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13-year-old Kansas girl wins National Spelling Bee
By JOSEPH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Cool and collected, Kavya Shivashankar wrote out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile. The 13-year-old Kansas girl saved the biggest smile for last, when she rattled off the letters to "Laodicean" to become the nation's spelling champion.
The budding neurosurgeon from Olathe, Kan., outlasted 11 finalists Thursday night to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking home more than $40,000 in cash and prizes and, of course, the huge champion's trophy.
"I can't believe it happened," Kavya said. "It feels kind of unreal." |
Obama says health care a must this year — or never
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama warned Thursday that if Congress doesn't deliver health care legislation by the end of the year the opportunity will be lost, a plea to political supporters to pressure lawmakers to act. "If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done," Obama told supporters by phone as he flew home on Air Force One from a West Coast fundraising trip.
Obama's political organization, Organizing for America, invited campaign volunteers to a midday conference call to describe a nationwide June 6 kickoff for its health care campaign. The president's message to his re-election campaign-in-waiting was simple: If volunteers don't pressure lawmakers to support the White House's goal on health care, Washington would drag its feet and nothing would change. |
Sotomayor's views on abortion rights are unknown
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – One of the few things conservatives and liberals agree on when it comes to Sonia Sotomayor is that her views on abortion rights are a mystery — and one that must be solved before she can be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.
Sotomayor's nomination has reopened a politically and emotionally charged debate over abortion that's energized interest groups on the left and right — all working to draw members, money and attention by ensuring the issue features prominently in the judge's confirmation hearings. |
Dismissed Palin ethics complaints don't come cheaply
By Sean Cockerham The Anchorage Daily News
The Alaska Personnel Board, clearly frustrated with the pile of ethics complaints filed against Gov. Sarah Palin, wants to publicize the cost of dealing with them.
The personnel board members decided at a Wednesday meeting to work with the attorney general's office on how to make public the cost of addressing each ethics complaint, without violating the board's confidentiality rules.
"We've spent pretty close to about a third of a million dollars, and it's getting to be really expensive," said Al Tamagni, a member of the board. |
Sanford asks whether Supreme Court should hear S.C. stimulus case
By John O'Connor | The State (Columbia, S.C.)
A state Supreme Court hearing over a disputed $700 million in federal stimulus money is on hold until a federal judge decides whether the case belongs in state or federal court.
Gov. Mark Sanford asked a U.S. District Court judge to consider the case, filed by two Midlands students, hours after the S.C. Supreme Court added him Wednesday as a party in the case. |
Multiracial people become fastest-growing US group
By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Multiracial Americans have become the fastest growing demographic group, wielding an impact on minority growth that challenges traditional notions of race.
The number of multiracial people rose 3.4 percent last year to about 5.2 million, according to the latest census estimates. First given the option in 2000, Americans who check more than one box for race on census surveys have jumped by 33 percent and now make up 5 percent of the minority population — with millions more believed to be uncounted. |
U.S. economy has stepped back from brink: Obama
By Doug Palmer
BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is showing signs of stabilizing after suffering the worst economic crisis in decades, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.
"When you look at the economy right now, I think it's safe to say we have stepped back from the brink, that there is some calm that didn't exist before," Obama said at a fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee. |
U.S. durable goods orders rise, jobless claims ease
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods saw their biggest gain in 16 months in April and fewer workers filed for new jobless benefits last week, according to data on Thursday that suggested the deep recession was abating.
The Commerce Department said new orders for durable goods rose 1.9 percent from March, the biggest percentage advance since December 2007. However, March orders were revised sharply lower, falling 2.1 percent from the previously reported 0.8 percent decline. |
GM bankruptcy looms after bondholders back deal
By Kevin Krolicki and Thorsten Severin
DETROIT/BERLIN (Reuters) – General Motors Corp persuaded its major bondholders to accept a sweetened ownership plan on Thursday, a deal that could result in a smoother ride for the carmaker through bankruptcy.
But the troubles for Detroit's automakers deepened when former Ford Motor Co unit Visteon Corp and another parts supplier filed for bankruptcy protection a move some analysts worried could affect Ford's cash position. |
Relatives of slain Iraqis confront killer in court
By BRETT BARROUQUERE, Associated Press Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With tears streaming down their faces, relatives of a murdered Iraqi family confronted the killer Thursday in an American courtroom and said he deserved to die, as the ex-soldier convicted of rape and murder apologized and said he will face "God's justice."
