USA
More than 1,000 people gathered in Selma, Ala., Sunday to commemorate the 1965 civil rights march that played a pivotal role in passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year. Participants heard how "Bloody Sunday" marchers had been beaten and tear-gassed by state troopers at a bridge en route to Montgomery. Two Democratic presidential candidates, US Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said they owed a debt of gratitude in their political careers to the 1965 activists.
Bruce Gordon resigned as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Sunday after 19 months on the job. His departure stemmed from differences with the board, which considers justice advocacy the organization's top priority. Gordon wanted the NAACP to do more socialservice work.
Residents of a mobile-home compound set up in Hammond, La., after hurricane Katrina scrambled Sunday to move out. The Federal Emergency Management Agency abruptly decided to close the complex because of ongoing problems with sewage and power outages. By late Sunday, 48 of 58 households who'd lived in the complex had places to go.
Former Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton, who died Sunday in Richmond Heights, Mo., was George McGovern's running mate on the 1972 Democratic presidential ticket, but withdrew following revelations that he'd received psychiatric treatment.
Lawmakers on two House committees, Appropriations and Oversight and Government Reform, held hearings Monday on the scandal at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. They followed President Bush's call last week for a comprehensive review of conditions there and at other military and veterans hospitals where soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan reportedly have experienced poor conditions and treatment.
US Sen. Pete Domenici (R) of New Mexico apologized Sunday for a conversation last December with the state's US attorney but said he never pressured fellow Republican David Iglesias about a Democratic kickback investigation. Iglesias was fired by the Justice Department and says he believes it was because two lawmakers he hasn't yet identified wanted him to move the case along faster.
American teenagers who hold jobs during the school year often work long hours and lack consistent training and adult supervision, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. It found that teens as young as 14 in retail and service jobs work an average of 16.2 hours per week and often operate slicers and other hazardous equipment despite prohibitions.
