Archive for January, 2011

Sochi 2014 Olympic construction chief resigns

MOSCOW (AP) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appointed a new head of construction for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi on Monday, two weeks before athletes arrive for the first Olympic test events. The state Olimpstroy corporation said its chief, Taimuraz Bolloyev, stepped down for health reasons, Russian news agencies reported. Putin signed orders later in the day relieving Bolloyev of his duties and appointing 40-year-old Sergei Gaplikov, a deputy head of Putin’s staff, to replace him



US soccer cancels exhibition game in Egypt

CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. national soccer team canceled its Feb. 9 exhibition against Egypt in Cairo because of the political turmoil there



Genzyme to share information with Sanofi-Aventis

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Biotech drug developer Genzyme Corp. said Monday it will share nonpublic information with Sanofi-Aventis SA, eight months after word first leaked that the French pharmaceutical company was pursuing Genzyme



Serial rapist suspected of strangling Wash. guard

SEATTLE (AP) — An inmate suspected of strangling a female guard with a microphone cord in a prison chapel during an escape attempt is a rapist who once doused a woman in gasoline and set her on fire, raising more questions about why the officer was alone and unarmed at the time of the attack. Two days after the death of 34-year-old Jayme Biendl, Gov. Chris Gregoire and the head of the state corrections department called for an outside investigation focused on whether there is adequate staff at the medium-security reformatory unit of the Monroe Correctional Complex about 30 miles northeast of Seattle



Napolitano touts safety of US border communities

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that U.S. communities on the border with Mexico are safer than most Americans believe, but also warned Mexican drug cartels they’ll be “met by an overwhelming response” should they move north.



Napolitano touts safety of US border communities

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that U.S. communities on the border with Mexico are safer than most Americans believe, but also warned Mexican drug cartels they’ll be “met by an overwhelming response” should they move north. Napolitano told an audience at the University of Texas at El Paso – just across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez and the unprecedented wave of drug-fueled violence engulfing it – that it’s “inaccurate to state, as too many have, that the border is overrun with violence and out of control.” “This statement, often made only to score political points, is just plain wrong,” said Napolitano, who was governor of Arizona before being confirmed as Homeland Security secretary in 2009