Iraqis abroad cast votes in key election

Iraqis abroad cast votes in key election

AMMAN, Jordan

Thousands of Iraqis living abroad lined up at polling stations to cast ballots in their homeland’s crucial parliamentary elections Friday, a constituency Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority hope will boost their showing.

Voting was taking place in 16 countries across the globe, from neighboring Syria and Jordan, which are home to the largest Iraqi expatriate communities, to Australia and the United States.

The United Nations refugee agency estimates that around 2 million Iraqis live abroad.

Columbus, Cincy to get airport scanners

BOSTON

The Transportation Security Administration on Friday announced nine more U.S. airports that will receive body-scanning technology, as the U.S. heightens its effort to detect hidden explosives and other weapons amid a threat highlighted by an attempted bombing on Christmas Day.

TSA security director Lee Kair said units will be fielded in the coming months at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; San Jose, Calif.; Columbus, Ohio; San Diego; Charlotte, N.C.; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; and Kansas City.

Frustration mounts in Haiti over aid

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

The world’s bill for the Haitian earthquake is large and growing — now $2.2 billion — and so is the criticism about how the money is being spent.

A half-million homeless received tarps and tents; far more are still waiting under soggy bed sheets in camps that reek of human waste. More than 4.3 million people got emergency food rations; few will be able to feed themselves anytime soon. Medical aid went to thousands, but long-term care isn’t even on the horizon.

International aid groups and officials readily acknowledge they are overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. Haitian leaders — frustrated that billions are bypassing them in favor of U.N. agencies and American and other nongovernmental organizations — are whipping up sentiment against foreign-aid groups.

Bus in fatal accident operated illegally

SACATON, Ariz.

The bus that rolled over on a busy interstate outside Phoenix, killing six people and leaving 16 others injured early Friday, was operating illegally, federal transportation officials said.

The operator of the bus — Van Nuys, Calif.-based Tierra Santa Inc. — was told in April not “to engage in the interstate transportation of passengers by commercial motor vehicle.”

That notice, sent via certified mail, came just days after the company submitted an application to the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to be a passenger carrier. The company’s application was denied Dec. 14, federal officials said.

Tomato prices soar

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

A frigid Florida winter is taking its toll on your sandwich. The Sunshine State is the main U.S. source for fresh winter tomatoes, and its growers lost some 70 percent of their crop during January’s prolonged cold snap. Wholesale prices are up nearly five times over last year.

Crane-crash charge

NEW YORK

A crane-company owner is expected to be charged with manslaughter in a 2008 accident that killed two workers as the top of a 200-foot-tall crane crashed down, a person with knowledge of the investigation said Friday.

James Lomma and his company, New York Crane & Equipment Corp., are expected to face charges as soon as next week in the May 2008 accident, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

ASSOCIATED PRESS