US News:
Businesswomen Lead the Pack in 2010 Elections
"I'm Linda McMahon and I approved this ad because it's time for something different."
The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, the theatrical stage for street brawls that enthrall much of America, McMahon is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd, who is retiring. Battling through a Republican primary against former Rep. Rob Simmons and facing a general election contest against a longtime Democratic favorite, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, she makes no apology for her unusual resume. "I may have to set up a ring in the Senate chamber and lay the smackdown on them," she often tells voters to cheers and applause. |
Consumer Watchdog Eyes Lenders in New Bank Rules
WASHINGTON — Congress is getting tougher on both borrowers and lenders blamed for inflating a housing bubble that, when it popped, plunged the nation into a severe recession two years ago.
Under sweeping financial overhauls that have now passed the House and Senate, home buyers won't be able to get a mortgage without producing pay stubs or other evidence they can make their monthly payments. A new consumer watchdog will police lenders who offer impossible-to-resist subprime mortgages and then jack up the interest rates to impossible-to-pay levels.
The bills, which still have to be blended into one that could reach the president's desk this summer, also shine more light on complex but hidden financial instruments, the "derivatives" that made long-odds bets on whether Americans could make payments on mortgages they never should have qualified for. |
Salmonella outbreak in 10 states prompts sprouts recall
(CNN) -- Federal public health officials are investigating a salmonella outbreak that has infected 22 people in 10 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday.
The infections are linked to the consumption of raw alfalfa sprouts, the CDC said.
California-based Caldwell Fresh Foods is recalling all alfalfa sprouts manufactured under three of its brands because they may be contaminated with salmonella, the company said Friday. Caldwell said its alfalfa sprouts have been associated with the outbreak. |
Papers reveal Kagan's lighter side
Washington (CNN) -- Funny and flip. Confident at times, nervous at others. An earnest student and a meticulous lawyer. Newly released documents of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's not-so-distant past reveal a determined, often blunt-speaking woman with an occasionally silly side.
The examination of thousands of pages of documents from Kagan's years in college and from her various professional posts in academia and government are part of a ritual every high court nominee endures, as every aspect of their past is scrutinized.
Found in the papers, beyond the serious discussions of her views on hot-button issues are some lighter moments. |
Conn. Democrats endorse Blumenthal for US Senate
HARTFORD, Conn. – State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, under fire for misspeaking about his military record during Vietnam, easily won the endorsement Friday night of Connecticut Democrats to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd.
"I have made mistakes. I regret them. And I have taken responsibility," Blumenthal said. "But this campaign must be about the people of Connecticut."
Despite the national attention that Blumenthal's misstatements have attracted, Democrats said they could not ignore his 26 years of political service — six years as a state lawmaker and 20 as Connecticut's omnipresent attorney general — to the state. |
Woman sentenced to prison in Elizabeth Smart case
SALT LAKE CITY – Nearly eight years after Elizabeth Smart was snatched from her Salt Lake City bedroom at knifepoint, the woman who pleaded guilty to the 2002 kidnapping is headed to prison.
Wanda Eileen Barzee was sentenced Friday to two terms of up to 15 years in prison in back-to-back hearings in state and federal court.
"I know the gravity of my crimes and how serious they are," Barzee, 64, said during the federal hearing. "I'm just so sorry again for all the pain and suffering I caused upon the Smart family." |
Dora the Explorer: Illegal Immigrant?
(AP) In her police mug shot, the doe-eyed cartoon heroine with the bowl haircut has a black eye, battered lip and bloody nose.
Dora the Explorer's alleged crime? "Illegal Border Crossing Resisting Arrest."
The doctored picture, one of several circulating widely in the aftermath of Arizona's controversial new immigration law, may seem harmless, ridiculous or even tasteless.
But experts say the pictures and the rhetoric surrounding them online, in newspapers and at public rallies, reveal some Americans' attitudes about race, immigrants and where some of immigration reform debate may be headed. |
Church Ousts Nun Who OK'd Abortion to Save Woman
(CBS) A nun was kicked out of the Catholic Church for approving an abortion in order to save a pregnant woman's life.
According to a National Public Radio report, Sister Margaret McBride approved the abortion for a 27-year-old woman who was 11 weeks pregnant but suffered from a serious heart condition. Doctors said the woman faced near-certain death had she continued her pregnancy at the Catholic Church in Phoenix last November.
