Congress narrows gap in sentencing

Congress narrows gap in sentencing

WASHINGTON

Congress on Wednesday changed a quarter-century-old law that has subjected tens of thousands of blacks to long prison terms for crack-cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient treatment to those, mainly whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

The House, by voice vote, approved a bill reducing the disparities between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences, sending the measure to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Spanish region bans bullfighting

BARCELONA, Spain

The independence- minded region of Catalonia became the first on the Spanish mainland to outlaw bullfighting Wednesday after impassioned debate.

Lawmakers in Catalonia’s regional assembly approved the ban after emotional speeches that mixed expressions of support for maintaining tradition with denunciations of bullfighting as institutionalized cruelty.

Critics have assailed the campaign for a ban as a pretext for more nakedly political and nationalist ends. They suspect the true motive is a desire to poke a stick in the eye of the rest of Spain, an assertion of Catalan identity as different.

Calif. state workers face furloughs

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday brought back furloughs for thousands of state workers until California approves a budget that addresses a $19 billion deficit.

Schwarzenegger released a new executive order requiring state workers to take three unpaid days off per month starting in August, forcing a number of state-government office closures. State workers were furloughed a total of 46 days when Schwarzenegger issued a similar order in February 2009, which translated to a pay cut of about 14 percent.

WikiLeaks: Source of data unknown

LONDON

WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief claims his organization doesn’t know who sent it some 91,000 secret U.S. military documents, telling journalists that the website was set up to hide the source of its data from those who receive it.

Julian Assange didn’t say whether he meant he had no idea who leaked the documents or whether his organization simply could not be sure.

Survey: Recovery slows in places

WASHINGTON

The pace of economic activity has slowed or held steady in parts of the country, revealing a choppy path back to health.

A new survey released by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday found the U.S. economy growing this summer, even as risks mount.

Of the 12 regions tracked by the Fed, the survey said that growth held steady in Cleveland and Kansas City but slowed in Atlanta and Chicago. Economic activity elsewhere was described as modest.

Nazi suspect, 88, charged in Germany

BERLIN

The world’s third-most-wanted Nazi suspect, who lived undisturbed for decades after World War II, has been charged in Germany with participating in the murder of 430,000 Jews while serving as a low-ranking guard at a death camp.

Authorities recently stumbled over the case of Samuel Kunz, 88, as they were studying old documents from German post-war trials about an SS training camp named Trawniki. The papers were being reviewed in connection with the trial of John Demjanjuk, the 90-year-old retired Cleveland autoworker on trial in Munich for allegedly serving as a guard at the infamous Sobibor camp.

Combined dispatches