Airline-safety proposal

Airline-safety proposal

WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials said Monday they will propose new limits on how many hours airline pilots can fly in an effort to curb pilot fatigue, an issue safety officials have been urging action on for two decades.

Randy Babbitt, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said he will propose the new rule in the next several months. A former airline pilot who has been at FAA only a few weeks, Babbitt said the issue is complicated because a pilot flying fewer hours with more takeoffs and landings will likely experience more fatigue than a pilot on a longer flight with only one takeoff and one landing.

Russian veto ends mission

UNITED NATIONS — Russia exercised its veto power in the U.N. Security Council and brought an end Monday to the nearly 16-year-old observer mission monitoring a cease-fire between Georgia and its breakaway Abkhazia region.

Russia’s veto late Monday toppled a Western plan to extend the life of the U.N. mission for another year, or even two more weeks, to work out a compromise. The vote was 10-1 with four abstentions — China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda.

Letterman sorry for joke

NEW YORK — David Letterman said his joke about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter was a lousy joke, no matter how you cut it, and he’s sorry.

But the late-night host insisted that what’s got people really riled is the misconception over which Palin daughter the joke was about.

On Monday’s edition of “Late Show,” Letterman explained that the risqu joke thought by some to have targeted Palin’s underage daughter, Willow, was actually referring to 18-year-old daughter Bristol. The name of the daughter wasn’t mentioned in the joke, which was part of Letterman’s monologue on last Monday’s show.

It was “a coarse joke,” “a bad joke,” Letterman told viewers. “But I never thought it was [about] anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18.”

“The joke, really, in and of itself, can’t be defended,” he declared.

AMA policy on hormones

CHICAGO — The American Medical Association says there’s no scientific proof to back up claims of anti-aging hormones.

At their annual meeting in Chicago on Monday, AMA delegates adopted a new policy on products such as HGH, DHEA and testosterone used as aging remedies.

With HGH, or human growth hormone, the AMA says evidence suggests long-term use can present more risks than benefits. The risks include tissue swelling and diabetes.

Bodies found in Yemen

SAN’A, Yemen — Shepherds found the mutilated bodies Monday of two German nurses and a South Korean teacher who were kidnapped while picnicking in an area of Yemen known as a hide-out for al-Qaida.

Experts said the killings bore the hallmarks not of local tribesmen but of jihadist militants who had returned home after fighting in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

The dead women disappeared in the remote northern province of Saada on Friday while on an outing with six other foreigners, including a German doctor, his wife and their three young children. The whereabouts of the six were unknown, the Yemeni government said.

Report: VA training lax

WASHINGTON — Fewer than half of Veterans Affairs centers given a surprise inspection last month had proper training and guidelines in place for common endoscopic procedures such as colonoscopies — even after the agency learned that mistakes may have exposed thousands of veterans to HIV and other diseases.

The findings, from the VA’s inspector general and obtained by The Associated Press, suggest that errors in colonoscopies and other minimally invasive procedures performed at VA facilities may be more widespread than initially believed.

The report is slated to be released today at a hearing before a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee.

Apology for Internet hoax

CHICAGO — A suburban Chicago woman has apologized for an Internet hoax in which she claimed to be pregnant with a terminally ill child, saying the story that attracted nearly a million hits to her Web site stemmed from “unresolved pain” she couldn’t handle alone.

Rebeccah Beushausen, 26, of Mokena, wove a tale for about two months about being an unmarried mother who chose to carry her child to term rather than have an abortion because of her deep Christian faith. One of the blog’s followers exposed the lie last week.

Associated Press