AP National & World News

FATAL BROOKLYN FIRE

Fire Department: 7 children die in Brooklyn fire

NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities say seven children are dead following a fire early Saturday morning at a Brooklyn residence.

Fire Department spokesman Jim Long says two people are also critically injured.

He says the dead are children ranging in age from 5 to 15 years old, and they are believed to be family members.

Firefighters received a call about the blaze at a private dwelling on the 3300 block of Bedford Avenue at 12:23 a.m. EDT Saturday.

Long says more than 100 firefighters responded to the blaze and brought the fire under control.

There was no immediate word on a cause. Long says it's being investigated by the city fire marshal's office.

No other details are available.

CAB JUMPS CURB-DEATHS

NEW: Cab jumps curb, hits 4 in NYC; man, girl killed; 2 injured

NEW YORK (AP) — Police say a taxi hurtled onto a sidewalk and hit four people waiting at a New York City bus stop, killing a man and a 5-year-old girl and injuring two other people.

It happened yesterday evening in the Bronx.

Authorities say 25-year-old Kadeem Brown died at the scene while 5-year-old Tierre Clark was pronounced dead at a hospital. A 55-year-old man is hospitalized in critical condition and a 39-year-old woman is in stable condition.

Police say the cab driver was driving on a service road travel lane on the Grand Concourse when he struck a parked car, causing minor injuries to the woman driving it, before jumping the curb and hitting the pedestrians. The cab driver was taken to the hospital with unknown injuries.

IRAN-NUCLEAR

NEW: Rouhani: Final nuclear deal possible

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says progress has been made in negotiations with world powers over Iran's nuclear program and that a final nuclear accord is possible.

In comments published by the official IRNA news agency and the presidential website, Rouhani paints an optimistic picture. He says the progress made in the latest round of talks can be the basis of a final deal. Rouhani warns that some significant differences remain, but adds there is nothing that can not be resolved.

Iran and the six-nation group of global powers — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — hope to reach a rough deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program by the end of March and a final agreement by June 30. Iran has called for a single-stage final accord soon.

AIRPORT SHOOTING

Police: Man swinging a machete shot at New Orleans airport

KENNER, La. (AP) — Authorities say there's no immediate update on the condition of an alleged attacker who had surgery for his wounds after being shot three times at New Orleans international airport by a sheriff's lieutenant.

Officials say the man sprayed wasp killer and swung a machete at TSA agents and passengers before being shot by law enforcement. No one else was seriously injured.

Sheriff Newell Normand in suburban New Orleans' Jefferson Parish says 62-year-old Richard White approached a security checkpoint Friday evening and sprayed insecticide at agents and passengers before pulling out a large machete.

Normand says White began swinging the machete and was chasing a female TSA agent when Lt. Heather Slyve fired three rounds, striking White in the face, chest and leg.

A TSA agent also was hit in the arm by a bullet, but authorities say the wound isn't life-threatening.

White went into surgery at a hospital overnight, Normand said. There was no immediate update on his condition early Saturday.

RUN TO DEATH

Jury convicts grandmother of capital murder in child's death

GADSDEN, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama jury has convicted a woman of capital murder in the running death of her 9-year-old granddaughter.

Joyce Hardin Garrard faces a penalty of death or life without parole for the February 2012 death of 9-year-old Savannah Hardin.

Sentencing will be later. The same jury will decide whether Garrard gets the death penalty or life without parole. Garrard showed no reaction, but some relatives sitting behind her began to cry.

Authorities claimed the 49-year-old woman forced the girl to run and carry wood for hours as punishment for a lie about candy. She eventually had a seizure and died three days later in a hospital.

The defense denied the woman meant the girl any harm, but jurors rejected that claim.

Garrard testified she only made the girl pick up sticks in her yard as punishment the day of her collapse. Garrard testified that the girl did run, but only as practice for races at school.

VICTIM NOTIFICATION GLITCH

Glitch triggers erroneous notices to Oregon crime victims

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Corrections Department says a "major technical glitch" in a crime victim notification system has triggered thousands of false notices about the release of inmates.

KGW-TV reports that one of those error messages generated Friday evening said a notorious convicted murderer had been released. Corrections spokeswoman Betty Bernt confirmed that Ward Weaver III remains locked up. He was convicted of aggravated murder in 2004 for the deaths of two young Oregon girls.

