2nd dark day on Broadway

2nd dark day on Broadway

NEW YORK — It was a second day of dark Broadway theaters and disappointed audiences as striking stagehands reaffirmed their commitment Sunday to remain off the job until producers started acting “honorably” at the negotiating table.

James J. Claffey Jr., president of Local One, said the League of American Theatres and Producers needs to make a “constructive” adjustment to its counter offers.

Twenty-seven shows remained closed Sunday, the day after stagehands went on strike, shutting down such popular productions as “Wicked,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Hairspray,” “Jersey Boys” and “Mamma Mia!”

Among the shows canceled Sunday was a gala 10th-year anniversary performance of “The Lion King,” although a party celebrating the Disney musical’s decade-long run was still being held.

Findings on staph germ

WASHINGTON — The aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph infection responsible for thousands of recent illnesses undermines the body’s defenses by causing germ-fighting cells to explode, researchers reported Sunday. Experts say the findings may help lead to better treatments.

An estimated 90,000 people in the United States fall ill each year from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. It is not clear how many die from the infection; one estimate put it at more than 18,000, which would be slightly higher than U.S. deaths from AIDS.

The infection long has been associated with health care facilities, where it attacks people with reduced immune systems. But many recent cases involve an aggressive strain, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA. It can cause severe infections and even death in otherwise healthy people outside of health care settings.

The CA-MRSA strain secretes a kind of peptide — a compound formed by amino acids — that causes immune cells called neutrophils to burst, eliminating a main defense against infection, according to researchers.

Oil spills into Black Sea

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — Massive waves split a Russian oil tanker in two during a fierce storm Sunday, spilling at least 560,000 gallons of fuel into a strait leading to the Black Sea. It was the worst environmental disaster in the region in years, and some officials said could take years to clean up.

The 18-foot waves also sank two Russian freighters nearby, in the Strait of Kerch, a narrow strait linking the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast. Eight sailors from one freighter were missing, but rescuers saved all the crew members the other vessel.

The two ships together were carrying about 7,150 tons of sulfur, said Sergei Petrov, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry.

In total, as many as 10 ships sank or ran aground in the Strait of Kerch and in the nearby area of the Black Sea, and reports said three other sailors were dead or missing.

Robbers use bouquet

NEW YORK — Robbers posed as flower deliverymen to get into an 80-year-old woman’s apartment and steal at least $60,000 in savings her husband kept in cash, the victims and police said.

Two bouquet-toting bandits persuaded Carmen Nieves to open her door to them Nov. 3, she said Saturday as police released a surveillance camera photo of the suspects. Police estimated the suspects were between 20 and 30 years old.

Once inside Nieves’ apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the thieves bound her hands and feet and ransacked the house until they found the money.

Nieves and her husband, Michael Rodriguez, 65, said he had planned to take the cash to a bank. He had mentioned the cache of cash to someone, and he believes that remark may have led to the robbery, he said.

Virginia: the most vain?

RICHMOND, Va. — URSOVAIN Virginia.

You, too, New Hampshire, Illinois, Nevada and Montana.

A state-by-state survey of the popularity of vanity license plates has found that car and truck owners in Virginia are the vainest of them all.

Out of the 9.3 million personalized plates on the roads of America, about one in 10 are in Virginia, according to rankings provided to The Associated Press by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

That’s 16 percent of the plates issued by Virginia. New Hampshire came in second with nearly 14 percent. Illinois had about 13.4 percent, but that amounted to nearly 1.3 million plates, the most of any state.

Texas had the fewest, with only about a half percent of drivers personalizing their plates.

Associated Press