Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Obama vows help as BP sees oil spill progress

by Allen Johnson, AFP

2 hrs 28 mins ago

GRAND ISLE, Louisiana (AFP) – US President Barack Obama promised on Saturday to use “every resource” to help those affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, as Americans awaited news of BP’s latest containment effort.

In his weekly radio address, broadcast from Grand Isle, Louisiana, a community bearing the brunt of the spill, Obama pledged ongoing attention to the disaster.

“So we will continue to leverage every resource at our disposal to protect coastlines, to clean up the oil, to hold BP and other companies accountable for damages,” he said.

2 Cap device contains 6,000 barrels from Gulf oil spill

by Allen Johnson, AFP

26 mins ago

GRAND ISLE, Louisiana (AFP) – BP’s latest bid to contain the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill registered a first small success Saturday, capturing 6,000 barrels of oil in 24 hours, the US official overseeing the spill response said.

The figure is dwarfed by estimates that up to 19,000 barrels a day could be spewing from the leaking well, but was a rare note of success for the embattled British firm.

“In the first full 24-hour cycle, yesterday (Friday) as they bring the production level up, they were able to bring up and produce 6,000 barrels of oil from the well,” said retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen at a press briefing.

3 BP cites progress as pipe cap begins capturing oil

by Allen Johnson, AFP

Fri Jun 4, 7:02 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – In the first breakthrough in its laborious bid to curb the worst spill in US history, BP said Friday a cap placed on a ruptured pipe was working and should capture most of the oil.

The news came as US President Barack Obama warned BP not to renege on its promises to help stricken communities whose livelihoods have been devastated, as he made his third visit to the Gulf of Mexico region.

An estimated 20 million gallons of crude has poured into the Gulf since an explosion tore through the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Louisiana, more than six weeks ago.

4 Pope in Cyprus calls for dialogue between faiths

by Albion Land, AFP

7 mins ago

NICOSIA (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI called on Saturday for dialogue between Christians and people of other faiths on the second day of his landmark visit to Cyprus, an island divided between Christian and Muslim communities.

Benedict, who is on his first trip to an Orthodox country, also stressed the need for closer cooperation among other Christian churches, particularly in the Middle East where they are in a minority and struggling to survive.

“Much still needs to be done throughout the world,” the 83-year-old pontiff said with regard to inter-religious dialogue.

5 Cyprus president tells pope of hope for peace

by Albion Land, AFP

Sat Jun 5, 8:20 am ET

NICOSIA (AFP) – Cypriot President Demetris Christofias received visiting Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, expressing hope for peace and calling on the world to press Turkey on its occupation of the island’s north.

Their meeting, on the second day of the pontiff’s landmark trip, comes ahead of talks with the head of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, who has angrily denounced Turkey for “ethnic cleansing” in the north and for seeking to annex the whole country.

Christofias spoke of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, which came in response to a Greek Cypriot coup seeking unification with Greece. Turkish troops remain in the island’s northern third.

6 G20 vows to mend budgets, shies from bank tax

by David Watkins, AFP

57 mins ago

BUSAN, South Korea (AFP) – Market convulsions sparked by Europe’s debt crisis show that major hurdles to global economic recovery remain, G20 nations said Saturday while vowing to fix their fiscal houses.

After a two-day meeting, finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s leading economies said recent events “highlight the importance of sustainable public finances” and the need for fiscal sustainability.

The ministers, preparing for a Group of 20 summit in Canada this month, said the world economy was recovering faster than expected from the 2008-9 financial crisis.

7 G20 set to disagree on banking reform

by Park Chan-Kyong, AFP

Sat Jun 5, 2:10 am ET

BUSAN, South Korea (AFP) – Finance ministers from the world’s leading nations appeared set to disagree on calls for a global bank levy to pay for future bailouts, as they wound down a meeting aimed at safeguarding the global economic recovery.

The G20 ministers meeting in South Korea’s southern city of Busan is framed against the backdrop of turmoil in the eurozone, which has sent the euro tumbling and triggered doubts over the durability of the recovery.

