| From Okla. City to 9/11: 20 years on, rescue workers who responded to both share a bond Posted: 17 Apr 2015 04:08 PM PDT  It was just after 9 a.m. on April 19, 1995, when the bomb went off outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. It was one of those events that seem to make the world stop turning. At the time, it was the worst terror attack on U.S. soil. Lt. (now Capt.) Stephen Spall of the New York City Fire Department was driving home from his shift when he heard the news on the radio. He immediately called in to see if he needed to go back to work. The next day, he was on a plane to Oklahoma.
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| California prepares for historic mandatory cutbacks on water Posted: 18 Apr 2015 02:46 PM PDT  California water officials drafted a slate of mandatory conservation regulations Saturday, part of a first-ever attempt at mandatory rationing for the state, which is facing its fourth consecutive year of drought.
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| Officers kill knife-wielding man near St. Louis, police say Posted: 18 Apr 2015 11:34 AM PDT  A 23-year-old man who barricaded himself in his mother's house in a St. Louis suburb and spoke of a "black revolution" was shot and killed by police when he rushed at them with a knife, authorities said on Saturday.
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| 2 Cuban dissidents up for election in unprecedented vote Posted: 18 Apr 2015 09:05 AM PDT  At least two dissidents made it past a first round of voting and are standing as candidates in municipal elections that will be watched on and off the island Sunday as an unprecedented test of Cuba's single-party system.
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| GOP White House hopefuls bicker over America's role in world Posted: 18 Apr 2015 02:09 PM PDT  The Republican Party's most ambitious have stormed into New Hampshire for an early state showdown that highlighted the diversity, political challenges and sheer size of the GOP's 2016 presidential class.
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| President Ghani: IS claims responsibility for deadly Afghan bombing Posted: 18 Apr 2015 11:11 AM PDT  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Afghanistan Saturday that killed 33 people and wounded more than 100 others, President Ashraf Ghani said, in what appears to be the first major attack by the jihadists in the country. Ghani's government has repeatedly raised the ominous prospect of IS making inroads into Afghanistan, though the group that has captured swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq has never formally acknowledged having a presence in the country. The Taliban have seen defections to the group in recent months, with some self-styled IS insurgents voicing their disaffection with their one-eyed supreme leader Mullah Omar, who has not been seen since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan. On Saturday a suicide bomber killed 33 people and wounded 115 others outside the state-run Kabul Bank in the eastern city of Jalalabad as government officials were drawing their salaries, in the deadliest attack since November.
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| TV: Russia's Putin says ready to work with United States Posted: 18 Apr 2015 07:36 AM PDT  Russia has key interests in common with the United States and needs to work with it on a common agenda, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday in a television interview. In his comments to the state-run Rossiya channel, Putin appeared to soften his anti-American rhetoric after being highly critical. Relations between Moscow and Washington and other Western powers have soured over the conflict in Russia's neighbor Ukraine, sinking to an all-time low. We have a common agenda." Putin has in the past fiercely attacked the United States and the West in general, blaming them for the Ukraine crisis, which Russia says was the result of a Western-backed "coup" against Ukraine's former leader Viktor Yanukovich.
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| Some victims of California explosion released from hospital Posted: 18 Apr 2015 04:15 PM PDT  FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. investigators were at the scene Saturday of a natural gas pipeline blast at a sheriff's gun range, as four of the 11 people injured in the explosion were released from the hospital.
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| California gas pipeline explosion, fire injure up to 15 people Posted: 17 Apr 2015 08:23 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A construction crew on Friday accidentally ruptured a natural gas transmission line in Fresno, California, sparking an explosion and fire that injured up to 15 people, four of them critically, officials said. The 12-inch (30-cm) pipeline, belonging to Pacific Gas & Electric Corp , was struck by a backhoe near state Highway 99, unleashing a fireball that injured members of the construction team and a jail inmate crew nearby, Fresno Fire Department spokesman Peter Martinez said. One worker in critical condition was flown to hospital by helicopter, and 13 or 14 others were taken to hospitals for evaluation and treatment of injuries after the pipeline was ruptured at about 2:30 p.m., Martinez added. Four of the injured were taken to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, and two more were taken to the burn unit there, said hospital spokeswoman Mary Lisa Russell, adding that four were in critical condition and two serious.
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| Torrential rain floods Houston before heading toward New Orleans Posted: 18 Apr 2015 02:45 PM PDT Torrential rain triggered flooding on the streets of Houston and sent spectators fleeing from a circus south of the Texas city, officials said on Saturday, as the storm system headed east toward Louisiana and neighboring states. The heavy rainfall followed a front that built up along the Gulf Coast, causing moisture to accumulate along it, said Mark Paquette, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.com. Two tornadoes were spotted in rural Yuma County in northeastern Colorado at about 1:30 p.m. local time, according to the weather service. There were no reports of damage, the Yuma County Sheriff's Office said. |
| U.S. urges Greece to reach debt deal Posted: 18 Apr 2015 03:47 PM PDT  Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warns default would create "hardship" for Greece.
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| Suicide bomber kills 33 in bloody attack outside Afghan bank Posted: 18 Apr 2015 01:53 AM PDT  A suicide bomber killed at least 33 people and wounded 100 others in an attack Saturday outside a bank in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, according to officials. "Thirty-three dead bodies and more than 100 wounded were brought to the hospital," Dr Najeebullah Kamawal, head of the provincial hospital, told AFP. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, provincial government spokesman, confirmed the attack -- the deadliest since November -- but put the death toll slightly lower at 30. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the attack, which saw children among those killed, his office said in a statement.
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| Man gets 100-year term in murder of teacher in oil boom town Posted: 17 Apr 2015 05:14 PM PDT  A man was sentenced to 100 years in prison Friday in a Montana teacher's murder — a case that local officials say robbed the victim's rural hometown of its innocence amid an oil boom that's swept across ...
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| Gas-line blast closes California highway, 3 critically injured Posted: 17 Apr 2015 10:41 PM PDT  FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A large explosion closed both directions of a major highway in Central California and injured at least three people, authorities said Friday.
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