Boston Herald - Boston Herald

Best Buy reports 1Q loss on restructuring costs

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:34:18 -0400

MINNEAPOLIS — Best Buy Co. on Tuesday reported a loss for its fiscal first quarter as it sold its stake in Best Buy Europe and works on a turnaround plan that includes cutting costs and closing some stores.

Its adjusted earnings beat Wall Street expectations, as cost cuts helped offset tough pricing competition during the quarter. But shares fell over 4 percent Tuesday.

Teachers credited with saving students in Okla.

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:33:39 -0400

MOORE, Okla. — The principal's voice came on over the intercom at Plaza Towers Elementary School: A severe storm was approaching and students were to go to the cafeteria and wait for their parents to pick them up.

But before all of the youngsters could get there, the tornado alarm sounded.

The plan changed quickly.

"All the teachers started screaming into the room and saying, 'Get into the hallway! We don't want you to die!' and stuff like that," said sixth-grader Phaedra Dunn. "We just took off running."

The pope and the devil: Is Francis an exorcist?

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:29:44 -0400

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis' fascination with the devil took on remarkable new twists Tuesday, with a well-known exorcist insisting Francis helped "liberate" a Mexican man possessed by four different demons despite the Vatican's insistence that no such papal exorcism took place.

Mass. US Senate race focuses on 9/11 resolutions

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:27:09 -0400

BOSTON — In their contest for a U.S. Senate seat, Republican Gabriel Gomez and Democrat Edward Markey continued to clash Tuesday over votes Markey cast against two resolutions honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Gomez called Markey "one of the radicals in Congress" for his opposition to the amendments and accused him of trying to turn the blame on Republicans.

Metrowest bear heading out of the burbs

Ariel Rodriguez — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:25:45 -0400

The wayward Metrowest bear appears to be headed in the right direction — northwest, but he isn’t out of the suburban woods yet, authorities say.

After a Sunday sighting in Lincoln and a monday sighting in Weston, officials say they believe the same bear was spotted yesterday about five miles to the northwest in Acton.

“It’s most likely the same bear but it’s possible it could be another one,” said Chief of Information and Education Marion Larson with the Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Housing recovery boosts Home Depot 1Q results

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:25:33 -0400

NEW YORK — Home Depot Inc.'s first-quarter net income rose 18 percent, thanks to the ongoing housing recovery, despite a chilly and wet spring.

Its quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations, and the world's biggest home improvement chain boosted its full-year earnings and revenue forecasts Tuesday. The company's shares rose to a 52-week high.

Home Depot, which operates 2,257 stores, and other retailers are enjoying easing pressure as the housing market slowly improves.

Search nearly complete after Oklahoma tornado

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:20:50 -0400

MOORE, Okla. — Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives.

Scientists concluded the storm was a rare and extraordinarily powerful type of twister known as an EF5, which is capable of lifting reinforced buildings off the ground, hurling cars like missiles and stripping trees completely free of bark.

Arias asks jury for life term; deliberations begin

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:20:14 -0400

PHOENIX — Jodi Arias begged jurors Tuesday to give her life in prison, saying she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter in an interview that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail.

Romo active on field while idled over cyst removal

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:12:34 -0400

IRVING, Texas — Tony Romo pointed here and there, showing receiver Dez Bryant the best way to use a block on the first day of offseason practice.

That's about what he can do for now.

The new $100 million quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys can't participate in workouts because of a procedure last month to remove a cyst on his back. So he had a chance Tuesday to show a little bit of what owner Jerry Jones made everyone believe would be an expanded role when he said Romo would be putting in "Peyton Manning-type time" to try to make Dallas a Super Bowl contender again.

Regulators postpone vote on Maine's eel fishery

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:10:38 -0400

PORTLAND, Maine — Regulators have postponed making a decision on new regulations over Maine's lucrative American eel fishery.

After a daylong discussion, the eel management board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided Tuesday to delay the vote until August to gather more information about baby glass eels, known as elvers. Options under consideration include keeping the status quo, establishing quotas or shutting the fishery down.

The vote came at the commission's spring meeting in Alexandria, Va.

Egypt troops in Sinai sweep mistakenly hit funeral

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:08:05 -0400

CAIRO — Egyptian troops and police mistakenly fired on a Bedouin funeral in the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, security officials said, in the opening salvo of a sweep searching for security personnel kidnapped by suspected militants.

The incident illustrated the hazards of the military operations prompted by the kidnapping last week. A heavy handed attempt to free the captives risks bringing a backlash in Sinai, where resentments among the local population against past security crackdowns have fueled the rise of militancy in the volatile peninsula bordering Gaza and Israel.

Committee nears final vote on immigration bill

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:07:47 -0400

WASHINGTON — Far-reaching immigration legislation neared a final committee vote on Tuesday as the White House and Democratic supporters sought to delay a showdown over the rights of gay spouses until a debate in the full Senate.

The 50th Super Bowl goes to San Francisco Bay Area

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:06:35 -0400

BOSTON — The NFL will celebrate its 50th Super Bowl in northern California, where its newest, most high-tech venue is being built.

That makes South Florida, in the midst of a spat over expensive stadium renovations, a loser for the 2016 game.

And Miami took a double defeat when Houston was awarded the 2017 championship game.

Tuesday Night