Flight 370: China’s official Xinhua news agency says a Chinese patrol boat detected an electronic pulse signal today in the Southern Indian Ocean. The Chinese say the signal is unidentified. Two other ships equipped to detect an airplane’s black box, one British and one Australian, heard nothing after dragging 150 miles of ocean. The batteries in the black box from the missing Malaysian Airlines jet are expected to run out next week.

World: Afghans voted today in what is hoped to be the first fully Democratic transfer of power in their country. Eight candidates are seeking to succeed President Hamid Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from election to a third term. All 400,000 of Afghanistan’s police and military have been posted to protect the polls, but it was one of those officers yesterday who killed an AP photographer and wounded a reporter.

>Nearly 3,000 Brazilian soldiers are poised to occupy one of Rio de Janeiro’s most dangerous and gang-controlled shanty towns in an effort to “pacify” the area ahead of the World Cup soccer finals starting in June. The army is expected to deploy tanks, helicopters and armored vehicles. Gang warfare has occasionally closed the main highway between the center of the city and the airport. The government has been trying to take the slums from the gangs since 2008, with only moderate success.

Talk, Talk: Frustrated with the lack of progress in Israeli/Palestinian peace talks, Secy. of State John Kerry appears to have run out of optimism and is flying home to give discouraging news to the president. Kerry told reporters yesterday, “There are limits to the amount of time and effort that the United States can spend, if the parties themselves are unwilling to take constructive steps in order to be able to move forward.”

Wedding Bells: A federal judge in Ohio said he plans to issue a written ruing ordering the state to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples legally married in other states. Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, said in a statement, “This is an affront to the rule of law and to the people of Ohio who voted overwhelmingly to define marriage solely as the union of one man and one woman.”

The Ohio ruling will be key in the gay marriage battle. If states recognize traditional marriages from other states, they may be forced by law to legalize same sex marriages.

Also in the gay marriage front, debate rages over the resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich after only 10 days on the job. The boss of the software company that makes the Firefox web browser, came under fire when it was learned that he gave $1,000 to the campaign against gay marriage in California in 2008. Michael Hiltzik writes in the Los Angeles Times that Eich’s stance on gay marriage is out of step with the drift of community standards, and at odds with many of the company’s own customers. But Comedian Bill Maher said on his HBO show last night, “I think there is a gay mafia. I think if you cross them, you do get whacked.”

Nation: The Chicago train operator who fell asleep at the controls last month and crashed into a stairway at O’Hare International Airport, has been fired. Thirty-two people were injured in the accident. The 25-year-old woman had driven a train for only two months. The Chicago Tribune reported that the woman had worked 55 hours in the previous seven days, but had 18 hours off before the morning when she crashed.

Pink Eye: All 28 schools in American Samoa have been ordered closed after 2,300 students contracted pink eye. Where’s Bob Costas?

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