No smoking
Syria’s president on Monday issued a decree banning smoking in public places, joining an anti-smoking trend already under way in other Arab countries.
Swine flu help
The World Health Organization hopes to begin shipping 60 million doses of swine flu vaccine to poor countries in November as part of an effort to protect them from the pandemic, it said Monday in Geneva.
Starbucks sued
Singer Carly Simon is suing Starbucks, saying the coffee company’s now-defunct music venture didn’t adequately promote her 2008 album, dooming the record before it was even released.
Amtrak ups, downs
Amtrak said Monday its ridership dropped by more than 1 million passengers during the past year but was still the second-highest year in the railroad’s history.
Hate crime?
New York City police say a 49-year-old gay man leaving a corner deli near his home was beaten by two men in an apparent hate crime. Jack Price remains in a medically induced coma. He is in serious but stable condition.
Not an emergency
Police in Lawrence, Kan., say they have arrested a 21-year-old man who stole an ambulance to get home after a night of drinking.
DIGIT
$25,000
Amount Maureen Barrett of Willow Springs, Ill., won for winning the 43rd World’s Championship Chili Cookoff, held in Charleston, W.Va. The Illinois real estate agent said she gave her jalapeno peppers an “extra tweak.”
