Evening Edition is an Open Thread
Now with 39 Top Stories.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Kadhafi steps up assault on rebels across Libya
by Dominique Soguel, AFP
43 mins ago
| BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) – Moamer Kadhafi’s troops unleashed a salvo of Grad rockets on towns in Libya’s western mountains Saturday, killing at least nine rebels as they pressed the insurgents on several fronts, rebels said.
Forces loyal to the Libyan strongman shelled fuel depots in Misrata and dropped mines in its harbour using helicopters bearing the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, the rebels said as they braced for a fresh ground assault. “It seems that the more desperate Kadhafi gets the more he unleashes his firepower on the people,” said Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the opposition National Transitional Council. |
2 Kadhafi forces shell Misrata fuel depots, drop mines
by Dominique Soguel, AFP
2 hrs 20 mins ago
| BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) – Libyan regime forces Saturday shelled fuel depots in Misrata and dropped mines into its harbour using helicopters bearing the Red Cross emblem, rebels said as they braced for a ground assault.
The latest fighting came as Amnesty International lashed out at the government of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, saying its more than two-month “horrifying” siege of Misrata could be a war crime. “There are still attacks by Grad missiles and our fighters are still resisting,” said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, military spokesman of the rebels’ Benghazi-based National Transitional Council. |
3 Libyan tribal chiefs urge amnesty for all fighters
by W.G. Dunlop, AFP
Sat May 7, 9:55 am ET
| TRIPOLI (AFP) (AFP) – Libya’s tribal chiefs have urged a general amnesty for all fighters engaged in the oil-rich nation’s civil war, as Amnesty International said the regime’s siege of Misrata could be a war crime.
Rebels, meanwhile, braced for a new ground assault by Moamer Kadhafi’s forces on Misrata, the main bastion of the insurgents in western Libya. The National Conference for Libyan Tribes called in a meeting that ended late Friday for a “general amnesty law which will include all those who were involved in the crisis and took up arms.” |
4 Syrian forces launch deadly raid on hotbed city
AFP
41 mins ago
| DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian forces rained gunfire on Banias Saturday as they pushed ahead with an assault on the restive port, killing six people, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents called for elections to end the crisis.
Activists said dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles entered Banias, on the Mediterranean coast, from three directions as electricity and communications were cut. Tanks also encircled the nearby town of Baida. Residents of Banias formed human chains in a desperate bid to halt the military operation when it began around dawn, said activists reached by telephone. |
5 Syrian tanks storm flashpoint city: activists
AFP
Sat May 7, 6:50 am ET
| DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian tanks stormed the flashpoint city of Banias Saturday, rights activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad ignored growing world outrage to press a violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
Heavy gunfire was heard in Banias’s south, a seaside sector of the city where most of the protesters live, while navy boats patrolled offshore, the activists said, reached by telephone from Nicosia. An Internet-based Syrian opposition group, meanwhile, proposed Saturday that embattled Assad offer to hold elections in six months in order to bring to an end the crisis that has engulfed his country for more than seven weeks. |
6 Two dead as Taliban hits govt buildings in Afghan city
by Mamoon Durrani, AFP
Sat May 7, 1:14 pm ET
| KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – The Taliban unleashed a coordinated wave of attacks on government targets in the key southern Afghan city of Kandahar Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding 29.
President Hamid Karzai charged that the violence was “revenge” for this week’s killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by US troops in Pakistan, but the Taliban said the operation was planned several weeks ahead. Targets in the first major incident since the Taliban unveiled the start of its spring offensive included the offices of the governor, mayor and intelligence service plus two schools and several police offices. |
7 Taliban launch string of attacks on key Afghan city
by Mamoon Durrani, AFP
Sat May 7, 11:35 am ET
| KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – The Taliban unleashed a wave of attacks including six suicide bombings on government targets in the major southern Afghan city of Kandahar Saturday, leaving at least 14 people wounded.
