Prostitutes protest closure of windows
AMSTERDAM – Scores of prostitutes have taken to the streets of Amsterdam to protest moves to rejuvenate the city’s famed Red Light District by shuttering windows where scantily clad sex workers pose to attract clients.
The prostitutes say that the closures are depriving them of safe places to work.
Amsterdam municipality is involved in a long-term initiative to reinvigorate the historic network of canal-side streets and narrow alleys in part by reducing the number of brothel windows. Some 115 of the 500 windows have been closed in recent years.
About 200 people – prostitutes and their supporters – marched through the Red Light District on Thursday evening carrying banners including one that read: “Don’t save us, save our windows!”
Shiite rebels make large gains in Yemen
SANAA, Yemen – Shiite rebels and allied troops overran the capital of an oil-rich Yemeni province in a heavily Sunni area Thursday, making significant territorial gains despite Saudi-led airstrikes, now entering their third week.
Iran, which is trying to garner international support to stop the bombing, stepped up its condemnation, with the supreme leader calling the air campaign “genocide.”
The rebel fighters, known as Houthis, along with military units loyal to former autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh, overran Ataq, the capital of oil-rich Shabwa province, after days of airstrikes and clashes with local Sunni tribes.
Elderly-care tab continues to rise
NEW YORK – The steep cost of caring for the elderly continues to climb. The median bill for a year in a nursing home is $91,250, according to an industry survey out Thursday.
The annual “Cost of Care” report from Genworth Financial tracks the staggering rise in expenses for long-term care, a growing financial burden for families, governments and insurers such as Genworth. The cost of staying in a nursing home has increased 4 percent every year over the last five years, the report says. Last year, the median bill was $87,600.
California fines utility in explosion
SAN FRANCISCO – California regulators approved a record $1.6 billion penalty Thursday against PG&E for a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed more than three dozen homes in suburban San Francisco.
The punishment comes as the state’s top utility regulator, Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker, told The Associated Press he has called for a larger review into whether the state’s biggest power utility should be broken up to improve safety.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co., meanwhile, said it would accept the penalty without appeal and pledged to make its operations safer.
Associated Press
