Foxx: No need to park recalled GM cars

Foxx: No need to park recalled GM cars

DETROIT

There’s no need to tell owners of recalled General Motors small cars to stop driving them, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

In a written response to two senators who asked for such an order, Foxx said that engineers with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have determined it’s not necessary.

GM is recalling 2.6 million small cars worldwide to replace ignition switches that suddenly can slip out of the run position and shut off the engine.

That can knock out power-assisted steering and cause drivers to lose control and crash.

Police: Fire at home was arson; 4 dead

The fire at a Florida mansion belonging to a former tennis star was intentionally set and four bodies were found in the charred remains, police said Wednesday.

The victims were described as two adults and two teenagers, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Col. Donna Lusczynski said. She described the fire as unusual and said there were “various fireworks” throughout the Tampa Bay-area home.

Two of the victims appeared to have suffered from upper-body trauma, but Lusczynski didn’t indicate which ones or give any more details. She also said no weapons had been found and that murder-suicide was a possibility.

Former tennis standout James Blake had been renting the home to a family for about the past two years, and was not there at the time of the fire, Lusczynski said.

Rebels surrender

BEIRUT

Carrying their rifles and small bags of belongings, hundreds of exhausted Syrian rebels withdrew Wednesday from their last remaining strongholds in the heart of Homs, surrendering to President Bashar Assad a bloodstained city that was once the center of the revolt against him.

For Assad, it is a powerful victory ahead of presidential elections. For the rebels, the dramatic exit after two years of enduring grueling assaults and siege captures their sense of abandonment amid world reluctance to help shift the balance of power on the ground.

The exit of some 1,200 fighters and civilians marks a de-facto end of the rebellion in the war-shattered city

Colo. lawmakers OK plan for pot banking

Colorado lawmakers approved the world’s first financial system for the marijuana industry Wednesday, a network of uninsured cooperatives designed to give pot businesses a way to access basic banking services.

The plan seeks to move the marijuana industry away from its cash-only roots.

Banks routinely reject pot businesses for even basic services such as checking accounts because they fear running afoul of federal law, which considers marijuana and its proceeds illegal.

Chinese ships ram Vietnamese vessels

HANOI, VIETNAM

Chinese ships have been ramming into and firing water cannons at Vietnamese vessels trying to stop Beijing from putting an oil rig in the South China Sea, according to officials and video footage Wednesday, in a dangerous escalation of tensions over waters considered a global flashpoint.

Several boats have been damaged, and at least six Vietnamese on board them have been injured, officials said.

The United States said it was concerned and accused China of ramping up tensions in that area.

Associated Press