In the news

Lee Kuan Yew, 89, Singapore’s first prime minister, who oversaw a period of rapid development that turned Singapore into a darling of foreign investors, has been hospitalized after a brain-related blockage.

Carlos Rivas, a 27-yearold Chilean mason, confessed to accidentally igniting with a welder’s torch the worst forest fire in decades in the hills above the port of Valparaiso, a blaze that destroyed more than 100 homes, forced the evacuation of more than 1,200 and injured at least 27 people, police said.

Sam Derry-Woodhead, an 18-year-old British backpacker, drank contact lens fluid and his own urine to survive three days lost in Australian Outback scrubland in summer heat, said his mother, Claire Derry.

Lawrence Summers, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS to be aired today that uncertainty over the future of the corporate tax code is creating a drag on the U.S. economy by making businesses hesitant to invest.

Bobby Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, said he’ll push for sentencing changes that would let some nonviolent drug offenders out of prison early if they complete an intensive treatment program.

Chris Dodd, the former Democratic senator from Connecticut and the current chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America, rebuffed the idea of reducing the amount of violence in movies and television in a speech before the National Press Club in Washington, saying that “getting in the business of regulating content is a slippery slope.”

Carl Siebentritt, an official at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, said the U.S. government plans to build two prisons in the countryside to stem severe overcrowding, disease and violence in the poor Caribbean nation’s prison system.

David Hausman, a 67-year-old New York City antique dealer, was sentenced to six months in prison for illegally buying rhinoceros horns.

Wayne LaPierre, chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association, renewed his call for armed guards in schools and urged gun owners to “stand and fight” for the Second Amendment, in a speech to the National Wild Turkey Federation in Nashville, Tenn., billed as the NRA response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union call for new gun regulations.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/17/2013

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