09-07-2018

MISCELLANEOUS
mONDAY, julY 9, 2018
11
Wildfires rage through
California amid
heat rage
LOS ANGELES :
Firefighters toiled in stifling
heat Saturday on the lines
of destructive wildfires
across the U.S. West,
making progress against
some blazes while
struggling to tame others
that have forced
evacuations of hundreds of
homes, reports UNB.
In heat-stricken Southern
California, powerful winds
that sent an overnight
inferno hopscotching
through the Santa Barbara
County community of
Goleta vanished in the
morning, allowing
firefighters to extinguish
smoldering ruins of an
estimated 20 structures,
including homes.
Authorities announced
that mandatory evacuation
orders were being greatly
reduced and many of the
2,500 people who fled
Friday night would be able
to return home by late
afternoon.
County Fire Chief Eric
Peterson thanked residents
for heeding the call to
evacuate, allowing firefighters
to focus on fire suppression
rather than rescues.
"There very likely would
GD-910/18 (5 x 3)
GD-911/18 (7 x 3)
have been fatalities last
night had those evacuations
not occurred," Peterson
said.
The fire's spread was
stopped at about 100 acres
(40.5 hectares) in a
neighborhood where some
houses were in ruins while
homes next door were
intact.
Eric Durtschi stood
outside his destroyed
house, where a burned-out
car stood in the driveway
and kids' bicycles were
strewn about.
Durtschi, his wife and six
children had left Utah and
moved in just a few weeks
ago. He said he hadn't yet
told his two oldest children
their home was gone. He
managed to collect his
severely burned vintage
guns, hoping to salvage
them.
A neighbor's home across
the street was spared. The
man had stayed through
the night spraying down
other people's houses.
Elsewhere in Southern
California, firefighters
increased containment of a
central San Diego County
fire that rapidly spread over
400 acres (162 hectares),
destroyed 18 structures and
damaged eight, and a
wildfire in the San
Bernardino National Forest
was holding at 1.5 square
miles (404 hectares) and
forced evacuation of about
700 homes in the mountain
community of Forest Falls.
Fires also burned on the
Marine Corps' sprawling
Camp Pendleton base in
northern San Diego
County.
Among new fires
Saturday, a blaze erupted
on a steep mountain slope
just above the Los Angeles
suburb of Burbank and
helicopters pounded it with
water to try to keep it from
getting out of hand.
Southern California fires
began erupting Friday as
strong high pressure over
the West spawned an epic
heat wave that saw parts of
Los Angeles broil in
temperatures up to 117
degrees (47.2 Celsius).
There was little relief
overnight.
"Temperatures at 8 a.m.
were ridiculously over 100
degrees" in foothills near
Forest Falls and many
inland valleys, the National
Weather Service said.
4 injured
after medical
helicopter
crashes in
Chicago
CHICAGO : Officials say
four people were injured,
one critically, after a medical
helicopter crashed on
Chicago's South Side,
reports UNB.
The Federal Aviation
Administration says the
crash occurred around 9:15
p.m. Saturday near the
intersection of three
expressways.
Chicago Fire Deputy
District Chief Walter
Schroeder says the patient in
the helicopter was taken to a
hospital in critical condition,
while the three crew
members onboard were
transported in stable
condition.
Schroeder says the pilot
issued a "mayday" call
before the crash, but the
exact cause is not yet known.
He also commended the
pilot for putting the aircraft
down in a grassy area away
from traffic.
It's unclear where the
flight originated or where it
was headed. The FAA says
investigators are heading to
the scene.
Trump administration
takes another swipe
at 'Obamacare'
WASHINGTON : The Trump
administration says it's
freezing payments under an
'Obamacare' program that
protects insurers with sicker
patients from financial losses,
a move expected to add to
premium increases next year,
reports UNB.
At stake are billions in
payments to insurers with
sicker customers.
Making the announcement
Saturday, officials say the
administration is acting
because of conflicting rulings
in lawsuits filed by some
smaller insurers who question
whether they're being fairly
treated.
The program takes payments
from insurers with healthier
customers and redistributes the
money to companies with
sicker enrollees. No taxpayer
subsidies are involved.
The idea is to remove the
financial incentive for
insurers to "cherry-pick"
healthier customers. The
strategy is also used by
Medicare private insurance
plans. Other insurers say the
administration's action
interferes with a program
that's working well.
Haiti suspends fuel
price hike after
protesters riot
PORT-AU-PRINCE : The
Haitian government
suspended a fuel price hike
Saturday hours after
demonstrators attacked a Best
Western Premiere hotel in
one of the wealthiest
neighborhoods of the capital,
reports UNB.
