Nation – World Briefs: Sen. Edward Kennedy has surgery on neck artery

BOSTON — Sen. Edward Kennedy underwent surgery Friday to repair a partially blocked artery in his neck, which was discovered during an examination of a decades-old back injury. Kennedy, 75, underwent the hourlong procedure on his left carotid artery — a major supplier of blood to the neck and head — at Massachusetts General Hospital, his office announced. The operation was completed without complications, and the Massachusetts Democrat was expected to be released in several days, his Washington office said. A carotid endarterectomy is performed on more than 180,000 people a year to prevent a stroke.

Virginia: Sailor’s body recovered

The Coast Guard on Friday recovered the body of a sailor who was tossed with two other sailors into the James River when their small boat collided with a tugboat and capsized, the military said. The three were on a training exercise Thursday off Jamestown Island when their 24-foot inflatable boat collided with the tug and capsized, a spokesman said. The three sailors were on one of five boats from Naval Special Warfare, based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, and serve in combat support roles for the base’s elite SEAL unit, he said.

Money wasn’t bribe, lawyer says

A Louisiana congressman caught on tape accepting a $100,000 cash payment should not have been charged with bribery because technically, such an act is closer to influence peddling than bribery, defense lawyers argued Friday in Alexandria. Lawyers for Democratic Rep. William Jefferson made no admission that Jefferson engaged in improper conduct. But his attorney argued that even if the government’s allegations are true, they do not constitute bribery under federal law. “We think using influence is not a bribe,” she told a U.S. District judge in seeking to have some of the charges dismissed.

California: Landlord protection

California has become the first state to prohibit landlords from asking tenants about their immigration status, drawing sighs of relief from property owners who were concerned they might have to be “de-facto immigration cops.” The law signed this week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prevents cities from punishing landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. More than 90 communities nationwide have tried to curb illegal immigration by proposing crackdowns on property owners who rent to them or businesses that employ them, among other measures.

Wisconsin: Four die in trailer

Carbon monoxide from a portable gas heater likely killed four people, including two children, as they slept in a camper-horse trailer ahead of a horse show in Madison, authorities said Friday. The four were sleeping in bunks when they died Thursday night as they camped outside the Alliant Energy Center, where the World Clydesdale Show began Friday and will continue through the weekend. The group was using the space heater to warm the trailer, the Dane County Coroner said. All four were related and from Wisconsin but the adults were not the parents of the children.

D.C.: New treatment for AIDS

The government approved a novel anti-AIDS pill on Friday, offering a new option for hard-to-treat patients. Manufacturer Merck &Co. said Isentress should be on pharmacy shelves within two weeks. The AIDS virus uses three different enzymes to reproduce and infect cells. Numerous drugs are available that target two of those enzymes, called protease and reverse transcriptase. Isentress is the first in a new class of medicines that blocks the third enzyme, called integrase. Added to “cocktails” of other HIV medicines, the drug can lower the amount of HIV in the blood and help infection-fighting immune cells rebound.

Utah: Mine remains dangerous

A mine where six men were trapped more than 1,500 feet below ground is still too dangerous to recover their bodies more than two months after the disaster, an official said Friday. The head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration said seismic activity is still occurring at the mountain location of the Crandall Canyon mine. A recovery effort would involve tunneling through rubble that is supporting walls inside the mine, he said. “That would create an unsafe condition,” he said.

Costa Rica: Landslide kills eight

Rescuers recovered the bodies of eight people killed by a mudslide in Costa Rica and continued to search Friday for more missing. Torrential rains caused the hillside to collapse Thursday, taking out a retaining wall and burying several middle-class homes in La Fatima de Atenas, a jungle town northeast of the capital.

France: Child porn crackdown

Nearly half the 310 people detained recently in France on suspicion of spreading child pornography over the Internet have admitted to downloading images of naked children, police said Friday. The arrests were part of a crackdown on pedophilia in France that began Monday. More than 2 million photos and 28,000 videos were found on computers seized in the sweep, officials said.

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