USA
Thousands of antiwar demonstrators participated Saturday in in a march on the Pentagon to mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, which occurs Tuesday. They denounced the recent surge of 30,000 extra troops and called for the US to get out, as counterprotesters held signs that said: "Win the war or lose to jihad." Similar antiwar rallies were held in other US cities.
Menu Foods, a manufacturer of wet pet foods sold with Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway, and other labels, recalled 60 million containers in North America late last week after 10 cats and dogs reportedly died from eating the company's meat-and-gravy style products. A Menu Foods spokesman said it wasn't "100 percent sure" what was causing the problem, but recalled cans and pouches contained wheat gluten from a new supplier.
A military investigation of the January 2006 crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq that killed all 12 aboard says there is no evidence that the aircraft was shot down, according to a report obtained by the Associated Press.
US wildlife managers Saturday released 16 bison, including four that are pregnant, onto the high plains of Colorado. The buffalo were transported from the National Bison Refuge in Montana as part of ongoing efforts to return genetically pure, wild bison to prairie ecosystems.
The average wait to acquire a US passport has gone from six to 10 weeks, the State Department said, as air travelers heading for Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America scramble to comply with new antiterrorism rules.
More than 3,600 flights nationwide were canceled Friday and Saturday because of the effects of the ice and snow storm that pummeled the Northeast. Jet Blue in particular was quick to cancel flights rather than anger customers with overlong takeoff delays, as happened last month.
In the first Bay Area rally of his presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama (D) of Illinois attracted a crowd of more than 10,000 to downtown Oakland Saturday. His appearance was well received in a city known as a center of black life and antiwar sentiment.
