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most important one is to restore security and stability to Iraq, which is an essential condition for reform and development," said Mahdi al-Hafidh, who as the legislature's oldest member chaired the session.
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Japan's government approves larger military role in major reinterpretation of constitution
• TOKYO (AP) -- Japan took a step away Tuesday from an American-drafted constitution that has long kept its military shackled, approving a plan to allow greater use of a force that was vanquished at the end of World War II.
• In one of the biggest changes to Japanese security policy since the war, the Cabinet approved a reinterpretation of the constitution on military affairs.
• The contentious move will allow the military to help defend other nations in what is known as "collective self-defense."
• Previous governments have said that Japan's war-renouncing constitution limits the use of force to defending Japan.
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a televised news conference, said the shift is intended to protect the lives and security of the Japanese people. For example, he said, Japanese warships would be able to help protect U.S. ships that were fighting to defend Japan.
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Obama on collision course with GOP with go-it-alone strategy on immigration
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's abrupt shift from seeking immigration legislation to pursuing a go-it-alone executive strategy raises expectations among immigration advocates that Obama may have trouble satisfying while setting up a clash with House Republicans who've already threatened to sue him.
• Limited in his powers to ease deportations and under pressure to crack down on a tide of Central American children entering the U.S. without their parents, Obama has only so many options to tackle an immigration conundrum complicated by a midterm election that could cost him Democratic control of the Senate.
• Obama on Monday blamed Republican resistance for the demise of sweeping immigration legislation and vowed to bypass Congress to patch up the system. "If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours," Obama said.
• But seeking to slow deportations while simultaneously stemming the flow of young people across the U.S. Southern border presents Obama with a knotty set of (Continued on page 28)
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