USA
Turner Broadcasting Systems and a contractor responsible for a Cartoon Network publicity campaign that went awry in the Boston area last week agreed to pay $2 million to resolve any potential charges against them, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said Monday. Roads and bridges were closed as bomb squads examined wired boxes with a cartoon image used in the promotion.
While working more than seven hours Sunday to upgrade the cooling system of the International Space Station, US astronaut Sunita Williams set a record for the amount of time a woman has spent spacewalking: 22 hours, 27 minutes. That includes walks last week and in December. She and crew mate Michael Lopez-Alegria are scheduled Thursday to make a third space walk within nine days, the first time for so many in such a short period without a shuttle being docked to the space station.
Christian Steven Ponce, a suspect in the 1999 assassination of former leftist Ecuadorean presidential candidate Jaime Hurtado, was handed over to US immigration officials in upstate New York Sunday. Police discovered a warrant for his arrest after Ponce was pulled over during a routine traffic stop.
The captain and owner of the Lake George, N.Y., Shoreline Cruises boat that sank in 2005, killing 20 elderly tourists, were indicted on criminal misdemeanor charges Monday. State navigation law required that the captain not be the only crew member on board the 47-passenger boat.
Army Lt. Ehren Watada, the first officer to refuse to go to Iraq, faced court-martial charges Monday at Fort Lewis, Wash. Watada has called the war morally wrong and a breach of American law. If convicted of missing a troop movement last June, he could be sentenced to four years in prison.
One rare whooping crane is believed to have survived last week's severe Florida storms, a spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service said Sunday. Organizers of a migratory project received a signal from a transmitter attached to the bird. The 17 others in the flock kept in a protective Crystal River, Fla., enclosure were killed.
In the worst weather in Super Bowl history, the Indianapolis Colts drew on strong efforts from their defense and running game, plus an MVP performance from quarterback Peyton Manning, to win Sunday's rain-drenched NFL title game, 29-17, over the Chicago Bears.