Militants with guns and rocket-propelled grenades launched an assault on the governor’s office, and ten explosions including six suicide blasts rocked the city — the birthplace of the Taliban — after the attacks began at about 1:00 pm (0930 GMT). Gunmen occupied a hotel near the local office of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, while suicide bombers tried to attack two police offices in the south’s de facto capital but were shot before they could reach their targets. |
8 Singapore ruling party wins but opposition makes inroads
by Philip Lim, AFP
1 hr 1 min ago
| SINGAPORE (AFP) – Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) was returned to power on Sunday with a huge majority but lost a key district to the opposition, costing a senior cabinet minister his job.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong thanked voters for their support as unofficial reports had the PAP winning 81 of the 87 seats, compared with its victory in 82 out of 84 seats in Singapore’s last general election in 2006. Foreign Minister George Yeo lost a hotly contested group constituency whose five seats went to the Workers’ Party, forcing him out of the cabinet. |
9 Europe faces up to boomerang Greek debt chaos
by Roddy Thomson, AFP
1 hr 2 mins ago
| BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe faced the spectre of Greek calls for new financial aid Saturday as Athens’ “catastrophic” finances returned to haunt stressed eurozone states.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou urged “the EU in particular, to leave Greece in peace to do its job”, but Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou later warned that Athens may need more hard cash support. “We need to plan our next steps for 2012 and 2013 so that Greece can either access markets or use the European council’s recent decision that enables the European (rescue) fund to buy Greek bonds,” Papaconstantinou said, after G20-eurozone talks overnight in Luxembourg. |
10 Thousands rally in Japan against nuclear power
by Harumi Ozawa, AFP
Sat May 7, 10:13 am ET
| TOKYO (AFP) – Thousands of people rallied in Japan Saturday to demand a shift away from nuclear power after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl a quarter-century ago.
Braving spring drizzle, thousands of demonstrators gathered at a park in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, many holding hand-made banners reading: “Nuclear is old!” and “We want a shift in energy policy!” The protest came a day after Prime Minister Naoto Kan called a halt to operations at a nuclear plant southwest of Tokyo because it is near a tectonic faultline, fearing a disaster like that which hit the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March. |
11 Dominant Vettel takes pole for Turkish GP
by Gordon Howard, AFP
Sat May 7, 8:51 am ET
| ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) – Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel bounced back from his crash in practice on Friday to claim pole position in an all Red Bull front row on Saturday for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.
His fourth successive pole position from the opening four races of the season was the first time this feat had been achieved since Finnish driver Mika Hakkinen in 1999. The 23-year-old German drove his Red Bull car — dubbed ‘Kinky Kylie’ — with great conviction despite his damaging experience the previous day to clock an outstanding lap time of one minute and 25.049 seconds. |
12 Libyan forces destroy Misrata fuel tanks: rebels
By Lin Nouiehed, Reuters
2 hrs 2 mins ago
| TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan government forces destroyed four fuel storage tanks and set several others ablaze in rebel-held Misrata, dealing a blow to the port city’s ability to withstand a government siege, rebels said on Saturday.
The bombardment of the western city came as artillery rounds fired by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi fell in Tunisia in an escalation of fighting near the border with rebels trying to end Gaddafi’s rule of more than four decades. Misrata, the last remaining city in the west under rebel control, has been under siege for more than two months and has witnessed some of the war’s fiercest fighting. |
13 Syria army attacks Banias
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters
Sat May 7, 10:54 am ET
| AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian tanks attacked the mostly Sunni Muslim city of Banias on Saturday, a rights campaigner said, raising sectarian tension in a country gripped by protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
The campaigner told Reuters that Syrian forces fired at a small all-women protest marching on the main coastal highway from Marqab village near Banias, killing three of them. The attack came hours after the United States, reacting to the death of 27 protesters on Friday, threatened to take new steps against Syria’s rulers, from the Alawite sect, unless they stopped killing and harassing their people. |
14 River flooding begins to "wrap arms" around Memphis
By John Branston, Reuters
1 hr 9 mins ago
| MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Reuters) – Memphis area residents were warned on Saturday that the Mississippi River was gradually starting to “wrap its arms” around the city and rise to record levels.
