Miami

Huge, hazy cloud of dust heading for the South

An enormous, hazy cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert is blowing toward the southern United States, but meteorologists do not expect much effect beyond colorful sunsets.

The leading edge of the cloud – nearly the size of the continental United States – should move across Florida sometime from Monday through Wednesday.

“This is not going to be a tremendous event, but it will be kind of interesting,” said Jim Lushine, a severe weather expert with the National Weather Service in Miami.

He said the dust could make sunrises and sunsets spectacular.

It might not have much effect on the rest of the country, said Scott Kelly, a meteorologist with the weather service in Melbourne.

“Maybe south Texas or Mexico if that dust cloud keeps moving westward, but nothing north of Florida, unless a weather system can dive southward and pull that air northward,” he said.

If the dust is concentrated enough, it could create some problems for people with respiratory problems, said Ken Larson, a natural resource specialist with the Broward County Environmental Protection Department.

Boston

More right whales may be dying than thought

Nearly twice as many right whales may be dying each year than researchers have previously estimated, and marine scientists called for emergency action to help prevent humans from accidentally killing the rare animal.

In an article published in the journal Science, researchers estimated that deaths of North Atlantic right whales may be underreported by as much as 83 percent annually. Only 350 of the animals are believed to exist.

There isn’t time for proposed protections to slog through the federal rule-making process, Amy Knowlton, a New England Aquarium researcher and one of the article’s 18 co-authors, said Friday.

Federal regulators say emergency rules could be put in place six months earlier than the normal 18- to 24-month process but would not be permanent and would not save much time since the final rules are close to completion. Rules also could do more harm than good without proper review and public comment, officials say.

California

Schwarzenegger cuts ties with competition

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut business ties with an annual bodybuilding competition that bears his name, taking another step to distance himself from makers of nutritional supplements.

The governor was paid a fee each year to attend the bodybuilding event called the Arnold Classic, where dietary supplements are heavily promoted.

“That financial relationship is over,” spokeswoman Margita Thompson said Saturday.

Thompson said she did not know how much Schwarzenegger was paid.

The move comes a week after the former Mr. Universe relinquished his title as executive editor of Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines, giving up at least $5 million in income.

Schwarzenegger gave up the title amid criticism for vetoing a bill regulating food supplements while taking money from magazines that profit from the industry.

Los Angeles

Ports extend hours to ease congestion

The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach began operating on weekends and evenings Saturday in a new initiative designed to ease Southern California’s worst-in-the-nation traffic congestion and smog.

By expanding beyond regular Monday-through-Friday business hours, officials hope to reduce the ports’ tangle of shipping trucks, which also would cut exhaust emissions released when the vehicles sit in gridlocked traffic.

“The economic benefits (of the port) are not without a cost to our quality of life,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Saturday as he described the program while trucks revved in the distance. He said the new plan would make the port a “greener and a more conscientious neighbor.”

The combined ports are the fifth-largest in the world, with more than 35 percent of all waterborne container cargo passing through them, according to port officials.

The amount of cargo at the ports soared by almost 40 percent between 2000 and 2004, largely because of increased shipments from China. The increase has added to traffic congestion and smog in the Los Angeles area, where both are the worst in the country.

Washington

Poll finds Americans expect another world war

Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified.

Those findings come six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war claimed about 400,000 U.S. troops around the world, more than three times that many Japanese troops and at least 300,000 Japanese civilians.

Out of the ashes, Japan and the United States forged a close political alliance. Americans and Japanese now generally have good feelings about each other.

But people in the two countries have very different views on everything from the U.S. use of the atomic bomb in 1945, fears of North Korea and the American military presence in Japan.

Connecticut

82-year-old claims he found lost wedding ring

An 82-year-old man who went clamming in the Long Island Sound says he made the ultimate catch: the wedding ring he lost two years ago.

Stewart Petrie said he found an encrusted ring mixed in with his clams Tuesday while he was clamming at the same spot where his ring slipped off in July 2003.

After his wife, Mary, scrubbed it with jewelry cleaner, they were able to read the inscription: “MPS to SJP 9-10-67.” Her husband’s eyes began to tear, she said.

The couple married after meeting at a hospital where he was a doctor and she worked as a nurse.

The Petries say they eventually plan to have jeweler restore the ring. But in the meantime, it isn’t leaving his finger.

“I treasure that ring,” he said.