U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | Japan plans to resolve crisis in 6 to 9 months

Japan plans to resolve crisis in 6 to 9 months

TOKYO

The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear plant laid out a blueprint Sunday for stopping radiation leaks and stabilizing damaged reactors within the next six to nine months as a first step toward allowing some of the tens of thousands of evacuees to return to the area.

While the government said the time frame was realistic, those forced to flee their homes, jobs and farms were frustrated that their exile is not going to end soon. And officials acknowledge that unforeseen complications, or even another natural disaster, could set that timetable back even further.

FAA gives controllers an extra hour to rest

WASHINGTON

The government said Sunday it is giving air-traffic controllers an extra hour off between shifts so they don’t doze off at work, a problem that stretches back decades. But officials rejected the remedy that sleep experts say would make a real difference: on-the-job napping.

“On my watch, controllers will not be paid to take naps. We’re not going to allow that,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

That’s exactly the opposite of what scientists and the Federal Aviation Administration’s own fatigue working group say is needed after five cases disclosed since late March of sleeping controllers. Several other countries, including Germany and Japan, permit controllers to take sleeping breaks, and they provide quiet rooms with cots for that purpose.

3 protesters killed

BEIRUT

Gunmen opened fire during a funeral for a slain anti-government protester Sunday, killing at least three people on a day when tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide as part of an uprising against the country’s authoritarian regime, witnesses and activists said.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the shooting at the funeral near Homs, 100 miles from the capital, Damascus.

Envoys in Iraq face testing times in 2012

BASRA, Iraq

Make no mistake, Mazin al-Nazeni hates Americans. Soldiers, diplomats, oilmen — the militant leader in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, considers all of them to be Enemy No. 1.

But U.S. diplomats in the southern port city say they’re here to stay — even if it’s at their peril.

It’s a quandary for the Obama administration as the U.S. tries to move from invading power to normal diplomatic partner. But with the last American troops obligated to be gone by year’s end, the protection of American diplomats will fall almost entirely to private contractors and Iraqi security forces.

Associated Press