Massive fire engulfs century-old church
Massive fire engulfs century-old church
PHILADELPHIA
A massive fire engulfed a century-old Gothic church that hosted many programs for young children and gay worshipers, but no injuries were reported.
The fire was reported Monday morning at a Presbyterian church in the city’s Overbrook neighborhood. Firefighters were on the scene in two minutes and needed about two hours to bring the fire under control.
Congregant Sherry Neal-Browne, who lives a block away, heard commotion and went outside to see flames shooting from the church’s front door and side windows and heavy black smoke pouring from its roof.
“It’s engulfed. It’s burning down right before our very eyes. It’s just very hard to see,” Neal-Browne said.
FEMA criticized over response to La. flooding
BATON ROUGE, La.
The first out-of-state congressman to survey Louisiana’s damage from catastrophic flooding Monday blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency response as “pitiful.”
U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican who chairs a subcommittee with jurisdiction over FEMA, toured the destruction with U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican who represents much of the most heavily damaged region.
Mica said housing aid for the tens of thousands of people displaced by floodwaters two weeks ago has been sluggish and FEMA has been too slow to set up mobile homes that give people somewhere to stay while they repair their houses.
US meets target of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees
WASHINGTON
The United States on Monday met President Barack Obama’s goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country, the White House announced.
Obama sought a sixfold increase in the number of Syrian refugees provided safe haven in the United States. After a slow start, the administration was able to hit the goal about a month early and just a few weeks before Obama convenes a summit on refugees during the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Obama would have been hard-pressed to make the case for other countries to do more with the U.S. failing to reach a goal that amounts to only about 2 percent of the 480,000 Syrian refugees in need of resettlement. Millions more Syrians have fled to neighboring states such as Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon and to countries in Europe since the civil war broke out in 2011.
Cease-fire takes effect in Colombia under accord
BOGOTA, Colombia
A permanent cease-fire took effect in Colombia on Monday, a major step in bringing an end to 52 years of bloody combat between the government and the country’s biggest rebel group.
The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced Sunday that his fighters would cease hostilities beginning at 12:01 a.m. as a result of the peace accord the two sides reached at midweek. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made a similar announcement Friday, saying the military would halt attacks on the FARC beginning Monday.
“Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,” FARC leader Rodrigo Londono said Sunday night from Havana, where peace talks aimed at ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts have been taking place since 2012. “All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past.”
Associated Press