The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“There hasn’t been a whole lot of fallout. If a church said they wouldn’t work with us, we’d have a church right down the street say, ‘We’ll take the troop.’”

Brad Haddock, a Boy Scouts of America national executive board member, on the reaction of sponsors to the group’s new policy of accepting openly gay youths starting Wednesday Article, 4A

Label rules to change for vended foods

CONCORD, N.H. - Office workers in search of snacks can soon count calories along with their change under new labeling regulations for vending machines included in President Barack Obama’s health-care law.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to release final rules early next year. It says that requiring calorie information to be displayed on roughly 5 million vending machines nationwide will help consumers make healthier choices.

The agency estimates the cost to the vending-machine industry at $25.8 million initially and $24 million per year after that, but says that if just 0.02 percent of obese adults ate 100 fewer calories a week, the savings to the healthcare system would be at least that great.

As proposed, the rules would give companies with 20 or more machines a year to comply. But an industry group representing vending machine operators has suggested a two-year deadline and is urging the government to allow as much flexibility as possible.

The National Automatic Merchandising Association said complying with the law will be expensive for small companies with few employees and low profit margins.

Kerry to return to Mideast peace talks

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State John Kerry will head to the Middle East this week to continue talks on an elusive Mideast peace deal just as Israel is poised to announce plans to build more Jewish settlements.

Kerry is scheduled to leave on New Year’s Day for Israel and the Palestinian territories where he will discuss ongoing negotiations with leaders from both sides, the State Department said in a statement Saturday.

The parties relaunched direct talks last summer with the goal of forging an accord within nine months. The target date expires at the end of April, and while that is not considered a deadline to end talks, there has been little, if any, tangible sign of progress so far. The U.S. routinely insists progress is being made, but has declined to disclose details about the talks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appealed to the U.S. to block the latest round of Jewish settlements, which Israel is expected to announce next week, warning the move could jeopardize the U.S.-led peace effort.

Study: Afghan war gains to erode quickly

WASHINGTON - A new American intelligence assessment on the Afghan war predicts that the gains the United States and its allies have made during the past three years are likely to have been significantly eroded by 2017, even if Washington leaves behind a few thousand troops and continues bankrolling the impoverished nation, officials familiar with the report said.

The National Intelligence Estimate, which includes input from the country’s 16 intelligence agencies, predicts that the Taliban and other power brokers will become increasingly influential as the United States winds down its longest war in history, the officials said.

The report predicts that Afghanistan would likely descend into chaos quickly if Washington and Kabul don’t sign a security pact that would keep an international military contingent there beyond 2014.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign a pact with the United States and has made demands that Washington calls unrealistic.

Rapper, 1 other killed at Alabama bar

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Police in Alabama were investigating the killings of rapper Doe B and another person in a shooting Saturday that wounded six others inside a bar and grill.

Police say the gunfire happened about 1 a.m. about a half mile north of Alabama State University.

Police identified those killed as 21-year-old Kimberle Johnson and 22-year-old Glenn Thomas, both of Montgomery. They said Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Thomas - known as Doe B - was taken to Baptist Medical Center South, where he was later pronounced dead.

DJ Frank White of Montgomery, who managed Doe B’s career, said the shooting took place at a Centennial Hill Bar & Grill in Montgomery and that Doe B wasn’t performing at the time.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/29/2013

Upcoming Events