Couple tries to save pet

Couple tries to save pet
Anna Tack keeps an eye on her pet pig, Bacon, who went outside to get a drink. Tack and her fianc & eacute;, Edwin Johnson, of Kalamazoo, Mich., bought the Vietnamese miniature potbelly pig because Johnson is allergic to cats and dogs. The couple will go before a magistrate today to fight a local ordinance that prohibits people from keeping livestock as pets.
Air-pack demand grows
PITTSBURGH -- Recent coal mine disasters and historic safety legislation have spurred growth in the small but increasingly active market for emergency oxygen devices, industry officials and analysts say. Orders for the air packs have spiked in recent months and regulators have consulted with entrepreneurs and companies about new features that could improve the chances of survival for miners trapped underground. Rising demand for the devices, known as self-contained self-rescuers, comes after explosions at two mines -- West Virginia's Sago and Darby in southeastern Kentucky -- left 17 miners dead earlier this year.
No charges for Limbaugh
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Rush Limbaugh will not face charges in Palm Beach County for the bottle of Viagra found in his luggage that was prescribed in his psychologist's name, prosecutors said Wednesday. Charges could have nullified the conservative radio host's plea agreement in a "doctor shopping" case. Limbaugh, 55, was detained for more than three hours at Palm Beach International Airport on June 26 after he returned on his private plane from a vacation in the Dominican Republic.
Shuttle appears to be OK
HOUSTON -- Early inspections have revealed no damage to the space shuttle Discovery, NASA said Wednesday after a day of checking out the spacecraft with on-board cameras. That means that when the shuttle meets up with the international space station early today, it likely won't need emergency repairs while hooked up with the orbital outpost. Discovery's delicate heat shield and everything else appear at first glance to be in near perfect shape, NASA officials said, although it's still very early in the analysis. Engineers are nowhere near finished poring over 70 minutes of video that astronauts shot using an extended boom armed with a laser and cameras. In 2003, a piece of foam insulation from the shuttle's external tank knocked a hole in a wing during launch, causing Columbia to disintegrate as it returned home.
Israel plans buffer zone
JERUSALEM -- Israel stepped up pressure Wednesday on Hamas militants who launched improved, longer-range rockets into the heart of a major Israeli city, authorizing the army to enter populated areas in the northern Gaza Strip. The planned invasion threatened to be far bloodier than Israel's week-old offensive in Gaza aimed at freeing an abducted soldier. To carve out a sufficiently wide buffer zone to protect Israeli towns from such attacks, the army might have to go into densely populated areas where it can expect fierce resistance from Palestinian militants.
2 killed for watching TV
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Radical Islamic militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were watching a banned World Cup soccer broadcast, a radio station reported Wednesday. The hard-line Muslim fighters, who have banned watching television, opened fire after a crowd of teenagers defied their orders to leave a hall where a businessman was showing Tuesday's Germany-Italy match on satellite television, according to Shabelle Radio, an independent local station. It said the businessman and a teenage girl were killed.
Associated Press