7am Headlines

With Sen. Edward Kennedy's death making world headlines Wednesday, the race to succeed him begins in earnest -- on Thursday -- and promises to be crowded and fiercely fought.

Unlike most states where governors appoint a successor, Massachusetts law requires a special election within 145-160 days after a Senate seat becomes vacant, which means one must be held by January. The law bans the governor from making an interim appointment.


Gov. Jon Corzine and New Jersey federal legislators joined an angry chorus of opposition Wednesday to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's expected stay in the state, where 38 victims of the bombing of Pan American Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, lived before their deaths in 1988.

Corzine and Democrats U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and U.S. Rep. John Adler protested anticipated plans by Gadhafi to stay in the northern New Jersey community of Englewood when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly next month. Adler said he should be "barred" from New Jersey.


The United Nations is recommending that children as young as five receive mandatory sexual education that would teach even pre-kindergarteners about masturbation and topics like gender violence.

The U.N.'s Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a 98-page report in June offering a universal lesson plan for kids ranging in age from 5-18, an
"informed approach to effective sex, relationships" and HIV education that they say is essential for "all young people."


An executive for an anti-animal cruelty group says her 16-year-old blind and deaf dog died after she accidentally left him in her hot car for four hours.

Robin Starr, the CEO of the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says she didn't realize "Louie" was in the car until noon. Starr's husband, Ed, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he put the dog in her car as she got ready for work Aug. 19. She often took the dog to work with her.

Robin Starr took the dog to two clinics, but he died of kidney failure.