The Americas

News from North, Central and South America

Researchers confirm safety of kidney donations

After the procedure, the donors live as long or longer than those in the general population.

People who donate a kidney to a sick friend or relative live at least as long as others in the general population and may live somewhat longer because they tend to take better care of themselves after the procedure, researchers reported Tuesday.

Read more [LA Times National News]

Chief justice unsettled by Obama's criticism of Supreme Court

John G. Roberts Jr. tells law students that the president's rebuke of a ruling on corporate campaign funding and the subsequent cheering at the State of the Union address were 'very troubling.'

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told law students Tuesday that he found it "very troubling" to be surrounded by loudly cheering critics at President Obama's State of the Union address, saying it was reason enough for the justices not to attend the annual speech to Congress.

Read more [LA Times National News]

Ex-Congressman Massa says groping wasn't sexual

Former Rep. Eric Massa, a New York Democrat who resigned his seat Monday amid a sexual harassment investigation, goes on TV to defend himself.

A day after resigning his seat in the face of a House ethics investigation, former Rep. Eric Massa took to the airwaves Tuesday to deny that he had touched a male aide in a sexual manner.

Read more [LA Times National News]

'JihadJane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.

American Colleen R. LaRose, 46, is accused of using the Internet to recruit and assist Muslim terrorist operations in Europe and Asia.

Using e-mail, YouTube videos, phony travel documents and a burning desire to kill "or die trying," a middle-aged American woman from Pennsylvania helped recruit a network for suicide attacks and other terrorist strikes in Europe and Asia, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Read more [LA Times National News]

Same-sex wedding bells toll around Washington, D.C.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty attends the ceremonies for three of the first gay couples to legally marry in the district.

As a cellist and soloist performed Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," Darlene Garner and Candy Holmes walked down the aisle Tuesday morning and became among the first gay couples to legally marry in the District of Columbia.

Read more [LA Times National News]

Texas judge rescinds anti-death penalty ruling

A judge in Texas has rescinded his highly criticized ruling that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

Read more [LA Times National News]

US 'hid terror suspect treatment'

A former UK spy chief says she did not know US intelligence services were mistreating terror suspects until after she retired.
Read more [BBC Americas]

Ex-MP Jaffer fined for careless driving

Drunk driving and drug possession charges are dropped against former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer as he pleads guilty to the lesser offence of careless driving.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Harper downplays Afghan torture memo

Prime Minister Stephen Harper downplayed revelations of a "contingency plan" to deal with accusations that prisoners handed over to Afghan authorities were tortured.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Ex-politician suspected in deadly police shootout

Fred Preston, a former Ontario township council leader who was struggling with marital problems, has been identified as the suspect in a shootout on a rural road that killed Const. Vu Pham.
Read more [CBC Canada]

B.C. to market health tourism

B.C. Health Minister Kevin Falcon says he has a plan to market health-care services to rich, offshore patients similar to the way the province sells higher education to foreign students.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Tories focused on message as detainee issue grew

The Conservative government was focused on communications as it tried to deal with the growing questions about the treatment of Afghan detainees back in 2007, a document obtained by CBC News indicates.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Global warming skepticism rising in the GOP

Prominent Republicans such as Marco Rubio and Tim Pawlenty have started expressing doubts, indicating that climate change is becoming a litmus test for conservatives.

It wasn't long ago that Marco Rubio and Tim Pawlenty -- two rising Republican stars -- supported legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. But in recent weeks, both have begun to express doubts about whether cars, factories and power plants have anything to do with global warming.

Read more [LA Times National News]

Agents seized heroin at Vancouver airport during Olympics: police

Canada Border Services agents discovered four kilograms of heroin hidden in two suitcases belonging to a man who arrived in Vancouver on a flight from India during the Olympics.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Meeting to revisit Innu community alcohol ban

The newly elected chief of the Labrador Innu Nation is backing away from claims that he will abolished an alcohol ban in Natuashish, Labrador.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Niqab-wearing woman blocked again from class

The Quebec government has intervened again in the case of a Muslim woman who refused to remove her niqab veil during a French-language class.
Read more [CBC Canada]

No holster demonstration at Villanueva inquest

The coroner overseeing the inquest into the death of Fredy Villanueva rejected a request to have the police officer involved in the shooting demonstrate how easily he could have been disarmed.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Quebec criticized for hospital waits

Concerns over delayed surgeries and overcrowded emergency rooms dominated question period at Quebec's national assembly Tuesday, following the recent deaths of two patients - one waiting for heart surgery and the other, who had spent four days waiting on a stretcher in the ER.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Alberta Children's Hospital errors revealed

Failures to implement recommendations from previous incidents and poor communication led to unrelated errors - including two non-fatal drug overdoses - at the Alberta Children's Hospital, a review has concluded.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Mother speaks at schoolyard death inquest

A coroner's inquest into the schoolyard death of a 12-year old St. Eustache, Que., boy began Tuesday with the emotional testimony of the boy's mother.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Galapagos tension

Can all species live side by side in unique ecosystem?
Read more [BBC Americas]

Ban honours UN's Haiti 'heroes'

Ban Ki-moon pays tribute to the 101 UN staff who died in the Haiti quake, as President Preval seeks US support for the economy.
Read more [BBC Americas]

US woman on 'jihad terror' charge

A US woman from Pennsylvania faces charges of using the internet to recruit female militant fighters for deadly attacks abroad.
Read more [BBC Americas]

Federal budget survives 1st vote

The House of Commons voted 214-84 Tuesday to reject a Bloc Québécois amendment to the federal budget.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Polygamist responsible for charges, B.C. argues

The B.C. government says Winston Blackmore brought what turned out to be an unsuccessful prosecution on himself by openly practising polygamy.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Baby could have survived methadone OD: doctor

A baby girl's body began to shut down hours after swallowing a lethal dose of methadone in her Calgary home, a manslaughter trial has heard.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Nunavut jury rests in RCMP murder trial

Jurors in Iqaluit have ended a second day of deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of Pingoatuk Kolola, who is accused of shooting an RCMP officer in Kimmirut, Nunavut.
Read more [CBC Canada]

EU concern over end of tanker bid

Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.
Read more [BBC Americas]

Suicides complicate Native American artifact looting case

FBI informant Ted Gardiner's death last week is the third. Critics say the federal government has been overzealous in its prosecutions and that his videotaped testimony should not be allowed.

For 90 tense minutes last month, Sheriff Mike Lacy in Utah tried to prevent yet another person connected to the theft of Native American artifacts from committing suicide.

Read more [LA Times National News]

Late snow not enough to keep B.C. wet in summer

It's finally snowing on Vancouver's Cypress Mountain ski hill but not enough to ease concerns that the El Nino weather pattern B.C. is experiencing could lead to water shortages and forest fires this summer.
Read more [CBC Canada]

UN pays tribute to 101 staff killed in Haiti

An emotional Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute Tuesday to "the 101 heroes" working for the United Nations who were killed in the Haiti earthquake, the single greatest loss for the world body in its 64-year history.

NAFTA pullout bill fails to scare Ottawa

Fresh off a recent skirmish over "Buy American," some Canadian cabinet ministers are expressing confidence that a new protectionist push from some U.S. politicians won't succeed.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Minorities to rise significantly by 2031: StatsCan

About one-third of Canada's population - up to 14.4 million people - will be a visible minority by 2031, Statistics Canada projects.
Read more [CBC Canada]

Ohio State janitor's gunfire kills co-worker, self

An Ohio State University janitor who was about to lose his job walked into a maintenance building for his early morning shift Tuesday and shot two supervisors, killing one of them and fatally shooting himself. No students were hurt.