Nepal shuts down only international airport to big jets
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Runway damage forced Nepalese authorities to close the main airport Sunday to large aircraft delivering aid to millions of people following the massive earthquake, but U.N. officials said the overall logistics situation was improving.
The death toll climbed to 7,276, including six foreigners and 45 Nepalese found over the weekend on a popular trekking route, said government administrator Gautam Rimal. The runway was built to handle only medium-size jetliners, but not the large military and cargo planes that have been flying in aid supplies, food, medicines, and rescue and humanitarian workers, said Birendra Shrestha, the manager of Tribhuwan International Airport, located on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
There have been reports of cracks on the runway and other problems at the only airport capable of handling jetliners.
Gunmen fatally shot at Texas Muhammad cartoon contest
DALLAS — Two gunmen opened fire Sunday evening outside a contest for cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in nearby Garland, police said.
The two men pulled up in a vehicle and shot a Garland Independent School District officer. The men were fatally shot by Garland police.
The security officer’s wounds were not believed to be life-threatening, but he had been hospitalized.
No one was being allowed to leave the Curtis Culwell Center, where an art show centering on caricatures of Muhammad was being held.
Authorities extended a perimeter 2,000 feet around the Culwell Center, and they were investigating a car within that zone.
The New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative was hosting a contest that would award $10,000 for the best cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad at the venue. Caricatures of the Islamic prophet are considered offensive by many Muslims.
The American Freedom Defense Initiative paid an additional $10,000 upfront for 40 officers to work security at the event. The group’s president, Pamela Gellar, called it “the high cost of freedom.”
Ohio sees half of abortion providers close or shrink
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The number of abortion providers in Ohio has shrunk by half amid a flurry of restrictive new laws over the past four years, and the number of the procedures also is declining, according to a review of records by The Associated Press.
Both sides agree the added limits and hurdles placed on Ohio abortions have played a role in facility closures. What is less clear is whether the downward trajectory in procedures is a cause or an effect of some of the most significantly reduced abortion access in the nation.
Seven of 16 Ohio abortion providers have either closed since 2011 or curtailed abortion offerings, while an eighth, in Toledo, is operating under the cloud of pending litigation, according to AP interviews and examinations of state licensing and business records.
The plunge places Ohio second in closures nationally, behind Texas, where 17 of 40 providers have stopped operating since 2011.
By wire sources.