Sweat-lodge dead ID’d

Sweat-lodge dead ID’d

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — Two people who died after sitting for hours in an Arizona spiritual resort’s sauna-like sweat lodge were identified Saturday as a 40-year-old Wisconsin man and a 38-year-old New York woman.

James Shore of Milwaukee and Kirby Brown of Westtown, N.Y., died Thursday night after being overcome in a sweat lodge during a spiritual cleansing ceremony. Nineteen others were taken to area hospitals, suffering from burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest, kidney failure or elevated body temperature. Most were soon released, but one remained in critical condition Saturday.

Authorities haven’t determined what caused the deaths and illnesses but ruled out carbon- monoxide poisoning.

Turkey, Armenia sign diplomacy agreement

ZURICH — Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark agreement Saturday to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed border after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped the two sides clear a last-minute snag.

The contentious issue of whether the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the final days of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide is only hinted at in the agreement.

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers signed the accord in the Swiss city of Zurich after a dispute over the final statements they would make. In the end, the signing took place about three hours later, and there were no spoken statements. Clinton and mediators from Switzerland intervened to help broker a solution, U.S. officials said on condition.

The accord is expected to win ratification from both nations’ parliaments and could lead to a reopening of their border within two months. It has been closed for 16 years.

Iran makes more threats

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran warned Saturday it will enrich uranium to a higher level needed to power a research reactor if talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and world powers fail to help Iran obtain the fuel from abroad.

Such a step would heighten tensions in the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program that already are running high over last month’s revelation that the country is building a second enrichment facility.

The United States and its partners in the negotiations want Tehran to send some of its low enriched uranium to Russia to further process the material for use in a medical research reactor in the Iranian capital.

Crash site reached

FONDS-PARISIEN, Haiti — U.N. helicopters on Saturday reached the remote site of a plane crash that killed 11 peacekeepers when a surveillance flight slammed into a mountain in eastern Haiti.

All onboard died after the CASA C-212 twin engine turboprop aircraft went down Friday afternoon near the border with the Dominican Republic, about 30 miles from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

The plane came to rest on an isolated mountainside near a farming town, Peyi Mouri, meaning “dead country” in Haitian Creole. Two U.N. helicopters were able to land near the site Saturday morning, and peacekeepers began the process of bringing bodies back to Port-au-Prince, mission spokesman David Wimhurst said.

The victims were Uruguayan and Jordanian troops serving with the 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force that has been in Haiti since a 2004 rebellion ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Six Uruguayan soldiers were killed in the crash, including the pilot and co-pilot, Uruguay’s minister of defense told local media.

Associated Press