Albany Herald - Nation and World
To order photos from Mardi Gras weekend and other events covered by The Albany Herald and have them sent directly to you, click on "Get Photos" below or click here... the galleries of available photos will be continually expanded, so check back often *** Georgia Tech is getting a $50,000 grant from the Ford Motor Co. Fund to test a new "smart lock" technology for bicycles in Emory University's bike-share program. The student-developed system will install wireless and GPS technology on Emory's fleet of bicycles, allowing users to check them out via text messaging and administrators to track the bikes' use from a central server.*** Authorities in Middle Georgia have found the body of a second missing fisherman at Lake Tobesofkee after three days of searching. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office says 52-year-old Willie Buckles was found Tuesday afternoon a few hundred yards from where the body of his uncle, 62-year-old Frank Roquemore, was found Sunday.*** The Georgia House will honor longtime speaker Tom Murphy by placing his portrait in the state Capitol. Murphy, a Democrat, was the longest-serving state House speaker in the nation when voters in his west Georgia district turned him out of office in 2002. He died in 2007 at age 83.***An Atlanta group has voted down efforts to move a historical black cemetery. The Mt. Olive Cemetery is located in Atlanta's pricey Buckhead neighborhood. It contains the remains of at least 45 people and is believed to be one of the few remnants of an African-American community that lived in the area.
National and World News
  • Obama takes health care overhaul push to Missouri
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top health official challenged insurers on Wednesday to join President Barack Obama's push to overhaul the medical system, arguing that if the effort fails it will hurt them as well as other Americans....
  • Biden: Palestinians deserve 'viable' state
    RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden's displeasure over an Israeli plan to enlarge an east Jerusalem settlement was on display Wednesday as he warned against actions that "inflame tensions" and reassured his Palestinian hosts that they deserve a sustainable, independent state....
  • 'Lost Boys' actor Corey Haim dead in Calif. at 38
    LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Corey Haim, a 1980s teen heartthrob whose career was blighted by drug abuse, has died. He was 38. Haim died early Wednesday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said....
  • Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- A long-overlooked group of women who flew aircraft during World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday. Known as Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, they were the first women to fly U.S. military planes....
  • Church abuse scandal reaches pope's brother
    VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself....
  • Boyfriend: 'Jihad Jane' suspect wasn't religious
    PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The self-dubbed "Jihad Jane" who thought her blond, all-American profile would help mask her plan to kill a Swedish cartoonist is a rare case of a U.S. woman inciting foreign terrorism and shows the latest evolution of the global threat, authorities say....
  • Senate passes jobless aid, business tax breaks
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate voted Wednesday to extend a host of soon-to-expire elements of last year's economic stimulus measure, including help for the jobless and money to help financially strapped states pay for health care for the poor....
  • Swedish artist has no regrets over prophet drawing
    STOCKHOLM (AP) -- The point of a caricature depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog was to show that artistic freedom allows mockery of all religions, including the most sacred symbols of Islam, the Swedish artist who created it said Wednesday....
  • Midnight knitter pulls the wool over NJ shore town
    WEST CAPE MAY, N.J. (AP) -- Someone is spinning quite a yarn over one New Jersey shore town. An unknown person dubbed The Midnight Knitter by West Cape May residents is covering tree branches and lamp poles with little sweaters under cover of darkness....
  • Boyfriend: 'Jihad Jane' suspect wasn't religious
    PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The self-dubbed "Jihad Jane" who thought her blond, all-American profile would help mask her plan to kill a Swedish cartoonist is a rare case of a U.S. woman inciting foreign terrorism and shows the latest evolution of the global threat, authorities say....
  • CDC uses shopper-card data to trace salmonella
    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -- As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time - the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries....
  • Palm Inc. teeters in crowded smart phone market
    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Last year, Palm thought it had all the pieces for a turnaround in the market it pioneered: A new CEO known for making the iPod a household name, a sleek new smart phone called the Pre and fresh, intuitive operating software....
  • Study: Law officers struggle to readjust after war
    MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Many law enforcement officers called up to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan are finding it difficult to readjust to their jobs once home, bringing back heightened survival instincts that may make them quicker to use force and showing less patience toward the people they serve....
  • Check on Ohio State gunman found no criminal past
    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio State University says a background check on a janitor who shot two supervisors didn't reveal a criminal record, even though he had spent five years in prison....
  • Italy, FBI raids crack down on Mafia in US, Sicily
    NEW YORK (AP) -- The FBI arrested a reputed U.S. mobster Wednesday on charges he provided protection for a Sicilian counterpart operating in Florida - part of an international sweep aimed at further crippling the storied Gambino organized crime family and disrupting its ties to the Italian mob....
  • New national math, English standards drafted
    SEATTLE (AP) -- Math and English instruction in the United States moved a step closer to uniform - and more rigorous - standards Wednesday as draft new national guidelines were released....
