BEIRUT

Newspaper accuses Jordan of hosting training camps

A Syrian government newspaper accused Jordan of hosting training camps for opposition fighters and warned its neighbor that it was risking getting entangled in Syria’s 2-year-old conflict.

The rebuke printed in an editorial on the front page of state-run al-Thawra newspaper follows recent U.S. and British media reports that describe Jordan as providing a place for rebels to be trained with American support. Jordan has denied the existence of such training camps.

CARACAS, Venezuela

Interim president says power grid being sabotaged

Interim President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday charged that allies of Venezuela’s opposition are sabotaging the country’s power grid ahead of this month’s presidential election.

Maduro ordered the military to safeguard power stations across the country to prevent sabotage ahead of the April 14 vote pitting him against opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

Maduro said government adversaries have infiltrated Corpoelec, the state-run power company, and he announced that some of its employees would be investigated for allegedly cooperating with opposition groups bent on sabotaging the grid.

WASHINGTON

Obama’s budget won’t have major cuts to Medicaid

President Obama’s budget next week will steer clear of major cuts to Medicaid, including tens of billions in reductions to the health care plan for the poor that the administration had proposed only last year.

Big cuts in the federal-state program wouldn’t go over too well at a time that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is wooing financially skittish Republican governors to expand Medicaid coverage to millions who now are uninsured. That expansion in the states is critical to the success of Obama’s health overhaul, which is rolling out this fall and early next year.

The president’s budget is to be released next Wednesday.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.

Florida revises alimony law ending permanent payment

Florida is about to become the second state to revise its alimony laws, joining Massachusetts in reforming payments that opponents say have been critical to ex-spouses – mostly women – seeking to rebuild their lives after divorce.

SB 718, approved by state Senate lawmakers Thursday by a 29-11 vote, ends permanent alimony, caps alimony awards based on a person’s income and the length of the marriage, and lets the ex-spouse petition to terminate or lower alimony payments upon retirement. However, the measure does allow a judge to exercise discretion in “special circumstances.”

It’s the product of a group called Florida for Alimony Reform, which for the past two years has been working to overhaul the state’s divorce laws. The current system, they say, has no consistent guidelines, and working spouses – most of them men-are at the mercy of a judge’s order. They say the system is a throwback to a time when many women were homemakers and often didn’t have higher education.

– From news service reports