King remembered as a forgiving man

King remembered as a forgiving man

los angeles

Rodney King was remembered in Los Angeles on Saturday as a forgiving man who bore the scars of his infamous beating with dignity.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, said before the funeral that King never showed bitterness to the officers who beat him.

The funeral came nearly two weeks after King was found dead at the bottom of the swimming pool at his Rialto, Calif. home June 17. He was 47.

Family members had a private service early in the day, followed by a public memorial and burial. Mourners signed a guest book and surveyed newspaper clippings from the days when King dominated headlines in 1991 and 1992.

Egypt’s new leader, military in struggle

cairo

Islamist Mohammed Morsi became Egypt’s first freely elected president on Saturday, launching his four-year term with a potentially dangerous quest to wrest back from the military the full authority of his office.

The outcome of the impending battle between Egypt’s first civilian president and its powerful generals will redraw the country’s political landscape after 60 years of de facto military rule.

Yitzhak Shamir dies

jerusalem

Yitzhak Shamir was a fighter for the Jews long before Israel’s creation, an underground leader who led militias against the Arabs and British.

He made no apologies and no compromises — not as an underground fighter, an intelligence agent who hunted Nazis, and as one of Israel’s longest-serving prime ministers, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, who refused to bargain for land.

The 96-year-old Shamir, who clung throughout his life to the belief that Israel should hang onto territory and never trust an Arab regime, died Saturday at a nursing home in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. Israeli media said Shamir had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in recent years.

Miss.: Only state with no abortion clinic?

jackson, miss.

Mississippi could soon become the only state without an abortion clinic because of a new law taking effect this weekend. Critics say the law would force women to drive hours across the state line to obtain a constitutionally protected procedure, or could even force some to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

Top officials, including the governor, say limiting the number of abortions is exactly what they have in mind. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant frequently says he wants Mississippi to be “abortion-free.”

“If it closes that clinic, then so be it,” Bryant said as in April as he signed the law, which takes effect today.

Student-loan fix is only for a year

Congress may have averted a doubling of interest rates on millions of new federal student loans, but the fix is only for a year, leaving students on edge over whether they’ll face a similar increase next summer.

Under the agreement, interest rates on new subsidized Stafford loans will remain at 3.4 percent. That’s estimated to save 7.4 million students about $1,000 each on the average loan, which is usually paid off over 10 or more years.

In the short run, that means students can breathe a sigh of relief this summer. A year from now, however, those rates are set to rise to 6.8 percent.

Associated Press