Illinois
Chicago’s Pullman site could become national park
CHICAGO – The historic Pullman neighborhood soon may be closer to becoming a national park.
National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said he plans to recommend that the Interior secretary ask President Barack Obama to declare the southeast Chicago neighborhood a unit of the national park system.
Supporters say it is unlikely Congress will act on bills in the House and Senate, so they want Obama to use his authority to act independently under the Antiquities Act.
The neighborhood’s ornate brick homes were built in the 1800s by industrialist George Pullman as a blue-collar utopia to house workers from his sleeper-car factory.
Washington, D.C.
National Zoo celebrates panda’s first birthday
WASHINGTON – The National Zoo in Washington threw a party Saturday in honor of the first birthday of panda cub Bao Bao.
To celebrate, the cub got a cake made from frozen fruit juice and other treats, like pears and apples. Bao Bao is only the second panda born at the zoo to survive to her first birthday.
The cub’s only sibling, brother Tai Shan, was born in 2005 and returned to China in 2010.
France
2 navigation satellites in the wrong orbits
PARIS – European space officials say they’re investigating whether the inaccurate deployment of two satellites will complicate their efforts to develop a new Galileo satellite navigation system that would rival America’s GPS network.
The European Space Agency and launch company Arianespace say the satellites ended up in off-target orbits after being launched Friday from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a Soyuz rocket.
Saturday’s agency statement did not explain whether their orbital paths could be corrected.
Iraq
Bombings kill 42 people after Sunni mosque attack
BAGHDAD – Bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk killed at least 42 people in Iraq on Saturday as the government investigated a deadly attack on a Sunni mosque the day before that has heightened sectarian tensions amid a fragile political transition.
In oil-rich Kirkuk – long disputed by Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government – three bombs went off in a crowded commercial district, killing 31 people and wounding dozens, Kirkuk deputy police chief Tarhan Abdel-Rahman said.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber had earlier driven an explosives-laden car into the gate of the intelligence headquarters in Karrada district, killing six civilians and five security personnel, a police officer said. He said 24 other people were wounded.
Egypt
Militia accuses Egypt, UAE of airstrikes on Libya capital
CAIRO – Two unidentified airstrikes targeting Islamist militia positions in Libya’s capital killed 15 fighters and wounded 30 Saturday. A senior militia leader accused Egypt and the United Arab Emirates of being behind the attacks on their posts.
The mysterious airstrikes Saturday were the second last week to target Islamist militia posts in the capital. They have fueled speculation that foreign powers are covertly intervening in Libya’s militia violence
Associated Press
