9/11 rescue dog cloned, resulting in 5 puppies

9/11 rescue dog cloned, resulting in 5 puppies

LOS ANGELES — Scientists in California say they have cloned a dog that helped with search-and-rescue after the New York terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001.

Five German shepherd puppies cloned from a dog named Trakr have been delivered to owner James Symington, a former police officer in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who now lives in Los Angeles.

Before Trakr died in April at age 16, Symington entered a contest sponsored by the California company BioArts International that offered to clone a pet dog for free.

Symington took Trakr to New York after the World Trade Center collapsed and said the dog helped find one woman who was still alive.

Evidence points to plane’s having broken up in air

SAO PAULO — Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France disaster victims, injuries that — coupled with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic — strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said Wednesday.

With more than 400 bits of debris recovered from the ocean’s surface, the top French investigator expressed optimism about discovering what brought down Flight 447, but he also called the conditions — far from land in very deep waters — “one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation.”

Tax preparer charged with threatening prosecutor

NEW YORK — A tax preparer already facing charges of stealing from his clients has been arrested on a new charge of threatening to kill the prosecutor on his theft case and dump her body in acid.

Jack Chang sent two threatening letters to Gilda Mariani, chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s money laundering and tax crimes unit, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Mariani, who was prosecuting Chang on an April grand larceny indictment, had helped convict him in a 1995 case.

One letter was delivered to Mariani’s office, and the second, addressed to her husband, was delivered to her home, prosecutors said. One was mailed inside the building where she works, they said.

The letters, which call Mariani evil and refer to her with expletives, contain nearly identical messages threatening her with physical harm and death.

Swine flu hits Pa. school

HERSHEY, Pa. — The Milton Hershey School in south-central Pennsylvania reports that at least five students have tested positive for swine flu, and test results are pending on two more.

School spokeswoman Connie McNamara says nobody was sick enough to be hospitalized, but classes ended a week early and summer programming is being postponed.

Many other children are sick with flulike symptoms, but swine flu is not suspected in any other than the seven that were tested. McNamara says sick children were asked to stay until they recover and about 130 remained on campus Wednesday.

The Milton Hershey School is the nation’s largest private boarding school. It provides free education and housing to children from poor and broken families.

U.S.: Montana town in public-health emergency

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Wednesday it will pump more than $130 million into a Montana town where asbestos contamination has been blamed for more than 200 deaths.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency for the first time has determined there is a public-health emergency in a contaminated community, targeting Libby, Mont., for immediate federal attention.

Jackson’s announcement will not result in an evacuation of Libby’s 2,600 residents but will require an extensive, home-by-home cleanup and better health protections for those with asbestos-related illnesses.

Hamas official praises former President Carter

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A senior Hamas official praised former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday, a day after he met with the group, but said he failed to persuade the Islamic rulers of Gaza to accept international demands, including recognizing Israel.

Carter visited Gaza on Tuesday and urged Hamas leaders to accept the demands to end an international boycott, which was imposed when the militant group overran Gaza two years ago.

Carter’s meeting was itself unusual because of the boycott. The United States, European Union and Israel consider Hamas a terror group and refuse to deal with it directly.

Associated Press