■UNITED STATES
Palin to write memoirs
Alaskan Governor and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is to write a book of memoirs, publishers HarperCollins said on Wednesday. The book, due to appear early next year, will describe her overnight rise from obscure governor to Senator John McCain’s running mate and her party’s popular, but polarizing cheerleader. “Governor Palin is one of the most charismatic, inspiring and controversial figures to appear on the national political stage for many years,” HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said. “She has a fascinating story to tell.”
■UNITED STATES
Menus must show calories
Massachusetts is expected to unveil the toughest restaurant menu labeling rules in the US on Wednesday, requiring fast-food chains to list how many calories are in the food they sell in a bid to combat obesity. The state’s Public Health Council is expected to vote on Wednesday on regulations making fast-food chains list the calorie counts of their food on their menus and menu boards.
■UNITED STATES
‘Titantic’ survivor gets funds
Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and director James Cameron have responded to a challenge and donated US$30,000 to support the last survivor of the Titanic in her last years, a representative for DiCaprio said on Monday. The survivor, 97-year-old Millvina Dean, has reportedly resorted to selling her autograph to pay her nursing home bills in Southampton, the English city from which the Titanic began its fateful maiden voyage in 1912. Dean was only nine weeks old when her family traveled on the Titanic in hopes of beginning a new life in the US. Her father was one of the 1,517 casualties after the ship hit an iceberg. DiCaprio, Winslet and Cameron made their combined US$30,000 donation after Irish author and photographer Don Mullan publicly challenged them to match his donation.
■GUATEMALA
Teenager kills brother
A teenage member of a violent street gang killed his younger brother for belonging to a rival group, police said on Friday. Hector Mazariegos, 18, who belongs to the Mara 18 gang, shot dead his 13-year-old brother Cesar, a member of the rival Mara Salvatrucha, outside the house they shared in a dangerous run-down district of Guatemala City. The younger brother wounded his sibling.
■UNITED STATES
Obama nomination blocked
Republicans in the Senate have blocked for the first time a department nomination by President Barack Obama. His pick for the No. 2 job at the Department of the Interior failed because of a dispute over oil leases in Utah. In a 57-39 Senate vote on Wednesday, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes they needed to advance the nominee. David Hayes is an environmental lawyer picked by Obama to serve in the spot. Senator Bob Bennett led Republican opposition to the nomination after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled oil and gas leases in Bennett’s home state of Utah.
■PERU
Gay police not allowed
Lima said on Wednesday it would ban homosexuals from serving as police. The new rules cover homosexuals and those engaged in extra-marital affairs. They indefinitely suspend “police officers who have sexual relations with people of the same gender and because of their actions cause scandal, or denigrate the institution’s image.”
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