WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015 • 7A
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world&nation WORLD Deal to end Yemen conflict almost reached
BOSTON BOMBING
Victims recall day of terror, pain By Scott Malone Reuters
CAIRO — A senior leader in Yemen’s Houthi militia said a political agreement had almost been reached to end almost a month of conflict involving Saudi-led air strikes against the group. Abdel Malek al-Ijri, a member of the Iran-allied movement’s politburo, expressed “surprise” at an announcement by a mostly Gulf Arab coalition to end its operation on Tuesday, but said the announcement coincided with progress toward an overall deal. “We were expecting there to be an agreement on a ceasefire after the signing of a political accord, on which an agreement is almost ready,” al-Ijri told Reuters by telephone from Yemen.
BOSTON — Celeste Corcoran was hurled into the air by a bomb at the Boston Marathon finish line two years ago. Gillian Reny saw blood gushing from her legs and wondered if she would survive. William Campbell waited hours for his daughter to emerge from surgery only to learn she had been killed by the blasts. Prosecutors on Tuesday began their case to sentence convicted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death with an emotional gut-punch to the jury as survivors described the toll of the April 15, 2013, attack that killed three people and injured 264. Tsarnaev, a 21-year-old ethnic Chechen, was found guilty on April 8 of carrying out the attack as well as fatally shooting a police officer as he and his older brother, Tamerlan, prepared to flee Prosecutors three days later. blame captain Survivor testimony, photos for shipwreck and video evidence took the same jury that found CATANIA, Italy — Ital- Tsarnaev guilty back to the ian prosecutors blamed the immediate aftermath of the captain of a grossly over- blasts, the smoky air rent by loaded fishing boat for a the screams of the wounded collision which capsized while those able to move and sank his vessel off scrambled over shrapnelLibya, drowning hundreds strewn sidewalks to try to of migrants, including aid those whose limbs the many women and children bombs had mangled. locked below deck. The government’s first The few survivors of witness, Corcoran of Lowell, Sunday’s tragedy told Massachusetts, said she investigators how the African and Bangladeshi migrants, among hundreds of thousands trying to escape war and poverty, had waited up to a month in U.S. companies Libya before the boat set reach deals with sail for Europe. One said Cuban partners he had suffered a beating at the hands of people traffickers. HAVANA — A U.S. The heavy loss of life cancer research center among the migrants, who and a software company paid hundreds of dollars reached agreements with in the hope of getting Cuban partners during a over the Mediterranean, two-day trade mission to has put heavy pressure Cuba led by New York on European leaders to Governor Andrew Cuomo respond effectively to a in the first trip of its kind dramatic rise in deaths since the rapprochement among people attempting between the longtime the crossing. adversaries. The Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, Britain, France New York, on Tuesday signed an agreement urge UN action with Cuba’s Center for on Middle East Molecular Immunology UNITED NATIONS — to develop a lung cancer Britain and France urged vaccine with a clinical the United Nations Secutrial in the United States, rity Council on Tuesday to Roswell Chief Executive set a framework to broker Officer Candace Johnson peace between Israel and said. the Palestinians as council In addition, New York member New Zealand said City-based Infor Global it had started working on a Solutions Inc has found draft resolution to kickCuban partners to resell start the process. its software in Cuba, CEO France said last month Charles Phillips said. that it planned to begin Both announcements talks on a draft text to were made at the airport lay out “parameters” for just before Cuomo and ending the Middle East a delegation of 18 busiconflict and that it hoped ness leaders and academics to win over the United boarded their return flight States, which has tradito New York. tionally shielded its ally Israel from any U.N. Scientists: Oil and action. The United States has gas work linked to said it would “reassess” seismic activity its options on U.S.-Israel Oklahoma geologists relations and Middle East have documented strong diplomacy after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin links between increased seismic activity in the Netanyahu took a stand state and the injection into against Palestinian statehood during his election the ground of wastewater campaign. from oil and gas produc— From wire reports tion, a state agency said on
