Congress takes aim at healthful lunches

Congress takes aim at healthful lunches

WASHINGTON

Who needs leafy greens and carrots when pizza and french fries will do?

In an effort many 9-year-olds will cheer, Congress wants pizza and french fries to stay on school lunch lines and is fighting the Obama administration’s efforts to take unhealthful foods out of schools.

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

Afghan elders to discuss US role

KABUl

Despite Taliban threats, about 2,000 Afghan elders will convene this week as President Hamid Karzai seeks support for a security partnership with the U.S. after the scheduled withdrawal of international troops by the end of 2014.

The loya jirga, or grand council, could give Karzai political cover for negotiations over a deal to keep some American troops in Afghanistan for another decade despite opposition from his people and the war-weary U.S. public.

Perry outlines DC overhaul

BETTENDORF, Iowa

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said Tuesday that if elected, he would end lifetime appointments for federal judges and slash the pay for federal lawmakers, effectively turning Congress into a part-time institution.

In a speech laying out how he would “uproot and overhaul” Washington, the Texas governor suggested that his Washington outsider background — unlike some of his GOP rivals — would help him succeed at changing the city’s culture. Changing Washington also was one of President Barack Obama’s goals, and he’s had no success on that front since taking office.

The plan Perry rolled out at a heating-and-cooling company in Iowa also calls for requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress for any tax increases, halting all proposed federal regulations and criminalizing insider trading by Washington lawmakers.

Scores die as crisis in Syria escalates

BEIRUT

Army defectors ambushed dozens of Syrian troops, and regime forces gunned down civilians during one of the bloodiest days of the country’s 8-month-old uprising, which appeared Tuesday to be spiraling out of President Bashar Assad’s control.

Up to 90 people were killed in a gruesome wave of violence Monday, activists said. The extent of the bloodshed only came to light Tuesday, in part because corpses lying in the streets did not reach the morgue until daylight.

As the bloodshed spiked, Assad’s former allies were turning on him in rapid succession — a sign of profound impatience with a leader who has failed to stem months of unrest that could explode into a regional conflagration.

More than $10.9M paid for diamond

GENEVA

The Sun-Drop Diamond of South Africa, a giant pear-shaped yellow gem weighing 110.3 carats, has sold for more than $10.9 million at auction Tuesday, beating previous records for a jewel of its type.

Including commission, the unidentified telephone bidder paid almost $12.4 million for the gem, putting it within the $11 million to $15 million range Sotheby’s had estimated before the sale.

Associated Press