R.I. lobstermen in dispute

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Lobstermen in Rhode Island are debating the practice of clipping the tails of female lobsters, with some saying stricter regulations are needed to protect a declining population.

The conflict centers on “v-notching,” a conservation method in which a quarter-inch to half-inch notch is clipped in the tail of a female lobster.

The notch means the lobster must be thrown back into the water so it can reproduce. The notch becomes smaller as the lobster grows, giving it time to produce more eggs.

V-notching has been credited with helping to preserve stocks of lobster in the nation’s top-producing state, Maine, where 67 million pounds of lobster worth $311 million were caught in 2005.

Jody King, a quahogger who sits on the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council, said he supports a “zero-tolerance” policy that would prevent the harvest of lobsters with notched tails. He said he’d like to “bring back lobstering to what it was.”

Target yanks spot featuring Guevara

MIAMI – In some circles, Che may live, but in Target stores, he’s history.

Images of the communist revolutionary figure – his ears donned with an iPod-esque set of earphones and splashed on the latest CD cases – have been pulled from the shelves.

“The stores don’t have pictures of Osama bin Laden or Adolf Hitler,” said Miguel Saavedra, founder of the anti-Castro group Vigilia Mambisa. “It’s disrespectful to the Cuban community.”

Miami’s Cuban exile community collectively gasped at the use of Fidel Castro’s one-time right-hand man to sell music accessories, with community leaders saying Guevara was one of history’s brutal mass murderers.

U.S. judges OK Nortel settlements

NEW YORK (AP) – Two U.S. judges Tuesday gave final approval to a roughly $2.25 billion global settlement reached between Nortel Networks Corp. and its shareholders after the Canadian company revised its financial results between 2001 and 2005.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said the settlement reached earlier this year was “fair, reasonable and adequate” to compensate people or entities who purchased common stock or sold options on Nortel stock between April 24, 2003 and April 27, 2004.

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said a similar deal reached on behalf of as many as 1.4 million investors in the company between Oct. 24, 2000 and Feb. 15, 2001 was fair and adequate.