Historic balloon pilots safely land in Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE – An audacious, nearly 7,000-mile-long trip across the Pacific Ocean came to an end Saturday as two accomplished pilots safely touched down in the water just off the coast of Mexico in their helium-filled balloon after shattering two long-standing records.
Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia landed 4 miles offshore in Baja California about 300 miles north of the popular beach destination of Cabo San Lucas. Initial plans called for a landing on the beach, but the pilots decided to come in low and drop trailing ropes into the ocean to help slow the balloon for a controlled water landing.
Mission control in Albuquerque was packed with supporters of the Two Eagles team as the balloon descended, with all eyes focused on a giant screen showing a map of the coast and the balloon’s location.
It wasn’t until the crowd received word that the pilots were safe and aboard a fishing boat headed to the shore that cheers erupted and the cork was popped on a bottle of champagne.
More than 2 million cars recalled for second time
NEW YORK – Drivers, bring your vehicles back to the shop for more work on faulty air bags.
The government said more than 2 million Chrysler, Honda and Toyota vehicles need a second fix for air bags that may inadvertently inflate while the car is running.
The recall includes some Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Odyssey, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla and Toyota Avalon models made from 2002 to 2004.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said all of the vehicles covered in Saturday’s announcement already had been under a recall for the faulty air bags. Carmakers originally tried to fix the defects by partially replacing the electronic control unit, made by TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. of Livonia, Mich., but that fix didn’t always work. The new remedy – full replacement of the unit – will be available to all affected vehicles by the end of the year.
However, the NHTSA is urging consumers with cars under the first recall to have the partial unit installed despite the fix’s failure rate, even if they have to return to the dealer under the second recall.
NASA launches drought and flood satellite
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – A NASA satellite lifted off early Saturday with the hope it will transmit data that will help the world do a better job of preparing for droughts and floods.
The satellite is on a three-year mission to track the amount of water locked in soil, which may help residents in low-lying regions brace for floods or farmers get ready for drought conditions.
The Delta 2 rocket carrying the Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite launched shortly before sunrise from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central coast. As the rocket zoomed skyward, it gave off an orange glow.
About an hour later, the satellite successfully separated from the rocket and began unfurling its solar panels to start generating power.
NASA launch manager Tim Dunn said there were zero launch problems with the rocket, calling Delta 2 a “workhorse.”
Sheriff’s investigators see fatal ‘Suge’ Knight video
LOS ANGELES – Sheriff’s investigators Saturday were reviewing a video of an incident in which hip-hop music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight hit two men with his pickup truck, killing one, that may help provide clarity on whether Knight was the attacker or victim in his most serious run-in with the law to date.
The video is in police custody, said Knight’s defense attorney, James Blatt, and he said he would be seeing it Monday or Tuesday. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida confirmed that detectives are reviewing the video, but “they have made no such arrangements with the attorney” nor did they have plans to show it to him.
Meanwhile, Knight remained jailed on suspicion of murder after turning himself in early Friday. He’s being held on $2 million bail.
Sheriff’s deputies said Knight hit and killed his friend Terry Carter, 55, with his pickup truck Thursday in a Compton fast food restaurant parking lot, also injuring Cle “Bone” Sloan, 51, an actor and film consultant who was hospitalized and in stable condition late Friday.
Blatt said Knight was an innocent victim who accidentally ran over the men as he tried to escape a vicious attack.
Houston’s daughter found unresponsive in bath tub
ROSWELL, Ga. – The daughter of late singer and entertainer Whitney Houston was found unresponsive, face down in a bathtub Saturday and taken to a hospital in the north Atlanta suburbs, police said.
Bobbi Kristina Brown was found by her husband, Nick Gordon, and a friend. The friend called 911, while her husband performed CPR on Brown because they did not believe she was breathing nor had a pulse, said Officer Lisa Holland, a spokeswoman for the Roswell Police Department.
When police arrived, they gave Brown additional care until she was taken alive to North Fulton Hospital.
IS fighters admit they lost Syrian town of Kobani
BEIRUT – The Islamic State group acknowledged for the first time that its fighters were defeated in the Syrian town of Kobani and vowed to attack the town again.
In a video released by the pro-IS Aamaq News Agency late Friday, two fighters said the airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition were the main reason why IS fighters were forced to withdraw from Kobani. One fighter vowed to defeat the main Kurdish militia in Syria, the People’s Protection Units known as the YPG.
On Monday, activists and Kurdish officials said the town almost was cleared of IS fighters, who once held nearly half of Kobani.
An Associated Press video from inside the town showed widespread destruction, streets littered with debris and abandoned neighborhoods. The video also showed a new cemetery with fresh graves.
The town’s famous Freedom Square, with a statue of an eagle spreading its wings, stood intact in the middle of the destruction. The square is near the so-called Kurdish security quarter – an eastern district where Kurdish militiamen maintained security buildings and offices and which was occupied by IS fighters for about two months until they were forced out earlier in January.
Civilians flee east Ukraine as fighting intensifies
DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine – Outgoing heavy-caliber fire boomed incessantly, shaking the ground and rattling windows around the besieged town. Residents of Debaltseve, seemingly inured to the racket, listened impassively as they mustered at the town hall Saturday to be evacuated with as much as they could carry.
The government-held town has been without gas, power and water for at least 10 days, prompting many to flee from an intense artillery duel between government and Russian-backed separatist forces. Almost every one of the largely deserted streets in the center showed signs of having been struck by projectiles.
A month of relative quiet in eastern Ukraine was shattered in early January by full-blown fighting as the separatists attempted to claw back additional territory from government hands. Rebel leaders accused Ukraine of mobilizing its forces in advance of an imminent offensive.
Efforts to hold talks on halting the escalating violence have to date been unsuccessful.
French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a telephone conversation, all expressed hope that negotiations in Minsk, Belarus, will focus on a cease-fire and pulling out heavy weaponry from residential areas, the Kremlin said.
However, representatives for the rebels, Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe left the government compound late Saturday evening after spending four hours behind closed doors.
Ukraine’s envoy, Leonid Kuchma, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the talks were derailed after the rebel representatives “refused to discuss steps to bring a complete cease-fire and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Saturday that 1,000 residents have been evacuated in the past days from Debaltseve. But the number of crammed civilian vehicles seen speeding out of the town’s rutted, icy roads over the past few days suggests official figures may be on the conservative side.
Italian lawmakers elect Mattarella as president
ROME – Sergio Mattarella, a Constitutional Court justice widely considered to be above the political fray, was elected Saturday as Italy’s president in the third day of balloting by lawmakers.
He quickly set as priorities attention to his country’s moribund economy and the need for unity in Europe’s fight against a “new season of terror.”
Mattarella’s election as head of state was clinched when he amassed 505 votes – a simple majority. The 73-year-old former minister with center-left political roots went on to garner a total of 665 votes from the 1,009 eligible electors.
Associated Press
