World/Nation
• U.S., China unveil ambitious climate change goals
BEIJING - The United States and China pledged Wednesday to take ambitious action to limit greenhouse gases, aiming to inject fresh momentum into the global fight against climate change ahead of high-stakes climate negotiations next year.
President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would move much faster in cutting its levels of pollution. Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to cap China's emissions in the future - a striking, unprecedented move by a nation that has been reluctant to box itself in on global warming.
The unexpected declaration from the world's two largest polluters, unveiled on the last day of Obama's trip to China, reflected both nations' desire to display a united front that could blunt arguments from developing countries, which have balked at demands that they get serious about global warming. Yet it was unclear how feasible it would be for either country to meet their goals, and Obama's pledge was sure to confront tough opposition from ascendant Republicans in Congress.
The U.S. set a new target to reduce its emissions of heat-trapping gases by 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025, compared with 2005 levels. That's a sharp increase from earlier in Obama's presidency, when he pledged to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020.
China, whose emissions are still growing as it builds new coal plants, didn't commit to cut emissions by a specific amount. Rather, Xi set a target for China's emission to peak by 2030, or earlier if possible. He also pledged to increase the share of energy that China will derive from sources other than fossil fuels.
"This is, in my view, the most important bilateral climate announcement ever," said David Sandalow, formerly a top environmental official at the White House and the Energy Department. "It sends the signal the two largest emitters in the world are working together to address this problem."
• India's sterilization drive leaves at least eight women dead
NEW DELHI - India's drive to limit population growth by offering free sterilization surgeries left at least eight women dead and 20 others seriously ill Wednesday, highlighting the risks women face in reproductive health in a country struggling with high rates of poverty.
A total of 83 women, all villagers under the age of 32, had the operations Saturday as part of the free sterilization campaign and were sent home that evening. But dozens later became ill and were rushed in ambulances to private hospitals in Bilaspur, a city in central Chhattisgarh state.
By Wednesday morning, at least eight women had died - apparently from either blood poisoning or hemorrhagic shock, which occurs when a person has lost too much blood, state deputy health director Amar Singh told reporters.
About 20 others were in critical care, and the central government was rushing a team of doctors to Bilaspur to help with their treatment.
• Democrats argue GOP draws Alabama race-based districts
WASHINGTON - In last week's elections, Alabama Republicans shrank their once-powerful Democratic opponents to just eight seats in the state Senate, all of them from districts in which African-Americans are a majority.
Black Democrats say the GOP did it by misusing a landmark voting-rights law, intended to ensure the right to vote for southern blacks, to instead limit their voting strength. Republicans, they argue, relied too heavily on race to draw new electoral maps following the 2010 census.
The case goes before the Supreme Court today. Last year a conservative majority on the court effectively blocked a key component of the Voting Rights Act, and this case will be watched closely for signs that the rest of the law could be in peril.
Like other Southern states, Alabama has undergone a decades-long change in its electorate. White voters now overwhelmingly back Republicans, leaving black voters as the Democrats' only reliable voting bloc.
Several states have accelerated that trend by invoking the voting rights law to justify concentrating black voters in certain districts so that the areas around them are proportionally more white and therefore more apt to elect Republicans.
• Countdown nears for probe landing on a streaking comet
BERLIN - How do you land a spacecraft on a comet that is streaking by at 41,000 mph?
That's a problem scientists have been grappling with for more than a decade as they prepare for one of the most audacious space adventures ever - the European Space Agency's attempt to land a scientific probe on the giant ball of ice and dust known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
They'll find out today whether their plan will work when the agency's mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, gives its unmanned Rosetta space probe the final go-ahead to drop a lander on the comet.
The event marks the climax of Rosetta's decade-long journey to study the icy celestial bodies that have long fascinated humanity.
Scientists hope that the data collected by Rosetta and its sidekick lander, Philae, will provide insights into the origins of comets and other objects in the universe.
On Tuesday, the agency announced that systems aboard the Philae lander had failed to switch on properly at first. Fearing a cosmic calamity, scientists tried a reboot.