Shorts (left)
With a swipe of his pen, some flowery remarks and a good backdrop, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday moved California's presidential primary to February of next year from June, placing the nation's most populous state at the increasingly congested front end of the primary calendar.
The Classic British Sports Car, Reincarnated as Chinese Model
MG, the legendary British brand that expired after a lengthy illness, will be revived this month as a Chinese sports car, when the Nanjing Automobile Corp. begins to produce convertible sports cars under that name in China.
Shorts (left)
Ford Motor Co. will raise $848 million toward its overhaul plan by selling Aston Martin, its British luxury sports car brand, the automaker said Monday.
GOP Voters Voice Anxieties on Party’s Fate; Iraq War Strategy
After years of political dominance, Republican voters now view their party as divided and say they are not satisfied with the choice of candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
Kennedy, Eager For GOP Support, Reconsiders Tactics on Immigration
Facing a rebellion from some key Republicans, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has abandoned efforts to produce a new immigration bill and is proposing using legislation produced last March by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary committee as the starting point for negotiations this year, lawmakers said on Monday.
Shorts (right)
DePauw University severed ties Monday with a national sorority that evicted two-thirds of the university’s chapter members last year in what the sorority called an effort to improve its image for recruitment, but which the evicted women described as a purge of the unattractive or the uncool.
UN Council: Sudanese Gov’t Participated in Darfur Crimes
A U.N. Human Rights Council mission to Darfur said Monday that the Sudanese government had organized and taken part in human rights crimes against its own population, and that international action to stop the killings and rapes had been inadequate.
17 Feet Under
When precipitation is measured in feet, it’s usually when it snows. For example, a severe Nor’easter may bring 2-3 feet over a day or two to New England, but how about 17 feet of rain in six days? A small island in the Indian Ocean, La Reunion, received an incredible amount of rainfall from Tropical Cyclone Gamede late last month. A new world record was set at Commerson’s Crater, a volcano on the island, with a staggering three day rainfall total of 155 in. (3.9 m) and a one week total of 213 in. (5.4 m). Compare this to the yearly average precipitation in Boston of 41.5 in (1.1 m). Although Gamede never made landfall on La Reunion, the excessive rainfall was caused by persistent rain squalls continually lashing the island as the tropical cyclone moved slowly toward the southwest.
China Nears Passage of Landmark Private Property, Corp. Tax Laws
China's national legislature began deliberating on Thursday a landmark law that would provide legal protections for private property as well as a law that would gradually equalize corporate taxes on foreign and domestic corporations.
US, South Korea Restart Talks On Ambitious Free Trade Pact
U.S. and South Korean trade negotiators began a hurried round of talks on Thursday as Seoul agreed to resume U.S. beef imports in a concession aimed at smoothing the path toward what would be Washington's most ambitious free trade agreement in 15 years.
The Chill is Over
After a bitterly cold first week of March, the temperatures will finally moderate this weekend as the prevailing wind shifts from northwesterly to southwesterly. The frigid temperatures of the past few days — with low temperatures dipping down into the single digits for several mornings — has been the coldest March weather in Massachusetts in over half a decade. With a strong high pressure system pulling offshore today, the winds will shift direction in its wake and we will enjoy more seasonable temperatures.
US General Sees Long Fight, Maybe More Troops For Iraq
The new U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, warned Thursday that U.S. troops here faced a long road ahead and left open the possibility of calling in even more soldiers as he described the difficult task of calming the country.
Shorts (left)
House Democratic leaders intensified their debate with President Bush over Iraq Thursday as they announced legislation that would pull American combat troops out of Iraq before the fall of 2008.
Shorts (right)
Saad Hariri, the Sunni Muslim leader of Lebanon's March 14 coalition, the largest bloc in Congress, and the Shiite Parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, a major opposition leader, met late Thursday night to discuss ways of ending the country's political crisis. The meeting was widely seen as a significant break in the months-long stalemate that has brought Lebanon to a virtual halt.
Slip of the Tongue, $90 Million Donation Unexpectedly Leaked
An anonymous donor has promised $90 million for the Frank Gehry-designed future home of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Fla., one of the largest gifts to a classical music institution.
UN Agency Suspends Work With North Korea, Curtails Programs
The U.N. Development Program said Monday it was suspending work in North Korea because the country had failed to meet conditions set up in response to American complaints that U.N. money was being diverted to the government of Kim Jong Il.
Arctic Blast
The high temperature on Saturday was 57°F (14°C), yet today’s high will be below 20°F (-7°C)!
Afghans Say US Strike Killed Nine Family Members Sunday
Nine members of a family, including five women and three children, were killed in an American airstrike in central Afghanistan late Sunday, during a battle with militants, Afghan officials said Monday.
Bomb Kills at Least Twenty in Famed Baghdad Book Market
The book market along Mutanabi Street was a throwback to the Baghdad of old, the days of students browsing for texts, turbaned clerics hunting down religious tomes and cafe intellectuals debating politics over backgammon.
Shorts (left)
The fallout from last week’s global stock dive showed few signs of letting up on Monday, as markets from Hong Kong to New York deepened their losses.