Hurricane Paula forms Monday, heads to Yucatan Peninsula
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduran emergency officials urged coastal residents to evacuate low-lying areas, and Mexico braced for a possible hurricane strike Tuesday as Paula strengthened and battered the Caribbean coast with strong winds and rain.
Paula formed Monday off the coast of Honduras and quickly intensified into a hurricane early Tuesday, said the National Hurricane Center in Miami, and it was already causing flooding along the Honduran coast and the Bay Islands. Airports in the region were closed Monday evening.
Around dawn Tuesday, it had winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and was centered about 190 miles (310 kilometers) south-southeast of the resort island of Cozumel in Mexico.
Paula was moving toward the northwest at nearly 10 mph (17 kph), bringing it near the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday night and today.
Egypt sets new regulations on SMS services ahead of elections
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s telecommunications regulator has set new rules for companies sending text messages to multiple mobile phones, in a move activists say will stifle efforts to mobilize voters ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections.
Reform groups in Egypt, as well as elsewhere in the region such as Iran, have increasingly relied on the Internet and mobile phones to organize, mobilize and evade government harassment.
Contested French immigration bill passes hurdle, heads to Senate next
PARIS (AP) — France’s lower house of parliament has passed an immigration bill that would strip naturalized citizens of their citizenships if convicted of murdering a police officer, judge or other representative of the state.
The bill passed Tuesday with 294 votes for and 239 against. It must now go before the Senate.
Drilling moratorium ended early, unknown when work will resume
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration, under heavy pressure from the oil industry and Gulf states and with elections nearing, lifted the moratorium that it imposed last April in the wake of the disastrous BP oil spill.
The ban had been scheduled to expire Nov. 30, but Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday he was moving up the date because new rules imposed after the spill had reduced the risk of another catastrophic blowout. Industry leaders warily waited for details of those rules.
Judge orders injunction of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ military policy
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge issued a worldwide injunction Tuesday immediately stopping enforcement of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, suspending the 17-year-old ban on openly gay U.S. troops.
State botches Medicaid pay checks to doctors again after overpayment
(AP) — First, the state health department overpaid doctors. Then, in its effort to recoup the overpaid money, the state deducted too much from physician checks.
And like the previous mistake, Department of Health and Hospital officials blamed a computer glitch.
DHH last week mistakenly deducted $3.4 million too much from checks reimbursing doctors for the care they provided the poor through the government’s Medicaid health insurance program.
The error was made as DHH started recovering $11.6 million that was overpaid to Medicaid providers last year.
Incest retrial order overturned, suspect still facing life sentence
LAKE CHARLES (AP) — A Westlake man is back in jail, facing mandatory life sentences for raping a child.
Trial Judge Robert Wyatt had ordered a new trial for 37-year-old Vedo Guillory on two counts of aggravated rape and one of aggravated incest.
But the Supreme Court overturned him Friday, saying Wyatt never explained what was wrong with Guillory’s original trial.
Guillory was convicted of having sex with the victim at least twice before she turned 13, and once after. She testified she was abused from the time she was 8 years old until she was 14.
Entergy under investigation in 4 states over competitive practices
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Regional electrical utility Entergy Corp. said Tuesday the Justice Department is investigating its competitive practices in four states where it is a major power provider.
Entergy said in a regulatory statement that the investigation involves power procurement, dispatch and transmission system practices, along with policies of its utility units.
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