USA
President Bush unveiled a long-term strategy Thursday on climate change that calls for 15 major nations to establish a goal by next year for reducing greenhouse gases. The plan also calls for cutting tariff barriers to facilitate sharing environmental technology.
A reorganized Northwest Airlines emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday, having trimmed unprofitable routes, slashed debt by $4.2 billion, and cut $1.4 billion a year in labor costs. The trading of Northwest shares on the New York Stock Exchange marked the end of a wave of airline bankruptcies that began after 9/11.
Murders, robberies, and other violent crimes rose for a second straight year, according to FBI Assistant Director John Miller, who previewed an agency report scheduled for release next week. According to preliminary figures, the rate of these crimes increased 3.7 percent, a jump that Miller said may result from fewer agents assigned to traditional crime fighting in the post-9/11, counterterrorism era.
Summer vacationers will find lodging costs to be about 8 percent higher this year than last, according to figures released Wednesday by the AAA auto and travel association. The average daily food and lodging cost for a family of two adults and two children this summer is expected to be nearly $270.
A spokesman for the US Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, said Wednesday that the remains of a Saudi Arabian prisoner who died of an apparent suicide would be handled in a culturally sensitive and religiously appropriate manner. No details were provided on the nature or the timing of the death, the fourth deemed a suicide among the 380 terrorist suspects held at the base prison since it opened in Cuba in 2002.
Marine scientists in California said Wednesday they believe two lost humpback whales, who spent two weeks on inland waterways, slipped out of San Francisco Bay to the open sea.
Melamine, the industrial compound that led to a massive pet food recall in March of products made in China, is also an ingredient in animal feed made by a US company, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The agency advises manufacturers to recall any products that use the additive.
Seeking a return to profitability, Motorola Inc., the world's second largest mobile phone maker, said Wednesday it will cut 4,000 more jobs, beyond the 3,500 it plans to eliminate by June 30.
