Blackout affecting up to 2M Floridians
MIAMI, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Up to 2 million Floridians were in the dark Tuesday after blackouts rolled across portions of state following a shutdown of two nuclear reactors.
Miami Mayor Carlos Alvarez said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told him, "(There) was no indication or evidence of foul play, not only in Dade or any other counties," Miami television station WFOR reported.
The public safety departments, fire and police, weren't overwhelmed by the power outage, the mayor's office said.
Florida Power & Light said the cause of the outage wasn't known but state officials said they believed a major transmission line failed in South Florida, triggering rolling blackouts throughout the state, The Miami Herald reported.
"The system protected itself by going into rotating blackouts," said Bob Trapp of the state's Public Service Commission. "It has a ripple effect throughout the state."
Both of the nuclear reactors at the utility's Turkey Point facility, as well as two oil-burning plants, tripped off unexpectedly, said Ken Clark, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's regional office in Atlanta.
The state emergency operations center was partially activated, Florida Office of Emergency Management spokesman Mike Stone told the Palm Beach Post.
Supreme Court narrows job bias evidence
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously made it harder Tuesday for employees to testify about their own complaints in a job bias suit filed by another employee.
The justices said a federal appeals court in Denver made a mistake when it ruled on its own that workplace discrimination testimony by employees other than those filing suit should be automatically allowed at trial -- "me too" evidence.
The ruling came in the case of a Kansas woman who claimed she was wrongly terminated from a business strategy group operated by Sprint/United Management Co. as part of a reduction in force. Federal law bans age discrimination against employees 40 and over.
A federal trial court refused to allow other employees to testify about similar alleged discrimination from company supervisors but the appeals court reversed.
Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to send the case back to the trial court.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in the unanimous opinion, said the trial court must determine whether evidence of discrimination by other supervisors in an age bias case "is fact based," and the trial court's decision must depend "on many factors, including how closely related the evidence is to the plaintiff's circumstances and theory of the case." The evidence can be admitted as non-prejudicial only after "a fact-intensive, context-specific inquiry," Thomas said.
(No. 06-1221, Sprint/United Management Co. vs. Mendelsohn)
Serbs protest Kosovo in Bosnia
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Serb protesters in Bosnia-Herzegovina threw stones at police Tuesday during a rally against Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.
The protesters tried to march on the U.S. consulate in the Bosnian capital of Banja Luka, but police reportedly dispersed the crowd with tear gas, the BBC reported.
The United States and other countries have recognized Kosovo's independence. Serbia, supported by Russia and China, says Kosovo's declaration Feb. 17 violates international law.
About 10,000 Bosnian Serbs participated in the rally, chanting: "Kosovo is Serbia" and "We will not give the Serbian soul to the devil."
Some demanded independence for Republika Srpska, one of two political entities making up Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Addressing the rally, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said, "As long as we live here, we will not recognize Kosovo as independent."
A group splintered from the largely peaceful protest and headed toward the U.S. embassy, the BBC reported. Protesters broke shop windows and threw rocks at police who blocked streets leading to the facility.
Last week a man died after the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, was torched during a protest. Embassies of other nations that recognized Kosovo's independence also were vandalized.
Dubai station airs British hostage video
LONDON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A TV station based in the United Arab Emirates broadcast a video of a man who identified himself as one of five Britons taken hostage in Iraq last year.
The recording broadcast in Dubai depicts a man who identified himself as Peter Moore calling on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to free nine Iraqi prisoners in exchange for his release as well as the release of four other British hostages, the BBC reported Tuesday.
"All I want is to leave this place. I tell Gordon Brown the matter is simple: Release their prisoners so we can go," said the man on the recording, whose identity was confirmed by his employer, U.S. consulting firm BearingPoint, CNN reported.
"It's as simple as that. It's a simple exchange of people. That is all they want -- their people and we can go home," he said.
Moore was captured alongside four bodyguards in Baghdad on May 29, 2007, ITN reported.
The British Foreign Office criticized Dubai's al-Arabiya network for releasing the video.
"We condemn the release of videos such as this, which are greatly distressing to the families of those involved. Our thoughts are with them at this difficult time," the office said in a statement. "We urge those holding the group to release them immediately."
'Osama bin London' convicted
LONDON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A jury convicted the alleged ringleader of the London group linked to the failed July 21, 2005, bombing of the London Underground.
A jury found Mohammed Hamid, 50, guilty of three counts of soliciting murder and three counts of running a terrorist training camp, the BBC said Tuesday.
Four of the would-be suicide bombers in the July 21, 2005, plot allegedly received training by Hamid and he had sent text messages to one of the July 5, 2005, London bombers.
The jury found him not guilty on separate counts of soliciting murder and possession of terrorist-related materials.
A police officer infiltrated Hamid's group. He told the officer who arrested him at his preaching stall in London's Hyde Park he was "Osama bin London" and was carrying a bomb.