McBride, who was an administrator at the hospital, signed off on the abortion - in part because of a church loophole that allows the procedure under certain extreme circumstances, NPR reports.
The woman survived. |
World News:
Sri Lanka rebounds after rebel defeat, but scars linger
Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Though tourism is bouncing back in Sri Lanka and authorities are busy building roads and bridges in former war-torn areas, troops are still finding weapons in old battlefields and the nation remains under a state of emergency one year after a decades-long civil conflict ended.
The war, which pitted government forces against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) -- who were seeking an independent homeland in the country's north and east, ended last May. More than 65,000 people died in the strife.
Today, the once besieged northern capital of Jaffna is teeming with local tourists. Two key industries in that area -- farming and fishing -- are flourishing. Homes have changed overnight into hotels. |
The call of Babylon: Why some travelers are braving Iraq
London, England (CNN) -- International airlines are once again landing in Iraq, the conflict-wracked home to some of the ancient wonders of the world.
Ongoing conflict has overshadowed Iraq's place as the "Cradle of Civilization," housing extraordinary sites like Babylon, just outside Baghdad.
But, an improving, if fragile, security situation means that, after years of isolation intrepid travelers can now fly directly to Iraq from Austria, Germany, Greece, Norway, Sweden and the UK as well as numerous cities in the Middle East. |
U.S. eyes terror link to Pakistan caterers
ISLAMABAD - The co-owner of a catering company that organized events for the U.S. Embassy is among six men detained by Pakistan for allegedly helping the failed Times Square bombing suspect, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said Friday.
In a statement on its website, the U.S. Embassy warned that the catering company was suspected of ties to terrorist groups and said American diplomats had been instructed to stop using the firm. |
9th suicide reported at top Chinese tech firm
GUANGZHOU, China - A worker at Foxconn Technology Group, which makes iPhones and iPads, jumped to his death Friday from a building in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen — the ninth suicide this year at the world's largest contract maker of electronics, state-run media reported.
The latest victim, logistics worker Nan Gang, 21, leapt from a four-story factory building about a half hour after finishing his shift at 4 a.m., reported the Xinhua News Agency, quoting a city police spokesman, Huang Jianwei. Nan, a migrant from central Hubei province, landed on his head and died at the scene, Xinhua said, without providing further details. |
U.S. Hikers' Moms Leave Iran without Children
(AP) The mothers of three Americans jailed in Iran for 10 months left for home Friday, getting one last chance to embrace their children but failing to secure their immediate release.
In a glimmer of hope, Iran announced that two of its nationals held in Iraq by U.S. forces for years were freed Friday. The release raised the possibility that a behind-the-scenes swap was in the offing or that their release was a gesture of goodwill in an attempt to free the Americans.
The Iranians' release "may have some diplomatic effect on this case," the Americans' lawyer, Masoud Shafii, told The Associated Press. |
Clinton Convinced North Korea Sunk South's Ship
(AP) Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that evidence was "overwhelming" that a North Korean submarine sank a South Korean warship and that the communist country must face international consequences for its actions.
Speaking in the Japanese capital at the outset of a three-nation Asian trip, Clinton said the U.S., Japan, South Korea and China are consulting on an appropriate reaction to an international investigation that blamed North Korea for the incident.
She said the report proves a North Korean sub fired a torpedo that sank the ship, the Cheonan, in March and that it could no longer be "business as usual" in dealing with the matter. |
Environmental News:
Tar Sands of Alberta
In the wake of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill calamity, another potential environmental disaster is already in the making in the Canadian western province of Alberta. The Paris-based monthly journal Le Monde Diplomatique took a hard look into the immense toxic cesspool that is the Alberta tar sands today.
According to the in-depth report, around the Athabasca lake region the cancer rate is becoming alarming: 30 percent above the Albertain provincial average. The culprit is suspected to be the toxic reservoirs where the effluence from the oil industry's operations is collected. The massive-scale extraction of "black oil," underway for years now, seeks to suck out the remaining 170 billion barrels beneath the Boreal forest, of which huge swaths are destroyed to get to the oil underneath. Massive quantities of freshwater are used to "steam out" the viscous petrol from the tar-like sands. The process turns the earth into toxic sludge and gives off vast amount of C02 gas. |
Conflict Minerals: the New Blood Diamonds
First there were "blood diamonds," the gems that fueled conflict and human rights abuses in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Then there was "conflict cocoa," the chocolate source that's harvested by children and funds civil war in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Now concern is rising about the minerals that go into common consumer electronics.
