In brief: Big Apple’s ban on big sodas canned

NEW YORK – Big sodas can stay on the menu in the Big Apple after New York state’s highest court refused Thursday to reinstate the city’s first-of-its-kind size limit on sugary drinks. But city officials suggested they might be willing to revisit the supersize-soda ban.

The Court of Appeals found that the city Board of Health overstepped its bounds by imposing a 16-ounce cap on sugary beverages sold in restaurants, delis, movie theaters, stadiums and street carts. The appointed board tread on the policy-making turf of the elected City Council, the court said.

“By choosing among competing policy goals, without any legislative delegation or guidance, the board engaged in lawmaking,” the court wrote in a majority opinion.

Indeed, debate over the soda size cap pitted health officials who called it an innovative anti-obesity tool against critics who considered it unfair to businesses and paternalistic toward consumers.

Lawmaker: Honduras freed six Americans

MEXICO CITY — Six American men detained for weeks in Honduras accused of violating weapons laws were released from prison Thursday, a U.S. congressman said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the six men were “in the process of traveling back to the United States and being reunited with their families.”

The crewmen from Florida-based Aqua Quest International were put in a prison in Puerto Lempira on May 5, after Honduran police and sailors raided their newly arrived 65-foot vessel and found a weapon, according to the shipwreck salvage and research company.

The company said the crew was working on a project with aid workers and officials in the town of Ahuas to help local lobster divers.