“Recent (eurozone) turmoil has once again raised concerns about the resilience of our financial system and underscores the importance of moving ahead on our financial regulatory reforms,” South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-Hyun said.

8 Aussie dogs go barking mad for a little mutt music

by Amy Coopes, AFP

Sat Jun 5, 11:24 am ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – The glittering sails of the Sydney Opera House went to the dogs on Saturday as hundreds of pugs, poodles and pooches converged on the iconic landmark for a world-first concert for canines.

Brainchild of New York performance artist Laurie Anderson, “Music For Dogs” was a surreal hash of slide whistles, synthesiser, strings and saxophone with a high-frequency undercurrent — inaudible to humans — that sent its four-legged patrons into a frenzy.

The 20-minute concert kicked off with a mellow set featuring whale calls and soothing white noise, before moving through a rhythm and beat section to a discordant crescendo almost drowned out by hundreds of barks and howls.

9 Japan’s new PM scrambles to form cabinet

by Shingo Ito, AFP

Sat Jun 5, 2:43 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s new leader Naoto Kan on Saturday huddled with aides to choose a cabinet lineup that will help him tackle pressing challenges, from reviving Asia’s top economy to mending strained US ties.

Kan replaced Yukio Hatoyama on Friday to become Japan’s fifth prime minister in four years, after Hatoyama stumbled over a dispute about a US airbase and became mired in political funding scandals.

Kan, a one-time leftist activist, received a generally warm welcome from the press, with one major daily highlighting that he was the first prime minister in over a decade not to hail from one of Japan’s political dynasties.

10 Oil spill siphoning speeds up

By Anna Driver and Michael Peltier, Reuters

35 mins ago

VENICE, La/PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla (Reuters) – Efforts to siphon off oil gushing from a ruptured deep-sea wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico seem to be working, U.S. officials said on Saturday, as President Barack Obama defended his handling of the environmental crisis.

After soiling wetland wildlife refuges in Louisiana and barrier islands in Mississippi and Alabama, the black tide of pollution has reached some of the famous white beaches of Florida, nicknamed the “Sunshine State.” The toll of dead and injured birds and marine animals is climbing.

But 47 days into the crisis and after several false starts, a partial solution finally seems to be at hand.

11 U.S. appeals to China to restore military ties

By Adam Entous and Harry Suhartono, Reuters

Sat Jun 5, 10:51 am ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The United States appealed to China on Saturday to restore military ties despite discord over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and said it was considering options beyond the United Nations to punish North Korea over the sinking of a South Korean ship.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said China’s decision to break off military-to-military contacts between the Pacific powers earlier this year could undercut regional stability.

He urged Beijing to accept the “reality” that Washington is committed to arming Taiwan, like it or not.

12 Arizona police officer challenges migrant law

By Tim Gaynor, Reuters

Sat Jun 5, 10:07 am ET

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) – Tucson police officer Martin Escobar has worked to build relationships of trust in the working class Mexican-American neighborhood he patrols.

But after Arizona passed a state law in April cracking down on illegal immigrants, some residents stopped coming forward to report crimes like robberies and domestic violence, for fear of being arrested.

“Ask any officer … You would not believe how many incidents go unreported … even though the law has not gone into effect,” said Escobar, 45, who has worked as a police officer in the city for 15 years.

13 Japan ruling party support leaps on new leader: poll

By Isabel Reynolds, Reuters

Sat Jun 5, 4:35 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Support for Japan’s ruling Democratic Party leaped to 36.1 percent in a poll published by Kyodo news agency on Saturday after the appointment of a new leader in the run-up to an upper house election.

The figure was up 15.6 percentage points on a poll carried out at the end of May before unpopular prime minister Yukio Hatoyama stepped down and was replaced as party head, and thus premier, by Naoto Kan.

Kan, 63, will become Japan’s fifth prime minister in three years, taking over as the country struggles to rein in a huge public debt, engineer growth in an aging society, and manage ties with security ally Washington and a rising China.

