federal judges will be elected. The measure had already been approved by the lower house of Congress.

The National Chamber of Civil Appeals, the main body of appeals court judges, issued a statement saying the new law "violates the principle of judicial independence."

The reform is a lightning rod for criticism against the president as talk swirls of a possible bid by her supporters to seek a constitutional change to allow her to seek a third term.

Fernandez was re-elected in 2011 but the popularity of the 60-year-old Peronist Party leader has fallen over the last year amid high inflation and discontent over her economic policies.

More than 1 million Argentines took to the streets on April 18 in protest against her government.

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein and Guido Nejamkis; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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Comeback complete, Republican Sanford could be wild card in Congress

By John Whitesides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh off a redemptive win in South Carolina's special election, former Governor Mark Sanford's return to Congress will make him a prominent wild card in an already fractious Republican caucus.

Sanford, whose political career was short-circuited in 2009 by an extramarital affair that marred his last 18 months as governor, earned a political rebirth along with a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday by defeating Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

Sanford will arrive in Washington owing little to the Republican Party's leadership, which withheld its support as he battled Colbert Busch in their heavily Republican district. Once he returns to the House seat he held from 1995 to 2001, his independence and staunch fiscal conservatism could give him clout as Congress enters another round of divisive battles over the federal budget.

"There is obviously the potential for Sanford to be a real thorn in (the House Republican) leadership's side," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said. "He's a free agent; he can do whatever he wants."

The House Republican campaign committee did not give any financial support to his bid for a political comeback, but Sanford said on Wednesday he was willing to work with party leaders.

"I would say yesterday is yesterday and today is today, and I look forward to working with them," Sanford said on CBS's "This Morning" show.

Sanford's victory completed his comeback from a scandal that began when he disappeared for five days in June 2009 to secretly visit his mistress in Argentina. He had told his staff that he would be hiking along the Appalachian Trail.

In launching his comeback, Sanford - now divorced from Jenny Sanford and engaged to Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentinian woman with whom he had the affair - survived a 16-way Republican primary and a runoff in April. He then topped Colbert Busch in the race to succeed Republican Tim Scott, who was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Jim DeMint retired.

The House Republican campaign committee dropped its financial support of Sanford last month after reports that his ex-wife had accused him of trespassing on her property, in violation of their divorce agreement. Sanford said he was in the house to watch the Super Bowl with his youngest son.

Sanford will appear in court in South Carolina on Thursday to answer the trespassing complaint before he heads to Washington to resume his career in Congress.

'PROVEN RECORD'

Sanford attributed his win to his record of fiscal conservatism. He said on Wednesday he will have "plenty of friends" in Washington and would work hard with members of both parties to cut the budget.

"At the end of the day, I think people care about how politics impacts their lives," he said on NBC's "Today" show. "I've got a rather proven record in trying to do something on that front, particularly as it relates to financial issues."

House Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders have had difficulty keeping conservative members in line during the budget debates. Sanford pushed hard to cut spending during his first stint in Congress, before the Tea Party movement made it a top priority for Republicans, and he can be expected to make his voice heard during the upcoming budget battles.

"He's been a little bit of a rebel. He's been more conservative than about 90 percent of Republicans based on his past voting record," said Gibbs Knotts, political science chairman at College of Charleston.

He also is likely to be around a while. The heavy Republican tilt of the coastal district, which Mitt Romney won by 18 percentage points last year in the presidential election, makes it unlikely that Democrats will be able to mount a viable challenge to Sanford anytime soon.

Both parties tried to make the best of Sanford's win, however. Republicans portrayed it as a sign of voter dissatisfaction with the agenda of national Democrats and President Barack Obama. Democrats said his election would undermine Republican efforts to appeal to women voters.

But analysts warned that, despite all the national attention to the race, the result probably revealed little about the broader mood of voters in the off-year between the 2012 presidential election and the 2014 congressional elections.

Sanford was able to link Colbert Busch to Washington liberals like House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, appearing at one point in a mock debate with a cardboard cutout of the liberal Pelosi.

"It was a triumph of demographics and ideology for Sanford. He took positions that were more in line with the district's Republican voters," Knotts said.

The Democratic House campaign committee and Democratic-leaning outside groups poured nearly $1 million into the race against Sanford. Despite the loss, they said Sanford's election made a mockery of Republican efforts to appeal to women.

"House Republicans' outreach to women voters now has Mark Sanford as the face," said Representative Steve Israel of New York, Democratic House campaign committee chairman. "Republicans now have to defend him and stand with him until election day."

