Fires continuing to besiege Chilean port
VALPARAISO, Chile – Helicopters and airplanes dumped water on wildfires and the smoldering wreckage of hilltop neighborhoods around Valparaiso for a third consecutive day on Monday as sailors in riot gear stood ready to evacuate 700 more families whose homes could be lost if the winds shifted.
Already 11,000 people were homeless as wildfires sent burning embers flying from hilltop to hilltop. A 15th body was found, and the toll of destroyed homes rose to more than 2,500. As smoke rose from smoldering ruins all over the picturesque coastal city, many compared the scene to Dante’s Inferno.
Some people made their way home after days without sleep, only to discover ruins. The fires, so hot they created their own fierce winds, consumed a few entire neighborhoods. In other districts, some houses stood unscathed but remained in danger from glowing embers carried by the shifting winds.
NSA coverage garners Pulitzers for 2 papers
NEW YORK – The Washington Post and The Guardian of London won the Pulitzer Prize in public service Monday for revealing the U.S. government’s sweeping surveillance programs in a blockbuster series of stories based on secret documents supplied by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The Pulitzer for breaking news was awarded to The Boston Globe for its “exhaustive and empathetic” coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing and the manhunt that followed.
The prize for national reporting went to David Philipps of The Gazette of Colorado Springs for an investigation finding the Army has discharged escalating numbers of traumatized combat veterans who commit crimes at home.
Two of the nation’s biggest and most distinguished newspapers, the Post and The New York Times, won two Pulitzers each, while the other awards were scattered among a variety of publications large and small.
Shooting suspect had no record of violence
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Never one to keep his hatred to himself, Frazier Glenn Cross for decades sought out any soapbox to espouse his white-supremacist beliefs, twice running for federal office with campaigns steeped in anti-Semitism.
Yet there’s scant evidence the Army veteran and retired trucker with Ku Klux Klan links ever resorted to violence before Sunday, when authorities say he opened fire with a shotgun and pistol outside a Jewish community center and retirement complex near Kansas City. None of the three people killed turned out to be Jewish.
The 73-year-old Cross, who shouted a Nazi slogan at television cameras when arrested minutes later, has been jailed awaiting charges that investigators said could come as early as Tuesday. At some point, a federal grand jury is expected to review the slayings, which authorities now deem a hate crime.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said the victims “happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time” and had “a firsthand encounter with evil.”
Egypt: El-Sissi finalizes his run for president
CAIRO – Egypt’s former military chief Monday took the final formal step to run in next month’s presidential election, submitting to the election commission eight times the number of signatures required, his campaign said in a statement.
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a retired field marshal, did not deliver the 200,000 signatures in person. His campaign said a legal adviser, Mohammed Bahaa Abou Shaqah, did.
Photos released by the campaign and footage aired on local TV networks showed security guards delivering white boxes with an image of the retired soldier plastered on the side along with the name of the province from which it said the signatures were obtained.
El-Sissi’s likely chief rival in the election is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished a strong third in the first round of the last presidential election, in June 2012. Morsi won the race in a runoff against second-placed Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
Christie ‘nervous’ when scandal linked to aides
TRENTON, N.J. – Gov. Chris Christie was “nervous” about the possibility more of his aides were involved in a politically motivated traffic-jam scandal, according to interview notes released Monday by lawyers the governor’s office hired to conduct an internal investigation.
The interview notes compiled by Gibson, Dunn & Cruthers lawyers form the basis of a 344-page, taxpayer-funded report exonerating Christie and blaming two loyalists – a former Port Authority official and a now-fired aide – for lane closures that caused tie-ups approaching the George Washington Bridge. A legislative panel investigating the matter had demanded the notes.
Christie was one of 75 people interviewed for his office’s probe into the lane closings, which caused four days of traffic mayhem in Fort Lee, the town at the base of the heavily traveled span linking New Jersey and New York. The investigation by the governor’s office found the closures targeted the town’s Democratic mayor.
Five people close to Christie have been fired or resigned amid the scandal, which has been a major distraction for him as he contemplates a 2016 presidential run.
Associated Press