NATION
PEOPLE Designer of Vegas sign dies at age 91
Betty Willis, an artist who designed a popular welcome sign on the Las Vegas strip and created a number of other famous neon signs in the tourist haven, has died at age 91, a mortuary said on its website. Willis died on Sunday at her home in Overton, a community about 45 miles northeast of Las Vegas, according to Virgin Valley & Moapa Valley Mortuaries. In 1959, the Nevada native was working for a neon sign company when she designed a welcome sign that said “Welcome U.S. District Judge George O’Toole speaks during the sentencing phase of the murder to Fabulous Las Vegas trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a courtroom sketch in Boston on Tuesday. The govern- Nevada” and cost $4,000 ment began making its case that convicted bomber Tsarnaev should be sentenced to to construct. death for the 2013 attack and its aftermath. (Reuters/Jane Collins) The diamond-shaped sign with a spiky sun atop remained conscious from the Street to cheer her sister, told Krystle was in surgery. it has long been popular moment the two homemade described being horrified by “We waited 10 to 12 pressure-cooker bombs went her mangled legs. hours, talking to the doctors with tourists, who come to pose for photos next to it off until she was rushed to “I was shocked that much and they were saying they on the Las Vegas Strip near a hospital where doctors blood could come out of had to cut off her legs and Mandalay Bay Hotel & Caamputated both her legs. someone,” said Reny, now things like that and we said, sino. In 2009, it was added “I remember thinking that 20. “I did not know that you ‘Go ahead and do what you to the National Register of the pain was too much and could be that injured and have to do, just save my Historic Places. that I wanted to die,” Corco- survive.” baby,’” Campbell said. ran said in sometimes tearful William Campbell had A doctor later asked him testimony. “Immediately I been home watching the to come see his daughter in ‘Full House’ was like, ‘Hell no. I don’t race on television when he her hospital gurney, but the sequel will want to die.’” saw the blasts and realized patient turned out to have happen on Netflix Corcoran’s adult daughhis 29-year-old daughter, been Campbell’s friend, ter, Sydney, was also badly Krystle, may have been Karen McWatters. LOS ANGELES — It’s injured but survived and the there. “I looked in the bed and it official — “Full House” two shared a hospital room “That was a real bad day,” wasn’t Krystle. I passed out for weeks. he testified. on the floor,” Campbell said. will return to television Reny, who had gone to He and his family rushed When he came to, he added, for a 13-episode sequel on Netflix in 2016, the streamthe finish line on Boylston to a hospital where they were “I realized she was gone.” ing service confirmed. John Stamos, who Reporters alerted the of- played Uncle Jesse on the fice of District of Columbia popular family sitcom, Attorney General Karl Ra- broke the news Monday cine to the photo, and the night on “Jimmy Kimmel information was passed on Live!” to the city’s Metropolitan Called “Fuller House,” Police Department to inves- the revival series will tigate, spokesman Robert focus on Candace Cameron Bure’s character, D.J. Marus said. “It is illegal to possess an Tanner, who is a recently widowed and pregnant assault rifle in the District veterinarian. Her younger of Columbia,” he said. sister and aspiring musiVote on Lynch for cian Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) and her attorney general childhood best friend, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo addresses the media Kimmy Gibbler, (Anduring a conference before his departure at Jose Marti seen this week drea Barber), along with airport in Havana on Tuesday. (Reuters/Stringer) WASHINGTON — The Gibbler’s feisty teenage U.S. Senate could vote Tuesday. daughter Ramona, move Sheriff’s officers, acting Currently, Oklahoma in to help D.J. raise her on a tip, discovered stolen this week on the nominais recording 2-1/2 earthbarrels of the whiskey be- tion of Loretta Lynch to be two sons — rebellious quakes daily of a magni12-year-old J.D. and neuhind a shed on the property the next attorney general, Senate Majority Leader tude 3 or greater, a seismic- of Gilbert “Toby” Curtsrotic 7-year-old Max — Mitch McConnell said on ity rate 600 times greater and soon-to-arrive baby. inger. Tuesday, ending a monththan observed before 2008, Stamos is set to produce After recovering the the report