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<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Snow is falling in the New Orleans area.</p> <p>The National Weather Service says a mixture of sleet and snow is falling Thursday morning from Baton Rouge east across much of southeastern Louisiana.</p> <p>The winter weather closed some schools and created hazardous driving conditions.</p>

WASHINGTON -- In an effort to reduce global warming, 86 evangelical Christian leaders are calling for federal action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Signers of the Evangelical Climate Initiative include the Rev. Rick Warren, Wheaton College President Duane Litfin, and leaders of World Vision and the Salvation Army. All maintain that humans cause global warming and can help stop it, and that doing so is a way to care for God's creation and save the world's poor from an increase in natural disasters. Other evangelical leaders refused to join the campaign, including Southern Baptist leader Richard Land, Focus on the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration will ease clean air rules, allowing power plants and refineries to avoid new pollution controls when expanding operations, administration sources said Friday. The long-awaited rule changes will "increase energy efficiency and encourage emissions reductions," the Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. An announcement of the rule change was to be made later in the day. Environmentalists and a group of Northeastern states said they plan to file suit immediately challenging the changes. The state officials contend that the easing of the clean air requirements...