Evening Edition

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

This is more Prime Time than news but in light of the assault on workers and unions by the GOP, it is an extremely important part of the history of union organization. Tonight at 9 PM EDT on HBO the documentary Triangle: Remembering the Fire. This Friday is 100 years since the March 25, 1911 infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire on the lower East Side of New York which killed 146 garment workers, most of them young, female Jewish and Italian immigrants. Many were burned alive on the upper floors of the ten story building, others jumped to their death. So many of these deaths were unnecessary, caused by unsafe working conditions. The outrage over this tragedy sparked reforms in working conditions and reforms in building and fire codes and a surge in union membership. This year we also know the identities of all the victims some who were burned so badly they could not be identified. Thanks go to Michael Hirsh, the co-producer of the documentary, for the four years of painstaking research he devoted to identifying them all. Having met Michael last year at a service for the dedication of a new headstone for one victim, I can say he was very passionate about this search. This is well worth watching if you have HBO.

• West strikes Libya as Gaddafi forces choke Misrata
  
  By Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy

  TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi surrounded Misrata, the only big rebel stronghold in western Libya, killing at least nine people, cutting off its water and bringing in human shields, residents said on Monday.

  Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said a U.N. resolution authorizing military action in Libya resembled “medieval calls for crusades” and China stepped up criticism as Western forces prepared to switch from air strikes to air patrols.

• Radiation fears grow in disaster-struck Japan
  

  TOKYO (Reuters) – Global anxiety rose over radiation from Japan’s earthquake-damaged nuclear plant even as engineers had some success in the battle to avert disaster from the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl.

  The high-stakes drama at the battered Fukushima nuclear power complex is playing out while the Asian nation grapples with the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left at least 21,000 people dead or missing.

• Top Yemeni generals back democracy protesters
  
  By Mohamed Sudam and Cynthia Johnston

  SANAA (Reuters) – Top generals, ambassadors and some tribes threw their support behind Yemen’s anti-government protesters on Monday in a major blow to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s efforts to ride out demands for his immediate exit.

  The president, a perennial survivor who has stayed in power for 32 years throughout a civil war, numerous uprisings and militant campaigns, has seen a string of officials break ranks in recent days although some key military allies remain.

• Obama courts Latin America amid Libya air assault
  
  By Alister Bull and Matt Spetalnick

  SANTIAGO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama visited Chile on Monday on a trip to reassert U.S. influence in Latin America even as he tried to sell his decision to press military strikes against Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

  Following his weekend visit to Latin America’s economic powerhouse Brazil, Obama was to lay out his vision for deeper political, trade and investment ties with the region.

• Several hundred keep up protest pressure in Morocco
  

  RABAT (Reuters) – Several hundred teachers marched through Rabat on Monday for better pay a day after one of Morocco’s largest anti-government protests in recent decades against corruption and demanding government change.

  Monday’s protest, which briefly and noisily disrupted traffic in central Rabat, proceeded peacefully, as did wider nationwide protests on Sunday in the North African kingdom.

• U.S. plans more nuclear inspections after Japan crisis
  

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. nuclear regulators are launching additional inspections and considering a 90-day review of the country’s 104 nuclear reactors in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis, officials said on Monday.

  The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission met on Monday to discuss how to respond to the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was crippled by a powerful March 11 earthquake.

• Experts cautious on signs of Japan nuclear progress
  
  By Kate Kelland and Alister Doyle Kate Kelland And Alister Doyle

  LONDON/OSLO (Reuters) – Japan’s reconnection of power to its earthquake-damaged reactors is a big step in managing its nuclear crisis, experts said on Monday, but smoke and concerns about food safety showed the dangers are far from over.

  The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the crisis appeared to be on the verge of stabilizing.

• Stronger nuclear safety standards needed: IAEA chief
  
  By Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl

  VIENNA (Reuters) – International nuclear safety standards will need to be strengthened after the crisis at a Japanese atomic power plant triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, the U.N. nuclear agency chief said on Monday.

  But Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), acknowledged it could be difficult to make such rules mandatory.

