Officials: Danger too great to get climbers

Officials: Danger too great to get climbers

SEATTLE

Rescuers likely know the final resting place of six climbers who set out last week to attempt one of the most technical and physically grueling routes to the peak of Mount Rainier in Washington state.

But the danger of recovering the bodies of the two guides and four climbers believed to have fallen 3,300 feet from their last known location is too great, park officials say.

The climbers were last heard from at 6 p.m. Wednesday when the guides checked in with their Seattle-based company, Alpine Ascents International. The group failed to return Friday as planned.

Suspect in museum killings went to Syria

PARIS

A suspected French jihadist who spent time in Syria has been arrested over the shooting deaths of three people at a Belgian Jewish museum, prosecutors said Sunday, crystalizing fears that European radicals will parlay their experiences in Syria into terrorism back home.

When Mehdi Nemmouche was arrested in southern France on Friday, he was in possession of firearms, a large quantity of ammunition and a video claiming responsibility for the May 24 attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, a Belgian prosecutor said.

In a one-minute rampage that deeply shook Europe’s Jewish community, a gunman opened fire at the Brussels museum. In addition to the fatalities, another person was gravely wounded.

Cousteau’s grandson dives into mission

ISLAMORADA, FLA.

Like viewers worldwide, Fabien Cousteau was entranced by his famous grandfather’s films about marine life and human exploration underwater. Now he’s adding to his family’s sea stories with a 31-day underwater expedition in the Florida Keys.

Cousteau dove Sunday to Aquarius Reef Base, a school bus-sized laboratory 60 feet below the ocean’s surface, a few miles off Key Largo. He plans to spend more than a month living underwater with a five-person crew, making a documentary and leading science experiments on the nearby coral reef.

The idea for “Mission 31” came to Cousteau two years ago when he visited Aquarius during a fundraising push to save the lab.

NASA to test ’chute

los angeles

The skies off the Hawaiian island of Kauai will be a stand-in for Mars as NASA prepares to launch a saucer-shaped vehicle in an experimental flight designed to land heavy loads on the red planet.

For decades, robotic landers and rovers have hitched a ride to Earth’s planetary neighbor using the same parachute design. But NASA needs a bigger and stronger parachute if it wants to send astronauts there.

Weather permitting, the space agency will conduct a test flight Tuesday.

Did cook lick food?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

A cook at a New Mexico facility that trains state corrections employees faces battery charges after authorities say she secretly licked sandwiches then served them to probation and parole officers.

KOAT-TV reports Yolanda Arguello was charged after witness interviews at the South Valley New Mexico Women’s Recovery Academy in Albuquerque.

Witnesses said the 59-year-old would take a piece of cheese, lick it and put it on sandwiches at the academy. Another witness told authorities Arguello was seen sucking on an ice cube and putting it back into a cup before handing it to a staff member.

She is charged with three counts of battery on a peace officer.

Associated Press