U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | Utility: Radioactive water stops leaking

Utility: Radioactive water stops leaking

TOKYO

The utility that owns the crippled Japanese nuclear reactor says that highly radioactive water has stopped leaking into the ocean.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesperson Naoki Tsunoda said today the company’s attempt to stem the leak by injecting 400 gallons of “water glass,” or sodium silicate, and another agent near a seaside pit where the water was leaking appeared to have been successful.

The leak was discovered Saturday, and radiation of more than 7.5 million times the legal limit for seawater was found just off a tsunami-damaged nuclear plant.

Strongman on last leg in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast

Surrounded by troops backing Ivory Coast’s democratically elected leader, strongman Laurent Gbagbo huddled Tuesday with his family in a bunker and played his final hand, trying to wrest last-ditch concessions as he negotiated the terms of his surrender.

Down the hill from his luxurious compound, dozens of Gbagbo’s soldiers were seen entering a church where they stripped off their uniforms and abandoned their weapons. Earlier, Gbagbo’s three top generals said they had ordered their men to stop fighting, the United Nations said in a statement.

The developments spell game over for a man who refused to accept defeat in last year’s election and took his country to the precipice of civil war in his bid to preserve power.

SF lawmakers OK Twitter tax break

SAN FRANCISCO

City lawmakers approved a tax break Tuesday to keep Twitter Inc. from fleeing San Francisco.

The measure that passed with an 8-3 vote by the Board of Supervisors exempts Twitter from a payroll tax on new hires if the micro-blogging service moves to the blighted Mid-Market area.

Ozone over Arctic thins a record 40%

GENEVA

The protective ozone layer in the Arctic that keeps out the sun’s most-damaging rays — ultraviolet radiation — has thinned about 40 percent this winter, a record drop, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday.

The Arctic’s damaged stratospheric ozone layer isn’t the best known “ozone hole” — that would be Antarctica’s, which forms when sunlight returns in spring there each year. But the Arctic’s situation is due to similar causes: ozone-munching compounds in air pollutants that are chemically triggered by a combination of extremely low temperatures and sunlight.

Sources: Colombia, US in free-trade deal

WASHINGTON

The U.S. and Colombia are expected to announce a deal on a key free-trade pact today, three people close to the agreement said.

The agreement ends a years-long stalemate over the highly coveted deal and came together after weeks of intense negotiations in Washington and Bogota, focused in part on Colombia’s strengthening its protection of unions and labor leaders.

Study: Risks of estrogen fade

CHICAGO

Strokes and other health problems linked with estrogen pills appear to fade when women quit taking them after menopause, the first long-term follow-up of a landmark study found. It’s reassuring news for women who take the hormone in their 50s when menopause usually begins.

The latest study bolsters previous evidence that concerns about breast cancer and heart attacks largely are unfounded for those who take the hormone for a short period of time to relieve hot flashes and other menopause symptoms.

Associated Press