“It’s a pretty day here, and people get a false sense of security,” said Steve Shular, public affairs officer for the Shelby County Office of Preparedness. “The mighty Mississippi is starting to wrap its arms around us here in Memphis.” County officials were going house-to-house in areas threatened by flooding from both the Mississippi and its tributaries. Nearly 3,000 properties are expected to be threatened. Shular said residents are being told that if they have been flooded before, they will be again. |
15 Greek PM denies euro exit; says leave Greece alone
By Dina Kyriakidou and Renee Maltezou, Reuters
Sat May 7, 1:23 pm ET
| ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Saturday denied there was even unofficial discussion over Greece quitting the euro zone and asked that his troubled country be “left alone to finish its task.”
Ministers from the euro zone’s biggest economies met in Luxembourg to discuss Greece’s debt crisis on Friday but Athens and senior EU officials denied a report by Germany’s Spiegel Online that the Greek government had raised the prospect of leaving the 17-member euro zone. “These scenarios are borderline criminal,” Papandreou told a conference on the Ionian island of Meganisi. “No such scenario has been discussed even in our unofficial contacts…I call upon everyone in Greece and abroad, and especially in the EU, to leave Greece alone to do its job in peace.” |
16 Japan anti-nuclear protesters rally after PM call to close plant
By Mari Saito, Reuters
Sat May 7, 10:00 am ET
| TOKYO (Reuters) – Several thousand Japanese anti-nuclear protesters marched in the rain on Saturday, welcoming a call from the prime minister to shut down a plant in central Japan and urging him to close more to avoid another nuclear crisis.
The surprise call from Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday to shut down Chubu Electric Power Co’s Hamaoka plant followed pressure on the government to review nuclear energy policy after a March 11 quake and tsunami damaged another plant and triggered the worst disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Tens of thousands of residents around the Fukushima Daiichi plant on the northeast coast have been ordered to evacuate after radiation leaks into the air, soil and sea. Radiation checks have led to shipment bans of some vegetables and fish. |
17 A hammer, a hood and the hooking of Uganda’s Besigye
By Barry Malone, Reuters
Sat May 7, 10:44 am ET
| KAMPALA (Reuters) – The camera never lies, except in Uganda. At least, that’s the government’s position.
An extraordinary row has broken out in the east African country over media photographs and video footage of the arrest of its most popular opposition leader Kizza Besigye last week. Ministers insist some images are “concoctions.” But the claim is drawing derision, particularly from those who witnessed the incident. |
18 Taliban say bin Laden death will revive Afghan insurgency
By Jonathon Burch, Reuters
Sat May 7, 3:36 am ET
| KABUL (Reuters) – The Afghan Taliban have issued a statement acknowledging the death of Osama bin Laden after al Qaeda confirmed its leader had been killed by U.S. forces, but said his death would only revitalize their fight against the “occupiers” in Afghanistan.
While other militant groups across the world were quick to denounce bin Laden’s killing, the Taliban, who once sheltered the al Qaeda leader, were slow to comment in the hours after his death, saying they needed proof he had been killed. Al Qaeda then issued its own statement on Friday confirming bin Laden was dead, prompting a response hours later from the Taliban. |
19 For Pawlenty, solid U.S. debate is no game-changer
By John Whitesides
Fri May 6, 5:53 pm ET
| GREENVILLE, South Carolina (Reuters) – As the only candidate on stage with a realistic shot at the Republican nomination, Tim Pawlenty had the biggest opportunity and most at risk in the party’s first 2012 presidential debate.
He responded with a solid and typically low-key performance that reinforced his role as a legitimate contender but will do little to change his current standing in the low single-digits in most national polls. “It was a good performance, but it wasn’t particularly memorable in a way that could have really helped him,” said Scott Huffmon, a political scientist at Winthrop University in South Carolina. |
20 Goldman sees new oil rally
By Dmitry Zhdannikov and David Sheppard, Reuters
Fri May 6, 7:55 pm ET
| LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs, which in April predicted this week’s major correction in oil prices, said on Friday that oil could surpass its recent highs by 2012 as global oil supplies continue to tighten.
The Wall Street bank, seen as one of the most influential in commodity markets, said it did not rule out a further short-term fall after Thursday’s near record drop, especially if economic data continued to disappoint. But the bank reaffirmed its traditional long-term bullish view of oil, helping crude to pare some of its earlier heavy losses on Friday. And it wasn’t alone: JP Morgan took the bold step of raising its oil price forecasts for this year by $10, becoming the most bullish of 27 forecasts in a Reuters poll. |
21 Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is cordial but sniffly
By Lauren Tara LaCapra, Reuters
Fri May 6, 6:26 pm ET
| JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein was in good spirits on Friday at his firm’s annual meeting, despite battling some testy shareholders and what seemed to be a cold.
