ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota lawmakers reached agreement on a $38 million compensation package for victims of a deadly Minneapolis bridge collapse, culminating months of work to provide relief beyond the state’s legal liability. The deal struck in a joint committee of the House and Senate will offer everyone who was on the bridge up to $400,000, with an additional $12.6 million pool for the people who suffered the most severe injuries and losses. Thirteen people died in the Aug. 1 collapse, and 145 were hurt.
Iowa: Railroad bridge reopens
A railroad bridge across the swollen Mississippi River in southeastern Iowa partially reopened Friday, more than a day after it was struck by a grain-filled barge. The BNSF bridge at Burlington is part of a main rail line for freight and passenger traffic, and its closure has disrupted schedules for more than 100 trains, a BNSF Railway spokesman said. Crews continued to vacuum grain out of the barge to lighten it and make it easier to tow, he said.
New Mexico: Wildfire damages
The wind died down somewhat Friday near a central New Mexico fire that jumped containment lines this week, but firefighters could not get close enough to burned areas to determine how many homes had been lost. About 400 to 500 residents of the small communities of Torreon and Tajique and surrounding areas were asked to flee because of the 20-square-mile fire in the Manzano Mountains, but some had refused to leave their homes. The human-caused blaze began April 15.
Massachusetts: Gift from Ireland to Kennedy Library
Ireland is donating $2 million to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced the gift Friday at the Boston museum that honors the life of President Kennedy. His great-grandparents immigrated to Boston during Ireland’s potato famine in the late 1840s. The $2 million gift will create the Irish Heritage Collection in the museum’s digital archive. It will also support the annual Profile in Courage Award and public programs that celebrate diversity.
Recount upholds ban on alcohol
A hand recount in Tisbury shows residents aren’t as evenly divided about alcohol sales as election officials initially thought. The April 15 vote appeared to be a 690-690 tie after the original machine count. But the recount turned up two additional votes in favor of upholding the ban Friday. It prohibits beer and wine sales at restaurants in the Martha’s Vineyard community. Had the hand recount resulted in another tie, the measure would have been defeated because it required a majority to pass.
Zimbabwe: Election tally released
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent of the vote in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections, elections officials said Friday — more than longtime President Robert Mugabe but not enough to avoid a runoff. The Electoral Commission on Friday released the long-delayed results from Zimbabwe’s March 29 presidential vote, saying Mugabe won 43.2 percent of votes and that another round of voting was required. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change rejected the results and proposed forming a national unity government to include Mugabe’s party, but not Mugabe.
Chile: Volcano sparks evacuations
Authorities evacuated hundreds of people from villages in southern Chile on Friday after a snowcapped volcano considered dormant for thousands of years erupted. The blast sent minor earthquakes rippling through the region. The 3,550-foot Chaiten volcano belched fire and ash Thursday night, causing more than 60 small tremors in the Los Lagos region, 750 miles south of the capital, Santiago, the government’s Emergency Bureau said. Chile’s government declared a state of emergency, evacuating as many as 1,500 people from nearby villages and the town of Chaiten, just over 6 miles from the volcano, the bureau said.
China: Virus hits children hard
An outbreak of intestinal virus in eastern China has claimed the lives of at least 21 children and the number of reported cases has risen to nearly 2,500, the Xinhua News Agency said Friday. Xinhua said all those suffering from Enterovirus 71 were under age 6; most were under age 2. The outbreak was first reported in March in Fuyang, in the eastern province of Anhui. The virus causes a fever, mouth sores and a rash with blisters.
Cuba: First public PCs go on sale
The island’s communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro. A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly $780. While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store. The Cuban PCs have Intel Celeron processors, bulky CRT monitors and are equipped with Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system.
From Herald news services
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