Boy on Father’s Day visit, 5 others, die in fire
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – A teenager on a Father’s Day visit to Newark to honor his deceased dad died, along with his mother and four others, when a fast-moving fire ripped through a three-story home early Sunday, authorities and the boy’s grandmother said.
The blaze broke out at the single-family residence about 4 a.m. and soon spread to another home, the Essex County Prosecutor’s office said. Both structures were destroyed.
Iris Sydney, of neighboring Irvington, stood outside the burned-out residence later Sunday, clutching a framed studio portrait of her grandson and his mother. They were supposed to meet her for a Father’s Day service at the Solid Rock church, where his father attended services before he died two years ago in a bicycle accident in Newark, she told The Associated Press. But they never showed up.
When Sydney returned home from church, a sheriff’s deputy was standing at her door and gave her the sad news: 15-year-old Stephan Sydney and his mother, Noreen “Michelle” Johnson, were killed in the fire, along with four others.
Kasem, king of the Top 40 countdown, dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Casey Kasem, the internationally famous radio host with the cheerful manner and gentle voice who became the king of the top 40 countdown with a syndicated show that ran for decades, died Sunday. He was 82.
Danny Deraney, publicist for Kasem’s daughter, Kerri, says Kasem died Sunday morning. A statement issued by the family says he died at 3:23 a.m. on Father’s Day morning surrounded by family and friends at a Washington state hospital.
“Even though we know he is in a better place and no longer suffering, we are heartbroken,” wrote his daughter Kerri Kasem on Twitter and Facebook from the family. “The world will miss Casey Kasem, an incredible talent and humanitarian; we will miss our dad.”
Syrian army crushes rebel push near Turkey
BEIRUT (AP) – Government forces flushed opposition fighters from their last redoubts in northwestern Syria near the Turkish frontier on Sunday, capturing two villages and restoring government control over the border crossing, activists and state media said.
The military’s advances fully reversed the gains rebels had made during their three-month campaign in Latakia province, the rugged coastal region that is the ancestral heartland of President Bashar Assad. The counteroffensive’s success is the latest blow to the rebels, who have suffered a string of bitter recent setbacks in Syria’s more than three-year-old civil war.
Islamic rebel factions launched their surprise assault in Latakia in March, pushing south from the Turkish border to seize a string of villages in the lush, mountainous terrain. The military, nervous about an incursion in a bastion of government support, dispatched reinforcements to blunt the rebel advance and eventually turn the tide.
On Sunday, after months of bloody clashes, army troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese Shiite military group Hezbollah seized the seaside hamlet of Samra before also taking the village of Kassab and its adjacent border crossing, said Rami Abdurrahman, the director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He said there were minor clashes still taking place west of Kassab, a predominantly Armenian Christian village whose residents fled after the rebels seized control.
Israeli leader accuses Hamas of kidnapping
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s prime minister on Sunday accused the Hamas militant group of kidnapping three Israeli teenagers who disappeared over the weekend, as the military arrested dozens of Palestinians and closed off West Bank roads in a frantic search for the youths.
The crisis escalated already heightened tensions between Israel and the new Palestinian government, which is headed by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas but backed by Hamas. Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist group, has condemned the alliance and said it holds Abbas responsible for the teens’ safety.
“Hamas terrorists carried out Thursday’s kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers. We know that for a fact,” Netanyahu said. “Hamas denials do not change this fact.”
Speaking in English, Netanyahu also tried to rally international opinion against the new Palestinian government. His calls for the international community to shun the government have been ignored so far.
Associated Press
