World digest || Panel: Israel broke international law

Panel: Israel broke international law

GENEVA

A report by three U.N.-appointed human-rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year.

The U.N. Human Rights Council’s fact-finding mission concluded that Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.

New way to replace aortic heart valves

WASHINGTON

Thousands of older Americans who need new heart valves but are too frail to survive the surgery might soon get a chance at an easier option — a way to thread in an artificial aortic valve without cracking their chests.

The aortic valve is the heart’s main doorway, and a major new study found that snaking a new one in through an artery significantly improved the chances that patients with no other treatment options would survive at least a year.

Court overturns gay-adoption ban

MIAMI

Florida immediately will stop enforcing its ban on adoptions by gay people after a decision by a state appeals court that the 3-decade-old law is unconstitutional, Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday.

Crist announced the decision after the 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld a 2008 ruling by a Miami-Dade judge, who found “no rational basis” for the ban when she approved the adoption of two young brothers by Martin Gill and his male partner.

Gill and the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented him and his partner, want the state to take the case to the Florida Supreme Court to obtain a final statewide determination on the law.

Nations pledge $40B for women, children

UNITED NATIONS

The world’s nations pledged more than $40 billion to battle needless deaths among poor mothers and their children, and President Barack Obama spoke about what America can do to help the U.N.’s ambitious development goals.

But the struggling world economy, particularly in the United States, raises deep concerns that the cash won’t be forthcoming. Leaders exhorted financial donors to fulfill their aid commitments.

Pentagon official under investigation

WASHINGTON

The director of the Pentagon office overseeing the treatment of troops suffering from brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder is under investigation on allegations of making unwanted sexual advances and creating a hostile work environment, The Associated Press has learned.

The inquiry of Army Col. Robert W. Saum’s conduct comes just a few months after his predecessor abruptly resigned. Lawmakers had criticized the office for not moving quickly enough to improve care for troops with brain injuries and psychological trauma.

3 French workers nabbed off Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria

Pirates armed with Kalashnikov rifles clashed with Nigerian navy forces in a failed bid to take over an offshore oil platform, then kidnapped three French employees of a marine services company while retreating, a Nigerian official said Wednesday.

Navy Commodore David Nabaida said a Thai employee also may have been taken hostage by the pirates during the attack, which began early Wednesday morning.

Associated Press