Officials: Worker killed in Army depot blast died of burns

Officials: Worker killed in Army depot blast died of burns

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa.

A civilian worker killed in a fire and explosion at an Army facility in Pennsylvania died from burns, officials announced Friday. The Lehigh County coroner’s office identified the victim as Eric Byers, a resident of central Pennsylvania.

Byers was pronounced dead just after 7 p.m. Thursday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest. The coroner’s office said Byers, 29, of Satillo, was handling chemicals when a flash fire occurred.

His death was ruled accidental. Four other civilian employees were injured in the fire at Letterkenny Army Depot. The depot’s commander said Friday that two victims remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

NRA sues Seattle over gun-storage law

SEATTLE

The National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation and two Seattle residents are suing the city over its new gun-safety law.

The lawsuit filed Friday in King County Superior Court says that the safe storage requirement violates Washington state law, which prevents cities from regulating guns, the Seattle Times reported.

“Seattle simply can’t break the law to adopt an ordinance as a political statement,” Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb said.

Earlier this month, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed the legislation proposed by Mayor Jenny Durkan to require gun owners to lock up their firearms.

Durkan signed the legislation Wednesday, with the law set to take effect in January.

The law says a gun owner could be fined up to $500 if a firearm isn’t locked up, up to $1,000 if a minor, “at-risk person” or unauthorized user accesses the weapon and up to $10,000 if someone uses the weapon to injure someone or commit a crime.

Man with a knife attacks bus passengers in Germany; 10 hurt

BERLIN

A man armed with a kitchen knife attacked passengers Friday on a crowded city bus in northern Germany before being overpowered and arrested, authorities said. Ten people were injured, three of them seriously.

Authorities had no immediate information on the assailant’s motive for the afternoon attack on a city bus in Luebeck, near the Baltic coast northeast of Hamburg, but said they had no indication that he was politically radicalized or had any terrorist background.

Investigators found a flammable substance in a backpack aboard the bus, but no explosives.

The incident started when the assailant set fire to the backpack, prosecutor Ulla Hingst said at a Friday evening news conference in Luebeck.

Israeli soldier is killed by Palestinian fire near Gaza

JERUSALEM

Israeli airstrikes pummeled Hamas targets in Gaza, killing four Palestinians, mostly Hamas operatives, after Palestinian snipers killed an Israeli soldier near the border Friday, officials said.

The military said a “terrorist squad” fired at troops, and one soldier was severely injured and later died of his wounds. He was the first Israeli military fatality in months of violence along the Gaza border.

After the Palestinian gunfire, Israel’s military said, it struck 25 Hamas positions, including weapon warehouses, command and control centers, training facilities, observation posts and other sites.

The Gaza Health Ministry said four Palestinians were killed. The militant Islamic Hamas that rules Gaza said three of the dead were members of the group. Gaza media reported that gunmen had fired mortars toward the border.

Associated Press