  • Families: 3 Americans detained in Iran call home
    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Cindy Hickey had rehearsed what she would say to her son when she finally got to talk to him months after he was detained in Iran. When the time came, the conversation lasted only about a minute, she said, "so it was hard to say a lot."...
  • Bad blood detailed in Maine 'lobster wars' trial
    ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) -- Even under the rough-and-tumble rules of the sea that Maine lobstermen live by, staring down the barrel of a .12-gauge shotgun is extreme....
  • Biden: Palestinians deserve 'viable' state
    RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden's displeasure over an Israeli plan to enlarge an east Jerusalem settlement was on display Wednesday as he warned against actions that "inflame tensions" and reassured his Palestinian hosts that they deserve a sustainable, independent state....
  • Church abuse scandal reaches pope's brother
    VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Church abuse scandals in Germany have reached the older brother of Pope Benedict XVI and are creeping ever closer to the pontiff himself....
  • Italy parliament passes justice measure
    ROME (AP) -- Silvio Berlusconi's allies pushed a controversial measure through parliament on Wednesday that shields the Italian premier from prosecution in two ongoing trials....
  • UN report: Much of Somalia's food aid diverted
    UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Up to half the food aid intended for the millions of hungry people in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local U.N. workers, according to a U.N. Security Council report....
  • Nigerian soldiers open fire on youths; 2 killed
    JOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Soldiers opened fire on a crowd after curfew and killed two people, witnesses said Wednesday, just days after more than 200 people including dozens of children were slaughtered in several mostly Christian villages nearby....
  • World's top scientists to review climate panel
    UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- At a tumultuous time in U.N.-led climate negotiations, one of the world's most credible scientific groups agreed Wednesday to plug the recent cracks in the authoritative reports of the United Nations' Nobel Prize-winning global warming panel....
  • Italy, FBI raids crack down on Mafia in US, Sicily
    NEW YORK (AP) -- The FBI arrested a reputed U.S. mobster Wednesday on charges he provided protection for a Sicilian counterpart operating in Florida - part of an international sweep aimed at further crippling the storied Gambino organized crime family and disrupting its ties to the Italian mob....
  • US-Iran tension plays out in Afghanistan
    KABUL (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used a brief visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday to lob insults at the United States and argue that international forces won't stop terrorism and will only lead to more civilian deaths....
  • Law bars Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi from elections
    YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's military regime took yet another step to expunge Aung San Suu Kyi from the political scene Wednesday by effectively barring her from the first elections in 20 years and pressuring her opposition party to expel her from its ranks....
  • Obama renews backing of earthquake-stricken Haiti
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday renewed America's commitment to the recovery and reconstruction of earthquake-devastated Haiti, telling visiting President Rene Preval he knows the crisis has not passed....
  • Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- They flew planes during World War II but weren't considered "real" military pilots. No flags were draped over their coffins when they died on duty. And when their service ended, they had to pay their own bus fare home....
  • Senate passes jobless aid, business tax breaks
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate voted Wednesday to extend a host of soon-to-expire elements of last year's economic stimulus measure, including help for the jobless and money to help financially strapped states pay for health care for the poor....
  • Gates keeps up pressure on Iran with Gulf visit
    RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Saudi leaders Wednesday that the U.S. effort for diplomatic engagement with Iran had come to naught and he asked for the influential kingdom's help to win wide backing for biting economic penalties against Tehran....
  • Clinton, Gates say US help abroad improves image
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bill Clinton and Bill Gates said Wednesday that U.S. investments in fighting AIDS, malaria and other diseases in underdeveloped nations save lives and play a vital role in improving America's image abroad....
  • Obama takes health care overhaul push to Missouri
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top health official challenged insurers on Wednesday to join President Barack Obama's push to overhaul the medical system, arguing that if the effort fails it will hurt them as well as other Americans....
  • House bans misleading census mailings
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House passed legislation Wednesday that would ban misleading mailings designed to appear they're from the Census Bureau, following criticism that Republican groups were sending fundraising letters using the census name....
  • House Democrats ban earmarks to corporations
    WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democratic leaders announced Wednesday that they will ban the much-criticized practice of using annual spending bills to direct pet projects to for-profit companies that often return the favor with campaign contributions....
  • First lady launches contest for healthy kids games
    ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- First lady Michelle Obama challenged software and video game designers Wednesday to develop games and tools that get kids, especially 9- to 12-year-olds, excited about eating better and exercising more....
Online Poll
Should the name of Albany's first March weekend festival be changed from Mardi Gras?

Yes, the name is inaccurate.
Yes, the name is offensive to those observing Lent.
Yes, the Downtown Merchants Association should have a contest for a new name.
No, I like the name Mardi Gras.