USA
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton announced Sunday that officers who broke up last Tuesday's immigrant rally at MacArthur Park have been taken off of active street duties until they undergo retraining. "Things were done that shouldn't have been done," he said. The incident left several participants injured by batons and foam bullets.
Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum company, made a $27 billion hostile bid for Alcan Inc., after two years of merger discussions failed to produce an agreement. Alcan, a Canadian company, is No. 2 in the market. Its shares rose 21 percent in US trading after the announcement. The new company would overtake Russia's RUSAL to become the world's largest producer of aluminum.
Gasoline prices have risen to a record nationwide average of $3.07 per gallon, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday. That price has jumped 19.5 cents in two weeks and 88.4 cents since Jan. 19. The main reason for the jump is a decrease in refining capacity, Ms. Lundberg said.
House minority leader John Boehner of Ohio said Sunday that if President Bush's troop surge in Iraq did not produce positive results by the fall, members of Congress would begin asking about "Plan B" for the war there. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," he also supported the idea of setting benchmarks for Iraq. Congress is trying to hash out a new war-funding bill after it failed to override the president's veto of a previous one last week.
Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy Dow Jones & Co. ran into another hurdle Sunday as Jim Ottaway Jr., a major Dow Jones shareholder, expressed opposition to the takeover. The move would hurt the "independence and integrity of a leading national editorial voice," Mr. Ottaway said in a statement posted on the website of The Wall Street Journal, which Dow Jones owns. The Ottaway family owns 6.2 percent of Dow Jones's supervoting shares.
The National Park Service plans to phase in higher rates for entrance fees and annual passes at about 130 of the 390 parks and other areas under its management. The increases will begin this year and continue through 2009.