The Wall Street chieftain sipped water and blew his nose through the two-hour proceedings, and declined to shake one investor’s hand after the meeting for fear of spreading germs. But while Blankfein might have preferred chicken soup over the continental breakfast on display, his demeanor remained strong and, some might say, resilient. |
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22 Oil falls again, gutted in record weekly drop
By Matthew Robinson, Reuters
Fri May 6, 5:38 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil fell on Friday to cap a frenzied trading week that sliced prices by a record of more than $16 a barrel on demand worries and a move by investors to slash commodities exposures.
Oil bounced up early, then began to erase gains as the dollar rose. Crude turned negative late, extending Thursday’s shock-inducing collapse, when Brent fell by as much as $12, a record, in a furious, high-volume session that saw wave after wave of selling as key technical levels were broken. Selling pressure on oil and other commodities came on several fronts throughout the week. Investors weighed factors from the death of Osama bin Laden to the impact of higher fuel and commodity costs on consumer nation economies to the monetary policy in major economies. |
23 Taliban attack Afghan government offices in south
By MIRWAIS KHAN and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press
1 hr 37 mins ago
| KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The Taliban unleashed a major assault Saturday on government buildings throughout Afghanistan’s main southern city, an attack that cast doubt on how successful the U.S.-led coalition has been in its nearly yearlong military campaign to establish security and stability in the former Taliban stronghold.
The Taliban said their goal was to take control of Kandahar city, the birthplace of the Taliban and President Hamid Karzai’s home province, making it the most ambitious of a series of recent high-profile attacks on government installations. The attack came a day after the Islamic movement said Osama bin Laden’s death would only serve to boost morale, but a Taliban spokesman insisted it had been in the works for months before the al-Qaida leader was killed by American commandos on Monday. Shooting started shortly after midday and lasted more than seven hours, while government forces were backed by military helicopters firing from overhead. |
24 Huntsman addresses his Obama role in SC speech
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press
2 hrs 56 mins ago
| COLUMBIA, S.C. – Republican Jon Huntsman, weighing a White House bid, used his first formal event after stepping down as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to China to confront the line on his resume that conservatives were most likely to declare a deal-breaker.
In a high-profile speech to the University of South Carolina, the former Utah governor said patriotism should trump partisanship and defended his two years in Beijing as the Democratic administration’s top diplomat. “Work to keep America great. Serve her if asked. I was – by a president of a different political party,” Huntsman said, directly addressing the job that his rivals and critics hope to make disqualifier among the conservatives who hold great sway in the nominating process. |
25 Detroit’s Verlander throws second career no-hitter
By IAN HARRISON, For The Associated Press
7 mins ago
| TORONTO – Justin Verlander threw his second career no-hitter and the second in the big leagues this week, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 9-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.
Verlander barely missed a perfect game. The only runner he allowed came with one out in the eighth inning when J.P. Arencibia walked on a full count, with Verlander’s 12th pitch to the rookie just an inch or two outside. Minnesota’s Francisco Liriano pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night. |
26 AP IMPACT: China’s spying seeks secret US info
By PAULINE ARRILLAGA, AP National Writer
Sat May 7, 11:47 am ET
| ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The young man stood before the judge, his usually neatly trimmed hair now long enough to brush the collar of his prison jumpsuit. Glenn Duffie Shriver had confessed his transgressions and was here, in a federal courtroom with his mother watching, to receive his sentence and to try, somehow, to explain it all.
When the time came for him to address the court, he spoke of the many dreams he’d had to work on behalf of his country. “Mine was to be a life of service,” he said. “I could have been very valuable. That was originally my plan.” |
27 Woman awaits freedom after 17 years behind bars
By LYNN DeBRUIN, Associated Press
2 hrs 27 mins ago
| SALT LAKE CITY – In her dream, Debra Brown pedals out of a Utah prison on a powder blue bicycle, riding past razor wire that for the last 17 years has kept her from proms and graduations and the birth of seven grandchildren.
