Nation/world roundup
Rita unleashes category 5 hurricane
GALVESTON, Texas -- Gaining strength with frightening speed, Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Gulf Coast a Category 5, 165-mph monster Wednesday as more than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina.
"It's scary. It's really scary," Shalonda Dunn said as she and her 5- and 9-year-old daughters waited to board a bus arranged by emergency authorities in Galveston.
U.S.: pope immune from sex abuse suit
ROME -- The U.S. government has told a Texas court that Pope Benedict XVI should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian.
The lawsuit alleges that Ratzinger, who headed the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before becoming pope, was involved in a conspiracy to hide crimes.
A U.S. Attorney Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state. A 1994 lawsuit against Pope John Paul II was dismissed after the government filed a similar motion.
Wal-Mart accused of depriving breaks
OAKLAND -- Lawyers representing about 116,000 former and current Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees in California told an Oakland jury Monday that the world's largest retailer systematically and illegally denied workers lunch breaks.
The suit in Alameda County Superior Court is among about 40 cases nationwide alleging workplace violations against Wal-Mart, and the first to go to trial. According to state law, employees who work at least six hours must have a 30-minute, unpaid lunch break.
The class-action suit is asking for more than $66 million.
Karzai wants end to U.S-led operations
KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday challenged the need for major foreign military operations in Afghanistan, saying airstrikes are no longer effective and that U.S.-led coalition forces should focus on rooting out terror bases and support networks.
His call for a new approach to tackling militants came despite the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces invaded in late 2001, with more than 1,200 people killed in the six months leading up to Sunday's historic elections.
U.S military deaths top 1,900 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The war in Iraq passed a sobering milepost Tuesday when five members of the armed forced were killed, raising to more than 1,900 the number of U.S. service members who have died there since the invasion in 2003.
A Diplomatic Security agent attached to the U.S. State Department and three private American security guards were killed when their convoy was hit by a suicide car bomber Monday in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said.
The four were attached to the U.S. Embassy's regional office in Mosul.
From wire reports. E-mail news@thesantaclara.com.