14 Lead poisoning from mining kills 163 in Nigeria

By Sahabi Yahaya, Reuters

Fri Jun 4, 6:19 pm ET

DARETA, Nigeria (Reuters) – Lead poisoning caused by illegal gold mining has killed 163 Nigerians, most of them children, in remote villages in the past few months, a government official said on Friday.

Dr Henry Akpan, the health ministry’s chief epidemiologist, told Reuters 355 cases in at least six locations in the northern Zamfara state had been reported so far and 111 of the dead were children, many of them under five.

“We discovered unusual cases of abdominal pains with vomiting, nausea and some having convulsions,” Akpan said. “These people were around the area where they were digging for gold. The fatality rate is 46 percent.”

15 Hungary debt fears gnaw at euro

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters

Fri Jun 4, 5:06 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The possibility of a Hungarian debt crisis pushed the euro to a four-year low against the dollar on Friday and reignited fears more Eastern European nations could reveal financial frailties.

The new Hungarian government spooked investors and knocked more than 2 percent off its currency, the forint, versus the euro, after a prime minister’s spokesman said he supported the view the country had only a slim chance of avoiding the kind of debt crisis that plunged Greece into financial instability.

“In Hungary the previous government falsified data. In Greece, they also falsified data. In Greece the moment of truth has arrived. Hungary is still before that,” said Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s spokesman Peter Szijjarto at a news conference.

16 Gulf oil spill’s threat to wildlife turns real

By HOLBROOK MOHR and JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Writers

17 mins ago

ON BARATARIA BAY, La. – The wildlife apocalypse along the Gulf Coast that everyone has feared for weeks is fast becoming a terrible reality.

Pelicans struggled to free themselves from oil thick as tar that gathers in hip-deep pools, while others stretch out useless wings, feathers dripping with crude. Dead birds and dolphins have washed up onshore, coated in the sludge. Seashells that once glinted pearly white under the hot June sun are stained crimson.

Scenes like this played out along miles of shoreline Saturday, nearly seven weeks after a BP rig exploded and the wellhead a mile below the surface began belching millions of gallon of oil.

17 Obama: Oil spill upends life for Gulf residents

Associated Press

Sat Jun 5, 11:05 am ET

GRAND ISLE, La. – President Barack Obama said Saturday that he will stand with Gulf Coast residents “until they are made whole” from the oil spill catastrophe.

Obama recorded his weekly radio and Internet address from this barrier island town he visited Friday on his third trip to the Gulf since an April 20 drilling rig explosion unleashed a gusher of crude into the waters there.

He spoke of the people he’d met – an oyster fisherman named Floyd whose oyster beds have been destroyed by oil, and Terry, a shrimper who is losing income because shrimp fishing has been shut down.

18 Fight ahead for Obama’s intelligence chief choice

By KIMBERLY DOZIER, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 8 mins ago

WASHINGTON – He’s the right guy to ride herd over America’s intelligence operations. Or he’s a good guy, but the wrong one for that tough job.

Those warring opinions emerged about James R. Clapper after President Barack Obama said Saturday he wants the Pentagon’s current intelligence chief to serve as director of national intelligence – the fourth since the post was created in 2004 – and wants the Senate to confirm him quickly.

“Eminently qualified,” Obama described the blunt-spoken retired Air Force lieutenant general, offering his “complete confidence and support.”

19 Growing ranks of long-term jobless face tough odds

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

2 hrs 15 mins ago

WASHINGTON – If you lose your job these days, it’s worth scrambling to find a new one – fast. After six months of unemployment, your chances of landing work dwindle.

The proportion of people jobless for six months or more has accelerated in the past year and now makes up 46 percent of the unemployed. That’s the highest percentage on records dating to 1948. By late summer or early fall, they are expected to make up half of all jobless Americans.

Economists say those out of work for six months or more risk becoming less and less employable. Their skills can erode, their confidence falter, their contacts dry up. Their growing ranks also will keep pressure on Congress to keep extending jobless benefits, which now run for up to 99 weeks.

