WASHINGTON -- Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
Algae plaguing U.S. waterways
WAUSAU, Wis. -- Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with smelly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people.
Aquatic biologists say it's a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning. State officials are telling people who live on algae-covered lakes to close their windows, stop taking walks along the picturesque shorelines and keep their dogs from drinking the rank water.
"It is like living in the sewer for three weeks. You gag. You cannot go outside," said Peggy McAloon, 62, who lives on Wisconsin's Tainter Lake.
No people have died in the U.S. from the algae's toxins, according to Wayne Carmichael, a retired aquatic biologist and toxicology professor in Oregon.
Socialists win Portugal election
LISBON, Portugal -- The center-left Socialist Party is staying in government for four more years after winning elections Sunday but its reduced parliamentary majority may handicap its efforts to lead Portugal out of an economic crisis.
With almost all votes counted, the incumbent Socialists had 36.5 percent compared with 29 percent for the center-right Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party.
That gave the Socialists 94 seats in the 230-seat Parliament, making it vulnerable to opposition efforts to block legislation, which requires approval by more than half of lawmakers.
Four years ago the Socialists collected 43 percent of the vote and 121 seats.
Pope to Czechs: Honor heritage
BRNO, Czech Republic -- Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that all of Europe -- and not only this ex-communist country -- must acknowledge its Christian heritage as it copes with rising immigration from other cultures and religions.
The second day of Benedict's pilgrimage to this highly secular country was marked by a joyous open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of pilgrims and a sober message for the entire continent.
"History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions," Benedict said.
Church organizers estimated that 120,000 people packed a field beside an airport in the southern city of Brno for what was expected to be the biggest turnout of his trip. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said it was the largest turnout for a Mass in the history of the Czech Republic.
-- From wire reports
