QUOTE OF THE DAY “When we are teenagers, we have different mindsets. I thought, I’m doing my country a favor.” Morteza Assadi, a real-estate agent whose green-card application was stalled for distributing fliers for a mujahedeen group in Iran in the 1980s Article, this page Wrong-way crash kills 6 in California
POMONA, Calif. - A wrong-way driver was arrested after causing a pre-dawn crash involving multiple vehicles Sunday that left six people dead, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Police arrested the 21-year-old female driver on suspicion of felony driving under the influence and felony manslaughter in connection with the 4:40 a.m. accident on the westbound Pomona freeway in Diamond Bar, Calif., said Rodrigo Jimenez, a California Highway Patrol spokesman.
The female driver was in serious condition at a Los Angeles County hospital with a broken femur and ruptured bladder, Jimenez said.
Investigators “believe from what they found in the vehicle that alcohol was involved,” Los Angeles County Coroner’s Lt. Fred Corral told the Los Angeles Times.
Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, and two people died at an area hospital, authorities said. The freeway lanes in both directions were closed for hours Sunday.
Savannah warehouse fire extinguished
SAVANNAH, Ga. - A blaze that tore through a Savannah warehouse and sent plumes of black smoke into the sky was extinguished Sunday, Georgia ports officials said.
Firefighters worked overnight Saturday to prevent flare-ups from developing into larger fires inside the damaged 226,000-square-foot warehouse at the Ocean Terminal, Savannah Fire and Emergency Services spokesman Mark Keller said. Officials said more than 1,000 tons of crude rubber were burned in the fire. Firefighters from Savannah and Garden City, the Air National Guard and additional agencies helped get the blaze under control.
No injuries were reported, and no one was in the warehouse when the fire started, ports officials said. The cause of the blaze is unclear, and investigators had yet to evaluate the building as of Sunday morning.
Russia said hiding internal Sochi threats
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials are frustrated that the Russian government is withholding information about threats to Olympic venues coming from inside Russia, several lawmakers said Sunday.
“We aren’t getting the kind of cooperation that we’d like from the Russians in terms of their internal threats,” Rep.
Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News Sunday.
More than 70,000 Russian security officers have been deployed to protect the Olympic venues in Sochi. The United States has set up a command center in Sochi with about 150 security workers from the FBI, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on Fox News Sunday that the Russians have been cooperative in sharing information about potential terrorism planned outside Russia.
The American ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said the U.S. is “quite satisfied” with the cooperation coming from Russian security officials.
U.S. plans $300 million Afghan aid boost
WASHINGTON - The U.S. is proposing almost $300 million in new aid programs over five years for Afghanistan in an effort to stabilize the economy and offset losses after U.S. forces withdraw.
The announcement of the aid will be made today. The assistance covers education, trade and agricultural initiatives meant to sustain advances and build on them, said Larry Sampler, who heads U.S. Agency for International Development programs in Afghanistan.
“Going into transition in Afghanistan there has to be economic growth, economic activity, both to offset losses when the military leaves, but also for sustainability,” Sampler said.
Delivery of the promised aid will depend on sentiment in Congress, where lawmakers have expressed growing frustration with Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s refusal to sign an agreement allowing limited U.S. forces to remain after this year and his increasingly vocal denunciations of the U.S. role in his country.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/10/2014