Multicar pileups claim 4 lives in Pa.

Multicar pileups claim 4 lives in Pa.

PHILADELPHIA

Several multicar crashes — including one pileup involving dozens of vehicles — in icy conditions on interstates in the Philadelphia area claimed at least four lives and injured dozens Sunday as hundreds of crashes were reported across eastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.

State police in Philadelphia said one man was hit when he got out of his disabled vehicle on Interstate 76 at about 6:40 a.m. Sunday and was hit by another vehicle. Officials said that crash and ensuing crashes involved about 60 vehicles on the icy roadway, injuring about 30 people.

Police in neighboring Delaware County said two men were killed when their vehicles hit a tractor-trailer that that lost control due to ice in the southbound lanes of Interstate 476. Police said 15 vehicles were involved.

Police in Pike County in northeastern Pennsylvania said a man was killed after his vehicle overturned on an icy road and he was thrown from it and hit by a commercial vehicle. A 12-year-old boy also thrown from the vehicle was critically injured.

Record 6 million attend Manila Mass

MANILA, Philippines

A crowd estimated at a record 6 million people by officials poured into Manila’s rain-soaked streets and its biggest park Sunday as Pope Francis ended his Asian pilgrimage with an appeal for Filipinos to protect their young from sin and vice so they instead can become missionaries of the faith.

The crowd estimate, which could not be independently verified, included people who attended the pope’s final Mass in Rizal Park and surrounding areas, and lined his motorcade route, said the chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Francis Tolentino.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the Vatican had received the figure officially from local authorities and that it was a record.

Israeli strikes kill son of commander

BEIRUT

An Israeli strike in Syria on Sunday killed the son of a slain top Hezbollah commander and at least five other fighters in a move that could ratchet up tensions with the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, which recently boasted of rockets that can hit any part of the Jewish state.

Hezbollah militants in towns and villages along the border with Israel went on high alert, said an official from the group. In the Shiite-dominated areas of south Lebanon and Beirut, the streets emptied quickly as residents feared an escalation.

Mali says Ebola outbreak has ended

BAMAKO, Mali

Mali’s health minister says the West African country is Ebola-free after recording no new cases for 42 days, the period required for the World Health Organization to declare an outbreak officially over. Health Minister Ousmane Kone made the announcement in a statement Sunday night.

Mali recorded its first Ebola case in October, then nearly eradicated the disease before a new wave of cases occurred in November.

Stuart Loory dies; helped build CNN

Journalist Stuart Loory, who covered the White House in the 1960s and ’70s for the Los Angeles Times and helped build CNN, died Friday at his home in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was 82. The cause of death was lung cancer, said his son, Joshua.

Loory, who joined the Washington bureau of The Times in 1967 during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, was one of the reporters on the Nixon White House’s enemies list that was released in 1973 by the Senate Watergate Committee.

Combined dispatches