Obama signs bills on trade negotiations
WASHINGTON – In a rare bipartisan scene at the White House, President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law two hard-fought bills giving him greater authority to negotiate international trade deals and providing aid to workers whose jobs are displaced by such pacts.
The measures were politically linked to secure bipartisan support for the trade legislation, and they set the stage for the Obama administration to conclude negotiations on a 12-nation Pacific Rim economic pact.
“I thought I’d start off the week with something we should do more often, a truly bipartisan bill signing,” Obama said in a crowded East Room ceremony. Five Democratic and two Republican members of Congress watched as Obama affixed his name to the two bills.
The trade bill gives Congress the right to approve or reject trade agreements, but not change or delay them.
The worker assistance was part of a broader trade preferences bill.
Car bombing kills Egypt’s top prosecutor
CAIRO – A car bomb killed Egypt’s chief prosecutor Monday in the country’s first assassination of a senior official in 25 years, marking what could be an escalation in a campaign by Islamic militants toward targeting leaders of a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hisham Barakat led the prosecution of members of the Brotherhood and other Islamists, including former President Mohammed Morsi, who was overthrown by the military in July 2013. The courts have been handing out mass death sentences against them in trials harshly criticized as lacking due process.
Monday’s assassination of the 65-year-old Barakat came on the eve of the second anniversary of the mass demonstrations against Morsi that led to his ouster.
A car laden with explosives was detonated by remote control around 10 a.m. as Barakat’s motorcade left his home.
Associated Press