20 In Idaho, students learn to think on their feet

By JESSIE L. BONNER, Associated Press

2 hrs 14 mins ago

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – In a handful of classrooms nationwide, students are learning to think on their feet. Sixth graders at a small private school in southern Idaho stand while crunching math problems. They lean over waist-tall work stations to compare answers with classmates. And whenever they feel the need to sit, they prop themselves up onto tall stools and slip their sneakers into swinging footrests, rocking them back and forth.

“It’s not normal for students, or even necessarily for adults, to sit still for long periods of time,” their teacher Jim Oloff said.

In states such as Idaho, Minnesota and Wisconsin, some teachers have replaced the standard classroom desk with height-adjustable work stations, which they hope will offer notorious fidgeters some relief for their antsy tendencies.

21 AP Enterprise: Sub attack was near US-SKorea drill

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 18 mins ago

WASHINGTON – On the night a torpedo-armed North Korean submarine allegedly sank a South Korean patrol ship, the U.S. and South Korea were engaged in joint anti-submarine warfare exercises just 75 miles away, military officials told The Associated Press.

The sinking of the Cheonan was the worst South Korean military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War. It showed that even impoverished nations such as North Korea can inflict heavy casualties on far better equipped and trained forces, including those backed by U.S. military might.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said plans for more joint U.S.-South Korea anti-submarine exercises, announced after Cheonan went down, are on hold awaiting U.N. action on the incident.

22 Primaries from Calif. to SC measure voter anger

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, AP Political Writer

Sat Jun 5, 12:41 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – How angry are Americans? People primed for change vote in 12 states Tuesday in contests that will decide the fate of two endangered Washington incumbents – a two-term senator in Arkansas and a six-term congressman in South Carolina – while setting the stage for some of the races that could determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill in the fall.

In an Arkansas runoff, Sen. Blanche Lincoln could fall to a fellow Democrat, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who says “the only way to change Washington is to change who we send there.” South Carolina Republican Rep. Bob Inglis is trying to fend off primary challengers who have made the race a referendum on his 2008 vote to bail out up the nation’s banking industry.

The political strength of the tea party movement faces tests in several states, particularly in Nevada, where three Republicans are in a bruising fight for the chance to take on Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, in November.

23 Spelling bee winner part of Indian-American streak

By LAUREN SAUSSER, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 5, 9:15 am ET

WASHINGTON – Shantanu Srivatsa and Anamika Veeramani sat nervously, side by side on stage.

Once again, an Indian-American was going to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. It was just a matter of what word and what time on Friday.

Shantanu, 13, an eighth-grader from West Fargo, N.D., stepped to the microphone first and couldn’t spell “ochidore.”

24 Pope urges support for Mideast Christians

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 5, 12:07 pm ET

NICOSIA, Cyprus – Pope Benedict XVI appealed Saturday for support for embattled Christian communities in the Middle East, calling them a vital force for peace in the region.

He also met with a Turkish Cypriot Muslim religious leader, part of careful diplomacy reaching out to both sides in the decades-old conflict between ethic Greeks and Turks on the divided island.

Benedict’s three-day pilgrimage to Cyprus is part of preparations for a crisis summit of Middle East bishops in Rome in October. Many bishops from the region have traveled to Cyprus to see Benedict and receive a working paper for the summit that will be made public Sunday.

25 Even it Up: Flyers beat Chicago 5-3 in Game 4

By ROB MAADDI, AP Sports Writer

Sat Jun 5, 5:35 am ET

PHILADELPHIA – Relaxed, loose and comfortable down in the series, the resilient Philadelphia Flyers got right back in these Stanley Cup finals.

Mike Richards, Matt Carle and Claude Giroux all scored first-period goals and Philadelphia held off Chicago’s late rally to beat the Blackhawks 5-3 in Game 4 on Friday night and even the series at 2.

Game 5 is Sunday night in Chicago, where the Blackhawks won the first two games.

