Protests in Russia
Protests in Russia
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia
Thousands of people have rallied across Russia to denounce the government’s economic policy and demand more freedom in a new challenge to the Kremlin reflecting increasing disillusionment and a growing potential for protests.
Many participants in Saturday’s rallies, dubbed the “Day of Wrath” by the opposition, demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Spring snowstorm hits southern Plains
NORMAN, Okla.
A powerful storm began blowing through Oklahoma and the southern Plains on the first day of spring Saturday, bringing heavy snow and strong winds a day after temperatures reached into the 70s.
Authorities attributed at least three deaths in three states to the weather.
Former aide to Lady Bird dies
AUSTIN, Texas
Liz Carpenter, an author and former press secretary to first lady Lady Bird Johnson, died Saturday at an Austin hospital after contracting pneumonia earlier in the week, said her daughter, Christy Carpenter. Carpenter was 89.
On Nov. 22, 1963, Carpenter scribbled the 58 words that Lyndon Johnson delivered to the nation when he returned to Washington, D.C., from Dallas after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy:
“This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help and God’s.”
Later, Carpenter wrote that she couldn’t take all the credit for Johnson’s speech: “God was my ghostwriter.”
UN chief: Israeli development illegal
RAMALLAH, West Bank
Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories.
The statement came a day after Ban, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other major Mideast mediators — known as the Quartet — met in Moscow to try to find a way to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Ex-secretary of interior Udall dies
SANTA FE, N.M.
Stewart Udall, who sowed the seeds of the modern environmental movement as secretary of the interior during the 1960s and later became a crusader for victims of radiation exposure from the government’s Cold War nuclear programs, died Saturday. He was 90.
Under Udall’s leadership from 1961 through 1968, the Interior Department aggressively promoted an expansion of public lands and helped win enactment of major environmental laws, including ones to protect endangered species.
American deaths in Mexico increase
MEXICO CITY
More Americans in Mexico are falling victim to a wave of drug violence sweeping the country.
The number of U.S. citizens killed in Mexico has more than doubled to 79 in 2009 from 35 in 2007, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual count. No figures were available for the first two months of 2010.
Though only some of the killings are specifically listed as “executions” or “drug- related,” the increase in homicides appears to be related to drug battles.
Associated Press