October 14, 2019 4:26 am
TOKYO (AP) – Rescue crew are digging through mudslides and searching near flooded rivers for missing people after a typhoon caused serious damage in central and northern Japan, leaving as many as 35 people dead. Typhoon Hagibis, which hit Japan’s main island on Saturday, unleashed torrents of rain and strong winds that left thousands of homes flooded, damaged or without power. Kyodo News service reported Monday the typhoon killed 35 people, and 17 people were missing. Authorities warned of more mudslides with rain forecast for the area. Some muddy waters in streets, fields and residential areas had subsided. But many places remained flooded. People who lined up for morning soup at evacuation shelters expressed worries about the homes they had left behind.
October 14, 2019 4:25 am
BEIRUT (AP) – U.N. officials say the latest fighting in northeast Syria is compounding an already dire humanitarian situation. According to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, at least 160,000 civilians have been displaced since the Turkish offensive began on Oct. 9. That’s mostly from violence around the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain. Dujarric told reporters Monday that the U.N. World Food Program has so far provided immediate food assistance to more than 70,000 people fleeing towns as the fighting continues. He said “most of the displaced are staying with relatives or host communities, but increasing numbers are arriving at collective shelters in the area.” Northeast Syria was already facing a humanitarian crisis before the Turkish offensive, with 1.8 million of the 3 million women, children and men in the region in need of assistance, “including over 910,000 in acute need,” Dujarric said. He said there are also “heightened concerns” for vulnerable people in camps for the displaced, including al-Hol. That camp holds some 68,000 people who fled the last battlefields of the Islamic State group – 94% of them women and children.
October 14, 2019 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham says he’ll meet with President Donald Trump on Monday and plans to discuss sanctions against Turkey over its invasion into Syria. The South Carolina senator last week was critical of Trump’s announcement about removing U.S. troops from Syria. On Monday, Graham blamed Turkey for the turmoil in Syria, saying Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan “made the biggest mistake of his political life” and “brought this on himself.” Graham tells Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” there will be “crippling sanctions” from Congress that will “break” Turkey’s economy and “crush Erdogan until he stops the bloodshed.” Graham says Republicans, Democrats and the Trump administration will hit Erdogan “like a ton of bricks.” Syrian Kurdish forces previously aligned with the U.S. say they’ve reached a deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad to help fend off Turkey’s invasion. Graham says the alliance between the Kurds and Assad is “not good” for the United States. He says “Assad equals Iran” and “The last thing you want to do is to let Iran become more powerful in northeastern Syria.”
October 14, 2019 4:20 am
MACUNGIE, Pa. (AP) – Mack Truck workers are walking picket lines after their union launched a strike at plants in three states. The United Automobile Workers Union Local 677 workers began picketing Sunday morning at the Mack Truck cab and vehicle assembly plant and Lehigh Valley Logistics Center outside Allentown in Macungie, Pennsylvania. The company said the strike involves about 3,500 employees at facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida. The union says many issues are unresolved, including wages, job security and pension and health benefits. Mack Trucks President Martin Weissburg says he’s “surprised and disappointed” that the union decided to walk out “rather than to allow our employees to keep building trucks and engines while the parties continued to negotiate.” The action comes amid a weekslong United Automobile Workers strike at General Motors plants.
October 14, 2019 4:18 am
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania judge has declined to bar consideration of the death penalty in the case of a man charged with having killed a toddler last year. The (Altoona) Mirror reports that the Blair County judge said last week that attorneys for 20-year-old Drue Burd could repeat their objections to capital punishment after prosecutors finish presenting their evidence. Burd is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, strangulation and related charges in the May 2018 death of 16-month-old Angela Beard. Prosecutors allege that he told investigators he put his hand over the child’s mouth and nose to make her fall asleep. They call the death penalty warranted because of the child’s age and another felony count. Prosecutors also argue that torture was involved, but defense attorneys say there’s no evidence of that.
October 14, 2019 4:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – An internal review of Pennsylvania’s parole system spurred by five parolees getting charged in quick succession with homicide is, in theory, acknowledging a long-standing complaint of parole agents. It asks lawmakers to update a 2012 law and add a trigger for an automatic six-month to one-year jail sentence for a parolee who continually ignores parole conditions, such as going to treatment or counseling. The 2012 law already has five such triggers, including threatening behavior or possession of a weapon. Law enforcement groups largely welcomed the acknowledgement from the state Department of Corrections. The county district attorneys association calls it a “significant recognition.” Parole agents, however, were skeptical it’ll change a system that, they say, has stripped them of discretion to pull a potentially dangerous parolee off the street.
October 14, 2019 3:01 am
A repair crew sparked a small roof fire at Joe’s Bakery on North Main Street Sunday morning, causing what Washington City Fire Chief Gerry Coleman called “minimal damage.” Owner Joe Vucic was awakened by the smell of smoke late Sunday morning. Part of the rubber roof repair included using a torch to cure new adhesive which ignited. Fire crews quickly put out the fire but Coleman indicated that some water damage occurred in the area of the original roof leak. No one was injured but the 100 block of North Main Street was closed for nearly an hour. Vucic said that he expects to be open for normal operations Tuesday morning.
October 13, 2019 8:07 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Los Angeles County Fire Department says the wildfire in the San Fernando Valley is now 33% contained. The wildfire covers 12 square miles (31 square kilometers.) The department says Saturday night that winds and temperatures have fallen to normal levels after the Santa Ana winds passed through the region. A man went into cardiac arrest and died at the scene of a wildfire that broke out late Thursday.
October 13, 2019 8:06 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis is canonizing Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century Anglican convert who became an immensely influential, unifying figure in both the Anglican and Catholic churches. Francis presided over Mass on Sunday in a packed St. Peter’s Square to declare Newman and four women saints. Among the luminaries on hand was Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, who penned a remarkable ode to Newman that was published in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Newman is admired by Catholics and Anglicans alike because he followed his conscience at great personal cost. When he defected from the Church of England to the Catholic Church in 1845, he lost friends, work and even family ties, believing the truth he was searching for could only be found in the Catholic faith.
October 13, 2019 8:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he’s an “island of one” for removing U.S. forces from northeastern Syria. Trump’s decision drew swift bipartisan criticism in the U.S. and abroad that he was endangering regional stability and risking the lives of Syrian Kurdish allies who helped the U.S. bring down the Islamic State group in Syria. But Turkey views those Kurdish fighters as terrorists and a threat to its security and has launched a military operation against them. Trump defended his actions during a speech Saturday to social conservative activists, saying “it’s time” to bring U.S. troops home from fighting “endless wars.” He sought to portray the Middle East as a hopeless cause, saying it’s less safe, secure and stable despite American involvement “and they fight. That’s what they do. They fight.”
