More states freed from education law

More states freed from education law

SEATTLE

Although more than half the states are now exempt from the toughest requirements of the federal “No Child Left Behind” education law, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday his goal remains to help Congress fix the law, not to sidestep the stalled overhaul effort.

The Obama administration’s announcement Friday that Washington and Wisconsin have been granted waivers from the education law brought to 26 the number of states now free from many of its requirements.

Allowing waivers has brought a level of creativity to education reform that was unexpected when Duncan and President Barack Obama opened the waiver process nearly a year ago.

Syrian forces kill 25, activists say

BEIRUT

Syrian forces killed at least 25 people, arrested scores of others and torched more than 100 homes while seizing a northern city from rebels, activists said Friday.

The violence followed the highest-level defection yet from the regime of President Bashar Assad and came while the U.S. and others called for new global efforts to push him from power.

Anti-regime activists inside Syria cited the fresh violence in dismissing the Paris meeting of the “Friends of Syria.”

Tensions in Libya ahead of vote

TRIPOLI, Libya

Fears of militia violence and calls for a boycott threatened Friday to mar Libya’s first nationwide parliamentary election, a milestone on the oil-rich North African nation’s rocky path toward democracy after the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Today’s vote for a 200-member transitional parliament caps a tumultuous nine-month transition toward democracy for the country after a bitter civil war that ended with the capture and killing of Gadhafi in October. Many Libyans had hoped the oil-rich nation of 6 million would quickly thrive and become a magnet for investment, but the country has suffered a virtual collapse in authority that has left formidable challenges. Armed militias still operate independently, and deepening regional and tribal divisions erupt into violence with alarming frequency.

Gunmen kill 18 people in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

A government official says gunmen have killed 18 people in an attack on a roadside restaurant in southwestern Pakistan.

Abdul Razzaq said two people also were wounded in Friday’s attack in Turbat, a remote town in Baluchistan province.

He said the dead and wounded were Pakistanis trying to travel with the help of smugglers to Europe through Iran. He said officers still were investigating the shooting and provided no further details.

Experts worry about future of C-130s

CHEYENNE, Wyo.

The demise of the only company that manufactured a device specially designed to spray fire retardant from the back of U.S. military C-130 cargo planes has some experts worried about the future viability of a program that has helped fight wildfires for 40 years.

The Modular Airborne Firefighting System is a bus-sized device that can be shoved into the belly of a cargo plane and then used to spray retardant, or slurry, at 3,000 gallons in less than 5 seconds. The $4.9 million device’s only manufacturer, Sacramento, Calif.-based Aero Union, went out of business in August, and no other company has replaced it. Critical spare parts also are no longer being made.

Associated Press