WASHINGTON — Savoring his first big victory in Congress, President Barack Obama on Saturday celebrated the newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill as a “major milestone on our road to recovery.” Officials said he would sign the measure on Tuesday in Denver. Speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said, “I will sign this legislation into law shortly, and we’ll begin making the immediate investments necessary to put people back to work doing the work America needs done.” At the same time, he cautioned, “This historic step won’t be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning.”
@Headline briefly item 16 light:New medicine treats gout
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first new treatment for gout in more than 40 years, a company said Saturday. Takeda Inc. said Uloric, a once-daily drug, was approved by the FDA on Friday to fight gout, a painful joint disease that mainly strikes middle-aged men. About 5 million people in the U.S. suffer from gout, a form of arthritis caused by a build-up of uric acid in the blood. Uloric works by reducing levels of uric acid.
Arizona: No school on Friday
A school district has decided to shrink the school week from five days to four in an effort to save cash because of the deepening recession and falling enrollment. The Bisbee Unified School District board voted Thursday to close schools every Friday for the next two school years. The district superintendent had recommended the shortened school week as a way to save $500,000 each year in the small southeastern Arizona town. School days would be lengthened by an hour to make up the lost instructional time.
California: Octuplets threats
The public relations group that has represented octuplets mother Nadya Suleman is stepping down because of death threats, its president said Saturday. Joann Killeen also said the mother now has an agent: Wes Yoder, the same man who arranged book and music deals for the McCaughey septuplets a decade ago and publicity for controversial pastor Rick Warren. The Killeen Furtney Group was ending its free representation after receiving at least 100 graphic e-mailed threats and swarms of nasty voicemails that went to the Los Angeles agency and even to some of its other clients, Killeen said.
Afghanistan: Poor relations
President Barack Obama’s new envoy to Afghanistan met with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday amid a downturn in U.S.-Afghan relations and an upswing in militant violence. Karzai says he still has not spoken with Obama almost a month after his inauguration, a sign the Afghan president no longer enjoys the favored status he had under former President George Bush. “There is tension between us and the U.S. government on issues of civilian casualties, arrests of Afghans, nightly raids on homes and the casualties they cause,” Karzai told al-Jazeera television on Friday.
Russia: New supplies route
The shipment of U.S. military supplies for Afghanistan through Russia will begin soon, sources quoted Russia’s foreign minister as saying Saturday. “The transit will take place literally within days,” Sergey Lavrov told TV Tsentr. Russia announced last week it would allow U.S. shipments of non-lethal military supplies to Afghanistan. Supply routes to Afghanistan for the U.S.-led international military operation have become an increasingly critical issue in recent months amid growing militant attacks on the land routes through Pakistan that carry about 75 percent of U.S. supplies.
Britain: Airport open again
Flights resumed but delays plagued London City Airport Saturday, a day after 71 people escaped serious injury when their British Airways plane’s front wheel gear collapsed on landing. About 65 flights were scheduled to leave the airport Saturday but some were delayed as long as three hours because of the previous night’s disruption, airport officials said. The four-engine Avro 146-RJ100 was made by BAE Systems.
Sri Lanka: Grenade attack
A suspected Tamil Tiger rebel hurled a hand grenade at a bus full of war-displaced refugees Saturday, killing a woman and wounding 13 others, the military said. The bus was attacked in Puliyankulam village while transporting people who had fled the embattled region for government territory, a military spokesman said. A 59-year-old woman was killed and the wounded included four children, he said.
From Herald news services
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