Nation & World Digest

Ala. senator expects justice nominee soon

WASHINGTON

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee predicts that President Barack Obama will nominate his next Supreme Court justice in time for hearings to wrap up this summer.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says he expects that Justice John Paul Stevens’ successor will be on the bench for the fall term that begins in October.

Stevens says he will retire at the end of this year’s term.

The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, isn’t ruling out a filibuster to stop a nominee if Republicans believe extraordinary measures are warranted.

Clashes kill 21, injure hundreds

BANGKOK

Both government and protesters mourned their dead Sunday after a night of savage street fighting that left 21 dead, but neither side appeared ready to compromise to end the political stalemate that has bedeviled Thailand for five years and threatens more violence.

At least 874 others were injured when security forces tried to crack down Saturday on demonstrators who have been staging a month of disruptive protests in the Thai capital, seeking to have Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajva dissolve Parliament and call new elections. It was the country’s worst political violence in nearly two decades.

Confederate History Month causes flap

NEW ORLEANS

The dustup over Virginia’s proclamation for Confederate History Month seems like a lot of noise over something that “doesn’t amount to diddly,” Mississippi’s governor said in an interview Sunday.

Virginia’s Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, apologized for leaving out of his proclamation any reference to slavery. He added language to the decree calling slavery “evil and inhumane” after being criticized for reviving what many Virginians believe is an insensitive commemoration of its Confederate past.

Fellow GOP Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi said he doesn’t think the proclamation was a mistake.

“To me, it’s a sort of feeling that it’s a nit, that it is not significant, that it’s not a — it’s trying to make a big deal out of something [that] doesn’t amount to diddly,” Barbour said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

New Goodyear CEO

AKRON

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is getting a new CEO at a time when the company is trying to restore profitability to its North American tire division.

Richard Kramer, 46, takes over Tuesday at the company’s annual meeting, succeeding Robert Keegan, who will remain executive chairman of the board.

Kramer, who became chief operating officer in June, spent the previous three years leading Goodyear’s North American tire business.

Center-right party wins in Hungary

BUDAPEST, Hungary

Hungary’s center-right party reclaimed the right to govern Sunday, winning more than 50 percent of the vote and handing the ruling Socialists a defeat. Extreme rightists backed by black clad paramilitary troops took more than 15 percent to come in third.

While widely forecast, the strong gain of the extreme right Jobbik party represented the greatest political shake-up of the election, shattering Hungary’s traditional post-communist status quo of a parliament dominated by the center right and the left.

Fidesz’s landslide victory had been expected by pollsters and its result of 52.8 percent in the first round translated into 206 seats for now in the 386-seat legislature.

Associated Press