Although they failed to support his campaign, national Republicans claimed it was a warning sign for Democrats looking toward the 2014 elections.

"At the end of the day, running on the Obama-Pelosi ticket was just too toxic for Elizabeth Colbert Busch," said Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, Republican House campaign committee chairman.

(Additional reporting by Harriet McLeod in South Carolina, Vicki Allen in Washington; Editing by David Lindsey and Cynthia Osterman)

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Congress passes plan to ease flight delays

By Doug Palmer and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a Senate plan to ease nationwide air-traffic delays caused by automatic federal spending cuts, seeking to calm irritated travelers but sparking a backlash from interest groups not spared from cuts.

The Senate had unanimously voted for the plan late Thursday and the House approved it by a 361-41 vote. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama plans to sign the bill.

The legislation will give the Department of Transportation flexibility to use about $250 million in unspent funds to cover the costs of air traffic controllers and other essential employees at the Federal Aviation Administration who had been furloughed.

Congressional approval of the bill, barely four pages long, came as lawmakers looked to fly out of Washington for a week-long recess. It was not clear how quickly the air delays will ease once the bill is enacted.

Lawmakers were eager to stem the growing wrath of the traveling public, which had dealt with significant take-off and landing delays since the furloughs started on Sunday.

They had also faced anger from airline CEOs whose companies had mounted a grassroots campaign through a website called dontgroundamerica.com, encouraging Americans to send messages to Congress and the White House.

The quick legislative action marks a surprising bipartisan effort, especially after many Republicans had accused the Obama administration of manipulating funds to maximize the impact of the budget cuts and thus make Republicans look bad.

FRESH LOBBYING TO FOLLOW?

The move does come with the risk, though, of unleashing lobbying campaigns to ease other program cuts triggered by the controversial "sequestration" that took effect on March 1, requiring across-the-board spending cuts among most federal agencies.

Even as they lined up behind the bipartisan bill, House Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for what House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called "mindless" across-the-board spending cuts that brought the FAA furloughs.

Republican Representative Tom Latham of Iowa, who oversees transportation spending, accused the Obama administration of "shameful politics" by carrying out the furloughs, which the FAA said were required by the deficit-reduction law. "This is no way to run a government," he said.

Democrat after Democrat reminded Republicans that the Republican-controlled House had approved the sequestration in 2011. They complained that the FAA legislation fails to prevent 70,000 poor children from losing pre-school education, 4 million fewer meals from being delivered to poor, elderly people and stop the grounding of some military air combat units.

"Let's deal with all the adverse cuts, not just those that affect the affluent traveling sector," said Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat.

JOB 'WELL DONE'

Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland summed up the quick passage of the bill, as Congress hurried to start its recess, by saying: "Members of this House are going to run for the airports. They're all going to be flying home on airplanes. And, yes, they will make it easier for members of Congress to get through those lines. And they will pat themselves on the back and say job well done."

The plan for the budget cuts was originally hatched by Washington in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal. But policymakers failed to reach such a deal earlier this year.

The cuts aimed to trim a total $109 billion from federal spending through September of this year and affect a broad range of programs, from early education to medical research.

Congress faces yet another round of these automatic spending cuts that would start on October 1.

Some interest groups immediately cried foul at the FAA fix.

Cynthia Pellegrini, an executive at March of Dimes, a nonprofit that advocates for the health of mothers and babies, said she was troubled by Congress acting on a case-by-case basis.

"Over the next several months we feel there are going to be significant impacts on women, children and families," Pellegrini said in an interview. "This may not be as visible as longer lines at the airport. You can't see that a child's belly is emptier because her family couldn't get food assistance."

The U.S. Travel Association on Friday said it appreciated Congress' swift action, but said it was concerned that funds may be diverted from critical infrastructure projects.

"At a time when we should be modernizing our infrastructure to improve efficiency, capacity and U.S. global competitiveness, sequestration-related issues should not be solved on the backs of airports," the group said in a statement.

BAND-AID

Without the legislation, the FAA said it would have to furlough 47,000 employees for up to 11 days through September 30 in order to save $637 million that is required by the sequestration.

Of those 47,000 workers, almost 15,000 are full-time air traffic controllers or trainees.

While supporting the legislation, the White House on Friday said it falls short of broader action needed to address sequestration. "It will be good news for America's traveling public if Congress spares them these unnecessary delays," White House spokesman Carney said in a statement.

Carney said lawmakers need to take additional steps to alleviate the impact felt beyond the airline industry from the cuts, such as among poorer elderly people, defense industry workers and others brought on by sequestration.

