Nation, World Briefs: Lesbian will lead as mayor in Houston

Published 12:01 am Sunday, December 13, 2009

HOUSTON — Annise Parker made history Saturday by becoming Houston’s first openly gay mayor, seizing 53.6 percent of the vote in the city’s hotly contested election. Conceding defeat, former city attorney Gene Locke thanked Parker. “I am proud she is now the winner. I congratulate her,” Locke said. Of the more than 152,000 residents who turned out to cast ballots in the fourth largest U.S. city Saturday, 81,652 chose Parker — some 11,000 votes more than were placed for Locke. Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation.

California: Slides trap drivers

A winter storm hit California with rain and snow Saturday and sent mudslides down hillsides denuded by fall wildfires onto highways, stranding 90 vehicles just north of Los Angeles. A 12-mile stretch of the Angeles Crest Highway was shut down as dozens of firefighters tried to clear the scene, fire officials. No injuries were reported. Seventy of the vehicles had been freed Saturday night, but another 20 would be forced to remain overnight, authorities said.

Illinois: Derailment injuries

A six-car elevated train has derailed on the southeast side of Chicago, causing minor injuries. A Chicago Fire Department spokesman said a Green Line train run by the Chicago Transit Authority went off the tracks about noon Saturday. He said 14 people were hospitalized with minor injuries. A CTA spokeswoman said it isn’t clear what caused the derailment and an investigation is being done.

Connecticut: Raw milk suit

Two families whose children became seriously ill in July 2008 from E. coli bacteria in raw milk produced by a Simsbury dairy are suing the dairy and Whole Foods Market Inc., whose store in West Hartford sold the tainted milk. The three children — a brother and sister, then 3 and 1, and another girl, then 3 — were hospitalized. Two of the children suffered kidney failure from the poisoning and needed dialysis to recover, the families’ attorney said last week. Raw milk is not treated to kill potentially harmful bacteria, but its fans say it has better flavor and is more nutritious than pasteurized milk.

New York: Monkey meat

A New York City woman who was caught smuggling monkey meat through Customs has been sentenced to probation. Mamie Manneh was arrested in 2006 after agents seized a shipment of dozens of primate parts hidden in a batch of smoked fish. The boxes included the skulls, limbs and torsos of monkeys and baboons. She was charged with smuggling endangered species. The judge gave Manneh a lenient sentence because she has 11 children and is mentally ill.

Cuba: New currency debuts

Members of a leftist bloc of nine Latin American nations said Saturday they plan to use a new currency dubbed the sucre for trade among themselves starting in January. No sucres will be printed or coined, but the virtual currency will be used to manage debts between governments while reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar and on Washington in general. Cuba already signed an agreement on Saturday to pay for a shipment of Venezuelan rice in sucres, according to the island’s deputy foreign minister. He declined to say what the shipment was worth.

Switzerland: Muslim protest

Around 700 Swiss Muslims peacefully protested against their country’s minaret ban on Saturday, with speakers denouncing what they called a hate campaign against Islam. The protest in the capital, Bern, was not supported by the country’s main Muslim organizations. It came two weeks after Swiss voters decided to ban the construction of minarets, drawing wide criticism from Muslim and other European nations. Nicolas Blancho, who organized Saturday’s protest, said he did not believe that the country’s voters hate Islam but that they had been scared by propaganda from right-wing parties.

Turkey: Kurds protest ban

Angry Kurds battled Turkish police with rocks and firebombs Saturday to protest a decision by the country’s top court to shut down a pro-Kurdish political party on charges of ties to militants. The party’s lawmakers said they would boycott parliament. The party was banned Friday, a day after the main Kurdish rebel group claimed responsibility for killing seven Turkish soldiers in an ambush in central Turkey, an attack that outraged the country.

From Herald news services