U.S. & WORLD NEWS | Feds buying 100 Volts, other electrics

Feds buying 100 Volts, other electrics

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration said Tuesday it is buying more than 100 Chevrolet Volts and other electric cars as it moves to improve fuel efficiency of the government’s massive fleet of cars and trucks.

The plan by the General Services Administration to buy 116 plug-in electric cars marks the government’s first purchase of road-ready electric vehicles, a GSA spokeswoman said.

The cars represent a tiny fraction of the 600,000 vehicles the GSA manages. But Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other officials said they were an important symbol of the administration’s commitment to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Pakistan bombing kills 2, wounds 22

PESHAWAR, Pakistan

A suicide car-bomber struck a police facility in an army cantonment in Pakistan’s main northwest city early Wednesday, officials said, killing two people and wounding at least 22 in the latest attack in the country since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Though no group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attack, it added to fears that it will be a bloody summer as Pakistani Taliban and other al-Qaida affiliated groups carry out threats to avenge the al-Qaida chief’s slaying.

Suit OK’d against Huffington Post

NEW YORK

A judge on Tuesday refused to throw out a lawsuit by two Democratic political consultants who allege that The Huffington Post’s founders stole the idea for the online news website from them.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos denied a motion by lawyers for the media company to dismiss the lawsuit, meaning that the case likely will move to the discovery phase of fact-finding by both sides.

Consultants Peter Daou and James Boyce sued in November 2010, alleging they had originally come up with the plan for the site’s blend of blogs by prominent contributors, news aggregation and original content.

Obama, queen toast nations’ ties

LONDON

President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday toasted the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, a bond strengthened at times of peril for each of the transatlantic allies.

In remarks at the start of a gala state dinner in Buckingham Palace, the queen recalled how the United States “came to the rescue” of Britain in the past and said “the U.S. remains our most important ally” today.

In his own toast, Obama thanked the United Kingdom for its solidarity in the 10 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and for the “very heavy sacrifices” it has made while fighting “shoulder to shoulder” with the United States since then.

UN: No deadline to destroy virus

GENEVA

Health ministers from around the world agreed Tuesday to put off setting a deadline to destroy the last known stockpiles of the smallpox virus for three more years, rejecting a U.S. plan that had called for a five-year delay.

After two days of heated debate, the 193-nation World Health Assembly agreed by consensus to a compromise that calls for another review in 2014.

The U.S. had proposed a five-year extension to destroying the U.S. and Russian stockpiles, arguing that more research is needed and the stockpiles could help prevent one of the world’s deadliest diseases from being used as a biological weapon.

But opponents said they saw little reason to retain the stockpiles and objected to the delay in destroying them.

Combined dispatches