"Ultimately, this is no more than a temporary Band-Aid that fails to address the overarching threat to our economy posed by the sequester's mindless across-the-board cuts," he said.

Transportation officials have made other cuts to their budget but furloughs of air traffic controllers began this week, prompting traveler backlash at major hubs like those in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

On Friday morning, departing flights at Newark Liberty International Airport were delayed more than an hour and 15 minutes, and Boston's Logan Airport had departure delays of more than 30 minutes, both due to staffing, the FAA said. Teterboro airport in New Jersey, which handles many corporate jets, also was experiencing delays of more than 90 minutes due to staffing.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Doug Palmer, Susan Heavey, Karen Jacobs and Alwyn Scott; Writing by Karey Van Hall; Editing by Bill Trott)

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U.S. had more tips on Boston suspect; Congress asks questions

By Patricia Zengerle, Samuel P. Jacobs and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON/CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence knew more about the movements of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects than previously reported, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, raising more questions about the government's handling of the case and the sharing of information among agencies.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the FBI was alerted when Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Russia last year. They also said Russia, which had tipped off the FBI about its concerns over Tsarnaev in early 2011, made a second, identical request to the CIA in late September 2011.

Police say the ethnic Chechens Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev planted and detonated two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264.

A briefing by the FBI before the House Intelligence Committee revealed that the two brothers apparently became radicalized by anti-U.S. information on the Internet, members of Congress said.

"It looks like they built their bomb based on ‘Inspire' magazine and the article said how to build a bomb in mom's kitchen," said Representative Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

The online magazine "Inspire," circulated by Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, publishes English-language exhortations to would-be Western jihadists to carry out attacks with whatever means they have at hand. It recently published detailed instructions on how to build homemade devices.

"The younger bomber in whatever type of communication he's using said that's where they got the instruction to build the bomb," Ruppersberger said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police Friday and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was wounded, captured and charged with crimes that could result in the death penalty if he is convicted. Dzhokhar remained in fair condition in hospital on Wednesday, officials said.

Attention has focused on the elder brother as the driving force behind the bombings. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a four month-long investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 after Russia's intelligence service, known as the FSB, told the Americans that Tamerlan had become a follower of radical Islam.

As part of the FBI's probe, Tamerlan's name was entered into a U.S. Customs and Border Protection database known as TECS.

U.S. officials said when Tamerlan left the United States for a six-month stay in Russia in January 2012, the TECS database sent an alert to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi-agency FBI-led body in Boston.

It remains unclear what investigators did with the information.

Several months after asking the FBI for help investigating Tsarnaev, the Russians contacted the CIA in September 2011 with the same information they had supplied to the FBI.

While in Russia, Tsarnaev traveled to Dagestan and authorities are investigating whether he became involved with or influenced by Chechen separatists or Islamic militants there.

Some of the elder brother's dissatisfaction may stem from the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ruppersberger said following the briefing in Washington.

Tsarnaev, an amateur boxer, also had wanted to box on the U.S. national team, but he could not because he was not a naturalized U.S. citizen and had a domestic violence complaint against him, he said.

A man who said he was Tamerlan Tsarnaev's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, said a man he knew only as Misha had influenced his nephew's deepening interest in Islam.

Standing at the door of his home in Montgomery Village, Maryland, Tsarni said he first heard of Misha, whom he described as of Armenian descent, in 2009.

Misha was "working with Tamerlan, pulling him in to Islam, introducing him into Islam in such a way that the guy in a short time quit what he was doing," he said. "He quit boxing, he quit music."

"It seems like, what we heard, Tamerlan had been quite occupied with him," Tsarni said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's name also was listed on a separate U.S. government highly classified central database of people it views as potential threats, sources said. The list is vast, including about 500,000 people, preventing law enforcement from closely monitoring everyone on it.

Some on Capitol Hill questioned whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other U.S. security agencies failed to share information about him, even after reforms enacted to prevent information-hoarding following the September 11 hijacked plane attacks 12 years ago.

"That's something that we have to look at," said Senator Dan Coats, a Republican from Indiana also on the Intelligence Committee. "That's one of the key things that we have learned and need to work on to make sure it doesn't happen again, and that is simultaneous communication to all the relevant agencies when a warning is posted."

Members of Congress briefed by law enforcement and media reports citing unidentified sources indicate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators that he and his brother acted without assistance from any foreign or domestic militant groups.

"That basically seems to be the story, but I don't see how we can accept that," Representative Peter King, a New York Republican on House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN.

