U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | NOAA: Record 312 tornadoes in 1 day

NOAA: Record 312 tornadoes in 1 day

WASHINGTON

Preliminary government estimates say there were more tornadoes in a single day last week than any other day in U.S. history.

Government analysts said Monday there were 362 tornadoes during last week’s outbreak, including a record-setting 312 in one 24-hour period.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the largest previous number on record in one event occurred April 3-4, 1974, with 148 tornadoes.

NOAA says 340 people were killed during the 24-hour-period from 8:00 a.m. Wednesday to Thursday.

8 from Boy Scout troop missing

LANGLEY, Ark.

Authorities searched an Arkansas wilderness area Monday for a group of Louisiana Boy Scouts believed to be stranded behind rain-swollen waterways.

No one has heard from the six Scouts and two troop leaders since Thursday, when they arrived at the Albert Pike Recreation Area, a remote area with little cellphone coverage. State police dispatched a helicopter to help locate the boys, but strong winds and low clouds forced the chopper to turn back before it reached the forest. Search crews planned to patrol nearby roadways overnight late Monday and early today, but no one was to go into the woods on foot in the dark.

Court hears case on Obama’s birth

PASADENA, Calif.

Leaders of the so-called “birther” movement argued their case over President Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship before a federal appeals court Monday in Southern California, claiming the full birth certificate he released last week had been doctored.

Obama’s production of the vital record was aimed at quashing any lingering doubt among critics who contend he shouldn’t have been elected because he couldn’t prove he was a citizen — a prerequisite for the nation’s highest office.

But it has not deterred Orly Taitz, an attorney at the forefront of the birther movement. On Monday, Taitz told a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the long-form birth certificate released by Obama is “not a true and correct image.”

“It’s very inventive computer art,” she said.

Taitz and attorney Gary Kreep, on behalf of more than 40 plaintiffs, are seeking to revive a lawsuit challenging Obama’s citizenship that was dismissed by U.S. District Judge David Carter in late 2009. They asked the panel to remand the suit to Carter in Orange County.

Associated Press