In a hearing that turned emotional at times, surviving members of the al-Janabi family gestured and questioned former Pfc. Steven Dale Green, convicted earlier this month of killing four people in Iraq. |
Stroke group expands time for clot-busting drugs
By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer
DALLAS – A change to stroke treatment guidelines is expanding the time that some patients can get clot-busting drugs. Current recommendations limit the use of the medicine to within three hours after the start of stroke symptoms. That treatment window is now being lengthened to 4 1/2 hours for some patients.
But the committee that made the change stressed that the earlier the treatment, the better for stroke victims. |
Uninsured face avalanche of health costs
By Deborah Charles
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When Jim Hann learned he would be laid off, he scheduled surgery to donate a kidney to his wife.
Steve Drake rationed his asthma medicine after he was let go while two-time cancer survivor Roberta Furchak had to draw on precious retirement savings to ensure her tests were covered after she lost her job.
All three were trying to compensate for losing health insurance in a country where unemployment often means going without coverage. |
New pregnancy guidelines bad news for obese women
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Obese women can safely gain just a small amount of weight when pregnant, but doctors need to do more to help women stay slim before they get pregnant, U.S. policy advisers said on Thursday.
Women who are obese should gain about 11 to 20 pounds (5 to 9 kg) while pregnant, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council panel said in new guidelines. |
U.S. student, 20, emerges as anti-abortion crusader
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With a video camera hidden in her backpack, college student Lila Rose has become a rising star in the U.S. anti-abortion movement for her clandestine tactics in taking on Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest provider of surgical abortions.
Rose stages her own sting operations at Planned Parenthood clinics, posing as a pregnant teenage girl to shine a light on what she says is the taxpayer-subsidized organization's cover-up of sexual abuse. |
Tropical depression forms off U.S. coast
MIAMI (Reuters) – The first tropical depression of the Atlantic hurricane season formed on Thursday off the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States and could become a short-lived tropical storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The swirling mass of thunderstorms was centered about 310 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island, and had top sustained winds of 35 mph, the Miami-based center said. |
Google hoping Web surfers will ride its `Wave'
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer
Google Inc. is hatching a new species of e-mail and instant messaging, but the Internet search leader first wants the hybrid service to evolve even more with the help of independent computer programmers.
The free tool, called "Google Wave," runs in a Web browser and combines elements of e-mail, instant messaging, wikis and photo sharing in an effort to make online communication more dynamic. Google hopes Wave simplifies the way people collaborate on projects or exchange opinions about specific topics. |
Bush v. Gore lawyers take on gay marriage ban
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two lawyers who squared off in the legal battle over the 2000 U.S. presidential election teamed up on Wednesday to challenge California's gay marriage ban in a move that, if successful, would allow same-sex couples to wed anywhere in the United States.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two same-sex California couples barred from marrying under the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8, puts them at odds with gay rights advocates who see a federal court challenge as too risky and fear a loss in the U.S. Supreme Court. |
Openly gay teen voted prom queen at LA high school
AP-LOS ANGELES – An openly gay teen was voted prom queen at Los Angeles' Fairfax High School in a campaign that began as a stunt but ended up spurring discussion on the campus about gender roles and teen popularity. Sergio Garcia, 18, was crowned queen Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
"I feel invincible," Garcia said in his tiara and charcoal-gray tuxedo.
A few days earlier, he gave a speech that won over some cynics and led to an ovation and his unlikely victory.
"At one time, prom may have been a big popularity contest where the best-looking guy or girl were crowned king and queen. Things have changed and it's no longer just about who has the most friends or who wears the coolest clothes," Garcia told a gymnasium full of seniors. "I'm not your typical prom queen candidate. There's more to me than meets the eye." |
Aviation biofuel proves itself in tests, but is there enough?
By Les Blumenthal McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Initial flight tests have found that jet fuel made partly of camelina, algae or other bio-feed stocks can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes by more than 50 percent, doesn't affect performance and presents no technical or safety problems, a top Boeing official said Thursday.