• Medvedev raps use of word crusades on Libya
  

  GORKI, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday using the term crusades to refer to the situation in Libya was “unacceptable,” appearing to publicly criticize the country’s paramount leader Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

  Medvedev spoke just hours after Putin likened the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention in Libya to “medieval calls for crusades.”

• First cracks emerge in military coalition on Libya
  
  by Deborah Pasmantier

  PARIS (AFP) – While the US-French-British core stayed solid, cracks started to show Monday in the military coalition hastily assembled to take action on Libya as the Arab League and some EU countries wavered.

  Criticism of the operation came swiftly after French jets took to the skies on Saturday to launch the first air strikes on Libyan targets in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

• Smoke slows race to cool Japan nuclear plant
  
  by Hiroshi Hiyama

  KITAKAMI, Japan (AFP) – Smoke belched from a stricken nuclear plant in Japan on Monday, disrupting urgent efforts to repair the cooling systems as Tokyo halted some food shipments owing to radiation worries.

  Rain meanwhile complicated rescue efforts and compounded the misery of tsunami survivors fearful of dangerous radioactive leaks from the wrecked Fukushima power station, which has suffered a series of explosions and fires.

• Tanks deploy in Yemen capital as generals defect
  

  SANAA (AFP) – Tanks were deployed in Yemen’s capital on Monday as a dangerous split opened between the military leadership after top generals joined the revolt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime.

  As some of his closest military and tribal allies abandoned him, the embattled leader refused to submit to calls for his resignation and claimed he had the support of the vast majority of people in the impoverished country.

• Home sales tumble, prices near 9-year low
  
  By Lucia Mutikani

  SANAA (AFP) – Tanks were deployed in Yemen’s capital on Monday as a dangerous split opened between the military leadership after top generals joined the revolt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime.

  As some of his closest military and tribal allies abandoned him, the embattled leader refused to submit to calls for his resignation and claimed he had the support of the vast majority of people in the impoverished country.

• Rising gas prices eating into shopping budgets
  
  By Dhanya Skariachan

  NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shoppers plan to wait until next year and beyond to spend generously again, a survey on Monday showed, in an early sign that rising gasoline prices could make the spring selling season tough for retailers.

  About three-quarters of Americans surveyed by America’s Research Group said they were shopping less due to rising gas prices, with more than 62 percent of the participants planning to spend generously only next year or beyond.

• New Mexico caps tax incentives for filmmakers
  
  By Zelie Pollon

  SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) – New Mexico’s new Republican governor succeeded in her push to get state lawmakers to cap tax incentives for the film industry.

  A bill on its way to Governor Susana Martinez’s desk after the legislative session ended over the weekend would limit total state film incentives to $50 million a year.

• U.S. army apologizes over “repugnant” Afghan photos
  

  BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine published pictures Monday of American troops posing over the bloodied body of a man it said had been killed illegally in Afghanistan, drawing an apology from the U.S. army.

  The magazine said one of the pictures showed a smiling Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, who agreed last month to plead guilty to murder charges and testify against his co-defendants in a court martial, according to his lawyer.

• U.S. makes potassium iodide available in Japan
  

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is making potassium iodide available to U.S. personnel and their dependents living in Tokyo and other parts of Japan, as a precaution against radiation exposure, the State Department said in a travel warning on Monday.

  “The (potassium iodide) should only be consumed after specific instruction from the United States government,” the travel warning said.

• Google fined over Street View privacy breach
  
  By Greg Keller

  PARIS – Google received its first ever fine for improperly gathering and storing data for its Street View application on Monday when it was penalized by France’s privacy watchdog.

  The euro100,000 ($141,300) penalty – the largest ever by French body CNIL – sanctions Google for collecting personal data from Wi-Fi networks – including e-mails, web browsing histories and online banking details – from 2007 to 2010 through its roaming camera-mounted cars and bicycles.

• Court won’t hear campaign finance rules challenge
  

  WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court won’t hear a Republican-backed challenge of federal campaign finance restrictions.

  The court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by former Louisiana Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao and the Republican National Committee.