USA
A daily summary of top stories in the USA.
A crowd estimated at between 7,000 and 10,000 people marched through downtown Los Angeles Saturday to protest President Bush's latest visa plan and demand a path to citizenship. Immigrant rights advocates said many of the area's illegal immigrants are upset with a plan that requires them to return home to apply for US residency.
In a test of its missile-defense system, the military shot down a Scud-type missile late last week over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. It was the second successful test this year of a new technology designed to destroy ballistic missiles in their final minute of flight.
Federal data show that 98 percent of those arrested attempting to illegally cross the US-Mexican border between 2000 and 2005 were never prosecuted, according to a new Associated Press analysis.
More than 1,000 people are expected to attend an anniversary event in Batavia, Ohio, today to support Sgt. Matt Maupin, who is still listed as missing in Iraq three years after his capture by insurgents. Maupin was shown surrounded by gun-wielding masked men on a videotape shortly after disappearing.
A mock rehearing of the Dred Scott Supreme Court case, which helped spark the Civil War, was held Saturday at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass., as a 150th anniversary event. The decision stated that no black, slave or free, could become a US citizen.
Joining a chorus of critics, the Rev. Al Sharpton promised Saturday to picket Don Imus's nationally syndicated radio show unless Imus is fired within a week for an on-air racial slur. Imus apologized for remarks he made last week about the Rutgers women's basketball team, which is mostly black, but WFAN-AM did not publicly discipline him.
Michigan State defeated Boston College, 3-1, Saturday night in St. Louis to win the men's NCAA hockey championship. It was the second year in a row that Boston College lost in the final of the Frozen Four.
Major League Soccer began its 12th season Saturday. Some games were played amid snow flurries. Toronto FC, the newest entry in the 13-team league, made its debut as the first non-US club. The Colorado Rapids opened the league's latest made-for-soccer stadium.