Israel agrees to UN probe of raid

Israel agrees to UN probe of raid

JERUSALEM

Israel agreed Monday to participate in a U.N. investigation of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last spring, a surprising departure from its traditional distrust of the world body.

Israel expressed confidence the inquiry would find its actions justified. However, its decision to cooperate reflects the hit Israel’s world standing has taken in the wake of the assault and the spotlight it turned on its three-year blockade of already impoverished Gaza.

Nine Turkish activists, including one with U.S. citizenship, died after being shot by Israeli commandos boarding their ship May 31.

BP: Pump might be all that’s needed

NEW ORLEANS

After insisting for months that a pair of costly relief wells were the only surefire way to kill the oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, BP officials said Monday they may be able to do it just with lines running from a ship to the blown-out well a mile below.

As crews planned testing late Monday to determine whether to proceed with a “static kill” to pump mud and perhaps cement down the throat of the well, BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells said if it’s successful the relief wells may not be needed, after all, to do the same weeks later from the bottom.

Georgia top party school; OU is No. 2

ATLANTA

The University of Georgia won a national title this year — top party school.

The Princeton Review announced Monday that Georgia is the No. 1 party school on its now infamous annual ranking. The school of about 30,000 students has been on the list 10 times since the ranking was created in 1992, but this is the first time the university has taken the top spot.

University of Georgia spokesman Tom Jackson said the list is not one the school wants to lead.

Georgia beat out Pennsylvania State University, West Virginia University and University of Florida — which were the top party schools over the last three years. Those three made the top 10 this year, and Ohio University ranked second.

9 miners in China killed, 7 trapped

BEIJING

Nine workers were killed and seven others trapped after lethal gas leaked into a coal mine in central China, a state news agency said today.

A “gas outburst” occurred at 11:19 p.m. Monday at the Sanyuandong Coal Mine in Dengfeng, a city in Henan province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Challenge to health law clears hurdle

RICHMOND, Va.

Virginia’s lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s health-care-reform package cleared its first legal hurdle Monday when a federal judge ruled the law raises a host of complex constitutional issues.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli claims in the lawsuit that Congress doesn’t have the authority to require citizens to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson’s ruling denied the Justice Department’s attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Suit planned over Mich. oil spill

MARSHALL, Mich.

A public-interest law firm prepared Monday to sue the owners of a pipeline that ruptured in southern Michigan and dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into a Kalamazoo River tributary.

The oil flow has been stopped, and government officials say it’s been contained in a 25-mile stretch of the river. But the Environmental Protection Agency estimates it will take weeks to get the oil out of the river and months to clean it off river banks and the flood plain.

Associated Press