Evening Edition

I’ll be sitting in for ek hornbeck who is Live Blogging the NCAA Championship Games for the next few days.

• Arab League criticizes West’s strikes on Libya
  

  TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Western forces pounded Libya’s air defenses and patrolled its skies Sunday, but their day-old intervention hit a diplomatic setback as the Arab League chief condemned the “bombardment of civilians.”

  As European and U.S. forces unleashed warplanes and cruise missiles against Muammar Gaddafi’s air defenses and armor, the Libyan leader said the air strikes amounted to terrorism and vowed to fight to the death.

• Japan dead, missing tops 21,000 amid atomic crisis
  
  by Olivia Hampton

  KAMAISHI, Japan (AFP) – Workers were close to restoring power to a nuclear plant’s overheating reactors as the toll of dead or missing from Japan’s worst natural disaster in nearly a century passed 21,000.

  Amid the devastation on the northeast coast left by a massive quake and tsunami, there was an astonishing tale Sunday of survival with the discovery of an 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson alive under the rubble.

• After year of woe, Haiti chooses a new president
  
  by Clarens Renois and Guillaume Decamme

  PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Haiti went to the polls Sunday to decide if a popular singer or a former first lady will be the new president of a shattered country struggling to rebuild from a devastating 2010 earthquake.

  The run-off, delayed for months by bickering over a contested and violence-plagued first round in November, threatened to be overshadowed by the return from exile of charismatic ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

• AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA for about $39 billion
  

  NEW YORK (Reuters) – AT&T Inc said on Sunday it would buy Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA, in a $39 billion cash-and-stock transaction that would create a new industry behemoth by combining two of the four largest U.S. wireless carriers.

  The purchase price includes a cash payment of $25 billion with the balance to be paid using AT&T common stock. AT&T has the right to increase the cash portion of the purchase price by up to $4.2 billion.

• Second Iranian plane forced to land in Turkey: report
  

  ISTANBUL (Reuters) – An Iranian cargo plane was forced to land in southeast Turkey for the second time within a week on suspicion it was carrying weapons or bomb-making material to Syria, Turkish media reported Sunday.

  The plane which took off from Tehran landed overnight at Diyarbakir airport and searches took place Sunday, broadcaster CNN Turk said.

• Wave of unrest shakes Syria, crowds torch party HQ
  
  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

  DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Crowds set fire to a headquarters of the ruling Baath Party in the Syrian city of Deraa on Sunday, residents said, as the wave of unrest in the Arab world shook even one of its most authoritarian states.

  The demonstrators also set ablaze the main courts complex and two phone company branches. One of the firms, Syriatel, is owned by President Bashar al-Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf.

  “They burned the symbols of oppression and corruption,” an activist said. “The banks nearby were not touched.”

• Bahrain opposition urges government to take steps toward talks
  
  By Lin Noueihed and Rania El Gamal

  MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahrain’s main opposition groups said on Sunday they would not enter talks unless the government pulled troops off the streets and freed prisoners, and insisted they stood by earlier demands for political reform.

  Led by the largest Shi’ite party Wefaq, the groups said they stood by the ambitious conditions they had set for talks last month, including the creation of a government not dominated by members of the Sunni royal family and the establishment of an elected council to redraft the constitution.

• Egypt approves reforms in historic referendum
  
  By Yasmine Saleh

  CAIRO (Reuters) – A big majority of Egyptians approved amendments to the constitution in a referendum, results showed, opening the door to early elections seen as favoring Islamists and figures affiliated with the old ruling party.

  Decades of oppression under Hosni Mubarak crushed Egypt’s political life and secular activists who mobilized to oust him from the presidency say more time is needed before elections that may now come as early as September.

• Obama woos Brazil while Libya air assault unfolds
  
  By Matt Spetalnick and Stuart Grudgings

  RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama praised Brazil’s rise as an emerging power on Sunday, calling the South American country an equal partner of the United States as he pressed on with a trip overshadowed by a U.S. and European air assault on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in Libya.

  Obama viewed Rio de Janeiro’s famed beaches and mountains from his helicopter and played soccer with slum kids in a show of cultural affinity on the second day of what aides call his signature first-term visit to Latin America.

• Yemen president sacks cabinet, protesters bury dead
  
  By Mohamed Sudam and Mohammed Ghobar

  SANAA (Reuters) – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired his government on Sunday after a string of allies broke ranks with him as he faces increasing pressure from street protests to step down.

  Mourners buried some of the 52 anti-government protesters shot dead by rooftop snipers after Muslim Friday prayers in the Arabian Peninsula state, where tens of thousands of people have protested for weeks against Saleh’s three decades-long rule.

• Sarkozy suffers poll setback as far-right closes in
  
  By Vicky Buffery

  PARIS (Reuters) – Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front gave French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives a fright on Sunday, snapping at the heels of the mainstream center-right in poorly attended local elections.

  With 86 percent of votes counted, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the president’s center-right supporters had won 32.5 percent of the vote, with left-wing parties totaling 48 percent and Le Pen’s anti-immigrant party polling 15 percent.

• Gates: US expects to hand off Libya lead in ‘days’
  

  ON BOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that the U.S. expects to turn control of the Libya military mission over to a coalition – probably headed either by the French and British or by NATO – “in a matter of days.”

  In his first public remarks since the start of the bombings, Gates said President Barack Obama felt very strongly about limiting America’s role in the operation, adding that the president is “more aware than almost anybody of the stress on the military.”

• Admiral Mullen says Libya impasse possible
  
  By David Morgan

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. military officer said on Sunday that imposing a no-fly zone over Libya could lead to an impasse with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces even as Western warplanes halted the Libyan leader’s anti-rebel offensive at Benghazi.

  Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the CBS program “Face the Nation” that the air mission in the North African country has a clear, limited scope.

• Coast Guard probing reports of “sheen” in Gulf of Mexico
  

  ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating reports of a “sheen” in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

  The Coast Guard on Sunday were trying to determine whether the sheen or gleaming at the top of the water, was the result of oil or an algae growth, said Lieutenant Ryan Baxter, command duty officer in New Orleans.

• States push harder for online sales tax collection
  

  SAN FRANCISCO – Tax-free shopping is under threat for many online shoppers as states facing widening budget gaps increasingly pressure Amazon.com Inc. and other Internet retailers to start collecting sales taxes from their residents.

  Billions of dollars are at stake as a growing number of states look for ways to generate more revenue without violating a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits a state from forcing businesses to collect sales taxes unless the business has a physical presence, such as a store, in that state.

• Wyclef says bullet grazed hand in Haiti’s capital
  

  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Musician Wyclef Jean said Sunday that a bullet grazed his hand as he stepped out of a car to make a telephone call, but he said he was only slightly injured.

  Jean, who has been in Haiti helping the presidential campaign of his friend and fellow musician Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, said the bullet grazed him late Saturday night as he stepped out of his car in the Delmas section of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to make a call on his cellphone.

• Boeing’s new 747 completes first test flight
  

  SEATTLE (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s 747-8 Intercontinental, the new passenger version of its legendary jumbo jet, completed its maiden flight without a hitch on Sunday, marking a key milestone for the aircraft model more closely associated with Boeing than any other plane.

  The behemoth began its first test flight from Boeing’s Paine Field north of Seattle into clear blue skies at 9:58 a.m. local time. The take-off, witnessed by thousands of Boeing employees and aviation enthusiasts, occurred almost 42 years after the first flight of the original 747, which later became one of the most recognized planes in the world.

• Top-seeded UConn routs Hartford in NCAA opener
  

  STORRS, Conn. – Stefanie Dolson scored all 12 of her points in the first half to lead a balanced Connecticut offense, and the top-seeded Huskies routed Hartford 75-39 on Sunday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

  Maya Moore, Bria Hartley and Tiffany Hayes added 12 points each for the Huskies (33-1), who started their journey toward a third consecutive national championship. The victory was UConn’s 21st straight and 82nd in a row at home, where the Huskies are hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and giving their local fans one more weekend to see them.

• Why Spring Starts Today
  

  Today is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Though no guarantee of gorgeous weather that’s not too hot and not too cold, the Earth’s position relative to the sun says it’s officially time for the birds to start chirping.

  The first day of spring arrives on varying dates (from March 19-21) in different years for two reasons: Our year is not exactly an even number of days; and Earth’s slightly noncircular orbit, plus the gravitational tug of the other planets, constantly changes our planet’s orientation to the sun from year to year.

  This year, spring starts Sunday, March 20, at 7:21 p.m. EDT (23:21 UTC). That’s when the so-called vernal equinox occurs. Equinoxes (which mark the onset of spring and autumn) and solstices (which mark when summer and winter begin) are points in time and space that mark a transition in our planet’s annual trip around the sun.

• Progress at Japan Reactors; New Signs of Food Radiation
  

  TOKYO – Japan appeared to make moderate progress in stabilizing some of the nuclear reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Sunday, but at the same time it disclosed new signs of radioactive contamination in agricultural produce and livestock.

  The government said it was barring all shipments of milk from Fukushima Prefecture and shipments of spinach from Ibaraki Prefecture, after finding new cases of above-normal levels of radioactive elements in milk and several vegetables. Relatively high levels were also found in spinach from Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures to the west, canola from Gunma Prefecture and chrysanthemum greens from Chiba Prefecture, south of Ibaraki.

• Regulator Says Fuel Pools at U.S. Reactors Are Ready for Emergencies
  

  WASHINGTON – The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Sunday morning that the spent fuel pools at American nuclear reactors are less vulnerable than the ones in Japan because of steps ordered by his agency after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including having utilities prepare to use fire hoses to pump in extra water in the event ordinary cooling systems are knocked out.

  Nuclear utilities were ordered to “identify and pre-stage equipment” that would be useful in such an emergency, according to commission officials. They have been reluctant to disclose details, because some preparations against terrorist attack are classified, but indicate that the preparation includes locating emergency generators, diesel-driven pumps, hoses and diesel fuel, as well as setting up procedures.