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WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that it believes the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its civil war, an assessment that could test President Barack Obama’s repeated warnings that such an attack could precipitate U.S. intervention in Syria.
Warm and pleasant weekend ahead
A high pressure system moving northeast from the Midwest will reach New England on Saturday, providing clear skies and light winds. The high will remain over our area throughout the weekend and into next week. The slow movement of the high is due to a large Atlantic ridge (i.e. another high) which is temporarily blocking the normal movement of weather systems along the jet stream. The high will therefore stay close to us, keeping skies clear and winds light. These two features will ultimately allow high temperatures to average around 65°F (18°C) or above through at least Monday. By late weekend, the light winds should start bringing air from the southwest, giving a small rise in overall temperatures. Any chances of rain appear quite slim today, despite that some remnants of a dissipating low pressure area over Canada will reach us and bring some clouds. Any clouds today will disappear overnight, and clear skies will rule our region through early next week.
Democratic senators voice health care law concerns
WASHINGTON — Democratic senators, at a caucus meeting with White House officials, expressed concerns Thursday about how the Obama administration was carrying out the health care law they adopted three years ago.
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HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil reported a virtually flat profit for the first quarter Thursday, with strong earnings on its chemical business partly compensating for declines in exploration, production, refining and marketing.
Kurdish rebel group to withdraw from Turkey
ISTANBUL — The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the main Kurdish rebel group in Turkey, said Thursday that it would withdraw all of its forces from the country by May 8 as part of a peace agreement to end a 30-year conflict with the Turkish state.
UN Security Council votes to deploy peacekeepers in Mali
UNITED NATIONS — Despite qualms about embroiling peacekeeping troops in the global fight against Islamist extremists, the U.N. Security Council voted Thursday to establish a force for Mali, where militants controlled much of the north until France intervened in January.
Technology hampers opening of exchange
Trading on the nation’s largest options exchange was delayed for several hours on Thursday because of computer problems, the latest incident to highlight the vulnerability of markets to technological shocks.
Cancer physicians attack high drug costs
With the cost of some lifesaving cancer drugs exceeding $100,000 a year, more than 100 influential cancer specialists from around the world have taken the unusual step of banding together in hopes of persuading some leading pharmaceutical companies to bring prices down.
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KABUL, Afghanistan — An emergency landing by a helicopter ferrying foreign engineers in eastern Afghanistan turned into a mass abduction by the Taliban, officials said on Monday, offering a stark reminder of the insurgents’ continuing hold on large parts of the countryside.
Syrian war spilling into Lebanon, rights group says
BEIRUT — A Human Rights Watch report released Monday accused both the Syrian government and the insurgency of striking residential areas in neighboring Lebanon on several occasions and killing a number of its citizens. The cross-border attacks appeared to be largely indiscriminate and threatened to further destabilize the Syrian-Lebanese frontier, Human Rights Watch said.
Rain today, dry and seasonable rest of week
The below average temperatures of the last two days will continue today, with a coastal storm set to deliver a damp and chilly day. With high temperatures probably not making it out of the 40s°F, rain likely throughout the day and evening, and a cold northeast wind, it will not be a particularly pleasant spring day. However, it looks like the situation will improve for the rest of the week. Tomorrow is our best chance for some above average temperatures, with a southwesterly wind advecting warmer air into our region ahead of an approaching cold front. Some rain showers are possible with this cold front tomorrow evening and Thursday morning. Thursday and Friday, building high pressure will keep the weather mainly dry with seasonable temperatures near 60°F.
Flights delayed amid budget-cut furloughs of air controllers
WASHINGTON — Flights were delayed by up to two hours across the country Monday, the first weekday that the nation’s air traffic control system operated with 10 percent fewer controllers. Pilots, gate agents and others were quick to blame furloughs caused by mandatory across-the-board budget cuts, but the Federal Aviation Administration said it was too soon to assign blame.
Two accused in Canada of plotting derailment
OTTAWA, Ontario — The Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Monday announced the arrest of two men who are accused of planning to derail a passenger train in an al-Qaida linked plot.
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President Barack Obama will attend a memorial service this week for the victims of the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, in what will be his latest foray as the country’s comforter in chief.
US and China put focus on cybersecurity
BEIJING — The United States and China held their highest-level military talks in nearly two years Monday, with a senior Chinese general pledging to work with the United States on cybersecurity because the consequences of a major cyberattack “may be as serious as a nuclear bomb.”
US indicts Guinea-Bissau’s military chief in drug case
DAKAR, Senegal — The head of Guinea-Bissau’s armed forces, Gen. Antonio Injai, has been indicted by federal prosecutors in New York on cocaine and weapons-trafficking charges, the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan said Thursday, part of an ambitious U.S. operation targeting some of the most powerful figures in a country long considered a major haven for drug smuggling.
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SEOUL, South Korea — At least two agents from the South Korean National Intelligence Service illegally posted comments online criticizing the political opposition ahead of the December presidential election, the police said on Thursday in an interim report on an investigation into accusations of political meddling.
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BEIJING — China is investigating four possible cases of human-to-human transmission of a deadly bird flu that has killed 17 people, but so far there has been “no sustained” evidence of transmission between people, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
Ruins searched for firefighters after blast
WEST, Texas — Rescue workers searched the rubble of a fertilizer plant Thursday, looking for missing firefighters and survivors of a huge explosion that tore through this small central Texas town Wednesday night, killing as many as 15 people and injuring more than 160 others, laying waste to buildings
After defeat, gun bill’s backers seek to keep issue alive
WASHINGTON — The last whimpers of the gun control debate in the Senate played out in anticlimactic fashion on Thursday as lawmakers began the process of formally moving on.