NEW YORK
Council approves creating watchdog over city police
The City Council voted Thursday to create an outside watchdog for the nation’s biggest police department and make it easier for people to file profiling claims against it, overriding Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s vetoes and prompting him to say the city’s safety is being jeopardized.
Bloomberg said the new oversight at the New York Police Department will make it “harder for our police officers to protect New Yorkers and continue to drive down crime.”
“Make no mistake: The communities that will feel the most negative impacts of these bills will be minority communities across our city, which have been the greatest beneficiaries of New York City’s historic crime reductions,” he said in a statement.
Proponents see the legislation as a check on a police force that’s come under scrutiny for its heavy use of a tactic known as stop and frisk.
Tennis pioneer to appear on commemorative stamp
The U.S. Postal Service is honoring tennis champion and pioneer Althea Gibson with a commemorative stamp in its Black Heritage series.
The stamp will be available around the United States on Friday.
Gibson broke tennis’ color barrier in the 1950s as the first black entrant and champion at Wimbledon and the U.S. national tournament. She died in 2003 at age 76.
In 1957 and 1958, she won Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships, now called the U.S. Open.
WEST CARROLLTON, Ohio
Man revives 45 minutes after being declared dead
Southwest Ohio doctors say they’re stunned by a man who revived 45 minutes after his heart stopped beating and he was declared dead.
Doctors say presumed-dead diesel mechanic Tony Yahle was being prepared by nurses to be seen by his family when he began to show signs of life. They say he fully awoke at the hospital five days later.
The 37-year-old West Carrollton resident’s cardiologist, Dr. Raja Nazir, says he’s been a topic of discussion among doctors.
The Dayton Daily News on Tuesday reported teenager Lawrence Yahle says he spoke to his father as he lay dead and told him he wasn’t going to die that day.
The teen says his father revived shortly after. He says he “went from hopeless to hope in an instant.”
Tony Yahle says “nobody really has an explanation.”
ATHENS, Greece
Ancient mound may not hold king, ministry warns
Greece’s Culture Ministry has warned against “overbold” speculation that an ancient artificial mound being excavated could contain a royal Macedonian grave or even Alexander the Great.
Site archaeologist Aikaterini Peristeri has voiced hopes of finding “a significant individual or individuals” within. Greek websites enthused that it could hold the long-sought grave of 4th-century B.C. warrior-king Alexander the Great – thought to lie in Egypt.
A Culture Ministry statement Thursday said the partly-excavated mound has yielded a “very remarkable” marble-faced wall from the late 4th century B.C.
But the ministry warned it would be “overbold” to link the site near ancient Amphipolis, 370 miles north of Athens, with “historic personages” before the excavation is completed.
HAVANA
Brazil plans to import 4,000 doctors to work with poor
Facing a physician shortage, Brazil plans to import 4,000 doctors from Cuba to work mostly in poor, rural areas at a cost of more than $200 million.
The first installment of 400 Cubans to participate in Brazil’s Mais Medicos (More Doctors) program will begin arriving this weekend, said Brazil’s Ministry of Health.
All 400 doctors in the first wave have participated in other international missions for Cuba, which sends health-care professionals to more than 50 countries.
Brazil has a serious shortage of doctors. In 2009, it had 15.1 physicians per 10,000 people, while Cuba had 66.3 doctors per 10,000 people, according to the Pan American Health Organization. The United States physician ratio was 26 for every 10,000 people.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico
Finder of Titanic probes deepest Caribbean trough
The man whose research team discovered the wreckage of the Titanic has now turned his attention to the deepest trough of the Caribbean Sea.
Robert Ballard was aboard a 211-foot research vessel with dozens of other scientists to probe the Cayman Trough this week and collect samples of organisms they say might reveal how life might exist on other planets.
On Thursday, the team was using remotely operated vehicles that have so far captured a dumbo octopus, named for its two ear-like fins; a sea cucumber with an unidentified appendage; and various invertebrates living around hydrothermal vents that can reach temperatures of more than 752 Fahrenheit.
– From news service reports
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