HCOLD WEATHER CONTINUES IN MIDWEST AND ROCKIES

hCold weather continuesin Midwest and Rockies
DENVER -- Students from Rangeview High School, Aurora, Colo., walk to lunch in the blowing snow as temperatures dropped Tuesday afternoon. Bitterly cold arctic air continued to funnel into the Rocky Mountains and Midwest on Tuesday, sending temperatures plummeting below zero throughout much of the region. A storm front creeping south since the weekend has driven down temperatures from Montana to the Midwest. With a brisk wind, it felt like 15 below zero Tuesday in Sioux Falls, S.D. -- where today's forecast high was 5 degrees. Jackson, Wyo., was expecting an overnight low of minus 17, while the forecast for Bozeman, Mont., was minus 13. The mercury dropped below zero before sunset in Casper, Wyo., and Gunnison, Colo., was bracing for another frigid night after a low of 24 below zero overnight Monday. Forecasts called for a low of minus 25 in the Colorado ski resort town of Steamboat Springs. "Colorado is one of the most beautiful places, but this is too much," complained Manuel Urbano, 30, hands stuffed in his pockets and pacing to keep warm as he waited to fill up his car's gas tank.
Second adviser charged
PHILADELPHIA -- An attorney who headed a committee trying to develop a key piece of city-owned property was charged with fraud and conspiracy Tuesday, the second close adviser of Mayor John F. Street to be swept up in a federal corruption investigation. Prosecutors said Leonard Ross, 58, attempted to sell access to his office to raise campaign funds for Street and to get a $150,000 line of credit for himself. The charges echo similar counts filed against others caught up in the probe, which became public when police discovered an FBI bug in Street's office in 2003. A series of related federal probes have resulted in convictions of more than a dozen people, including the former city treasurer who tried to trade government contracts with businessmen for gifts, favors and cash. Prosecutors said they unearthed no evidence that the mayor had committed any crime, and he was not charged.
U.S. to send expertsto help with toxic spill
JIAMUSI, China -- The United States said Tuesday that it was sending experts to help China cope with a river-borne toxic spill that is approaching Russia's Far East, while Beijing promised to work closely with Moscow to limit the damage. The Chinese government, meanwhile, promised to severely punish anyone who lied about or tried to cover up the disaster -- Beijing's first acknowledgment that it had a problem with officials trying to hide the extent and impact of the massive spill. The U.S. ambassador to China said the communist government had accepted the offer of an Environmental Protection Agency assessment team that would suggest ways to remedy effects of the 90-mile chemical slick. Addressing business leaders in Hong Kong, Ambassador Clark T. Randt expressed concern that Beijing failed to react quickly enough to the benzene spill, which has disrupted water supplies to millions of people.
Castro delivers speech onElian Gonzalez's birthday
HAVANA -- Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy thrust into the center of an international custody battle six years ago, celebrated his 12th birthday Tuesday listening to a speech by President Fidel Castro. Elian, wearing his school uniform, sat next to Castro at the political event recalling the island's successful campaign to gain custody of the boy from the United States. The speech occurred in the coastal city of Cardenas, where Elian lives with his father, stepmother and younger half siblings. Castro told the crowd he was proud of Elian, saying the boy had become "a leader" at his school as well as a karate devotee in the central city some 85 miles east of Havana. The Cuban leader then devoted much of his two-hour speech to his current anti-corruption campaign. Children in the crowd shouted "Fidel, Fidel," before and after Castro spoke. Elian gained international attention at age 5 after Florida fishermen found him clinging to an inner tube in the ocean.
Associated Press