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WORLD
Child labor rampant in India
BANGALORE, India – Stamping out child labor is a tricky business for India’s government. As officials try to modernize both India’s economy and its image, they aim to cut back on a practice that much of the world sees as abhorrent. But in a nation where tens of millions of kids work, children’s labor is not just a key source of financial support for families, it is legal.
The government over the last year and a half has put more jobs off-limits for kids, staged raids on factory sweatshops and pushed children nabbed at work back in school. But children’s advocates say the campaign may not do much to better the lives of many kids.
Under Indian law, children under 14 are free to work as long as the job isn’t deemed “hazardous.” At least 12.7 million do, according to government figures, and the United Nations and children’s advocacy groups estimate the number is above 40 million. Across the country, children as young as 5 – working legally – collect fees at parking lots, sort recyclables, pick crops, pack boxes at factories and sell vegetables by the roadside and magazines in traffic. Many earn only pennies a day; others, older and more skilled, can earn the equivalent of $5 a day or more.
Rice praises Iraqi leadership
BAGHDAD – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad Sunday for an unannounced visit one day after the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened an all-out war against the Iraqi government.
Rice called al-Sadr a coward hiding in Iran while praising Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for his recent offensive in the southern port city of Basra that sparked an uprising by al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army.
Since the March 25 government offensive in Basra, where the Mahdi Army dominates, the Sadrists and their militia have angrily accused the government of trying to undercut their movement prior to October provincial elections, when they will likely win many of the Shiite southern provinces from their Shiite rivals in the government.
Rice used her visit to praise al-Maliki’s choice to take on the militia. Fighting al-Sadr, who has declared that resistance against U.S. forces is legitimate, is an “internal Iraqi matter,” she said.
NATIONAL
Murdoch to make another media purchase
MELVILLE, N.Y. – Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has been calling key New York state and Long Island officials to say he is close to a deal to buy Newsday and that he looks forward to working with them, some officials said Tuesday.
But not so fast, said a source close to negotiations by rival bidder Mortimer Zuckerman, who owns the New York Daily News and had submitted an offer for Newsday a few weeks ago. “This is not a done deal,” the source said Tuesday night. “The News will be submitting an additional formal proposal by the end of the week.”
Besides the two media moguls, other potential suitors for Newsday reportedly have included Cablevision Systems Corp. and New York Observer owner and publisher Jared Kushner.
United attempts cuts, raises trouble
CHICAGO – United Airlines said Tuesday that it would eliminate 1,100 jobs to offset soaring fuel prices. But the cuts didn’t fall fast enough for investors, who dumped shares of corporate parent UAL Corp.
In addition to the job cuts, United said it would reduce capacity by shedding 30 airplanes, as all carriers face mounting pressures brought on by sharply higher oil prices.
UAL shares plummeted 37 percent, to $13.55, as a rumor swept the stock market that the Chicago-based carrier wouldn’t be able to meet terms of its bank loans after it burned, rather than generated, cash in losing $537 million, or $4.45 a diluted share, in the first quarter.
LOCAL/BSU
Vigil for teen killed in police shooting
NAMPA – A tearful group gathered at Lakeview Park on Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil held to remember a teenager killed in a February police shooting in Nampa.
Estella Pulidio, mother of 19-year-old Rudy “Guy” Andrade, said she wanted to put together the vigil to keep the memory of her son alive. The vigil was held exactly two months after Andrade was shot and killed by Nampa Police officers, who said the teen approached them with a piece of glass, which at the time they believed to be a knife.
But the family continues to struggle coping with the teen’s sudden death.
Micron signs deal with Nanya
Boise-based Micron Technology on Monday announced that it has signed an agreement with Taiwan-based Nanya Technology Corporation to create MeiYa Technology Corporation – a new Dynamic Random Access Memory joint venture. Micron and Nanya announced the possible partnership in March.
Each parent company will own 50 percent of the joint venture initially, and each will contribute $550 million in cash by the end of 2009. According to a Micron press release, the partnership will leverage the companies’ manufacturing technology, strengths and experience.
As part of the joint venture, Nanya’s 200 millimeter memory chip manufacturing facility in Taiwan will be upgraded to 300 millimeter technology starting this year and is slated for production in 2009. Micron spokesperson Daniel Francisco said that because the new company will be in Taiwan, Nanya employees will mostly staff it. However, he expects some Boise-based senior managers and technologists to also work at the facility.
WHAT THE?
More than one way to drug a patsy
Prostitutes in Mexico City have been slipping knock-out drops in their clients’ drinks and then stealing their wallets. One guy, who was aware of this, wouldn’t let his drink out of his sight, but he wound up ingesting the drug anyway, because the hooker surreptitiously applied it to her nipples.
World/National/What the? stories courtesy of MCT Campus Wire Services unless otherwise credited. Local/BSU stories are courtesy of the Boise State Web site at www.boisestate.edu. All stories are compiled by News Writers.