Cruz: First in GOP to seek presidency
WASHINGTON – Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz will become the first major candidate for president when he launches his campaign Monday, kicking off what’s expected to be a rush over the next few weeks of more than a dozen White House hopefuls into the 2016 campaign.
Cruz will formally get into the race during a morning speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, choosing to begin his campaign at the Christian college founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell rather than his home state of Texas or the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
It’s a fitting setting for Cruz, a 44-year-old tea-party darling whose entry into the 2016 campaign drew cheers Sunday among fellow conservatives.
Hot plates questioned by Jews after fatal fire
NEW YORK – An ultra-Orthodox Jewish community shattered by the deaths of seven siblings in a house fire carried out their funerals Sunday, a day after a hot plate left on for the Sabbath is believed to have sparked the fire that killed them.
The tragedy had some neighborhood Jews reconsidering the practice of keeping hot plates on for the Sabbath, a common modern method of obeying tradition prohibiting use of fire on the holy day.
The bodies of the children from the Sassoon family, ages 5 to 16, were to be flown to Israel after the funeral for a prompt burial. They died early Saturday when flames engulfed their home in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood.
Investigators believe the hot plate left on a kitchen counter set off the fire that trapped the children and badly injured their mother and another sibling.
Shiite rebel leader vows to fight in Yemen
ADEN, Yemen – Yemen’s Shiite rebel leader escalated his attack Sunday against the country’s embattled president, vowing to send fighters to the south where Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi has taken refuge. The fiery speech came hours after his militia seized the third-largest city of Taiz, an important station in its advance.
Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, who is backed by supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the mobilization is aimed at fighting al-Qaida and other militant groups, as well as forces loyal to Hadi who are in the south intending to further destabilize Yemen.
In his one-hour speech on al-Masirah TV, al-Houthi called Hadi a “puppet” to international and regional powers who want to “import the Libyan model” to Yemen.
He named the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as conspirators against Yemen and other countries in the region.
Libya is torn by warring militias with rival parliaments on either end of the country.
Associated Press
