U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | Contamination lawsuit settled

Contamination lawsuit settled

COLUMBUS

Residents living near a Cold War-era nuclear-weapons facility in southern Ohio settled a two-decade-old federal lawsuit over alleged hazardous chemical contamination in their neighborhoods, a lawyer for the plant’s operators said Saturday.

The undisclosed settlement was “substantially less” than the $300 million lawsuit and didn’t include all the plaintiffs, said attorney Gail Ford, who represented Divested Atomic Corp. and other operators of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, about 65 miles south of Columbus.

London protest

LONDON

More than 250,000 people took to London’s streets to protest the toughest spending cuts since World War II — one of the largest demonstrations since the Iraq war — as riot police clashed with small groups. More than 200 people were arrested. Although most of Saturday’s demonstration was peaceful, clashes continued into the night as dozens of protesters pelted officers with bottles and amonia-filled lightbulbs. Groups set several fires and smashed shop windows near tourist landmarks such as Trafalgar Square.

NATO airstrike kills Afghan civilians

ISLAMABAD

A NATO airstrike in southern Afghanistan targeting Taliban militants accidentally killed civilians, NATO said Saturday, the latest in a string of deaths this month that have inflamed tensions between Washington and the Afghan government.

The incident occurred Friday in Helmand province, a longtime Taliban stronghold and one of the focal points of a U.S. troop buildup to retake southern Afghanistan from the insurgents’ control.

Maine outdoes Pa. with whoopie pie

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine

They’ve made whoopie in Maine. A big whoopie pie.

In an effort to outdo Pennsylvania, a Maine radio station teamed up with a whoopie-pie maker to create a massive one topping the scales at 1,067 pounds Saturday.

The idea was to outdo Pennsylvania, where people created a 250-pound whoopie pie in September at an annual festival in Lancaster County.

A friendly competition has broken out since Maine tried to claim the whoopie pie, which consists of chocolate cakes filled with creamy frosting. Pennsylvania took exception to Maine’s claim, saying whoopie pies were invented by the Amish.

Rebuked for e-mails

PAHRUMP, Nev.

Commissioners in central Nevada’s Nye County have voted unanimously to reprimand the county assessor, after she sent e-mails to the sheriff questioning the citizenship of workers building a new county jail.

Assessor Shirley Matson asked for an investigation of the workers’ citizenship or work-visa status in a March 11 e-mail to Sheriff Tony DeMeo, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Change in Chicago

CHICAGO

A nervous energy is crackling through city hall in Chicago as bureaucrats, businesspeople and lobbyists wonder how the first regime change since 1989 will affect their livelihood.

For these insiders, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s promise to get things done in a new way is more than just a campaign slogan.

Many made a comfortable living during the 22-year administration of Mayor Richard Daley, building political capital, forging relationships and making deals. Now they face the prospect of a new boss with different priorities, a fresh voice on the phone at a crucial department — another power structure to scale.

Combined dispatches