AP photo helps reunite man, family

AP photo helps reunite man, family

WASHINGTON

Nicholas Simmons disappeared from his parents’ house in a small upstate New York town on New Year’s Day, leaving behind his wallet, cellphone and everything else.

Four days later, an Associated Press photographer, looking for a way to illustrate unusually cold weather, snapped his picture as he warmed himself on a steam grate a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

Paul and Michelle Simmons saw the AP photograph in USA Today on Sunday morning after it was brought to their attention through a Facebook page set up to help find their son, according to police and family friends.

Police picked Simmons up Sunday afternoon and took him to a hospital, said Capt. Patrick Phelan of the Greece, N.Y., police department. Simmons’ father, Paul, and older brother, Paul Jr., arrived in Washington Sunday night and were reunited with Simmons at the hospital, said longtime family friends Peter and Cindy Gugino of Fairfax Station, Va.

Syrian rebels clash with al-Qaida allies

BEIRUT

Syrian opposition fighters battled rival rebels from an al-Qaida-linked faction across parts of northern Syria on Sunday, as deep fissures within the insurgency erupted into some of the most serious and sustained violence between groups opposed to President Bashar Assad since the country’s conflict began.

The clashes, which broke out Friday and have spread to parts of four provinces, pit an array of moderate and ultraconservative Islamist brigades against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an extremist group that has become both feared and resented in parts of opposition-held areas for trying to impose its hardline interpretation of Islam.

1 dead, 1 hurt in NYC high-rise fire

NEW YORK

One man was killed and another was injured in a three-alarm high-rise apartment fire in midtown Manhattan on Sunday, authorities said.

Firefighter spokesman Danny Glover said the fire was reported shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday in an apartment on the 20th floor of a building at 43rd Street and 10th Avenue. About 150 firefighters battled the fire and brought it under control shortly before 1 p.m., Glover said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, which spread heavy smoke to several apartments around the affected apartment, Glover said.

Emergency landing

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport after a flash drive was found in a bathroom.

Airport spokesman Joe McBride says the discovery was made Sunday afternoon as Flight 24 was headed from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

McBride says the Boeing 767 was taken to an area away from the terminal and was being searched. The 227 passengers and crew members were evacuated. McBride says it is “a new day and age since 9/11” and that officials take precautions if something is deemed suspicious.

Associated Press