Hurricane Odile slams Baja California
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico – Hurricane Odile blazed a trail of destruction through Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Monday that leveled everything from ramshackle homes to luxury hotels and big-box stores, leaving entire neighborhoods as disasters zones.
About 30,000 tourists were being put up in temporary shelters in hotels and Los Cabos International Airport remained closed. Emergency officials reported that 135 people were treated for minor injuries from flying glass or falling objects, but there were no serious injuries or deaths so far.
Odile, which made landfall near Cabo San Lucas the previous night as a powerful Category 3 hurricane, toppled trees, power poles and road signs along the main highway, which at one point was swamped by rushing floodwaters. Countless windows were blown out of rental cars and high-end hotel rooms, and resort facades crumbled to the ground.
Luis Felipe Puente, national coordinator for Civil Protection, said most of the area’s power poles were blown over, leaving 239,000 people in the state of Baja California Sur without electricity. Many were also without drinkable water. Ports were closed.
Police: Rifle used to ambush troopers
PHILADELPHIA – The gunman who ambushed two Pennsylvania State Police troopers outside their barracks, killing one, used a rifle and might have had formal firearms training through the military or law enforcement, authorities said Monday.
Releasing a profile of the killer, Lt. Col. George Bivens said investigators are focusing on the possibility that he had an “ongoing issue with law enforcement or the government” and was targeting the Blooming Grove barracks specifically.
Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II was killed and another trooper was critically wounded in the Friday night ambush at the barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania. The attacker slipped away. Authorities have been combing the dense forest surrounding the barracks and stopping motorists at checkpoints throughout the area to ask if they saw anything that could help lead to an arrest.
The gunman concealed himself effectively, and Dickson and critically wounded Trooper Alex T. Douglass had no chance to defend themselves, Bivens said. Dickson was leaving the barracks, and Douglass was heading inside when they were shot.
Vietnam soldiers receive Medal of Honor
WASHINGTON – Two Vietnam War soldiers – one still living, one killed in action – received the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony on Monday, nearly 50 years after they threw themselves into harm’s way to protect their brothers in combat.
President Barack Obama praised the soldiers as patriots whose sacrifices had never been fully realized by a nation divided over the legacy of the Vietnam War.
Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins survived his injuries. Army Spc. Donald P. Sloat did not. It took an act of Congress to allow each to receive the medal so many decades after the fact.
“Over the decades, our Vietnam veterans didn’t always receive the thanks and respect they deserved. That’s a fact,” Obama said. “But as we have been reminded again today, our Vietnam vets were patriots and are patriots.”
Bombings kill 8 people in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Iraqi officials say two separate bombings have killed eight people in and around the capital.
Police officials say the first attack happened Monday afternoon when a roadside bomb explosion hit a patrol of anti-militant fighters, known as Sahwa, in the town of Madain, just south of Baghdad, killing three fighters and one civilian. The Sahwa are made up of Sunni militiamen who joined U.S. troops in the fight against al-Qaida during the height of Iraq’s insurgency in 2007 and 2008.
In a later attack, police say a sticky bomb attached to a minibus exploded in Baghdad’s southern district of Abu Dashir, killing four passengers and wounding six people.
Associated Press