On Monday that dream figures to become a reality – even though the bike will be awaiting the 53-year-old outside the walls of Utah State Prison, where family members plan a parking lot reunion. “We’re going to celebrate a late Mother’s Day, but it will be the best Mother’s Day present we could ask for,” said daughter Alana Williams, who was 11 when Debra Brown was arrested in Logan, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City, 10 months after the November 1993 shooting death of her longtime friend and employer, Lael Brown. The two were not related. |
28 Wisconsin Republicans rush agenda before recalls
By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press
Sat May 7, 2:54 pm ET
| MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker and GOP leaders have launched a push to ram several years’ worth of conservative agenda items through the Legislature this spring before recall elections threaten to end the party’s control of state government.
Republicans, in a rapid sequence of votes over the next eight weeks, plan to legalize concealed weapons, deregulate the telephone industry, require voters to show photo identification at the polls, expand school vouchers and undo an early release for prisoners. Lawmakers may also act again on Walker’s controversial plan stripping public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. An earlier version, which led to massive protest demonstrations at the Capitol, has been left in limbo by legal challenges. |
29 Automatic budget cuts have spotty record
By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press
2 hrs 8 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Congress and President Barack Obama are proposing ways to automatically trigger budget savings if they can’t rein in deficits the old-fashioned way, by enacting laws to cut spending or raise taxes. Similar efforts in the past have a spotty record.
The last quarter-century has seen plenty of missed deficit and spending targets and inventive evasions of budget curbs. This is because the same legislators who put in place those budget constraints can pass laws to ignore them. That history has convinced analysts that automatic triggers work best when lawmakers already have approved spending cuts, taxes increases or both. They’re least effective when used as an incentive to force legislators into such agreements in the first place. |
30 Japan utility delays decision on halting reactors
By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press
Sat May 7, 8:50 am ET
| TOKYO – A Japanese power company postponed its decision Saturday on a government request that it halt three reactors at a coastal nuclear plant until safety measures can be improved to guard against future earthquakes and tsunamis.
Shutting down the reactors would likely worsen power shortages expected this summer. On Friday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he had asked Chubu Electric Power Co. to suspend operation of the reactors at the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station in Shizuoka prefecture until a seawall is built and backup systems are improved. Though not legally binding, the request is a virtual order. |
31 Billionaires gather in Arizona to discuss giving
By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press
Sat May 7, 7:18 am ET
| What do dozens of American billionaires talk about when they get together? Their topic this week was of course money; not how to make it, but how to give it away.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Friday that a private gathering was a great chance for the billionaires who have pledged to give away at least half their wealth to meet each other, compare notes, eat and laugh. The media was banned from Thursday’s first meeting of the group that has accepted the giving challenge by Buffett and his friend Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Since last June, 69 individuals or couples have made the giving pledge. |
Galts.
32 Bahrain’s rulers cast net for loyalty oaths online
By BRIAN MURPHY and BARBARA SURK, Associated Press
Sat May 7, 7:17 am ET
| DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – While Bahrain’s justice minister was making the latest accusations against alleged enemies of the state – this time medical staff – other officials were busy organizing a patriotic blitz that encourages pledges of loyalty on Facebook and Twitter.
These are the parallel worlds of one of Washington’s linchpin military allies in the Gulf. On one side is a grinding campaign to break the spirits of Shiite-led opponents whose pro-reform uprising was smothered by martial law. On the other: An expanding PR offensive to portray the Sunni monarchy as firmly in charge, and Bahrain as a firewall against Iranian influence in the nation that hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. |
33 50 years later, students retrace 1961 Freedom Ride
By ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON, Associated Press
Sat May 7, 2:37 pm ET
| RICHMOND, Va. – Charles Reed Jr. is skipping his college graduation ceremony to do something much more significant to him: retracing the original 1961 Freedom Ride and paying tribute to those who helped win the civil rights that his generation enjoys.
