Californians warned drought isn’t over
SAN FRANCISCO –- Forced by drought to become miserly with water, Californians were warned against reverting to old habits Tuesday as the first of several storms spawned by a record-tying El Niño began drenching the state.
A series of storms lining up over the Pacific Ocean was welcome news in parched California, despite their potential for causing flash floods and mudslides.
But authorities cautioned that even the wettest of winters can’t replenish depleted reservoirs and aquifers unless everyone keeps pitching in. California’s water deficit is so deep after four years of drought that a “steady parade of storms” like these will be needed for years to come, said Mike Anderson, climatologist for the state’s Department of Water Resources.
Report: Twitter may allow longer tweets
SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter appears ready to loosen its decade-old restriction on the length of messages in a bid to make its service more appealing to a wider audience accustomed to the greater freedom offered by Facebook and other forums.
CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey telegraphed Twitter’s intentions in a tweet posted Tuesday after the technology news site Re/Code reported the company is exploring increasing its limits on text from 140 characters to as many as 10,000.
San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. declined to comment on its plans.
Morocco takes credit for Paris attack help
SALE, Morocco – A top Moroccan intelligence official said on Tuesday that it was his country that put French and Belgian police on the trail of the network behind the November attacks in Paris that killed 130, and likely spared more lives by pinpointing the location of the suspected ringleader.
The director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, Abdelhak Khiame, said in an interview with The Associated Press that “this intelligence precisely allowed France to avoid more severe attacks that were planned.”
European investigators are trying to piece together the geography of the Nov. 13 attacks.
Associated Press
