US doubles aid to Syrian opposition

US doubles aid to Syrian opposition

ISTANBUL

The United States said Sunday that it will double its nonlethal assistance to Syria’s opposition as the rebels’ top supporters vowed to enhance and expand their backing of the two-year battle to oust President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Yet the pledge fell far short of what the opposition had made clear it wanted: weapons and direct military intervention to stop the violence that has killed more than 70,000 people. The Syrian National Coalition had sought drone strikes on sites from which the regime has fired missiles, the imposition of no-fly zones and protected humanitarian corridors to ensure the safety of civilians.

Instead, the Obama administration pledged to provide an additional $123 million in aid, which may include for the first time armored vehicles, body armor, night-vision goggles and other defensive military supplies.

5 snowboarders killed in avalanche

GEORGETOWN, Colo.

Five snowboarders were killed Saturday afternoon after apparently triggering a backcountry avalanche on Colorado’s Loveland Pass, authorities said.

Search and rescue crews recovered the bodies several hours after the slide, which was about 600 feet wide and 8 feet deep, said Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger.

A sixth snowboarder caught in the avalanche was able to dig himself out and call for help, Krueger said. That person’s condition wasn’t immediately known.

FBI: Teen wanted to join terror group

CHICAGO

An Illinois teenager who was friends with a man charged last year with trying to bomb a Chicago bar was arrested at an airport on his way to try to join a terrorist group in war-torn Syria, the FBI said Saturday.

Abdella Ahmad Tounisi was arrested Friday night as he attempted to board a flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Turkey, which borders Syria, the FBI said. He hoped to join Jabhat al-Nusrah, an al-Qaida-affiliated group fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in a bloody civil war.

There are no links between Tounisi and the Boston Marathon bombings earlier in the week, the head of the FBI office in Chicago, Cory B. Nelson, said in a statement announcing the arrest.

Italian president wins second term

ROME

Italy’s octogenarian president, Giorgio Napolitano, was re-elected Saturday for a second term, after he heeded requests from political leaders who this week had repeatedly failed to reach agreement on electing a successor head of state.

Napolitano’s re-election came in the sixth round of secret voting in parliament. Out of 1,007 national and regional lawmakers eligible to vote, 738 backed him, about 50 less than expected but well clear of the necessary threshold of 504.

He is the first Italian president to be elected for a second term.

Iraqis go to polls

BAGHDAD

Iraq carried out its first election since the U.S. military withdrawal without major bloodshed Saturday in a major test for Iraqi security forces as they face a reviving al-Qaida insurgency. But delayed elections in two provinces wracked by anti-government demonstrations and complaints about missing names on voter rolls overshadowed the vote.

The results will be a key measure of support for the country’s vying political coalitions and could boost the victors’ chances heading into next year’s parliamentary elections.

Combined dispatches