National
In the news
Leda Smith, 85, went for her.22-caliber revolver when she heard someone break into her Springhill Township, Pa., home and ended up forcing the would-be robber to call police while she held him at gunpoint, said police, adding that the 17-year-old will be charged with attempted burglary and related offenses in juvenile court. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Nation’s last publicly known widow of Confederate soldier dies at 93
BY JOHN KRUPA
The last publicly known Confederate widow, who as a teenager married an elderly infantryman who had settled in the Ozark Mountains, died at a Helena-West Helena hospital over the weekend, family members said Tuesday. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Inflation soars at pace unseen since early ’80s
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
WASHINGTON — Wholesale inflation soared in July, despite a drop in crude oil, leaving prices rising at the fastest pace in nearly three decades. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Medicare mortality: Hospitals below par
BY CAROLYNE PARK
Only one Arkansas hospital scored better than the U.S. average for preventing Medicare patient deaths in any of three diagnoses tracked by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to data released today. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Russia edges toward Georgia exit
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
POTI, Georgia — Russia took the first steps toward a troop pullback from Georgia on Tuesday but at the same time paraded blindfolded and bound Georgian prisoners on armored vehicles and seized four U.S. humvees. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
NW Arkansas Focus : Judge to toss out Coughlin’s claim
BY MICHELLE BRADFORD
A judge said the lawsuit by former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive Tom Coughlin claiming the company harmed him should be dismissed. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Obama swats back at McCain
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
Democrat Barack Obama used his appearance Tuesday at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention to attack Republican John McCain’s critique of him to the same group a day earlier, but he got a cooler reception than the Vietnam veteran did. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Zambian leader, 59, dies from June stroke
BY GEOFF KAPEMBWA AND MIKE COHEN BLOOMBERG NEWS
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who oversaw a revival of the southern African nation’s economy and clamped down on corruption during his six-year tenure, died Tuesday in a Paris hospital after suffering a stroke in June. He was 59. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Kashmir protests take 3-day break
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SRINAGAR, India — After weeks of separatist protests in Indian Kashmir that virtually shut down the region, Muslim leaders called Tuesday for three days of calm, allowing schools and businesses to reopen. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Fay gains strength over Everglades
BY MATT SEDENSKY AND CURT ANDERSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NAPLES, Fla. — Tropical Storm Fay rolled ashore in southwestern Florida on Tuesday without much fanfare but stubbornly hung around, maintaining strength and threatening once again to become a hurricane. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Flooding eases in Texas’ south as drenching rains move north
BY CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
McALLEN, Texas — Flooding receded Tuesday in southern Texas and main highways reopened after a deluge of as much as 13 inches of rain, as the drenching weather shifted to the northern end of the state and Oklahoma. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Judge says state gets sect girl, 14
BY MICHELLE ROBERTS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN ANGELO, Texas — A 14-year-old girl purportedly married to jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs with her parents’ blessing at age 12 was ordered back into foster care Tuesday by a Texas judge. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
10 French troops slain in mountains of Afghanistan
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
SUROBI, Afghanistan — Insurgents mounted two of the biggest attacks in years on Western forces in Afghanistan, killing 10 elite French paratroopers in a mountain ambush and then sending a squad of suicide bombers in a failed assault early Tuesday on a U.S. base near the Pakistan border. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Court allows states to set air pollution standards
BY CARY O’REILLY BLOOMBERG NEWS
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court threw out a Bush administration rule that blocked states from stricter monitoring of air pollution from oil refineries and power plants. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Old explosive used in N. Ireland attack
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
police deputy chief constable Paul Leighton said. One officer suffered minor injuries in Saturday’s attack, although the grenade failed to explode. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
NATO ministers warn Russia: No ‘business as usual’
BY HELENE COOPER AND TOM RACHMAN THE NEW YORK TIMES
BRUSSELS, Belgium — After emergency talks here, NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday urged Russia to pull its troops immediately out of Georgia, saying there could be no “business as usual” between the alliance and the Kremlin until it withdraws. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
American activists: China holds cohorts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — Police detained five American activists Tuesday after they unfurled a “free Tibet” banner near a key Olympics venue in Beijing, according to a pro-Tibet group. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Arrests raise Sunni claims of government sectarian bias
BY ROBERT H. REID THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s largest Sunni party accused government security forces of sectarian bias Tuesday after soldiers arrested a Sunni university president and a Sunni provincial council member northeast of Baghdad. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Fire guts Egyptian parliament
BY PAUL SCHEMM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO, Egypt — Fire ravaged a 19th-century palace used by the upper house of Egypt’s parliament Tuesday, with flames bursting through windows as helicopters scooped water from the Nile River to douse the blaze. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Pakistan governing coalition close to cracking
BY JANE PERLEZ THE NEW YORK TIMES
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A day after their unified effort ousted President Pervez Musharraf, the two major parties in the governing coalition fell into disarray Tuesday when they failed to agree on the restoration of the chief justice of the Supreme Court. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
43 killed at Algerian police school
BY ALFRED DE MONTESQUIOU THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALGIERS, Algeria — A suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives into a line of applicants at an Algerian police academy Tuesday, killing at least 43 people in the deadliest terror attack to jolt this energyrich U.S. ally since the 1990s. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Journalism group to revive awards
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS — After revelations that its prestigious journalism contest was probably rigged, the Press Club of Dallas is promising changes when it revives the Katie Awards this year. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
SPRINGDALE : Police: New armored vehicle needed
MICHELLE BRADFORD
The Springdale Police Department wants to buy an armored truck to replace the Special Operations Team’s 22-yearold box truck that doesn’t stop high-powered bullets. - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Pakistan cheers as Musharraf surrenders post
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pervez Musharraf resigned Monday as the president of Pakistan, avoiding a power struggle with rivals vowing to impeach him. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
In the news
Gov. Rick Perry,a Texas Republican, indicated that he supports the Harrold Independent School District’s decision to allow teachers and staff members to carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings when classes start this month, saying, “There’s a lot of incidents where that would have saved a number of lives.” Dick Heller, the man whose lawsuit overturned the District of Columbia’s handgun ban, has successfully registered his.22-caliber revolver, ending a more than 30-year wait to keep the weapon in his home. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
McCain: Rival tried to legislate Iraq failure
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
John McCain told fellow veterans on Monday that his Democratic rival Barack Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq and has refused to admit he erred when opposing the military increase there last year. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
As airlines struggle, some LR fares lose altitude
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
With demand for air travel falling, some airlines are cutting autumn fares to levels not seen since oil prices began skyrocketing last year. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Russia says troops are exiting Georgia
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
GORI, Georgia — Russia said Monday that it had begun withdrawing from the conflict zone in Georgia, but it held fast to key positions and sent some of its troops in the opposite direction — closer to the Georgian capital. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Fay’s winds whip Keys, ruffle few
DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES
KEY WEST, Fla. — Tourists jumped on the last plane out of town, store owners shuttered their doors and palm trees bent in gusty winds as Tropical Storm Fay bore down on the Florida Keys on Monday after killing at least 14 people in the Caribbean. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Survey: 57% believe God can deter dying
BY LINDSEY TANNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO — God is more powerful than modern medicine, many Americans believe. - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