"It meets all jet fuel requirements and then some," said Billy Glover, who heads Boeing's environmental strategy group. |
Big Apple readies to greet a royal little brother
By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK – He's a 24-year-old Londoner whose grandmother offered to pay for his trip to New York.
On Friday, Prince Harry will start his first official visit to America, with plans including a stop at the World Trade Center site, meetings with wounded veterans and a polo match. |
Everglades swamped with invading pythons
By Jim Loney
THE EVERGLADES, Florida (Reuters) – The population of Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades may have grown to as many as 150,000 as the non-native snakes make a home and breed in the fragile wetlands, officials said Thursday.
Wildlife biologists say the troublesome invaders -- dumped in the Everglades by pet owners who no longer want them -- have become a pest and pose a significant threat to endangered species like the wood stork and Key Largo woodrat. |
Organic dairy farmers hit hard by recession
By Katie Zezima The New York Times
RANDOLPH CENTER, Vt. — When Ken Preston went organic on his dairy farm here in 2005, he figured that doing so would guarantee him what had long been elusive: a steady high price for the milk from his cows.
Sure enough, his income soared 20 percent, and he could finally afford a Chevy Silverado pickup to help out. The dairy conglomerate that distributed his milk wanted everything he could supply. Supermarket orders skyrocketed.
But soon the price of organic feed shot up. Then the recession hit, and families looking to save on groceries found organic milk easy to do without. Ultimately the conglomerate, with a glut of product, said it would not renew his contract next month, leaving him with nowhere to sell his milk, a victim of trends that are crippling many organic dairy farmers from coast to coast. |
Ore. man calls 911 over orange juice at McDonald's
AP-ALOHA, Ore. – An Oregon man spent Memorial Day in jail after dialing 911 to complain that a McDonald's worker was rude and didn't give him an orange juice he ordered. Raibin Osman was accused of improper use of the emergency telephone number. |
Lawyer: 'Rockefeller' insane when he took daughter
By DENISE LAVOIE, AP Legal Affairs Writer
BOSTON – Prosecutors and defense lawyers offered similar portraits of the man who calls himself Clark Rockefeller as his kidnapping trial opened Thursday: a German-born man who has spent decades making up fantastic lies about himself.
The two sides also agreed that he kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Boston last summer. |
Chinese ships quit North-South Korea border: report
By Lee Jin-woo
YEONPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters) – Chinese fishing ships are quitting a disputed sea border that divides the two Koreas as tension mounts on the peninsula following this week's nuclear test by the North, South Korean media reported on Friday.
South Korea and the United States earlier raised the military alert level in the region as North Korea turns increasingly belligerent, following its nuclear test with missile launches and the threat of war. |
Iran mosque bombing kills 19 worshippers: agency
By Aresu Eqbali
TEHRAN (AFP) – A bomb blast at a Shiite mosque in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan killed at least 19 worshippers and wounded 80 others, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The evening explosion struck the Amir al-Momenin mosque in Zahedan, the restive capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, which has a substantial Sunni minority, it said.
"The bomb exploded at the time of evening prayer and killed a number of worshippers," Ali Mohammad Azad, the governor general of the province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan told reporters. |
Residents seethe as Pakistan army destroys homes
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
SULTANWAS, Pakistan – When Pakistan's army drove the Taliban back from this small northwestern village, it also destroyed much of everything else here.
F-16 fighter jets, military helicopters, tanks and artillery reduced houses, mosques and shops to rubble, strewn with children's shoes, shattered TV sets and perfume bottles. |
Big quake off Honduras kills 5, crumbles houses
By Gustavo Palencia
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – A powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Honduras on Thursday, killing at least five people, knocking down flimsy homes and causing damage in neighboring Guatemala.
The offshore quake destroyed some 60 houses and damaged scores of other buildings across the north of Honduras, a poor country of 7 million people, and briefly triggered a tsunami alert for Central America's Caribbean coast. |
Scientists identify new lethal virus in Africa
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA – Scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus. The so-called "Lujo" virus infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them died, but a fifth survived, perhaps helped by a medicine recommended by the scientists.
It's not clear how the first person became infected, but the bug comes from a family of viruses found in rodents, said Dr. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist involved in the discovery.