Countries rich in minerals such as cobalt, coltan, cassiterite, copper and gold are often marred by corruption, authoritarian repression, militarization and civil war. Rebel groups, governments and mining companies exploit mineral resources, fuelling civil and interstate conflict as players vie for control over riches. |
Conflict-of-interest fears raised in oil spill tests
Local environmental officials throughout the Gulf Coast are feverishly collecting water, sediment and marine animal tissue samples that will be used in the coming months to help track pollution levels resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, since those readings will be used by the federal government and courts to establish liability claims against BP. But the laboratory that officials have chosen to process virtually all of the samples is part of an oil and gas services company in Texas that counts oil firms, including BP, among its biggest clients. |
Spill estimate under review after criticism
WASHINGTON - That 5,000 barrels a day estimate for the BP spill? It went out the window on Thursday after both BP and the federal government came under fire for having stuck to it for nearly a month. BP also took some blows from the Obama administration, which demanded it put more data online and use less-toxic dispersants.
A task force of scientists is now reviewing video and reassessing the earlier 5,000 barrels per day estimate, Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told reporters. |
On Our Radar: Video of the Rig’s Collapse
Watch raw video of the Deepwater Horizon platform collapse. |
Oil Spill to Wipe Out Gulf's Sperm Whales?
If the Gulf of Mexico oil spill kills just three sperm whales, it could seriously endanger the long-term survival of the Gulf's native whale population, scientists say.
Right now between 1,400 and 1,660 sperm whales live year-round in the Gulf of Mexico, making up a distinct population from other Atlantic Ocean groups, in which males make yearly migrations.
All sperm whales are considered endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But the Gulf of Mexico population is thought to be especially vulnerable due to its relatively small size. |
Tesla, Toyota Teaming Up In California: Governor
Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp and electric carmaker Tesla Motors plan to partner on electric vehicles in California, the state's governor said on Thursday.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking at an unrelated event at search giant Google Inc's headquarters, said Tesla will electrify one of Toyota's cars in California, a spokeswoman for the governor confirmed him as saying.
Silicon Valley-based Tesla is holding a press conference later on Thursday where it said it plans to make a "significant and exciting" announcement. The governor will be at the briefing, to be held at the company's Palo Alto, California, facility. |
EPA demands less-toxic dispersant
The Environmental Protection Agency informed BP officials late Wednesday that the company has 24 hours to choose a less-toxic form of chemical dispersants to break up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to government sources familiar with the decision, and must apply the new form of dispersants within 72 hours of submitting the list of alternatives.
The move is significant, because it suggests federal officials are now concerned that the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants could pose a significant threat to the Gulf of Mexico's marine life. BP has been using two forms of dispersants, Corexit 9500A and Corexit 9527A, and so far has applied 600,000 gallons on the surface and 55,000 underwater. |
Medical News:
Study: Screening for ovarian cancer may be closer
(CNN) Researchers may have found an effective way to screen for ovarian cancer by using an existing blood test in a new way, according to a study released Thursday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology).
Ovarian cancer is often called the silent killer because there is no good equivalent screening tool, like mammograms are for breast cancer. Dr. Douglas Blaney, ASCO president, calls this cancer vicious because it's usually detected after it can be cured with surgery.
For more than two decades, doctors have known that a protein called CA-125, is much more prevalent in ovarian cancer cells than healthy cells. |
How apps, texting can improve your health
(CNN) -- Before iPhones, Foursquare and Facebook, B.J. Fogg envisioned a mobile fitness device that coaches the user, tracks her location, and shows her friends also exercising at that time.
The concept appeared in Fogg's 1997 dissertation about how computing and psychology can merge to change behavior, and people thought the idea sounded "Star Trek-ish." He went on to found Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab, where he began work on mobile applications long before most phones in wide use could support them. |
Finance News:
Treasury picks adviser for General Motors IPO
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department has hired Lazard Freres & Co. as its adviser to prepare for an initial public stock offering by General Motors Co.
Treasury signed the agreement on Monday but did not reveal it until Friday. The agreement says that Lazard Freres will be paid $500,000 a month over the next year for the advice it provides the government.
The agreement says that if no stock sale has occurred during the first 12 months of the contract, Lazard Freres will receive a reduced fee of $250,000 a month until the sale is completed. |
EU nations back tougher sanctions to combat debt
BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union finance ministers backed tougher sanctions to prevent them running up too much debt in the hopes of winning back market confidence and getting a handle on the debt crisis that is threatening the euro.
