Germany may halt sales of lethal-injection drug to United States
BERLIN — Germany's leading medical association is calling on the nation's pharmaceutical companies to refrain from selling a key drug for lethal injections to the United States.
Frank Ulrich Montgomery, vice president of the German Medical Association, said today the nation's doctors support a call by the health ministry for German drug companies and distributors to reject U.S. requests for the drug sodium thiopental.
Montgomery says German doctors oppose the death penalty and are urging pharmaceutical companies to “acknowledge their ethical responsibility” and not sell the drug to the U.S. He says the issue “is not about money, but ethical principles.”
Last week the sole U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental said it was ceasing production.
Week's bombing toll hits 159 in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Two car bombs struck Shiite pilgrims today in an Iraqi holy city, killing at least 18 people as crowds massed for religious rituals marking the end of a 40-day mourning period for the Islamic sect's most beloved saint.
The blasts in Karbala were the latest in nearly a week of attacks that have killed at least 159 people. The uptick in violence has shattered a lengthy period of calm and raised anew concerns about the readiness of Iraqi forces to take over their own security ahead of a full withdrawal by the U.S. military.
Drought hurts food supply in China
BEIJING — China's key wheat-growing province of Shandong is facing its worst drought in at least 40 years, putting further pressure on politically sensitive food prices that have been surging for months.
Drought has hit more than half of the land in the province normally used to grow wheat — about 5 million acres — and that number is rising, according to a notice posted today on the provincial water bureau's website.
Many areas have seen no precipitation in four months. More than 240,000 people and 107,000 head of livestock already have lost access to drinking water and are forced to rely on deliveries from fire trucks.
Missing Americans call Coast Guard from boat
MANILA, Philippines — Two coast guards armed with ships, planes and helicopters searched the Pacific for a group of Americans whose sailboat ran into bad weather and was reported missing last week, but a cell phone call from the boat finally brought the adventurers to shore today.
Relief – and censure – greeted the five when they arrived in the central Philippines. The U.S. Coast Guard commander in Guam — whose force scoured the high seas along with its Philippine counterparts — chided the sailors for not adequately preparing for the voyage.
The Americans' catamaran, called the Pineapple, ran into bad weather after departing from Guam on Jan. 6 on a journey to the central Philippine island of Cebu, and relatives of the crew — four men and a woman — reported them missing Jan. 18.
A woman aboard the boat was able to contact her husband by cell phone Sunday afternoon — apparently once she came within range of cell phone service — and he called rescuers in Guam to give them the boat's coordinates, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.
Nation
Loughner to court
TUCSON, Ariz. — The man accused of carrying out the mass shooting in Tucson faces a court hearing today — an early step in a case against Jared Loughner that could take years.
Both federal and state authorities intend to prosecute Loughner in the Jan. 8 shootings. There will also likely be proceedings over whether to move the case to a different venue, a possible insanity defense and prosecutors' push for the death penalty.
The most immediate step is an arraignment scheduled for this afternoon in Phoenix, where Loughner, 22, was expected to enter a plea on federal charges against him.
Meanwhile, the Houston hospital treating Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said Sunday that her condition is improving daily, but gave no update on the buildup of brain fluid that has kept the Arizona representative in intensive care.
2 killed in police shootout at Walmart
PORT ORCHARD, Wash. — Detectives are investigating why a man ran from deputies and then opened fire in a Walmart parking lot, sparking a shootout that left him and a woman dead and two officers wounded.
Sunday's violence came after the Kitsap County Sheriff's deputies answered a call about a suspicious person at the store.
Two deputies located the man and tried to talk to him but he ran, firing as he did so.
Both men were hit and unable to return gunfire, but a female officer arriving on the scene shot and killed the gunman, sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson said.
The two deputies were reported to be in satisfactory condition Sunday night.
The woman who died appeared to be with the gunman. No names were released.
Ex-Venezuela leader's burial up to court
MIAMI — The family feud over the final resting spot of former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez is going before a Miami judge.
Hearings will begin today into whether Perez will be buried in Venezuela or the U.S. Perez died Dec. 25 in Miami at age 88. He was president from 1974 to 1979 and 1989 to 1993.
Perez lived for years with longtime mistress Cecilia Matos, with whom he has two daughters. They say Perez wanted to be buried in South Florida because of his opposition to current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Perez's estranged wife, Blanca Rodriguez de Perez, insists her husband wanted a Venezuelan burial. She says because they never divorced she has legal rights in the matter.
Supreme Court mulls hearing farmer's appeal vs. Tyson
WASHINGTON — Alton Terry says he lost his contract to raise chickens for Tyson Farms, and then his 12-acre farm, because he squawked too much.
Terry was a poultry farmer in Tennessee who brought together a group of area farmers and told them they had the right to complain about Tyson's practices. He also raised concerns directly with Tyson, among the world's largest meat companies.
Soon after, Tyson cut him off. Terry sued and lost in federal court, and the Supreme Court could say today whether it will hear his long-shot appeal.
Terry says Tyson and other big companies have too much sway over farmers, and federal courts also have bowed to agribusiness interests by setting too high a standard for the farmers to succeed in court.
Drunken man told son, 15, to drive him home
TAMPA, Fla. — A man in central Florida has been charged with child neglect after authorities say he let his 15-year-old son drive because the man was too drunk.
Hillsborough County deputies stopped 41-year-old Darran Foraker's Dodge Caravan on Saturday night because its brake lights were out. An arrest report says that's when they discovered the minivan was being driven by Foraker's son. Foraker was arrested after he told them he was too drunk to drive.
