CALIFORNIA
Wildfire nearly triples in size
More than 31 square miles of forest scorched by flames as fire fans out in all directions; 3 people hurt
LOS ANGELES — A growing wildfire sending massive billows of smoke into the sky north of Los Angeles nearly tripled in size Saturday, injuring three residents, burning a small number of homes, knocking out power to many more and prompting thousands of evacuations in a number of mountain communities.
Mandatory evacuations were extended Saturday into neighborhoods in the canyons on the northwestern edge of Altadena, Glendale, La Crescenta and Big Tujunga Canyon, Forest Service spokesman Bruce Quintelier said.
The flames crept lower down the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains despite winds blowing predominantly in the other direction, threatening more than 2,000 homes in the La Canada Flintridge area.
A few homes and about 25 recreational cabins have burned but exact numbers were not immediately available, said Forest Service spokesman Gabriel Alvarez.
Flames knocked out power to at least 164 residences in La Canada Flintridge on Saturday. Repair crews were ordered to stay out of the area because of fire danger. More than 31 square miles of dry forest was scorched by the fire, which continued to move out in all directions, Quintelier said. The blaze was only 5 percent contained.
At least three residents of Big Tujunga Canyon were burned and airlifted to hospitals, Quintelier said. The details of their injuries were unknown.
IRAQ
Bombers strike Baghdad, rural communities
A shop’s interior is exposed after the wall collapsed in a bombing Saturday in al-Sharqat, Iraq. Bombs struck remote communities in northern Iraq as well as a cafe in Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 18 people, as the visiting Iranian foreign minister warned that Iraq’s instability affected the whole region. The blasts came 10 days after suicide truck bombers devastated the foreign and finance ministries in Baghdad, killing about 100 people.
GEORGIA
7 killed at trailer park
BRUNSWICK — Seven people were found slain and two critically injured Saturday at a mobile home park built on the grounds of a historic plantation in southeastern Georgia, police said.
Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering called it the worst mass slaying in his 25 years of police work in this coastal Georgia county. He wouldn’t say how the victims died.
“This is a record for us. We’ve never had such an incident with so many victims,” Doering told reporters. “It’s not a scene that I would want anybody to see.”
At an afternoon news conference, Doering declined to say whether police believe the killer was among the dead or remained at large.
IRAN
Prosecutor ousted
Iran’s new judiciary chief ousted the hard-line prosecutor behind the ongoing trials against opposition figures in Tehran, the capital, replacing him with a relatively moderate newcomer from the provinces, an Iranian news agency reported Saturday.
For years, Tehran Prosecutor-General Saeed Mortazavi, a staunch ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been the bane of reformists, journalists and activists.
His removal suggests an attempt by the new judiciary chief, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the scion of a powerful conservative family, to curtail the influence of hard-liners and clean up the image of the country’s legal system.
Mortazavi was replaced by Abbas Jaafari Dowlatabadi, the former head of justice in Iran’s southwest Khuzestan Justice Department, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
SOUTH KOREA
North frees 4 fishermen
SEOUL — North Korea on Saturday freed four South Korean fishermen held since July after their boat strayed into waters governed by the secretive state.
The gesture came amid thawing relations on the Korean peninsula and followed a joint announcement Friday that the two countries would resume a series of reunions between families that have been divided for decades since the Korean War.
North Korean officials handed over the men and their boat at the eastern sea border between the two countries, officials said.
FLORIDA
Astronauts check shuttle
CAPE CANAVERAL — Space shuttle astronauts steered closer to the International Space Station for a Sunday linkup, while checking their ship for any signs of launch damage.
NASA officials say no fuel tank debris was observed hitting Discovery during Friday’s midnight liftoff. But the shuttle’s most vulnerable areas — the wings and nose — still needed to be checked with lasers and cameras.
PAKISTAN
Training camps targeted
ISLAMABAD — Helicopter gunships destroyed a training camp for suicide bombers in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, killing six Taliban fighters in an area the government had already declared clear of militants, an official said Saturday. The camp’s trainees were responsible for at least three attacks in recent weeks, an army spokesman said.
MASSACHUSETTS
Obama marks Katrina
OAK BLUFFS — President Barack Obama marked the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday by pledging to make sure that turf wars and red tape don’t slow the pace of the continuing recovery.
He also said he would visit New Orleans by year’s end.
In his weekly address, the president said he wanted to ensure “that the legacy of a terrible storm is a country that is safer and more prepared for the challenges that may come.”
