Congressional leaders announced a deal with the White House on Thursday regarding an economic stimulus package that would give most tax filers refunds of $600 to $1,200, and more if they have children. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would act on the agreement – hammered out in a week of intense negotiations with Republican Leader John A. Boehner and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson – “at the earliest date, so that those rebate checks will be in \nthe mail.”
Egyptian border guards took measures to control huge crowds of Palestinians streaming from Gaza to Egypt across a breached border for a second day Thursday, but they did not try to halt the flow. On Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen used land mines to blast down the border partition so Gazans could escape an Israeli closure imposed last week that was making food, fuel and other goods scarce. Tens of thousands of Gazans have rushed into Egypt.
Kenya’s president and its main opposition leader met Thursday for the first time since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential vote, but they emerged still clearly divided over the central question of who really won the election. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga met for about an hour with former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who succeeded where previous international mediators had failed in getting Kibaki and Odinga to sit \ndown together.
In a blast of harsh rhetoric, China lashed out Thursday at the Dalai Lama and critics of Beijing’s support for Sudan, saying attempts to link political issues to the Beijing Summer Olympics betrayed the spirit of the games. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China could “definitely not accept” rights groups that say China’s support for Sudan’s government is prolonging the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday employers can fire workers found to have used medical marijuana even if it was legally prescribed. The high court upheld a small Sacramento telecommunications company’s firing of a man who flunked a company-ordered drug test. Gary Ross held a medical marijuana card authorizing him to use the drug to treat a back injury sustained while serving in the \nAir Force.
