January 6, 2020 4:19 am
SYDNEY (AP) – Australia’s government says it is willing to pay “whatever it takes” to help communities recover from devastating wildfires. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the government is committing an extra 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.4 billion) toward the recovery effort in addition to the sums already committed. Rain and cooler temperatures brought some measure of relief to communities battling wildfires. Morrison said the military was attempting to get food, fuel and water to burned-out communities, and engineers were working to reopen roads and resupply evacuation centers. And teams had arrived at an island wildlife refuge to help euthanize injured livestock and wild animals.
January 6, 2020 4:18 am
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – An Iranian general who replaced the leader killed by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad is vowing revenge as Tehran abandoned the remaining limits of its 2015 nuclear deal. Esmail Ghaani’s threat comes as the blowback over the U.S. killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani mounted with Iraq’s parliament calling for the expulsion of American troops. The developments could bring Iran closer to building an atomic bomb, see an proxy or military attack launched by Tehran against America and enable the revival of the Islamic State group. Adding to the tensions, President Donald Trump threatened to demand compensation from Iraq or impose sanctions if it goes through with expelling U.S. troops.
January 6, 2020 4:17 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania State Police are investigating what appears to be a deliberate attempt to release bedbugs in a Walmart store. A police spokeswoman said Monday that troopers have made no arrests and do not have any suspects. A manager from the Walmart store in Edinboro in northwestern Pennsylvania contacted police Saturday after store employees found pill bottles with bugs in them. Police say a hygiene servicesácontractor contacted by Walmart found bugs crawling around in the men’s fitting room and identified them as bedbugs. Troopers were testing for fingerprints on the bottle while store officials were reviewing surveillance video.
January 6, 2020 4:15 am
Authorities say a man questioned in the shooting of a Pittsburgh woman died by suicide a day after she died of her injuries. Police say 58-year-old George Daniel had been questioned and released in the Dec. 17 shooting of Ladea Terrell in Penn Hills. Authorities say the 33-year-old woman died Wednesday of her wounds. Officials tell the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Daniel’s body was discovered Friday at a city home. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office says he died Thursday. Police are continuing to investigate Terrell’s death.
January 6, 2020 4:13 am
SMITHTON, Pa. — A crash on I-70 near the Smithton Exit shut down the highway in both directions for the majority of Sunday morning according to PennDOT. According to state police, Rostraver EMS was dispatched to the crash scene. EMS personnel on scene were tending to one of the crash victims when their ambulance was struck by another vehicle. One of the EMS workers was hit and killed. Rostraver EMS said Supervisor Matthew Smelser was hit and killed. He was reportedly 44 years old and from Carroll Township. All lanes were back open by 12:30 p.m. At least two tractor trailers and a smaller truck were also involved in the crash.
January 6, 2020 4:08 am
State police have released more information about a multi-vehicle crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Sunday that left five people dead and some sixty people injured. Troopers say a passenger bus, which was headed to Ohio from New York City, was traveling in the left lane when it struck the center median, veered right across the road, went up a steep embankment, rolled over and slid on its side back onto the roadway before coming to a stop against the center median. The bus was operated by Z&D Tour and was being driven by 58-year-old Shuang Qing Feng of Flushing, N.Y., who was ejected from the bus. As the bus lay on its side and across both lanes, it was hit by a FedEx tractor-trailer. That impact ejected 35-year-old Eileen Zelis Aria of Bronx, N.Y., and 9-year-old Jaremy Vazquez of Brooklyn. Both were passengers in the bus and both were killed, as was the bus driver. After that crash, police say a UPS tractor-trailer occupied by UPS employees, 48-year-old Dennis Kehler of Lebanon, Pa., and 53-year-old Daniel Kepner of Lewistown, Pa. slammed into the wreckage. The two men were killed. A Mercedes then crashed into the UPS truck and was hit by a second UPS truck, pinning it between the two. There were no injuries suffered by anyone in the mercedes or the second UPS truck. The five victims were pronounced dead at the scene. The investigation is continuing.
January 5, 2020 7:56 am
PARIS (AP) — The French general who is overseeing the reconstruction of the fire-devastated Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is not saved yet. Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin told French broadcaster CNews on Sunday that “the cathedral is still in a state of peril” after last year’s fire, which destroyed its roof and collapsed its spire as the cathedral was undergoing renovations. The rector of Notre Dame, Monsignor Patrick Chauvet, told the AP last month that the cathedral is still so fragile there’s a “50% chance” the structure might not be saved, because the scaffolding may fall onto its fragile vaults. A former chief of staff of France’s armed forces, Georgelin was named by French President Emmanuel Macron to lead the reconstruction effort for Notre Dame. He said the actual condition of the cathedral’s vaults is not fully known, which means he could not guarantee that “it won’t fall apart.”
January 5, 2020 7:54 am
SYDNEY (AP) — It has been described as Australia’s Galapagos Islands and has long been a refuge for some of the country’s most endangered creatures. But devastating wildfires over recent days have undone decades of careful conservation work on Kangaroo Island and have threatened to wipe out some of the island’s unique fauna altogether. Experts working on the island say the fires have killed thousands of koalas and kangaroos, and also have raised questions about whether any members of a mouse-like marsupial species that carries its young in a pouch have survived. Similarly, it remains unclear how many from a unique flock of glossy black-cockatoos got away from the flames and whether they have a future on an island where much of their habitat has gone up in smoke. Located off the coast of South Australia state, Kangaroo Island is about 50% larger than Rhode Island and home to 4,500 people and what was a thriving ecotourism industry. But the wildfires that have been ravaging swaths of Australia have burned through one-third of the island, killing a father and his son and leaving behind a scorched wasteland and a devastated community.
January 5, 2020 7:52 am
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Iran on Saturday, threatening to hit dozens of targets in the Islamic Republic “very fast and very hard” if it retaliates for the targeted killing of the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. The series of tweets came as the White House sent to Congress a formal notification under the War Powers Act of the drone strike on Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a senior administration official said. U.S. law required notification within 48 hours of the introduction of American forces into an armed conflict or a situation that could lead to war. The notification was classified and it was not known if a public version would be released. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the classified document “suggests Congress and the American people are being left in the dark about our national security.” In unusually specific language, Trump tweeted that his administration had already targeted 52 Iranian sites, “some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture.” He linked the number of sites to the number of hostages, also 52, held by Iran for nearly 15 months after protesters overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
January 5, 2020 7:38 am
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPXI) — More than a hundred people took part in an anti-war protest in Pittsburgh on Saturday. The protest followed the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad by militiamen on New Year’s Day and the death of a top Iranian military general by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad. It was a peaceful protest before a fight broke out and police had to step in. Hosted in part by ANSWER Pittsburgh, which stands for Act Now to Stop War & End Racism Coalition, the local demonstration was held in coordination with other similar events across the country. NBC News reported there was a much larger anti-war demonstration held in Times Square in New York City on Saturday. The event in Pittsburgh took place at Schenley Plaza and featured people holding signs and various speakers. At one point, opposing sides started arguing before things turned physical and police officers had to step in to separate people. Officials say people began pushing and shoving, yelling curse words and ripping up signs. Police said there were no arrests and there were no calls to bring in additional officers.