"It may end up being the truth but ... I don't see why he would be giving up any accomplices he may have or talking about any connections his brother may have had in Chechnya or Russia," King said on Wednesday.

The full Senate was scheduled to receive its own briefing on Thursday.

In Grozny, the capital of Russia's volatile Chechnya region, a member of the extended family said the brothers were victims of a Russian plot to portray them as Chechen terrorists operating on U.S. soil.

Among the remaining mysteries was how the bombers acquired the black powder used as explosives in the home-made pressure cooker bombs packed with nails and ball bearings. Tamerlan bought two large packages of fireworks in February from a store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, but the explosive powder they contained would not have been "anywhere near enough" to build the bombs, said William Weimer, vice president at Phantom Fireworks.

TRIBUTE TO FALLEN POLICE OFFICER

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and law enforcement agents from around the United States attended a memorial at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a university police officer who authorities say was shot dead by the Tsarnaev brothers on Thursday night.

Sean Collier, 26, was killed about five hours after the FBI released pictures of the two suspects, asking for the public's help in tracking them down.

Biden called the prestigious university a symbol of what Islamic extremists oppose.

"You are their worst nightmare," Biden said. "All of these things these perverted jihadis, self-made or organized, all the things they fear."

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Ian Simpson in Montgomery Village, Maryland; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Grant McCool and Cynthia Osterman)

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Obama launches fund-raising blitz to help Democrats in Congress

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will launch a fund-raising drive for the 2014 U.S. mid-term elections on Wednesday with addresses to deep-pocketed donors in California, hoping the Democratic Party can defy the odds and gain congressional seats in the polls.

The party in power in the White House usually loses seats in election years in which the presidency is not up for grabs. This means Democrats have their work cut out for them in trying to win a majority in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and add to their majority in the Senate.

"An off-year is always tough for the party in power," said Democratic strategist Bud Jackson. "But never say never, and I think it's possible that you could swing some seats. At the very least you make the attempted grab."

The president has an interest in making the effort, because without a significant change in the make-up of Congress, he faces possible paralysis for many of the initiatives laid out in his inaugural address and State of the Union speech.

His second term, won decisively in the election last November over Republican Mitt Romney, has opened with a repeat of the partisan tensions that marked his first term and with an unrelenting stalemate over taxes and spending.

A bid to tighten gun regulations, which Obama will address at a stop in Denver on Wednesday, is in danger as pro-gun groups pressure lawmakers who for decades have been reluctant to take on the powerful gun lobby. Only an immigration overhaul looks promising as Republicans smarting over Hispanic vote losses in 2012 need a victory on it as much as Obama does.

This does not mean Obama is abandoning his priorities until after the mid-terms. His team in general sees the need for action as soon as possible before the country's attention turns to the 2014 and 2016 elections.

OBAMA MAY TEMPER MESSAGE

As a result, Obama may offer a more restrained message when he speaks at fund-raising events in San Francisco, talking up his party's agenda without antagonizing political opponents.

Some Republican senators told Obama when he visited Capitol Hill in March that it did not help their fiscal negotiations with him when he traveled around the country criticizing them.

Obama aides said Obama can both support his own party's campaign apparatus while still seeking compromise with Republicans.

"There's plenty of work to do here in Washington D.C. before we turn our attention to the midterm elections," said White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest.

Obama's San Francisco stop will kick off 14 events he intends to stage this year to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, its Senate counterpart or the Democratic National Committee. The party is still trying to pay off its debts from the last election.

In San Francisco, Obama has two evening events planned to help House Democratic campaigns. California Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, the top House Democrat who was dethroned as speaker in 2010, is expected to attend.

Democrats need to win 17 seats in 2014 to win control of the House.

"The confidence that the president is showing by dedicating his efforts to our efforts is a shot in the arm for House Democrats," said Jesse Ferguson, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The first event - a cocktail reception priced at $5,000 a person - is at the home of billionaire former asset manager Tom Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor. After that, a $32,500-per-person dinner will be held at the home of billionaires Ann and Gordon Getty.

The next day Obama will attend two DNC fundraisers.

Obama's trip is all the more important because of the need to pay off debt hanging over party organizations since the 2012 election. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee owed $10.8 million as of the end of February, according to Federal Election Committee disclosure forms, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee owed $15 million.

Republicans note that Obama's electoral sway is not so powerful when his name is not on the ballot. Democrats lost 63 seats and control of the House in 2010 midterms, as well as six Senate seats.

"There's something to his appeal when he's on the ballot. I'm not sure they can deliver the same vote when he's not," said Republican strategist Charlie Black.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and David Brunnstrom)

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