Truce largely holds, but six are killed

Truce largely holds, but six are killed

BEIRUT

Syrian forces used live fire, tear gas and clubs to beat back tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets across the country Friday in powerful and often jubilant displays of defiance. But a U.N.-brokered truce largely held up without the widespread, bloody offensives that have pushed the nation toward civil war. Activists said security forces killed at least six people, a lower-than-usual toll. The rallies, described as some of the largest in months, stretched from the suburbs of Damascus to the central province of Hama, Idlib in the north and the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising began in March 2011.

Conditions ripe for tornadoes today

OKLAHOMA CITY

In an unusually early and strong warning, national weather forecasters cautioned Friday that conditions are ripe for violent tornadoes to rip through the nation from Texas to Minnesota this weekend. As states across the middle of the country prepared for the worst, storms were already kicking off in Norman, Okla., where a twister whizzed by the nation’s tornado forecasting headquarters but caused little damage.

Woman rescued by NJ mayor

NEWARK, N.J.

In a smoky stairwell, with embers falling from the ceiling and his neighbor slung over his shoulder, Cory Booker called it his “proverbial come-to-Jesus moment.” The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city was carrying out a constituent he had rushed into a burning home to save, first pushing aside his security detail who tried to hold him back by his belt. He didn’t feel like a hero: “I felt terror,” he told reporters Friday, holding a children’s fire-safety video with his burned, bandaged right hand.

Salmonella cases linked to tuna

WASHINGTON

The government says a yellowfin tuna product used to make dishes such as sushi and sashimi sold at restaurants and grocery stores has been linked with an outbreak of salmonella that has sickened more than 100 people in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

The Food and Drug Administration reported Friday that 116 illnesses have been reported, including 12 people who have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

Vigil for slain NH police chief

GREENLAND, N.H

Michael Maloney was only a few days from retirement as chief of a small-town New Hampshire police department. After more than a quarter-century in law enforcement, he was eager to begin the next chapter of his life.

But there was one more thing he had to do. One final drug bust that would rid a neighborhood of its menace.

Maloney was trying to serve a search warrant Thursday night when a suspect opened fire, killing the 48-year-old chief, injuring four officers from other departments, and plunging the southeastern New Hampshire community of Greenland into a grief that residents say they won’t soon get over.

After a tense overnight standoff, the suspected gunman, Cullen Mutrie, and a female acquaintance were found dead in the home early Friday in an apparent murder-suicide or double suicide.

The chief’s death rocked a seven-member force more accustomed to reports of burglar alarms and barking dogs than violent crime. Maloney was liked, respected and less than two weeks from retirement.

Associated Press