Police detain suspect in Bush grenade throwing

Police detain suspectin Bush grenade throwing
TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgian police detained a man Wednesday who was suspected of throwing a live grenade during a rally at which President Bush spoke in May, the Interior Ministry said. The capture came after a shootout in which one officer was killed and another wounded. The shootout and detention occurred Wednesday evening in the village of Vashlisdzhvari, outside the capital, Tbilisi, ministry spokesman Guram Donadze told The Associated Press. The suspect fled into the woods but was later detained, Donadze said. Rustavi-2 television showed pictures of a dark-haired man it described as the suspect being hustled into a car by police officers. It said he was wounded and identified him as Vladimir Arutyunov, in his late 20s. The man lived in an eight-story apartment building with his mother, Rustavi-2 reported, citing neighbors as saying Arutyunov was unemployed. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
In Canada, officialslegalize gay marriage
TORONTO -- Canada legalized gay marriage Wednesday, becoming the world's fourth nation to grant full legal rights to same-sex couples. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin signed the legislation making it law, hours after it was approved by the Senate late Tuesday despite strong opposition from Conservatives and religious leaders. The bill gives homosexual couples the same rights as those in traditional unions between a man and a woman, something already legal in eight of Canada's 10 provinces and in two of its three territories. The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain are the only other nations that allow gay marriage nationwide.
Saudi ambassador to U.S.decides to step down
CAIRO, Egypt -- Saudi Arabia's bon vivant ambassador to the United States announced Wednesday he was stepping down, ending more than two decades of unusual Oval Office access -- including huddling with presidents at moments of crisis and even once looking over battle plans. Dean of the diplomatic corps in Washington, the 56-year-old Prince Bandar bin Sultan showed time and time again that he was more than an ordinary ambassador. The Saudi Foreign Ministry said Bandar -- who had held the post for 22 years but had been out of Washington for most of the past year -- was stepping down for "personal reasons." He will be replaced by Prince Turki bin al-Faisal, a former head of Saudi intelligence and ambassador to Britain.
Brain-dead woman's fetuscould survive, doctors say
RICHMOND, Va. -- A brain-dead pregnant woman on life support has reached the milestone in her pregnancy where doctors believe the baby could realistically survive outside the womb, giving her family renewed hope about the devastating ordeal. Susan Torres, 26, lost consciousness from a stroke May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her brain. Her husband, Jason, said doctors told him his wife's brain functions had stopped. Her fetus recently passed the 24th week of development -- the earliest point at which doctors felt the baby would have a reasonable chance to survive, a family member said. A Web site was set up to help raise money for the family's mounting medical bills, and they have received about $400,000 in donations.
Inventor of TV dinner dies
PHOENIX -- Gerry Thomas, who changed the way Americans eat -- for better or worse -- with his invention of the TV dinner during the baby boom years, has died at 83. Thomas, who died at a Phoenix hospice center Monday of cancer, was a salesman for Omaha, Neb.-based C.A. Swanson and Sons in 1954 when he got the idea of packaging frozen meals in a disposable aluminum-foil tray, divided into compartments to keep the foods from mixing. He also gave the product its singular name. The first Swanson TV Dinner -- turkey with cornbread dressing and gravy, sweet potatoes and buttered peas -- sold for about $1 and could be cooked in 25 minutes at 425 degrees.
Kodak plans to cut jobs
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Eastman Kodak Co. said Wednesday it is cutting as many as 10,000 more jobs as the company that turned picture-taking into a hobby for the masses navigates a tough transition from film to digital photography. The lightning transition to a world without film is forcing an extreme makeover at the world's biggest maker of the product and coincided with the disclosure of a second-quarter loss. Shares of the company stock dipped more than 6 percent. On top of 12,000 to 15,000 layoffs targeted 18 months ago, Kodak is reducing its payroll by almost a quarter from where it stood in 2004, when a string of recent acquisitions is taken into account.
Associated Press