The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Polygamist leader Jeffs in custody of Arizona

KINGMAN, Ariz.—Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was handed over to Arizona authorities Tuesday to face sex charges stemming from the arranged marriages of two teenage girls to older relatives.

He already has been convicted in Utah in connection with one of those cases, involving a 14-year-old girl.

Deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office took custody of Jeffs from Utah officials, sheriff’s spokeswoman Trish Carter said.

“Now it’s our turn,” Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said. “I hope the message is very simple: the law applies to everybody, whether they’re the head of a large religious group, or somebody who’s not. It’s a crime to abuse children, and there are no exceptions.”

Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will plead not guilty to the Arizona charges Wednesday in a Kingman court, said defense attorney Mike Piccarreta.

Jeffs, 52, is charged as an accomplice with four counts of incest and four counts of sexual contact with a minor in an indictment.

The Arizona charges stem from the arranged marriage of a man in his early 50s to a 17-year-old relative and another between a 19-year-old man and his 14-year-old cousin.

Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of rape as an accomplice in the latter case, but Arizona prosecutors say that doesn’t preclude them from bringing charges here.

Members of the church live in the isolated twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

Florida outages affect 3 million people

MIAMI—Florida’s largest utility says equipment failure and a fire at a Miami substation led to power outages that affected up to 3 million people Tuesday.

Florida Power & Light is still trying to determine what caused the failure and fire. The company says such equipment failure should not have caused the widespread blackouts.

The problem caused a nuclear plant south of Miami to automatically shut down.

Officials with the company say just about 20,000 people remained without power by 5:30 p.m.

McCain leading in Arizona against either Democrat

TEMPE, Ariz.—Republican presidential hopeful John McCain was leading in Arizona against either of the two Democratic candidates, but his margin of victory would be greater against Hillary Clinton, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The statewide poll found 49 percent of voters said they would support McCain in a matchup against Barrack Obama, who was backed by 38 percent of those surveyed. Thirteen percent were undecided.

In a McCain-Clinton matchup in Arizona, McCain would be supported by 57 percent of voters, compared to Clinton’s 33 percent. Ten percent were undecided.

The poll of 552 registered voters was conducted Feb. 21-24 by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University and Channel Eight/KAET-TV. The survey has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

In an unrelated question, the poll found 49 percent of voters favored an amendment to the Arizona Constitution that would define marriage as being between a man and woman. Forty percent of voters said they opposed the idea, while 11 percent were undecided.

The Legislature is considering a proposal that would ask voters in November to amend the Arizona Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Arizona voters narrowly rejected a similar measure in November 2006.

McCain disavows radio talk show host

CINCINNATi—Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Illinois Sen. Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a “hack, Chicago-style” politician.

Hussein is Obama’s middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee’s appearance.

“McCain wasn’t on stage or, he says, in the building when Cunningham made the comments, but he quickly distanced himself from the radio talk show host after finishing his speech. McCain spoke to a couple hundred people at Memorial Hall in downtown Cincinnati.

Senate advances legislation that would halt war funds

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In an about-face, Senate Republicans on Tuesday agreed with Democrats to advance an anti-war bill because they said the debate would give them time to hail progress in Iraq.

The change of heart came after months of blocking similar measures. But unlike most of last year, security conditions in Iraq have improved, and Republicans say they now feel they have the upper hand on the debate.

“We welcome a discussion about Iraq,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declared.

The measure, by Democratic Sens. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, would cut off money for combat after 120 days. It had been expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a procedural hurdle and move ahead.

But after Republicans agreed in a private meeting that the debate could help make their case, the Senate voted 70-24 to begin debating it in earnest.

Aides said a final vote could come later this week, but may be pushed into next week.

The White House said the president would veto such a measure.

Drug-resistant TB is spreading fast

LONDON—Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading even faster than medical experts had feared, the World Health Organization warned in report issued Tuesday. The rate of TB patients infected with the drug-resistant strain topped 20 percent in some countries, the highest ever recorded, the U.N. agency said.

“Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to see rates like this,” said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of WHO’s “Stop TB” department. “This demonstrates what happens when you keep making mistakes in TB treatment.”

Though the report is the largest survey of drug-resistant TB, based on information collected between 2002 and 2006, there are still major gaps: Data were only available from about half of the world’s countries.

In Africa, where experts are particularly worried about a lethal collision between TB and AIDS, only six countries provided information.