Washington, D.C.: Environmental groups challenge snowmobile plan

Four environmental groups sued the Bush administration Tuesday to block changes that would allow more people to ride snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, asks a federal judge to block a recent Interior Department decision that would undo a Clinton administration ban on snowmobiles in the popular Western parks by next winter.

The environmental groups want the judge to keep the Clinton rule in place. That would mean snowmobile use would be sharply limited this winter and banned outright next year.

The Interior Department would not limit snowmobiles this winter under the proposal released last month. Starting next winter, however, it would allow no more than 1,100 snowmobiles a day in the parks.

Washington, D.C.: Discrimination based on national origin rises

Complaints of discrimination based on national origin have risen 20 percent over the last eight years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday.

The agency attributed the rise to a backlash against Muslims and Middle Easterners after the Sept. 11 attacks, increasing numbers of immigrants in the labor force and other population changes.

“Most people think about race and gender discrimination – national origin discrimination doesn’t come to mind, but it’s having a greater impact on the workplace,” EEOC spokesman David Grinberg said Tuesday.

The EEOC is a federal agency that enforces the anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.

Haiti: Thousands of protesters rally against government

Police fired tear gas to break up demonstrations Tuesday by thousands of anti-government protesters, as President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s supporters wielded whips and hurled rocks to drive away government opponents. At least 16 people were reported injured.

About 2,000 marchers paraded through the streets of Petit-Goave demanding an end to Aristide’s government and justice in the death of journalist Brignol Lindor, who was hacked to death a year ago by Aristide supporters.

Aristide won the presidency in 1990 but was overthrown in a coup after less than a year in office. He lived in exile in Washington until U.S. troops helped restore him to power in 1994, then ceded power to chosen successor Rene Preval in 1996. Aristide won a second five-year term in November 2000.

China: Shanghai wins World’s Fair

China won the right Tuesday to be host of the World’s Fair in 2010, another feather in its cap after winning its bid to host the Olympics in 2008.

The fair will be in Shanghai, which was was chosen over Yeosu, South Korea, in a vote by the International Bureau of Exhibitions, which organizes the fairs. The group has 89 member states.

Japan’s Aichi province will be the site of the next expo in 2005.

The first World’s Fair took place in 1851 in London.