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Nation in brief
Compiled from Times wires 2002 was 2nd-warmest year, NASA reportsThe year 2002 is the second-warmest year in recorded history, according to NASA scientists who monitor global air temperatures. A record-breaking string of warmth in recent years -- with 2001 now going down as the third-warmest year on record and 1998 still holding the all-time record -- has scientists and climate experts concerned that greenhouse gases are warming the planet more quickly than previously expected. The Earth's temperature during the 2002 meteorological year was 58.35 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 1 degree warmer than the long-term average of 57.2 degrees, said James E. Hansen, a climate scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies who analyzes surface temperatures collected from several thousand weather stations around the world. The meteorological year runs from December to November. During that period, 2001 temperatures were 58.12. The record year remains 1998, when global temperature rose to 58.41 degrees Fahrenheit. The numbers are the highest since temperature records were first compiled in the late 1800s. Supremacist given nearly 22 years for bomb plotBOSTON -- A mixed-race white supremacist was sentenced to almost 22 years in prison Wednesday for plotting to blow up black and Jewish landmarks in Boston and Washington. Prosecutors accused Leo Felton, 31, and his girlfriend, Erica Chase, 22, of trying "to ignite a racial holy war ... that would promote chaos among the races." Felton, son of a black father and white mother, has said he blames his parents for "contaminating" him with black blood. Historian named to Pulitzer Prize boardNEW YORK -- David Kennedy, an award-winning historian and Stanford University professor, has been elected to the board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger announced Wednesday. Columbia University oversees the awards, journalism's highest honor, under the will of publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Next year's winners will be announced April 7. Mormons agree again: No baptisms for Jewish deadSALT LAKE CITY -- The Mormon church has rededicated itself to end the practice of posthumously baptizing Jews, an agreement apparently breached since it was made with Jewish leaders seven years ago, leaders from both faiths said Wednesday. At a meeting Tuesday in New York City, the church reaffirmed its commitment to remove Holocaust victims and other deceased Jews from its International Genealogical Index, said Ernest Michel, chairman of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. The index is a list of some 600-million names used by Mormons to perform ceremonies offering proxy baptisms on behalf of the dead. Gas dearth slows Guam's posttyphoon aid effortHAGATNA, Guam -- Disaster assistance workers arrived Wednesday in Guam to help island residents after a devastating typhoon, and a critical gas shortage was slowing the recovery. Typhoon Pongsona, which hit the U.S. territory Sunday with 180 mph winds, destroyed an estimated 2,000 homes and damaged that many more. Electricity and water were shut off. Schools were closed and transformed into emergency shelters. Also . . .TOBACCO SUIT REJECTED: The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., on Wednesday threw out the tobacco industry's lawsuit challenging the landmark 1993 government finding that secondhand tobacco smoke increases the risk of cancer.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
