More deaths blamed on wintry storm

More deaths blamed on wintry storm

DALLAS

A slow-moving wintry storm system that has been blamed for more than a dozen deaths began moving eastward out of Texas on Saturday but kept coating some states to the north in ice, making driving dangerous.

The band of storms that has been moving through parts of the Plains and the Midwest since Thursday has been blamed for at least 14 deaths, including eight in Texas and six in Kansas. A 70-year-old woman whose car was swept away by flash flooding Friday in Fort Worth remained missing Saturday.

Although the icy conditions were expected to persist in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas through the end of Saturday, temperatures today were expected to be above freezing in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, allowing the region to thaw out, the National Weather Service said.

2 suicide bombings kill 5 in Cameroon

YAOUNDE, Cameroon

Two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a town in north Cameroon, killing at least five people and injuring 12 others, a military official said Saturday.

Col. Jacob Kodji, who leads Cameroon troops fighting against Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremist group, said two teenagers targeted a family and local shop in the town of Dabanga near Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. He said the suicide bombers were Nigerians who came to Cameroon as refugees. Cameroon has expelled thousands of refugees.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, though they are in line with others launched by Boko Haram which has expanded attacks into Cameroon, Chad and Niger – all countries contributing troops to a regional force intended to wipe out the extremists.

Officials ID waitress killed over cigarette

BILOXI, Miss.

A Mississippi Waffle House waitress who was shot and killed after asking a customer not to smoke was a 52-year-old who spent some of her final moments asking patrons how they enjoyed their Thanksgiving, authorities and witnesses said.

Julia Brightwell of Biloxi was killed with a bullet to the head, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove said in an email Sunday.

Johnny Max Mount was jailed with bond set at $2 million. Biloxi police charged him with first-degree murder, saying he shot Brightwell early Friday after she asked him not to smoke.

Migrants clash with Macedonian police

IDOMENI, Greece

Migrants on the Greek-Macedonian border attacked police with stones Saturday, enraged by the sight of Macedonian authorities erecting a fence along the border and an accident that injured a young Moroccan man.

Authorities said 18 Macedonian officers were injured in the brief but intense clashes. Most of them received minor injuries, but two were hospitalized in the nearby town of Gevgelija, Macedonia’s Interior Ministry said.

Associated Press