US, NATO move on Afghanistan

US, NATO move on Afghanistan

TALLINN, Estonia

Fearful of losing public support for the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. and NATO on Friday agreed to start transferring control of the country back to its leaders by year’s end but acknowledged that achieving stability will take decades.

If successful, the transition plan approved by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and representatives of the 27 other NATO countries would enable President Barack Obama to meet his target date of July 2011 for starting to bring American troops home.

New regulations for offshore oil drilling

NEW ORLEANS

Federal regulators did not need this week’s explosion aboard a state-of-the-art rig to know the offshore-drilling industry needed new safety rules: Dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries over the last several years had already convinced them that changes were needed.

The U.S. Minerals and Management Service is developing regulations aimed at preventing human error, which it identified as a factor in many of the more than 1,400 offshore-oil-drilling accidents between 2001 and 2007.

What caused Tuesday’s massive blast off the Louisiana coast is unknown. On Friday, Coast Guard officials suspended the three-day search for 11 workers missing since an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon, saying they believe the men never made it off the platform that erupted into a giant fireball.

GM dumps Chevy advertising agency

DETROIT

General Motors has replaced the advertising agency that brought you such memorable campaigns as “See the USA in Your Chevrolet” and “Like a Rock” after more than 90 years of work.

Campbell-Ewald, based in the Detroit suburb of Warren, will be phased out of the Chevrolet account during the next few months, replaced by Publicis Worldwide, which is part of French advertising company Publicis Groupe SA.

GM spokeswoman Cristianna Vazquez would not give a reason for the move, but GM executives in recent months have stated publicly that they were unhappy with the company’s advertising and marketing.

Utah convict picks firing-squad death

SALT LAKE CITY

Utah is set to execute a convicted killer by firing squad after a judge agreed Friday to the inmate’s request, renewing a debate over what critics see as an antiquated, Old West-style of justice.

Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was given the choice of being killed by lethal injection or shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles — a rarely used method of execution that harkens back to Utah’s territorial history.

“I would like the firing squad, please,” Gardner told state court Judge Robin Reese after hearing his avenues for appeal appear to be exhausted.

Gardner, 49, was sentenced to death for killing an attorney 25 years ago during a failed escape attempt and shootout.

Union OKs plan to keep plant open

BROOKLYN, Ohio

Union workers on Friday approved an eleventh-hour agreement to keep open a Hugo Boss men’s-suit plant in Ohio where the more than 300 workers drew the support of actor Danny Glover.

In a joint statement, Hugo Boss and the unions Workers United and SEIU said the agreement is designed to help the company’s competitiveness by increasing its flexibility and reducing costs. The statement said the planned April 27 closing of the factory in suburban Cleveland would be canceled if union members ratified the pact.

Associated Press