U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | Spacecraft to fly by sweetheart comet

Spacecraft to fly by sweetheart comet

LOS ANGELES

After a long-distance courtship, a NASA spacecraft is set to meet up with its celestial sweetheart — a comet half the size of Manhattan that had an encounter with another spacecraft not long ago.

The rendezvous between Stardust and comet Tempel 1 occurs today some 210 million miles from Earth. Hurtling at 24,000 mph, Stardust will fly within 125 miles of the potato-shaped comet, snapping pictures along the way.

If successful, it will be the first time that scientists will have before-and-after images of Tempel 1, allowing them to observe any changes on the uneven surface.

Swiss voters choose to keep their guns

GENEVA

Neutral Switzerland is among the best-armed nations in the world, with more guns per capita than almost any other country except the United States, Finland and Yemen.

At least 2.3 million weapons are stashed in basements, cupboards and lofts in this country of less than 8 million people, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.

On Sunday, Swiss voters made sure it stays that way, rejecting a proposal to tighten the peaceful Alpine nation’s relaxed firearms laws.

The decision was hailed as a victory by gun enthusiasts, sports shooters and supporters of Switzerland’s citizen soldier tradition.

Italy reopens camp for Tunisian refugees

LAMPEDUSA, Italy

Bowing to local pressure in a rising tide of Tunisian refugees, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni decided Sunday to reopen a large refugee camp on the southern island of Lampedusa.

The camp took in about 1,000 people Sunday evening, Italian media reported.

Many of the refugees reportedly were reluctant to be admitted into the camp, fearing that they would be arrested.

Maroni was bowing to pressure from the local population in the decision, after Rome rejected reopening the camp so as not to “additionally encourage” refugees from heading toward the tiny island.

A further 1,000 Tunisian boat refugees arrived overnight on Lampedusa, further straining the tiny Italian island’s facilities to help them.

Slaves hid charms

BALTIMORE

The greenhouse on the Maryland plantation where famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass spent part of his childhood was not as uniquely European as once thought: Its furnace was built by slaves, who hid distinctly African touches within it to ward off bad spirits, researchers said.

A stone pestle to control spirits was concealed in brick ductwork used to heat the orangery — a type of greenhouse used to shield citrus and other trees from chilly winters — and University of Maryland archaeologists found charms buried at the structure’s entrance, said excavation leader Mark Leone. The greenhouse was long considered a mark of European sophistication and was a status symbol of the era.

Protests in Dresden

DRESDEN, Germany

Thousands of people formed a human chain in Dresden to protest a far-right march Sunday on the 66th anniversary of the Allied bombing of the city in World War II.

City authorities said that 17,000 people formed the chain around the rebuilt city center. News agency DAPD reported that they included Germany’s interior minister and Saxony’s state governor.

Three waves of British and U.S. bombers on Feb. 13-14, 1945, destroyed Dresden’s centuries-old baroque city center.

Combined dispatches