Danny hits the East Coast

Danny hits the East Coast

CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. — People on the East Coast warily eyed the approaching Tropical Storm Danny, which reinforced the dangers of even a weakening storm after a young boy went missing Friday in rough surf.

From the Carolinas to New England, forecasters called for a second consecutive weekend of choppy seas, dangerous rip currents and heavy rains as Danny was expected to pass to the east of the mainland Saturday.

Storm-agitated waters were already proving dangerous Friday along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where the Coast Guard and local authorities spent hours searching for a 12-year-old boy who disappeared while body-boarding. The boy’s mother reported seeing him go underwater off the town of Corolla and the board washing ashore without him. The search was called off at 9 p.m.

Rep: Gadhafi won’t stay in N.J. city during U.S. visit

NEWARK, N.J. — U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman said late Friday he’s been given assurances from a representative of the Libyan government that Moammar Gadhafi won’t stay in Englewood, N.J., when he visits the United States next month to address the U.N. General Assembly, a visit that has sparked angry protests.

The Libyan government has been renovating an estate there ahead of Gadhafi’s first U.S. visit. But Gadhafi is unwelcome in New Jersey, which lost 38 residents in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The attack, which killed 270 people, is widely believed to be the work of Libyan intelligence.

Rothman said he was told of the decision to keep Gadhafi out of Englewood by former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, whose firm represents the Libyan government in Washington, D.C.

Syrian Gitmo detainees transferred to Portugal

MIAMI — The U.S. government on Friday sent two Syrian men from the prison camps at Guantanamo to resettlement in Portugal after years as war-on- terror captives at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

The Justice Department in Washington announced the transfer late Friday in tandem with the Portuguese government in Lisbon, which said it granted the two men “humanitarian asylum” at the “specific request” of the U.S. government.

“These citizens, who expressed interest in being hosted by Portugal, are not subject to any charges,” Portugal’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Iran-bound ship seized

UNITED NATIONS — The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first such seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up, diplomats and officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The seizure earlier this month was carried out in accordance with tough new U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to derail North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program but which also ban the North’s sale of any conventional arms.

Calif. wildfires rage

LOS ANGELES — Firefighters beat back flames licking at ocean-view estates Friday, while another wildfire raged through a dry forest above Los Angeles’ foothill suburbs. Residents nervously watched aircraft drop loads of water and retardant on nearby blazing slopes.

The dramatic success of an overnight air and ground battle against a swift-moving blaze on the Palos Verdes Peninsula was tempered by the threat from an out-of-control fire on the opposite side of Los Angeles in the steep San Gabriel Mountains above the city of La Canada Flintridge.

The 2.3-square-mile fire in Angeles National Forest was among the most dangerous in a siege of wildfires charring thousands of acres of brush from Southern California north to the central coast region and east to the Sierra Nevada.

Disc jockey DJ AM dies

NEW YORK — DJ AM, the sought-after disc jockey who became a celebrity in his own right with high-profile romances and a glamorous lifestyle, was found dead Friday at his apartment, which had drug paraphernalia in it, a law- enforcement official said.

Paramedics had to break down the door to his Manhattan apartment before they found his body about 5:20 p.m., the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because family hadn’t been notified. There was no evidence of foul play, the official said.

DJ AM, 36, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, died nearly a year after surviving a South Carolina plane crash that killed four people and seriously injured rock musician Travis Barker.

Combined dispatches