by the Oklahoma barrels, the officers worked long partisan impasse on an the show and reprise his unrelated human trafficking role as a guest star. Geological Survey (OGS) with investigators in the bill that threatened to stall said. state Attorney General’s her confirmation indefiIt is “very likely that office to uncover the orMcGregor to play the majority of the earthganized plot to sell barrels nitely. The vote on Lynch, quakes” are triggered by Lumiere in and bottles of bourbon, an accomplished career wastewater injection activi- some rye whiskey and Disney’s ‘Beauty’ prosecutor nominated by ties tied to the oil and gas anabolic steroids. LOS ANGELES — President Barack Obama industry, the OGS said. Ewan McGregor is in in November, could come Congressman negotiations to play now that there is a deal 9 people charged who posed with between Republicans and Lumiere in Disney’s in Kentucky in live-action retelling of Democrats on the legislagun in office “Beauty and the Beast” tion aimed at cracking bourbon heist could face probe down on domestic human that stars Emma Watson FRANKFORT, Ky. — and Dan Stevens. trafficking, McConnell WASHINGTON — A Nine people were charged Luke Evans is also on said. Republican member of in Kentucky on Tuesday board and will play Gas“As soon as we finish Congress who posed for a with stealing more than the trafficking bill … we’ll ton. Ian McKellen will photo with an assault rifle $100,000 worth of bourplay Cogsworth. move to the president’s bon whiskey, including the in his office could face Bill Condon is directnominee for attorney geninvestigation for violating prized Pappy Van Winkle ing, with David Hobereral, hopefully in the next the District of Columbia’s brand. day or so,” said McConnell, man and Todd Lieberman gun laws, the city’s attorProsecutors say the who heads the Republican- of Mandeville Films producing. The script was ney general’s office said on led chamber. scheme involved a group Tuesday. of people who knew each Lynch, 55, would be the written by Evan Spiliotopoulos and rewritten by Representative Ken other through softball and first black woman to beBuck, of Colorado, on relied on workers at two come the country’s top law Steve Chbosky. Thursday tweeted a picture enforcement official. She Production will begin Kentucky distilleries who of himself and Representa- is expected to be confirmed later this year. The studio had been taking whiskey has set a March 17, 2017, tive Trey Gowdy, a Repub- in the Senate by a narrow for at least seven years. release for the pic. lican from South Carolina, margin. The theft was discov— From wire reports ered after Franklin County holding an AR-15 rifle. — From wire reports
Lawsuit seeks to stop government from killing Ore. birds By Shelby Sebens Reuters
PORTLAND, Ore. — Five conservation and animal welfare groups have filed a lawsuit to stop the federal government from killing thousands of native birds on an Oregon island in the name of saving salmon, activists said Tuesday. The groups, which include the Audubon Society of Portland, filed a lawsuit on Monday in U.S.
MUST READ District Court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the USDA Wildlife Service, criticizing the agencies’ plan to kill 11,000 double-crested cormorants to save declining salmon. The groups argue the federal government is ignoring the real threat to salmon, management of hydroelectric dams. They also
argue the government failed to use non-lethal methods of cormorant control on East Sand Island in the Columbia River, and said killing the birds will do little to save the salmon. “We see this as a giant diversionary tactic,” Audubon Society of Portland Conservation Director Bob Sallinger said. “They scapegoat birds while they continue to ignore the primary cause of salmon decline.” The government’s plan to kill
the birds came after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released an opinion last year calling for a decrease in the bird population to under 6,000 breeding pairs by 2018 from about 13,000 now. Federal officials say the birds are eating the juvenile salmon and putting the fish population at risk. Many juvenile salmon and steelhead trout are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Officials said earlier this year they planned to start culling in the spring, though there was no scheduled date. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Anna Harris said the agency was aware of the lawsuit but could not comment. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they were still reviewing the lawsuit and did not have further comment. The Department of Agriculture did not immediately respond to a request for comment.