Shirley Chisholm dies
Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the US Congress and an outspoken advocate for women and minorities in the House of Representatives, died Saturday near Daytona Beach at the age of 80. She ran for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1972. "Women have learned to flex their political muscles. You got to flex that muscle to get what you want," she said during her presidential campaign. In her book, Unbought and Unbossed, she wrote: "Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men."
■ United States
Lawmaker Matsui mourned
Robert Matsui, a Japanese-American Democratic representative in California, 63, passed away at Bethesda Naval Hospital on Saturday after losing a battle with myelodysplastic disorder. A third-generation Japanese-American, Matsui was six months old when his family were taken from their home and interned by the US government at Tule Lake camp in California, following the Japanese 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1988, he shepherded the Japanese-American Redress Act through Congress, in which the US government formally apologized for the internment program and offered compensation to its victims.
■ Argentina
Club fire sparks outrage
Grieving families buried victims of the nightclub fire that killed at least 188 people and injured more than 700, while protesters marched in anger over suspicions that some of the packed club's emergency exits were locked. The fire was this country's worst in recent memory and more than 200 riot police stood guard at city hall and the nearby presidential palace after 2,000 protesters marched from the charred nightclub to a main downtown square -- the seat of local and national power. The club's owner, Omar Chaban, was under arrest and expected to face a court hearing.
■ Mexico
Indian leaders take town
In the Michoacan town of Paracho, Indian leaders wearing ski masks took to the streets on horseback to announced they planned to establish a government loyal to the Zapatista rebels that will govern independently from municipal authorities headed by new Institutional Revolutionary Mayor Medardo Alejo. The uprising was an attempt to stop the swearing-in ceremony of new Mayor Eliseo Reyes of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. At least 150 supporters of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party threw rocks, used metal poles to fight with police and set fire to parked cars on Saturday in San Blas Atempa in Oaxaca state. They seized the city hall and briefly held 39 people hostage, authorities said Sunday.
■ United States
Do martians do windows?
Scientists are mystified by what has been cleaning the solar panels on one of their two rovers on Mars at night. It is as if a team of elves has been at work dusting off the panels, which supply the rover Opportunity with electricity. The NASA experts' leading theory is that Opportunity is being put through a kind of Martian "car wash" caused by whirling dust devils. Opportunity and the rover, Spirit, landed at different sites on Mars, but have different solar wattage rates.
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