26 G-20 finance chiefs agree on need to curb deficits

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer

Sat Jun 5, 11:13 am ET

BUSAN, South Korea – World financial leaders pledged Saturday to push ahead on curbing deficits and crafting financial reforms to safeguard the global recovery, including making banks bear much of the burden for government bailouts.

As expected, the finance ministers and central banks gathered in this southern port city finessed what some said were at times heated differences over how to reshape financial regulation and build safety nets for countries stricken by debt crises.

The Group of 20 welcomed measures taken by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF, including a $1 trillion bailout, to help countries cope with the fallout from unsustainably high debt.

27 Guns could be a tough topic for Texas candidate

By JAY ROOT, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 42 mins ago

AUSTIN, Texas – If he were running for governor of New York, Democrat Bill White would probably be considered a pro-gun enthusiast. He’s got a shotgun and a 9 mm pistol, opposes any new laws on firearms and says he’d like to sign up some day for a concealed weapons permit.

But this is Texas, where incumbent Rick Perry recently shot a coyote while out jogging and enjoys hunting deer with a bow and arrow. The love of weaponry is so ingrained in state culture that having a legal permit to carry a handgun will get you waved through the Texas Capitol security lines without going through a magnetometer.

Against that backdrop, the former Houston mayor heads into the 2010 governor’s race playing defense on a powerful political issue. The biggest liability for White is his past membership in a New York-based gun control group. White says he resigned after finding its positions too restrictive, but his participation in Mayors Against Illegal Guns riled up those who live to preserve Texas’ pro-gun culture.

28 Va. socialite and winemaker selling country estate

By ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 5, 12:49 pm ET

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Socialite and vintner Patricia Kluge says she no longer needs her inscribed Picasso platter, centuries-old Qing Dynasty clock, 19th-century Grecian harp and nearly all the other treasures in her English-style country mansion.

Collectors and curiosity seekers will have plenty to peruse if they buy a 620-page catalog of Kluge’s estimated $9 million collection being auctioned by Sotheby’s on Tuesday and Wednesday, or if they stop by for a preview that runs through noon Monday at Albemarle House in the rolling hills near Charlottesville.

People with more practical tastes also can find something among the 900 items to buy at the auction – including patio and garden furniture, wooden duck decoys or an eight-piece copper kitchenware set.

Sotheby’s International Realty has listed the estate at $48 million, reduced from $100 million last fall. The property also includes about 300 acres, multilevel English gardens and fountains, a swimming pool and a rustic guest cabin.

29 NYC team bringing transitional shelters to Haiti

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 5, 12:07 pm ET

NEW YORK – A team of New York architects is flying to Haiti this week with prototypes of an octagonal vinyl structure they hope will help house some of the 1.5 million Haitians still homeless because of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The first of the aluminum-and-steel octagonal structures will be built in Jacmel in southern Haiti under an arrangement with the nonprofit group Rural Haiti Project. Each has 166 square feet of space and is designed to withstand wind, hurricanes and earthquakes.

Haiti’s housing shortage is acute, with homeless camps growing instead of shrinking as even more people leave standing homes in search of aid or unable to pay rent. Others are afraid to return to the thousands of homes rated safe to enter, unsure of whether another quake will come.

30 Restored Theme Building marks LAX’s turnaround

By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 5, 11:30 am ET

LOS ANGELES – Believe it or not, LAX and its iconic spider-shaped terminal were once young and vibrant, a futuristic outpost at the edge of the Pacific in the glamorous Jet Age.

After a half-century and millions of travelers, Los Angeles International Airport is on the verge of reclaiming some of its lost luster and gaining a touch of the 21st century – a renovated landmark terminal, shorter check-in times and better restaurants.

“We haven’t given them an experience worthy of a first-class city,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said recently,

7 comments

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    • Edger on June 6, 2010 at 00:53

    Oh good. Another sternly worded speech?

    • TMC on June 6, 2010 at 01:00

    of the main loop on Haiti because I got pulled to deal with Gaza. I may have a brief essay late tonight or tomorrow on the on going problems.

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