21 reported injured in Oklahoma tornadoes
SHAWNEE, Okla. – One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.
Tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system stretching from Texas to Minnesota.
At least four separate tornadoes touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon, including one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park.
Late Sunday officials reported 21 people were injured and taken to hospitals, and one death was being reported on CNN.
Syrian troops push into rebel-held town
BEIRUT – Syrian troops pushed into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border on Sunday, fighting house-to-house and bombing from the air as President Bashar Assad tried to strengthen his grip on a strategic strip of land running from the capital to the Mediterranean coast.
With the regime scoring gains on the battlefield, the U.S. and Russia could face an even tougher task persuading Assad and his opponents to attend talks on ending Syria’s 26-month-old conflict.
Government forces launched the offensive on the town of Qusair just hours after Assad said in a newspaper interview that he’ll stay in his job until elections – effectively rejecting an opposition demand that any talks on a political transition lead to his ouster.
Chinese premier visits India to boost ties
NEW DELHI – Just weeks after a tense border standoff, China’s new premier visited India on Sunday on his first foreign trip as the neighboring giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old boundary dispute and boost economic ties.
Premier Li Keqiang met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two leaders emphasized that efforts should be made to resolve the border dispute between the two countries. India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
In a written statement on his arrival in the Indian capital, Li said China regarded India as an important partner and friend and expressed the hope that his visit would inject new vigor into their cooperative partnership, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Associated Press
2 Nevada men arrested in killing over iPad
Two men have been arrested in the killing of a teenage boy over an iPad in Las Vegas, police said Sunday.
Jacob Dismont, 18, and Michael Solid, 21, were booked Saturday into the Clark County jail on charges of open murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.
According to investigators, Marcos Arenas, 15, was walking down a street with the iPad on Thursday when a passenger got out of a vehicle and tried to steal the device from him.
Dismont is accused of trying to wrest the tablet away and dragging Arenas toward the SUV when the youth wouldn’t let go of the device. After Dismont re-entered the vehicle and Solid sped away, the teen was dragged until he fell. The vehicle ran over Arenas and he died at a hospital.
Ivan Arenas said he bought the iPad for his son less than two months ago. The family has never had a lot, the father said, and his son valued everything he had.
Fate of LA pot shops left to voters
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles politicians have struggled for more than five years to regulate medical marijuana, trying to balance the needs of the sick against neighborhood concerns that pot shops attract crime.
Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to decide how Los Angeles should handle its high with three competing measures that seek to either limit the number of dispensaries or allow new ones to open and join an estimated several hundred others that currently operate.
Election Day in the nation’s second-largest city comes just two weeks after a pivotal state Supreme Court decision gave cities and counties the authority to ban pot shops. More than 200 local municipalities have bans, and some cities that were awaiting guidance from the state’s highest court have taken immediate action this month and begun shuttering clinics.
While some cities have been able to manage pot collectives, Los Angeles fumbled with the issue and dispensaries cropped up across the city as a result. Councilman Ed Reyes said Los Angeles has run into trouble where other cities such as Oakland haven’t because of the sheer size of LA and a movement that is more organized and litigious.
“The pie is so big here, so thick and rich, that we have many people making a run at it,” Reyes said. “Regardless of which measure you support, the city is going to have to focus on enforcement. I think as long as we don’t have enforcement, it’s just letters on paper.”
Associated Press