The 21-year-old business administration major at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, says missing Friday’s graduation doesn’t compare to the sacrifices the original Freedom Riders made when they challenged the South’s segregation laws: quitting jobs, dropping out of college and, ultimately, risking their lives. “What the Freedom Rides did 50 years ago paved the way for what I have today as an African-American,” said Reed, one of 40 college students chosen from nearly 1,000 applicants who will join a handful of the original Freedom Riders on an eight-day journey from Washington, D.C., through the South. |
34 Gender stereotypes easing more for girls than boys
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
Sat May 7, 10:13 am ET
| NEW YORK – If a girl wants to try her hand at baseball or ice hockey, she’s likely to be praised as plucky. But if a boy likes the color pink?
Well, that’s a toenail of a different color. Last month, J. Crew unleashed a furor when a promotion depicted its creative director, Jenna Lyons, painting her 5-year-old son Beckett’s toenails with pink nail polish. “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink,” the caption read. |
35 US gov’t opposes public defender in Nazi case
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press
Fri May 6, 11:06 pm ET
| CLEVELAND – U.S. prosecutors asked a judge Friday to reject a federal public defender’s request to represent a retired Ohio autoworker who is on trial in Germany for alleged Nazi war crimes.
John Demjanjuk, 90, already has a U.S. attorney willing to work for free, so he doesn’t need a public defender, prosecutors said in a U.S. District Court filing. The public defender asked last week to be appointed co-counsel, citing a 1985 FBI report recently uncovered by The Associated Press that challenged the authenticity of a Nazi ID card used as evidence in the trial. |
36 Transnational criminal groups threaten hemisphere
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, AP Hispanic Affairs Writer
Fri May 6, 9:49 pm ET
| MIAMI – Transnational criminal organizations across Latin America pose the region’s greatest threat, U.S. officials and experts agreed Friday.
“We have a key threat that we all need to focus on and that is transnational criminal organizations,” the head of U.S. Southern Command Gen. Douglas Fraser told a conference organized by the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy. U.S. Southern Command handles planning, operations, and security cooperation for Central and South America. |
37 Proposed shark fin ban makes waves in San Fran
By ROBIN HINDERY, Associated Press
Fri May 6, 9:01 pm ET
| SAN FRANCISCO – A California proposal to outlaw the title ingredient in shark fin soup, a traditional Chinese delicacy, has turned into a recipe for controversy in San Francisco, a city that is nearly one-third Asian and home to the nation’s oldest Chinatown.
A bill moving through the state Legislature would ban the sale, distribution and possession of shark fins. State and federal laws prohibit shark finning in U.S. waters but do not address the importation of fins from other countries. Supporters say shark finning is inhumane and a threat to the ocean ecosystem. They say an estimated 73 million sharks a year are slaughtered, mainly for shark fin soup, which can sell for more than $80 a bowl and is often served at weddings and banquets. |
38 Feds: All kids, legal or not, entitled to K-12 ed
By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press
Fri May 6, 7:38 pm ET
| MIAMI – The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to districts around the country Friday, reminding them that all students – legal or not – are entitled to a public education.
The letter comes amid reports that schools may be checking the immigration status of students trying to enroll, and reminds districts they are federally prohibited from barring elementary or secondary students on the basis of citizenship status. “Moreover, districts may not request information with the purpose or result of denying access to public schools on the basis of race, color or national origin,” said the letter, which was signed by officials from the department’s Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Justice. |
39 Gas price to drop as oil joins commodities plunge
By JONATHAN FAHEY and CHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writers
Fri May 6, 6:24 pm ET
| NEW YORK – Investors finally hit the brakes on oil, gold, silver and food prices. This week’s sharp sell-off doesn’t mean commodity prices’ stunning rise over the last several months is over, but it is good news for anyone planning a road trip this summer.
Oil prices fell 15 percent this week, the steepest decline in two and a half years, just as average U.S. pump prices were approaching $4 a gallon. Gasoline prices fell imperceptibly to consumers’ eyes Friday – one-tenth of a penny to just over $3.98 per gallon – but that ended a 44-day streak of rising prices. Prices will soon drop noticeably and some analysts said they could hit $3.50 by summer. Analysts say investors got nervous that oil, metals and grains had risen over the past few months to unrealistic heights. Their rush to sell also knocked silver prices down 28 percent, sugar down 13 percent and natural gas down 10 percent. |
Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes. 
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