Nation & World Digest

Oil spill: 42% OK Obama’s response

WASHINGTON

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill hasn’t stained President Barack Obama nor dimmed the public’s desire for offshore energy drilling, according to a new Associated Press-GfK Poll.

Though some conservative pundits, such as Rush Limbaugh, have called this “Obama’s Katrina,” that’s not how the public feels, the poll found.

The poll found that 42 percent approve of Obama’s actions, 33 percent disapprove, and 21 percent say they have neutral feelings about his response.

More violence in Thai protests

BANGKOK

Protesters in the Thai capital reinforced their encampment today as government efforts to blockade them overnight led to sporadic violence that killed one man and saw a high-profile Red Shirt military leader shot in the head.

The protesters, who are seeking a change of government, remained defiant of attempts to force them to end their two-month protest that has seen them turn an upmarket part of central Bangkok into a heavily barricaded stronghold.

Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdiphol, better known by the nickname Seh Daeng, was shot in the head while talking to reporters just inside the Red Shirts’ perimeter Thursday evening about an hour after the government’s lockdown was launched. He was taken to a hospital in a coma and was in critical condition. The attacker was not known.

Ariz. task force to combat ‘mistruths’

PHOENIX

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is forming a task force of tourism officials and business leaders to combat what she calls “mistruths” about the state’s controversial new law targeting illegal immigration.

Brewer met privately with tourism industry leaders Thursday and told reporters that she’s putting together a group to come up with a strategy to deal with public criticism of the law.

The law requires police while enforcing another law to ask a person about his or her immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally.

Brewer says people mistakenly believe that anybody walking on a street could be asked to produce identification. She says charges that the law will produce racial profiling are unfounded.

‘Annie’ strip to end its newspaper run

CHICAGO

Come this summer there will be no more tomorrows for “Annie.”

After 85 years, Tribune Media Services announced Thursday that it will cease syndication of the comic strip featuring the iconic redheaded orphan June 13. Instead, the company will bring Annie into the Internet age by pursuing new audiences for her in digital media and entertainment, such as mobile readers and graphic novels.

“Little Orphan Annie” made its newspaper debut Aug. 5, 1924, first written and illustrated by creator Harold Gray. The strip later was renamed simply “Annie,” telling tales of the spunky orphan adopted by Daddy Warbucks and joined by her lovable dog, Sandy.

Haiti prosecutor urges prison time

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

A U.S. missionary should spend six months in prison for her failed attempt to remove 33 children from Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake, a prosecutor said Thursday on the first day of her trial.

Prosecutor Sonel Jean-Francois told the court that Laura Silsby knew she was breaking the law by trying to take the children without proper documents to an orphanage she was starting in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Associated Press