Corrections spokeswoman Elizabeth Craig tells KTVZ-TV that there were about 8,000 erroneous notifications that inmates had been released.

State officials say "routine system maintenance" in Oregon's Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) system apparently triggered the erroneous messages. The state said service contractor Appriss was working on repairs and planned to alert everyone who received bad information.

An Appriss spokeswoman did not immediately return an Associated Press call and email for additional information.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghan president to embark on landmark Washington visit

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — One official close to Afghanistan's new president says Ashraf Ghani has "high expectations" ahead of his first trip to Washington which starts tomorrow.

It's a chance for both sides to start afresh and wipe the slate clean of the legacy of troubled U.S-Afghan relations.

Ghani's pressing need is a firm commitment of American military support in his fight against the Taliban and other insurgent groups. That includes an Islamic State group affiliate, which he and U.S. military leaders fear is finding a foothold in Afghanistan. The Afghan army is waging its first-ever solo offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province, their southern heartland.

Ghani's relationship with Washington stands in stark contrast to that of his acrimonious predecessor, Hamid Karzai, who, in the end, refused to sign security agreements with Washington and NATO before leaving office. Ghani signed the pacts almost immediately last year.

EBOLA-WEST AFRICA

Liberia investigates how latest Ebola patient got infected

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia is investigating how its latest Ebola patient became infected, after weeks with no cases of the disease in the country.

The West African country has seen the most deaths in the Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 10,000 people. But since it discharged its last case on March 5, it was counting down the 42 days that a country must wait in order to be declared Ebola-free.

But on Friday, officials said a new patient tested positive. In a worrying sign, she doesn't seem to be linked to any of the people on an Ebola contacts list and says she has not traveled recently to the neighboring infected countries of Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Officials are meeting Saturday to discuss the new case and how she became infected.

ASIAN-BANKING

Southeast Asia makes vital push in banking integration

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Southeast Asian nations have finalized a key agreement allowing qualified banks to operate freely in each other's countries in a push toward greater financial and economic integration.

The regional banking integration framework is part of efforts to create an economic community by the end of the year, making the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations a single market and production base.

ASEAN finance ministers and central bank governors said in a joint statement that qualified ASEAN banks can now operate with greater market access and be accorded flexibilities similar with those of domestic banks in the host country.

They said Saturday after a two-day meeting that this will help accelerate the pace of regional financial integration and boost cross-border trade and investment.

CONGRESS-MEDICARE

Potent groups take sides on bipartisan House Medicare plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — A budding bipartisan House deal to shelter physicians from Medicare cuts is drawing powerful allies including the American Medical Association and a rainbow of conservative and liberal groups.

But the proposal is also attracting influential foes like AARP. A House vote seems likely late next week, shortly before Congress begins a two-week spring recess, but its Senate fate is less clear.

House aides released an outline of the emerging measure late Friday.

It shows that besides changing how Medicare pays doctors, it would provide two more years of money for the Children's Health Insurance Program and community health centers. It will also boost Medicare costs for some higher-earning beneficiaries.

SENATE-ABORTION POLITICS

Divisive issue of abortion stalls human trafficking bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's 100 members don't agree on much these days. But they did agree that they want legislation to help the victims of sex trafficking. Then the bill got caught up in the emotional and uncompromising politics of abortion.

Now the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act is stalled, with Democrats insisting that Republicans remove an abortion funding provision and Republicans refusing to do so.

President Barack Obama's attorney general nominee, Loretta Lynch, is caught in the crossfire, since Republican leaders decided to hold off her confirmation vote until the situation with the sex trafficking bill is resolved.

The stalemate illustrates that when it comes to abortion, other considerations can get sidelined as even the most pragmatic lawmakers get pushed into ideological corners with no easy way out.

HANGING DEATH-MISSISSIPPI

FBI: Autopsy report days away in hanging of Mississippi man

PORT GIBSON, Miss. (AP) — The body of a black man found hanging in a Mississippi tree has been sent from a state crime lab to a funeral home, but the FBI says it will be days before autopsy results are complete.

Investigators are holding off on saying whether 54-year-old Otis Byrd was killed or took his own life.

Don Alway, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Jackson, urges patience as investigators search Byrd's belongings and interview people who knew him.

Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas Sr. says Byrd did not appear to have stepped off of anything in the area where he was found hanging from a tree limb about 12 feet high. Lucas says Byrd's feet were dangling about 2 feet off the ground, and his hands were not bound

Categories: National News