Briefs: Gender-based abortion ban in House

House to vote on whether to make abortions based on gender of fetus illegal — but not on race-based

WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation coming up for a House vote would make it a federal crime to carry out an abortion based on the gender of the fetus. The measure takes aim at the aborting of female fetuses, a practice more common to countries such India and China, where there is a strong preference for sons, but which is also thought to take place in this country.

The mainly Republican supporters of the bill characterized the vote as a sex-discrimination issue at a time when Democrats are accusing Republicans of waging a war on women. Abortion rights advocates argued that the bill exploits the problem of selective abortion to further limit a woman’s right to choose.

The House Republican leadership brought the bill to the floor under a procedure requiring a two-thirds majority for passage, and the outcome was uncertain. To help assure passage, the authors removed a contentious provision of the bill that would have also banned abortions based on the race of the fetus.

Even if it passes the House, the measure faces a dim future in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The legislation, sponsored by anti-abortion activist Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., would make it a federal offense, subject to up to five years in prison, to perform, solicit funds to perform or coerce a woman into a sex-selection abortion. Bringing a woman into the country to obtain such an abortion would also be punishable by up to five years in prison.

11-year-old Syrian boy saw entire family killed, survived massacre by playing dead

BEIRUT (AP) — When the gunmen began to slaughter his family, 11-year-old Ali el-Sayed says he fell to the floor of his home, soaking his clothes with his brother’s blood to fool the killers into thinking he was already dead.

The Syrian boy tried to stop himself from trembling, even as the gunmen, with long beards and shaved heads, killed his parents and all four of his siblings, one by one.

The youngest to die was Ali’s brother, 6-year-old Nader. His small body bore two bullet holes — one in his head, another in his back.

“I put my brother’s blood all over me and acted like I was dead,” Ali told The Associated Press over Skype on Wednesday, his raspy voice steady and matter-of-fact, five days after the killing spree that left him both an orphan and an only child.

Ali is one of the few survivors of a weekend massacre in Houla, a collection of poor farming villages and olive groves in Syria’s central Homs province. More than 100 people were killed, many of them women and children who were shot or stabbed in their houses.

SpaceX Dragon leaves space station for flight home, aims for Pacific splashdown off California

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Dragon spacecraft is on its way home.

Early Thursday morning, space station astronauts set the SpaceX capsule loose after a five-day visit.

The world’s first commercial supply ship is due to splash down in the Pacific at midday, Eastern Time. It will aim for an area 560 miles southwest of Los Angeles. On board are science samples and old station equipment.

Last week, the California-based SpaceX became the first private company to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station. It’s now on the verge of becoming the only supplier to return major items. The government-provided cargo vessels of Russia, Europe and Japan burn up on descent. NASA lost the capability of getting things back when the shuttles were retired last year.

Levels of key greenhouse gas pass milestone, trouble scientists