Mich. house fire kills 4 kids

Mich. house fire kills 4 kids

FLINT, Mich. — A fire that apparently started after a man fell asleep while cooking swept through an apartment building, killing the man’s young child and three others he was baby-sitting, authorities said.

The fire started about 11 p.m. Saturday in a kitchen in one of the building’s six townhouses, said Rod Slaughter, executive director of the Flint Housing Commission.

Neighbors spotted flames and smoke, and banged on the doors of the unit to wake the 28-year-old father, who escaped through a first-floor window, Fire Battalion Chief Andy Graves said.

They unsuccessfully tried to coax one of the children to jump from a second-floor window.

“They were able to reach one child, but they couldn’t get her to jump,” Graves said Sunday.

The children were between the ages of 1 and 4 years old.

FAA: Chopper crash kills 3

PHOENIX — A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman says a helicopter crashed in Phoenix, killing a child and two adults.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor says the Eurocopter EC135 went down Sunday afternoon in a rural area known as Cave Creek. He says the helicopter caught fire after crashing.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lindsey Smith said the helicopter was privately owned.

It was registered to Services Group of America in Scottsdale, Ariz., a large privately held foodservice and real-estate firm. Calls to a company spokesman weren’t immediately returned.

Weather halts search for Alaska avalanche victim

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Rain, low clouds and predicted high winds Sunday grounded searchers seeking the body of a ConocoPhillips Alaska employee missing and presumed dead in an avalanche that killed the head of the company.

The avalanche around noon Saturday on the Kenai Peninsula buried Jim Bowles, 57, head of ConocoPhillips Alaska, and Alan Gage, 39, part of the company’s capital projects team in Anchorage. Gage remains missing.

The men were in a party of 12 snowmobilers in the Grandview wilderness area, part of the Chugach National Forest.

Bowles was buried for 45 minutes before companions using avalanche beacons dug him out. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Oldest US death-row inmate is dead at 94

PHOENIX — Deaf, nearly blind, confined to a wheelchair and suffering from dementia and mental illness, the oldest death-row inmate in the United States has died of natural causes at age 94.

Viva Leroy Nash died Friday at the state’s prison complex in Florence, said an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman.

Nash was still officially on death row, but spokesman Barrett Marson said Sunday he did not know if Nash died in his cell or in a medical facility at the prison.

Nash had been imprisoned almost continuously since he was 15, said one of his appellate attorneys, Thomas Phalen.

US seeks support for tougher stand against Iran

DOHA, Qatar — U.S. officials sought to shore up support Sunday for a tougher stand against Iran’s nuclear program by saying Tehran had left the world little choice and expressing renewed confidence that holdout China would come around to harsher U.N. penalties.

Even as the Obama administration intensifies its diplomacy, Iran is showing little sign of bending to the will of its critics. Past U.N. sanctions have had little effect. Some outside experts have detected what they believe are new slowdowns in Iran’s nuclear advances, but the Islamic republic is believed headed toward having nuclear weapons capability in perhaps a few years — estimates vary as to when.

President Barack Obama’s senior military adviser called for more time for diplomatic pressure to work and said from Israel, which has hinted that it might attack if negotiations to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions failed, that such action could have “unintended consequences” throughout the Middle East. Israel views Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its very existence.

Astronauts move lookout

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The International Space Station’s new observation deck is going for a ride.

Astronauts on the shuttle-station complex were to use a giant robot arm Sunday night to move the domed lookout from one side of the newly installed Tranquility room to the other.

On Saturday, bolts prevented the astronauts from attaching a thermal cover between Tranquility and the deck. Space station commander Jeffrey Williams removed the bolts and secured the hatch cover over Tranquility’s docking mechanisms early Sunday.

Associated Press