Roswell Daily Record
INSIDE NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan in a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar Assad’s regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country’s persistently splintered opposition, American and foreign officials said.
NM MUSEUM TO HAVE ‘CURANDERO’ EXHIBITION ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Evil eye. Magical fright. A sick soul. These are all afflictions usually treated by traditional Mexican healers known as curanderos. And this summer, an Albuquerque museum is ...
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Officials: US training Syrian forces
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The training has been conducted for several months now in an unspecified location, concentrating largely on Sunnis and tribal Bedouins who formerly served as members of the Syrian army, officials told The Associated Press. The forces aren’t members of the leading rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, which Washington and oth-
March 26, 2013
TUESDAY
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ers fear may be increasingly coming under the sway of extremist militia groups, including some linked to alQaida, they said.
The operation is being run by U.S. intelligence and is ongoing, officials said, but those in Washington stressed that the U.S. is providing only nonlethal aid at this point. Others such as Britain and France are involved, they said, though it’s unclear whether any Western governments are providing materiel or other direct military support after two years of civil war that according to the United Nations already has killed more than 70,000 people. The officials spoke on con-
dition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the program. Officially, the Obama administration has been vague on the subject of what type of military training it may be providing, while insisting that it is doing all it can — short of providing weapons to the rebels or engaging in its own military intervention — to hasten the demise of the Assad family’s four-decade dictatorship. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday the U.S. has “provided some logistical nonlethal support that has also come in handy See SYRIA, Page A3
AP Photo
In this image taken from video obtained from the Ugarit News and authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Free Syrian Army fighters aim their weapons during clashes, in Damascus countryside, Syria, on Monday.
Name change given thumbs up
- PAGE A2
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ILISSA GILMORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
INSIDE SPORTS
Courtesy Photo
Mayor Del Jurney and Roswell Airport Manager Jennifer Brady prepare to cut the ribbon on the new long-term parking lot at the facility Monday, with help from members of the Roswell Red Coats.
Roswell airport gets a new parking lot ILISSA GILMORE RECORD STAFF WRITER
City officials gathered Monday for a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony for the new long-
FGCU SAVORING MOMENT FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Sherwood Brown only wanted a bagel. The Florida Gulf Coast star walked into a restaurant on campus Monday and was quickly surrounded. People wanted autographs. People wanted photos. ... - PAGE B1
TODAY’S OBITUARIES
• Miguel Gonzales • Inez Jones - PAGE A2
HIGH ...65˚ LOW ....37˚
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INDEX CLASSIFIEDS..........B5 COMICS.................B3 ENTERTAINMENT.....A8 FINANCIAL .............B4 GENERAL ..............A2 HOROSCOPES ........A8 LOTTERIES ............A2 OPINION ................A4 SPORTS ................B1 WEATHER ..............A8
ter m parking lot at the Roswell Airport. Roswell Airport Manager Jennifer Brady and Mayor Del Jurney used green scissors to cut a pink-colored ribbon held
by members of the Roswell Red Coats. The free lot features 111 parking spaces, five accessible spaces for those with disabilities, one van-accessible space,
12 energy efficient LED lights, three security cameras and security fencing will be placed around it in See PARKING, Page A3
City Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee voted Monday to recommend that the Council rename the Spring River Golf Course to include recognition of acclaimed golfer Nancy Lopez. Raised in Roswell, Lopez learned how to golf from her father, Domingo “Sunday” Lopez, at the course. At age 12, Nancy won the New Mexico Women’s Amateur title, and continued to amass numerous awards and accomplishments, despite racial and gender barriers. In 1987, the
High court takes on new Hobbs sentenced for manslaughter affirmative action case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s decision to hear a new case from Michigan on the politically charged issue of affirmative action offers an intriguing hint that the justices will not use a separate challenge already pending from Texas for a broad ruling bringing an end to the consideration of race in college admissions. To be sure, the two cases involve different legal issues. The University of Texas dispute, with arguments already completed and a ruling possible soon, centers on the use of race to fill some slots in the school’s freshman classes. The Michigan case asks whether a voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions can itself violate the Constitution. But the broadest possible outcome in the current Texas case — overruling the court’s 2003 decision that allows race as a factor in college admissions — would mean an end to affirmative action in higher education and render the new Michigan lawsuit irrelevant. If the justices are planning to overrule that earlier deci-
See CHANGE, Page A3
JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Fifth District Court Judge Freddie Romero sentenced Gregory Marvin Hobbs, 23, to the maximum sentence of six years for voluntary manslaughter with a one-year enhancement as a violent offender to be followed by two years of probation. Hobbs was originally charged with two open counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Ruben Archuleta Sr. and Ruben Archuleta Jr. on June 15, 2012, in the 300 block of East Bonney Street. The charges against Hobbs for killing Archuleta Jr. were eventually dropped since Archuleta Jr. was armed at the time of the incident. However, the jury found Hobbs guilty of manslaughter
See HOBBS, Page A3
Gregory Hobbs
Cyprus has ordered its banks to remain closed until Thursday See ACTION, Page A3
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus ordered banks to remain closed for two more days over fears of a run by customers trying to get their money out, after striking a pre-dawn bailout deal Monday that averted the country’s imminent bankruptcy. The sudden midnight postponement of the much anticipated Tuesday bank opening by all but the country’s two largest lenders was sure to hammer businesses already reeling from more than a week of no access to their deposits. ATMs have been dispensing cash but often run out, and an increasing number of stores and other businesses have stopped accepting credit or debit cards.
Cyprus clinched an eleventh-hour deal with the 17-nation eurozone and the International Monetary Fund early Monday for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout. Without it, the country’s banks would have collapsed, dragging down the economy and potentially pushing it out of the euro. Under the deal, the country agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on large depositors in troubled banks. The country’s banks have been closed since March 16 to avert a run on deposits as the country’s politicians struggled to come up with a way to raise enough money
to qualify for the bailout. An initial plan that would have raised 5.8 billion euros by seizing up to 10 percent of people’s bank accounts enraged depositors and was soundly rejected by lawmakers early last week. But with the immediate crisis averted, worry spread across Europe that the deal could boomerang, spooking investors and hurting the eurozone’s efforts to keep its debt crisis from spreading. “The Cypriot bailout has a powerful legacy which may alter the security with which depositors elsewhere in the eurozone view the safety of banks,” said Jane Foley, an analyst at Rabobank International.
AP Photo
Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades speaks during a live, televised address to the nation from the Presidential Palace in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday.