Rebels retreat from Libyan oil port amid barrages of tank, artillery fire
RAS LANOUF, Libya (AP) — With fierce barrages of tank and artillery fire, Moammar Gadhafi’s loyalists threw rebels into a frantic retreat from a strategic oil port Thursday in a counteroffensive that reversed the opposition’s advance toward the capital of Tripoli and now threatens its positions in the East.
The rout came as the U.S. director of national intelligence stressed that Gadhafi’s military was stronger than it has been described and said that “in the longer term … the regime will prevail.”
Spanish judge rules death of US exchange student an accident
MADRID (AP) — A Spanish judicial official says the investigation into the death of a U.S. exchange student whose body was found in a river suggests it was an accident.
The Madrid Superior Justice Tribunal official says a preliminary autopsy report shows Austin Bice, from Carlsbad, California, died of heart failure but that further tests are under way to determine the precise cause. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department rules.
Pope Benedict XVI’s new book: Violence never in God’s name
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI rejects the idea of Jesus as a political revolutionary and insists that violent revolution must never be carried out in God’s name in a new book released Thursday amid great fanfare at the start of Lent.
“Jesus of Nazareth – Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection,” is the second installment of Benedict’s planned trilogy on Jesus. Already, 1.2 million copies of Part II have been printed in seven languages.
Protesters removed from Wisconsin Capitol on Thursday before vote
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Police carried dozens of protesters from a hallway leading to the Wisconsin Assembly on Thursday morning as Democratic representatives pounded on the locked door of the chamber, demanding to be let in before a historic vote on an explosive bill taking away public workers’ collective bargaining rights.
The chamber was locked while police did a security review in the crowded Capitol. Later Thursday, protesters who remained outside the chamber thanked the Democratic representatives who voted against the bill.
Pennsylvania government’s deep higher ed cuts draw protests
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s new Republican governor is under fire for proposing the nation’s biggest cuts in higher education — more than 50 percent for some of the largest universities — while refusing to tax the gas drilling that is quickly becoming one of the state’s biggest industries.
Some critics of Gov. Tom Corbett are frustrated that he won’t tap such a rich source of tax revenue when the state is looking at a projected deficit next year of $4 billion.
January figures show Louisiana added jobs in past year
(AP) — The Louisiana Workforce Commission says the state added 9,500 non-farm jobs from January 2010 to January 2011.
Seasonally adjusted figures released Thursday by the commission showed 1,887,200 non-farm jobs in January. It was a decrease of 3,200 jobs from December, but it was up 9,500 over the year.
Private industry jobs were up 18,900 by the seasonally adjusted count, while government shed 9,400 jobs. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Louisiana in January was 7.8 percent, up slightly from 7.7 percent for December.
New Board of Regents minority appointee will not attend meeting
(AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal’s new minority appointee to the Board of Regents won’t be attending a meeting to discuss the racially charged, potential merger of Southern University at New Orleans with the University of New Orleans.
Albert Sam II, a black vascular surgeon from Baton Rouge, was named to the Regents by Jindal after the governor pushed out a longtime white member of the board amid complaints about the lack of diversity on the panel.