USA
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled Tuesday that more interest-rate cuts are unlikely, telling a monetary conference that "for now, policy seems well positioned to promote moderate growth and price stability over time." The Fed dropped its key interest rate to 2 percent last month, a nearly four-year low.
White House efforts to deal with 77,000 tons of nuclear waste moved ahead Tuesday, with the Energy Department filing a formal application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build an underground repository for the material at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The NRC has three years to determine if the dump's design will protect the public and the environment for up to 1 million years.
Los Angeles fire officials said last weekend's fire at Universal Studios was caused by roofers using a blowtorch to heat asphalt shingles on a movie set building. The ensuing blaze swept through the back lot and gutted a building housing 40,000 to 50,000 videos. The studio says it has copies.
Parents living on a polygamist sect's ranch in Eldorado, Texas, continued to pick up their children Tuesday from state foster care facilities. Monday, 129 of the roughly 430 children were reunited with their parents after a state court ruled that child protective services wasn't justified in removing them from the ranch. To avoid further state seizures, a ranch elder said future sect marriages would involve only members of legal age.
Staples Inc., the Framingham, Mass.-based office supplies giant, raised its hostile takeover bid Tuesday to buy Corporate Express NV, a Dutch rival, to $2.6 billion. Staples had submitted two earlier bids.
Teenagers who did more than $10,000 of damage to poet Robert Frost's Vermont farmhouse after breaking into it for a beer party in December completed part of their "punishment" Tuesday: attending a class on Frost's work, including "The Road Not Taken." Jay Parini, a Frost biographer, taught the redemptive power of poetry in two class sessions.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bo Diddley, who died Monday in Archer, Fla., was known for groundbreaking guitar effects that changed the course of rock history. He cut his first single in 1955 and was honored for his lifetime achievements at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
