Statewide ban on smoking in workplaces proposed
SANTA FE (AP) - Smoking would be banned in workplaces and restaurants across the state under a proposal backed by a coalition of health groups.
Legislation by Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, would prohibit smoking in most indoor locations except a private residence, certain bars, a retail tobacco shop, private clubs, casinos and smoking-designated hotel and motel rooms.
Park and other supporters said Monday the legislation would help protect people from the health dangers of second-hand smoke.
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The legislation was modeled on a no-smoking ordinance in Albuquerque, Park said. He expects the measure will be introduced in the House on Tuesday.
Supreme Court refuses to hear right-to-die case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court refused on Monday to step in and keep a severely brain-damaged woman hooked to a feeding tube, all but ending a long-running right-to-die battle pitting her husband against her parents.
It was the second time the Supreme Court dodged the politically charged case from Florida, where Republican Gov. Jeb Bush successfully lobbied the Legislature to pass a law to keep 41-year-old Terri Schiavo on life support.
Winter storm in Northeast blamed for 20 deaths
DENNIS, Mass. (AP) - Snowdrifts 6 feet high kept some Massachusetts residents trapped in their homes and commuters across the Northeast limped back to work on icy roads and packed trains Monday as the region struggled to dig out from a paralyzing weekend blizzard.
About 20 deaths were believed to be linked to the weather. Massachusetts saw the most snow - a whopping 38 inches in cities north and south of Boston. As much as 21 inches of snow blanketed parts of New Jersey, where the morning commute was crippled by delays of more than an hour.
FCC rejects parent group's 36 indecency complaints
WASHINGTON (AP) - Regulators rejected 36 complaints of indecency Monday against popular TV shows including "Friends" and "The Simpsons."
The objections had been filed with the Federal Communications Commission by the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that frequently complains about sex and violence on television.
"In context, none of the segments were patently offensive under contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, and thus not indecent," the agency said in a statement.
23 at Guantanamo Bay attempted suicide in 2003
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Twenty-three terror suspects tried to hang or strangle themselves at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay during a mass protest in 2003, the military confirmed Monday.
The incidents came during the same year the camp suffered a rash of suicide attempts after Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller took command of the prison with a mandate to get more information from prisoners accused of links to al Qaeda or the ousted Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered it.
Top al Qaeda lieutenant arrested by Iraqi forces
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An al Qaeda lieutenant in custody in Iraq confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad, including the bloody 2003 assault on the U.N. headquarters in the capitol, authorities said Monday.
Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, "confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad" since the Iraq war began, according to the interim Iraqi prime minister's spokesman, Thaer al-Naqib.
Report: global warming approaching critical point
LONDON (AP) - Global warming is approaching the point of no return, after which widespread drought, crop failure and rising sea levels will be irreversible, an international climate change task force warned Monday.
It called on the Group of 8 leading industrial nations to cut carbon emissions, double their research spending on technology and work with India and China to build on the Kyoto Protocol for cuttings emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming.