Prime Minister Jack Guy
Lafontant had originally said
the country needed to raise
prices to balance the budget
and gave no indication he
would back down.
But his administration
appeared to backtrack after
protests broke out around the
capital. A journalist from The
Associated Press reported
seeing several hundred rioters
hurling rocks and breaking
windows at the Best Western
hotel around 10 a.m. local
time Saturday, forcing hotel
guests in the neighborhood of
Petion-Ville to remain inside.
Security manned the
building, but rioters shattered
the main entrance before
moving to another hotel.
No injuries or deaths were
reported during the latest
incidents, but at least three
people were killed in unrest a
day prior. Protesters tried at
one point to set a gas station
on fire but were held off by
police.
The demonstrations began
after the Commerce Ministry
and Economic Ministry issued
a joint statement announcing
an increase of 38 percent to 51
percent for gasoline, diesel
and kerosene.
Pompeo shrugs off North
Korea's 'gangster' rebuke,
cites progress
TOKYO : U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo on Sunday brushed aside
North Korea's accusation of "gangsterlike"
demands, maintaining that his
third visit to the country was producing
results but vowing that sanctions would
remain until Pyongyang follows
through on leader Kim Jong Un's
pledge to get rid of his nuclear weapons,
reports UNB.
Pompeo downplayed North Korea's
statement after the talks in which the
country's foreign ministry bashed
hopes for a quick deal and accused the
U.S. of making "gangster-like" demands
aimed at forcing it to abandon nuclear
weapons.
The North's statement, coming so
soon after Pompeo's trip, was sure to
fuel growing skepticism in the U.S. over
how serious Kim is about giving up his
nuclear arsenal.
"If those requests were gangster-like,
the world is a gangster," Pompeo said,
noting that numerous U.N. Security
Council resolutions have demanded
that the North rid itself of nuclear
weapons and end its ballistic missile
program.
"People are going to make stray
comments after meetings," Pompeo
said. "If I paid attention to the press, I'd
go nuts."
Speaking after meeting with his
Japanese and South Korean
counterparts in Tokyo, Pompeo said his
two days of talks in Pyongyang had
been productive and conducted in good
GD-909/18 (12 x 4)
faith. But following the stinging
commentary from the North, he
allowed that the goal of
denuclearization would be difficult and
that much work remains.
"The road ahead will be difficult and
challenging and we know critics will try
to minimize what we have achieved," he
said. Two days of talks with senior
North Korean officials had "made
progress," he said, and included a
"detailed and substantive discussion
about the next steps."
Those include the formation of
working group to determine exactly
how North Korea's denuclearization
will be verified and a Thursday meeting
with Pentagon officials to discuss the
return of remains of Americans soldiers
killed during the Korean War.
Pompeo sought to dispel suggestions
that the Trump administration has
backed down from demanding the
complete, verifiable and irreversible
dismantlement of the North's nuclear
weapons. He said North Korea
understood that denuclearization must
be "complete" and "verified."
However, Pompeo said the progress
achieved thus far did not warrant any
concessions. "While we are encouraged
by the progress of these talks, progress
alone does not justify the easing of the
sanctions regime," he said.
"Sanctions will remain in place until
final fully verified denuclearization as
agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong Un
has occurred," he said.
Anti-violence
protesters shut
down part of
Chicago freeway
CHICAGO : Thousands of antiviolence
protesters marched
along a Chicago interstate on
Saturday, shutting down traffic
in an effort to draw attention to
the gun violence that's claimed
hundreds of lives in some of the
city's poorest neighborhoods
and pressure public officials to
do more to stop it.
Marchers chanted "Stop the
killing" and carried signs
reading "We need jobs" and
other messages. Some stopped
to scrawl on the road with
chalk: "Enough is enough" and
"Peace." Toward the front of the
march the Rev. Michael
Pfleger, who organized the
protest, Chicago police Supt.
Eddie Johnson and the Rev.
Jesse Jackson linked arms,
reports UNB.
The march took place along
the northbound lanes of
Interstate 94, known as the
Dan Ryan Expressway, after a
roughly hourlong standoff
between police and the
protesters.
Illinois State Police, which
had warned earlier in the week
that any pedestrian entering
the expressway would face
arrest, said early Saturday that
an agreement had been
reached for protesters to
march on a portion of the
roadway. Officers and vehicles
lined up, forming a barrier to
keep protesters in two
northbound lanes, allowing
some traffic to pass in other
northbound lanes.