hHamas rally

hHamas rally

A masked Palestinian boy gestures during a Hamas rally calling for the release of Hamas lawmakers held in Israel, outside the Palestinian Parliament in Gaza City. The rally was Wednesday.

SpongeBob items recalled

WASHINGTON — An Ohio importer recalled nearly 250,000 SpongeBob SquarePants address books and journals manufactured in China because the bindings might contain hazardous levels of lead paint, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday. The recall involves address books and journals sold in retail stores nationwide from June 2006 through July 2007. They have a black metal spiral binding and depict the SpongeBob SquarePants character in various outfits on the front cover. The recalled address books’ UPC code, printed on the back cover, is 80773007505; the recalled journals have the UPC codes 80773002260, 80773075501 and 80773007551. Consumers should dispose of the product and return the UPC code for a full refund to Martin Designs, Attention: Product Recall, 605 Westlake Dr., Ashland OH 44805.

Southern heat wave

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A fire at a power substation Wednesday forced the nation’s largest public utility to ask major industrial customers to reduce their electricity use as a heat wave continued to dog the region it serves. The fire caused a partial shutdown at a Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Kentucky as temperatures were predicted to rise near 100 degrees through Friday in the Knoxville-based utility’s seven-state territory. In Nashville, Tuesday marked the 12th day of 100 degrees or above this month. Meanwhile, the regional heat wave’s death toll grew Wednesday to at least 50, with one new death reported in Missouri and two in Alabama.

Texas execution

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A man convicted in the shooting death of a convenience store clerk became the 400th person to be executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. He died Wednesday. Johnny Ray Conner, 32, was convicted in 1999 for fatally shooting Houston convenience store clerk Kathyanna Nguyen, 49, during an attempted robbery.

Diplomat leery of Iran

VIENNA, Austria — Iran’s willingness to answer questions about its nuclear program will not save it from new U.N. sanctions, a U.S. envoy said Wednesday, describing Tehran’s new openness as an attempt to deflect “attention from its ... bomb-making capabilities.” The remark by Gregory L. Schulte, chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, drew criticism from some diplomats, who suggested that Washington was trying to derail important progress in the Iranian nuclear negotiations in its drive to impose new U.N. penalties.

Research: T rex was fast

LONDON — The Tyrannosaurus rex would have been able to outrun soccer star David Beckham, according to research published Wednesday by the Royal Society scientific academy. Experts had argued previously that the 18-foot-tall T. rex’s bulk would have meant it was a slow-moving scavenger, but new calculations using a supercomputer suggest the T. rex could run nearly 18 mph. Previous calculations relied on information from living two-legged creatures to estimate how fast dinosaurs could run, he said. “Such calculations can accurately predict the top speed of a 6-ton chicken, but dinosaurs are not built like chickens and nor do they run like them.”

Man claims medieval cross

LONDON — A Polish count laid claim Wednesday to a medieval cross fished out of a trash container in Austria, saying it had been stolen from his family by the Nazis. Count Adam Zamoyski, the chairman of a Warsaw museum, said photographic and archival evidence left no doubt that the cross was the one held by his ancestors at the Goluchow Castle in Poland before World War II. The item was found by a woman rooting through the discarded belongings of a deceased hotel owner in western Austria in 2004.

Associated Press