"This one is really, really aggressive" he said of the virus. |
Amnesty: Economic crisis fuels rights "time bomb"
By Adrian Croft
LONDON (Reuters) – The global economic downturn has aggravated human rights violations and distracted attention from abuses, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
The world faced a grave danger that "rising poverty and desperate economic and social conditions could lead to political instability and mass violence," the rights group's secretary-general, Irene Khan, wrote in its annual report. |
SKorea, US troops raise alert after NKorean threat
by Lim Chang-Won
SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea and the United States put their troops on higher alert in the Korean peninsula Thursday after the North said it was ending a truce in force for half a century and warned of a possible attack.
Seoul's defence ministry said air and ground forces were keeping a closer watch on the tense land and sea border with the communist North after Pyongyang said it was abandoning the armistice signed to end the Korean War in 1953.
Tensions have risen sharply since North Korea Monday tested a nuclear bomb believed to be about four times more powerful than the one it detonated in 2006. It followed up by test-firing five short-range missiles. |
Gates: No reason to build up US troops in Korea
By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam – While worrisome, North Korea's nuclear and missile tests have not reached a crisis level that would warrant additional U.S. troops in the region, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
Gates, flying to Singapore to meet with Asian defense ministers, said he has not seen any moves by North Korea's military that would prompt the United States to add to the roughly 28,000 troops already in South Korea. He said any military actions would need to be decided upon, and carried out, by broad international agreement. |
U.S. slams British press over report of abuse photos
By Andrew Gray and Ross Colvin Andrew
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's administration strongly denied a British report on Thursday that images of apparent rape and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners are among photographs that it is trying to prevent being made public.
In unusually forceful terms, the Pentagon attacked the report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper while the White House went so far as to cast doubt on the accuracy of the British press in general. |
Obama meets Abbas, presses Israel on settlements
By Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on Israel to freeze settlements as he sought to reassure visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of U.S. support for Palestinian statehood.
Hoping to revive stalled peace efforts, Obama held White House talks with Abbas 10 days after hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains at odds with Israel's superpower ally over Jewish settlements and Palestinian statehood. |
SKorea deploys 15,000 police for Roh's funeral
By Park Chan-Kyong
SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea deployed 15,000 riot police in central Seoul as the funeral of former President Roh Moo-Hyun began, amid fears a national outpouring of grief would spark anti-government protests.
Roh leapt to his death Saturday from a clifftop near his retirement village after being questioned as a suspect in a corruption investigation. |
String of blasts in Pakistan kill 13
By Lehaz Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A succession of blasts tore through northwest Pakistan on Thursday killing 13 people, after the Taliban claimed a deadly attack in Lahore and threatened further mayhem to avenge an offensive.
The four bombs wounded more than 100 people in Peshawar and another northwest city, as fears grew of mounting militant revenge for a punishing, month-long military assault against the Islamist extremists. |
Irish president says abuse report didn't come as shock
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland's president said on Thursday a harrowing report into how Catholic priests and nuns had abused children had not come as a shock after her own convent school experiences.
"I had a fair idea it was happening," Mary McAleese said in an interview with state broadcaster RTE.
"I was educated by Mercy Nuns, my brothers went to Christian Brothers schools. Some of the stories that come through the Ryan Report would not be unfamiliar to us." |
Using video clips, Israeli DJ creates a million-hit wonder
By Dion Nissenbaum McClatchy Newspapers
TEL AVIV, Israel — Ophir Kutiel didn't set out to become YouTube's Elvis Presley.
The 27-year-old Israeli DJ was just looking for a good beat.
However, what started out as an online search for a funky video set Kutiel off on a musical exploration that's changed the way people look at YouTube, challenged copyright laws and transformed the little-known Tel Aviv musician into a budding Internet celebrity. |
Ancient eruption 'killed off world's sea life'
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A huge volcanic eruption in China some 260 million years ago led to the sudden extermination of marine life clear around the world, British paleontologists announced, in a report being published this week in the journal Science.
The researchers were able to pinpoint the exact timing of the massive eruption thanks to a layer of fossilized rock which showed mass extinction of different life forms -- clearly linking the volcanic blasts to a major environmental catastrophe. |