The European Union's president Herman Van Rompuy said the talks Friday showed that "it was very clear that there was a broad consensus on the principle of having sanctions" -- both financial and political. |
Tech News:
Facebook working on 'simple' privacy settings
After one of the most tumultuous months in its young history, Facebook is planning to announce features intended to offer its hundreds of millions of users simpler privacy choices.
The last few weeks have not been kind to the Internet's second most popular Web site, which has been pilloried by privacy activists and slammed by some members of Congress. The flap has spawned clever interactive graphics showing how Facebook has gradually exposed more user data, tools to fix your privacy settings, and reports of internal discord among employees who may fear that the negative attention would jeopardize a lucrative public stock offering. |
What Pac-Man means at 30
It's probably impossible to count the times someone has written that video games are a business as big as or bigger than Hollywood.
But long before the Halos and the Sims and the Call of Dutys and the Maddens began bringing in billions of dollars, the world was dominated by a simple yellow character munching his way through a maze of dots, trying to avoid getting eaten by ghosts.
On May 22, 1980, a Japanese company called Namco Bandai released a game in Japan called Puck-Man. The title was rejected in the United States because some worried that the "P" would chip off the cabinet and look like an "F." |
Science News:
Gene makes kids more vulnerable to bullying's effects
There’s nothing fair about getting bullied at school. To add insult to injury, a new study finds that bullied kids who happen to have inherited one form of a stress-related gene develop the most emotional problems.
Symptoms of anxiety, depression and social withdrawal appeared most often in regularly bullied kids who possessed two copies of a short version of the 5-HTT gene, says a team led by psychologist Karen Sugden of Duke University in Durham, N.C. |
Cads of the savanna
As any dating woman knows, men can be dogs — but a new study suggests antelopes might be a better fit.
Male topi antelopes will resort to deception to keep a potential mate around, snorting as if there’s a lion nearby just when it seems she might wander off. The discovery is the first report of outright mate deception in an animal other than Homo sapiens, a research team reports in the July American Naturalist. |
Space News:
Air Force to Launch New GPS Satellite Friday Night
A cadre of military and industry workers at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is readying the first-of-its-kind satellite for the Global Positioning System, an advanced bird that will be shipped to the launch pad and bolted atop a Delta 4 rocket next week.
Liftoff of the GPS 2F-1 spacecraft from pad 37B is targeted for May 21 at 11:25 p.m. EDT.
"We're getting goose bumps right now. We're very excited," said Harry Brown, the GPS 2F program's chief engineer at satellite-builder Boeing. |
Spaceships get day in the sun
The space shuttle Atlantis' final mission is hitting new heights for fantastic pictures - in part because every flight brings improvements in NASA's capability to capture imagery, and in part because photographers are taking extra care to document the end of the shuttle era. For us earthbound spectators, it's the next best thing to being there.
For example, in the wake of the 2003 Columbia tragedy, the space agency mounted an array of cameras on the shuttle's solid-rocket boosters. Those cameras capture images from different perspectives during the ascent from the launch pad - and when the boosters fall back into the sea, the video is retrieved and checked for any signs of damage to the shuttle. |
Odd News:
George Washington's library book returned 221 yrs late
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A library book borrowed by the first U.S. president, George Washington, has been returned to a New York City's oldest library, 221 years late.
Washington checked out the book from the New York Society Library at a time when the library shared a building with the federal government in lower Manhattan.
The library said in a statement that its borrowing records, or charging ledger, showed Washington took out "The Law of Nations" by Emer de Vattel on October 5, 1789. |
Wis. man loses relatives' ashes when car is towed
MADISON, Wis.—A Wisconsin man has lost his father's and grandfather's ashes when the car where they were stored was towed and destroyed.
Wausau police say everything in Shawn Leslie's 1994 Mercury Cougar was tossed before the towing company crushed it. Leslie says he thought the car was safe when he parked it in a lot behind a Wausau diner. He says the lot's owner gave him permission to park while he was out of town driving a truck for a living.
But the lot's manager, Ray Burris, says the owner never gave Leslie permission, and he called the police after the vehicle sat for more than six months. Then he had it towed.
A person who answered the phone at the towing company declined to comment Friday. Tom Howells of the Wisconsin Towing Association says owners should be notified before cars are destroyed. |