Cleveland steelmaker to lay off 700 workers

Cleveland steelmaker to lay off 700 workers

CLEVELAND — Steelmaker ArcelorMittal plans to suspend operations at its Cleveland site in early May amid a declining market for steel and lay off about 700 more workers for an undetermined length of time, a local union official said Saturday.

About 450 of the roughly 1,400 members of the United Steelworkers of America Local 979 already have been laid off in the past three months, Local 979 vice president Dan Boone said.

Union officials and company management informed workers about the new round of layoffs in several meetings Friday, he said, adding that economic conditions had foreshadowed the potential for more cuts.

Palestinian PM resigns

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Western-backed Palestinian prime minister submitted his resignation Saturday, improving the odds of a possible unity government of Fatah moderates and Hamas militants, followed by new Palestinian elections.

Salam Fayyad announced that he will step down once a new government is formed, but no later than the end of March. Unity talks between the Islamic militant Hamas and the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to resume this week in Cairo. Abbas aides noted that if the negotiations fail, Abbas might reappoint Fayyad.

Karzai agrees to vote date

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that he would agree to postpone the presidential election until August, bowing to pressure from election officials and Afghanistan’s international backers who do not believe that fair and safe polls can take place by spring as scheduled.

But the president left unclear what should happen after his term expires in May. He declined to clarify whether he would seek to remain in power until the election and whether he would seek re-election after seven years in power.

In accepting the date proposed by the independent election commission, Karzai appeared to resolve a dispute that has thrown Afghanistan’s political transition into turmoil and raised doubts about the stability of this fragile, insurgent-plagued democracy.

Elephant causes injuries

INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis fire officials say a dozen children and an adult suffered minor injuries when a circus elephant knocked over a portable stairway at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Indianapolis Fire Department spokeswoman Rita Reith said none of the injured needed to go to a hospital after the incident Saturday at the Murat Shrine Circus.

Reith says the elephant was giving rides to children when it bumped the stairway where adults and other children were standing.

She says most of the injuries are bumps and scrapes, although one adult fell from the top of the stairway and injured an arm.

The circus continued as scheduled.

Barbara Mandrell’s dad dies

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Irby Mandrell, who taught his daughter Barbara to play an array of musical instruments at the shop he ran in Oceanside, Calif., then helped guide her country singing career as her longtime manager, has died. He was 84.

Mandrell died Thursday at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., after suffering a stroke, Barbara Mandrell said Friday.

Irby Mandrell had his own dreams of becoming a country music star. Born in Hot Springs, Ark., in 1924, he got his start singing and playing guitar on a radio program there.

Mandrell and his wife, who also had a music background, taught Barbara, their oldest child, to read and play music as a young girl. At 11 she had her first professional gig, playing steel guitar with country star Joe Maphis in Las Vegas in 1960, then went on tour with Johnny Cash, June Carter, Patsy Cline and George Jones.

“He was not only my manager,” Barbara told the Los Angeles Times. “He was my daddy, so he had my best interests at heart.

2 killed near Irish barracks

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Two men were shot dead and four more were injured Saturday night when gunmen opened fire outside a military barracks, police said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack at Massereene Barracks northwest of Belfast but suspicion was likely to center on dissident republican groups opposed to the Irish Republican Army’s cease-fire.

Combined dispatches