Officials OK removal of debris at bridge site

Officials OK removal
of debris at bridge site

MINNEAPOLIS — With all the victims believed to have been recovered, federal investigators gave state transportation officials clearance Tuesday to pull away the concrete deck of the collapsed interstate bridge. The cleanup and rebuilding steps kicked into a higher gear a day after divers pulled the body of construction worker Gregory Jolstad from the Mississippi River, about three weeks after the eight-lane bridge fell Aug. 1. “This community will now be on the road to recovery,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said at a briefing near the collapse site. Before all 13 known victims were accounted for, crews had proceeded delicately with debris removal. Cranes and other heavy-duty equipment are now being moved in to extract bigger pieces. With the recovery operation over, officials gave reporters and TV cameras their first close look at the collapse site Tuesday.

Poll: 1 in 4 adults did
not read a book last year

WASHINGTON — There it sits on your night stand, that book you’ve meant to read for who knows how long but haven’t yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing — you are not alone. One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the past year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.

Venezuelan officials give
OK to re-election reforms

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s congress, dominated by allies of President Hugo Chavez, gave initial approval Tuesday to constitutional reforms that would allow him to run for re-election and possibly govern for decades to come. After about six hours of debate, National Assembly president Cilia Flores said Chavez’s proposed changes to the constitution, including the lifting of presidential term limits, received “majority approval.” Flores did not say how many of the 167 lawmakers voted in favor of the reforms, saying only that they were approved with overwhelming support. Final approval is expected within two or three months, and the changes would have to be approved by voters in a referendum. The National Assembly has been solidly pro-Chavez since the opposition boycotted a 2005 vote and had been expected to sign off on the changes proposed by Chavez in Tuesday’s first reading.

6 Palestinians killed

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, two of them children, in the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday and early today, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. The Israeli army said ground forces fired at gunmen who approached the Israel-Gaza border fence Tuesday. The Islamic Jihad group said three militants on a mission against Israel were killed. Later in the day, the army said troops targeted two figures spotted near a rocket launcher in an area of northern Gaza where a rocket had been fired into Israel earlier. The fire killed a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old who were members of the same extended family, said doctor Muawiya Hassanin of the Palestinian Health Ministry. Another 10-year-old was seriously wounded and six other people were lightly hurt, all of them civilians, Hassanin said.

Associated Press