Nation & World News Winter storm clobbers northern New England, knocks out power
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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A winter storm brought more than 2 feet of snow to parts of northern New England overnight, and more than 100,000 homes and businesses were without power by Friday morning in hard-hit Maine. In the region’s first major storm of the season, the National Weather Service received multiple reports of snow falling at a rate of 6 inches per hour. Powerful bands of snow buried some areas kneedeep while other places just miles away received mostly rain. “It went from just a garden-variety, low-pressure system to a turbocharged storm,” said weather service meteorologist Eric Schwibs. Hundreds of cars slid off roads from the beginning of the storm on Thursday through Friday morning, when people began digging out. Some plows got stuck in the heavy snow, blocking roads temporarily. In Vermont, state police said a 69-year-old man was killed in Cornwall when his car went off the road in slippery conditions Thursday and crashed into a tree.
Associated Press Lee Miller, Port Carbon, Pa., cuts through the snow on Coal Street in Port Carbon, Pa., on Thursday.
In Maine, a man died in a fire at the height of the storm in the town of Pownal, but it wasn’t clear if the weather played a role. Southern and western Maine turned out to be in the storm’s bullseye, but the storm played a game of hop-scotch, pummeling some communities with snow while leaving others just miles away drenched in rain. Big snow totals in Maine included 27 inches in Standish
and Naples, 25 inches in Parsonsfield, and 22.7 inches in Hollis. In Portland, Richard Haynes found out the hard way about the icy conditions. He slipped Thursday night and ended up in the emergency room. “It caught us off guard,” he said Friday as he shoveled snow. “I almost broke my back, had to get it checked at the hospital before I started shoveling.”
www.newtondailynews.com | Friday | Dec. 30, 2016
Putin says Russia won’t expel US diplomats in hacking flap MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin castigated the United States on Friday for imposing sanctions and expelling Russian diplomats amid allegations of Russian meddling in the American presidential election, but said no U.S. diplomats will be ousted in reprisal for President Barack Obama’s moves in the wake of hacking attacks. In a burgeoning controversy surrounding complaints from the Obama administration about a cyberattack against America’s political system, the White House on Thursday unleashed a string of sanctions and coupled them with an order that 35 Russians be expelled. Putin, however, said on Friday that Moscow would not eject American diplomats in response to what he described as “provocation aimed at further undermining Russian-American relations” less than a month before Donald Trump is to take over the White House. The decision came as a surprise; tit-for-tat expulsions are common diplomatic practice
and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had suggested hours before Putin’s announcement that Russia would oust 31 American diplomats. “The Russian diplomats returning home will spend the New Year holidays with their relatives and dear ones,” Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin website. “We will not create problems for U.S. diplomats. We will not expel anybody.” He added: “Moreover, I am inviting all children of U.S. diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas parties at the Kremlin.” Putin appeared to aim at playing a long game and at making a barbed reminder that Obama is a lame duck. “Putin’s asymmetric response to Obama’s new sanctions is an investment in the incoming Trump presidency,” Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said on Twitter. “A different kind of tit-for-tat: even as Obama seeks to constrain Trump in his Russia policy, Putin counters that step with a show of magnanimity.”
Syria’s cease-fire holding despite minor violations BEIRUT (AP) — A nationwide Syrian cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey that went into effect at midnight held Friday despite minor violations, marking a potential breakthrough in a conflict that has disregarded high-level peace initiatives for over five years. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes early Friday between troops and rebels in the central province of Hama and near the capital, Damascus. It said that later in the day a man was killed by sniper fire in eastern suburbs of Damascus, becoming the first fatality since
the truce went into effect. The group also reported an aerial attack on the rebel-held Barada Valley near Damascus. The Syrian army denied reports it was bombarding the Barada Valley region saying opposition claims aim to show that the army is not abiding by the truce. Opposition activist Mazen al-Shami, who is based in the Damascus suburb of Douma, said minor clashes nearby left one rebel wounded. Activist Ahmad al-Masalmeh, in the southern Daraa province, said government forces had opened fire on rebel-held areas.
Several past attempts at halting the fighting have failed. As with previous agreements, the current cease-fire excludes both the al-Qaida-affiliated Fatah al-Sham Front, which fights alongside other rebel factions, and the Islamic State group. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the cease-fire will be guaranteed by both Moscow and Turkey, and the agreement has been welcomed by Iran. Moscow and Tehran provide crucial military support to Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey has long served as a rear base and source of supplies for the rebels.
If it holds, the truce between the Syrian government and the country’s mainstream rebel forces will be followed by peace talks next month in Kazakhstan, Putin said in announcing the agreement. He described it, however, as “quite fragile” and requiring “special attention and patience.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the cease-fire a “major achievement” in a tweet Friday. “Let’s build on it by tackling the roots of extremist terror,” he added. Russia said the deal was signed by seven of Syria’s major rebel factions, though
none of them immediately confirmed it, and one denied signing it. A U.N. official said he hopes that cease-fire would allow them to take aid to 15 besieged areas where some 700,000 people live. Jan Egeland, Special, Advisor to the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, told The Associated Press that “we desperately need this ceasefire. The reports I have from the field is that there is a decrease, a marked decrease in fighting, in bombing, in violence, compared to yesterday. But certainly there’s been a number of violations.”
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