World/Nation 11/29/2013
• Stores usher in holiday shopping season early
NEW YORK - Shoppers gobbled turkey, but saved the pumpkin pie for later on Thanksgiving Day.
As more than a dozen major retailers from Target to Toys R Us open on Thanksgiving, shoppers across the country got a jump start on holiday shopping. The Thanksgiving openings come despite planned protests across the country from workers' groups that are against employees missing Thanksgiving meals at home.
More than 200 people stood in line at the Toys R Us store in the Manhattan borough of New York City before its 5 p.m. opening.
Green Bryant was first in line at 10 a.m. The restaurant manager ended up buying a dollhouse for $129 - $30 off - a Barbie doll and a LeapFrog learning system. Bryant, 28, said she didn't miss Thanksgiving festivities but was going home to cook a Thanksgiving meal for her two children.
"It was worth it," she said. "Now I gotta go home and cook."
• Union leader: Stadium deaths were preventable
SAO PAULO - A safety engineer at the World Cup stadium where a giant crane collapse killed two workers allegedly warned his supervisor of possible problems with the operation, only to have his concerns brushed aside, a labor union leader charged Thursday, as sniping over the accident heated up.
The incident has fed worries about Brazil's capacity to host next year's showcase tournament, as well as the 2016 Olympics, though authorities insist they will be ready for both.
Sao Paulo's Arena Corinthians was slated to be completed by the end of December, and workers have suggested that speed was a top priority on the construction site, with many working 12-hour shifts and skipping vacations.
The stadium was initially scheduled to be part of the Confederations Cup earlier this year, but world football's governing body FIFA scrapped the venue from the warm-up tournament because of financing problems before construction even started.
• Mexico's booming car industry sells unsafe cars
RAMOS ARIZPE, Mexico - In Mexico's booming auto industry, the cars rolling off assembly lines may look identical, but how safe they are depends on where they're headed.
Vehicles destined to stay in Mexico or go south to the rest of Latin America carry a code signifying there's no need for antilock braking systems, electronic stability control, or more than two air bags, if any, in its basic models.
If the cars will be exported to the United States or Europe, however, they must meet stringent safety laws, including as many as six to 10 air bags, and stability controls that compensate for slippery roads and other road dangers, say engineers who have worked in Mexico-based auto factories.
Because the price of the two versions of the cars is about the same, the dual system buttresses the bottom lines of automakers such as General Motors and Nissan. But it's being blamed for a surge in auto-related fatalities in Mexico, where laws require virtually no safety protections.
• Giant balloons steal the show at Macy's parade
NEW YORK - Revelers at this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade gave thanks for the giant balloons that flew above the city streets Thursday after a blustery storm accompanied by high winds nearly grounded them for only the second time in the parade's 87-year history.
"The balloons are the best part," 11-year-old Matthew Ragbe said as he watched them leave their launch pads on 77th Street and turn the corner to face the crowds of parade-goers, many of whom waited hours to secure a good viewing spot.
Tens of thousands of people lining the parade route were not disheartened by freezing temperatures or the drama over whether Spider-Man, Julius, Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants would make their scheduled appearances along with a dozen other puffed-up sky-bound creatures.
• Women activists recall harrowing night with police
CAIRO - The three women are among Egypt's most active democracy campaigners, the faces of its revolution. Through a string of rulers the past three years - autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the military, the Islamists - they have been at the forefront of protests, chronicled police abuses and struggled to limit the power of the military.
A harrowing night this week underscored for them how little has changed - and why they and other activists are opening a new, non-Islamist protest front against the military-backed government installed after the July 3 coup that ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
The three - Rasha Azab, Mona Seif and Nazly Hussein - and 11 other women were beaten and dragged off by police during a Cairo protest. In the middle of the night, the women were piled into a police truck and driven through the desert outside Cairo, with no idea where they were going or what police intended to do. Then the police abandoned them on a dark, remote highway.
- The Associated Press