MANCHESTER, N.H.

Perry courts voters of an uncertain age for wrong date

You might say Rick Perry courted the youth, but not the whole youth, in a campaign appearance at a New Hampshire college.

Speaking at Saint Anselm on Tuesday, he appealed to students who will be at least 21 before Election Day to vote for him, saying: “Those of you that will be 21 by November the 12th, I ask for your support and your vote.”

As for those younger than 21, he merely asked them to work hard on his behalf. Doesn’t he want their votes too?

It turns out Perry didn’t know or had forgotten that the voting age in America is 18.

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Perry made another slip too, referring to “November the 12th” as Election Day. New Hampshire will become the first state in the nation to host a Republican presidential primary on Jan. 10; the general election is scheduled for Nov. 6, 2012.

CHICAGO

Sister gets confirmation her brother a Gacy victim

After her older brother disappeared in 1976, Laura O’Leary suspected that the 19-year-old construction worker had probably died at the hands of John Wayne Gacy. But the family was never able to prove it.

They got little help from authorities. And they couldn’t locate any dental records to compare with the skeletal remains found beneath the serial killer’s house.

So O’Leary waited, clinging for more than 30 years to a few items that once belonged to William George Bundy – a bracelet she’d given him for his 18th birthday, a high school photo ID and an autographed school book.

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O’Leary’s worst suspicions were confirmed Tuesday, when authorities announced that Bundy was one of the eight unidentified young men found under Gacy’s home.

The identification of Bundy came weeks after the sheriff’s office issued a public plea for families of young men who disappeared in the 1970s to submit DNA samples for comparison with the victims’ remains. “Today’s terribly sad, but it is also a day that provides closure,” O’Leary said.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba

Suspect in disappearance allowed to leave island

A U.S. businessman was released from jail in Aruba on Tuesday and free to leave the island, although prosecutors continue to try to put him back behind bars as a suspect in the disappearance of his traveling companion.

Gary Giordano left prison in an SUV with his lawyers, entering the vehicle behind a concrete wall so he was hidden from journalists waiting outside. He made no statements as he drove off, followed by a caravan of reporters, his immediate destination unclear.

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Giordano, who denies any wrongdoing in the disappearance of Robyn Gardner, was freed after nearly four months in custody under a court order issued by a judge who ruled prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to justify holding him longer.

BAGHDAD

Biden in talks with leaders about U.S. military’s future

Vice President Joe Biden flew into Baghdad on Tuesday to mark the end of the Iraq war and the start of a new chapter in the relationship between Baghdad and Washington, as U.S. troops stream out of Iraq to meet the year-end deadline for their departure.

A key focus of Biden’s talks with Iraqi leaders will be the thorny question of future military cooperation and how much assistance it will be possible for the United States to continue to provide to the Iraqi security forces given the breakdown of negotiations to keep some U.S. forces here longer, U.S. officials say.

 


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