CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) —
POLICE BARRACKS SHOOTING
UPDATE: Police taking precautions in ambush suspect search
CANADENSIS, Pa. (AP) — Officers in bulletproof vests and armed with rifles continue to scour a remote part of northeastern Pennsylvania for an elusive suspect in the deadly ambush at a state police barracks.
One trooper was killed and another wounded in the shooting nine days ago. Police appeared to have narrowed their search, largely shutting down the area where Eric Frein (freen) lived with his parents.
Frein is now on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
A state police spokeswoman says troopers are exercising extreme caution and are determined to find Frein and bring him to justice.
Authorities have lifted a shelter in place order but are urging residents returning home to use caution and to stay out of the dense, boggy woodlands where the search is underway.
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
Teams assess damage as California wildfire grows
POLLOCK PINES, Calif. (AP) — Officials say assessment teams are checking to see how many structures have been destroyed or damaged from a massive wildfire that is threatening thousands of homes in Northern California.
Nearly 5,000 firefighters from as far away as Florida and Alaska are helping California crews battle the King Fire that’s not only consuming grass and brush but stretches of tall timber as well.
The fire has spread to the Tahoe National Forest northwest of Lake Tahoe. It’s also threatening a key University of California, Berkeley research station that his home to scores of experiments on trees, plants and other wildlife.
The fire has consumed about 128 square miles and is only 10 percent contained.
The blaze drove 2,800 people from their homes although about 100 evacuees have been allowed to return.
A 37-year-old man accused of setting the blaze has pleaded not guilty to arson charges. He’s being held on $10 million bail.
WHITE HOUSE INTRUDER-SECRET SERVICE
Secret Service boosts security outside White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the U.S. Secret Service has ordered stepped-up security outside the White House after a man with a knife jumped the fence and made it all the way inside the presidential residence before being apprehended.
The Secret Service says Director Julia Pierson has ordered enhanced officer patrols and surveillance along the North Fence of the White House. The measures took effect Friday evening after the incident.
Pierson has also ordered a comprehensive review of the incident. The Secret Service says it’s unacceptable that the suspect made it so far before being arrested.
Another man was arrested Saturday outside the White House in an unrelated event.
White House spokesman Frank Benenati says President Barack Obama has full confidence in the Secret Service. He says the White House expects the review to be performed with the professionalism and commitment Americans expect from the Secret Service.
MARS MAVEN
NEW: NASA’s Maven explorer arriving at Mars after year
UNDATED (AP) — It’s show time at Mars.
NASA’s Maven spacecraft is on track to reach the red planet late Sunday night following a journey spanning 10 months and 442 million miles.
If all goes well, the robotic explorer will slip into Martian orbit for a year or more of atmospheric study. It’s designed to circle the planet, not land.
Maven will be the first spacecraft to focus on the upper atmosphere of Mars. Scientists believe the Martian atmosphere holds clues as to how Earth’s neighbor went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry. That early wet world may have harbored microbial life, a tantalizing question yet to be answered.
The $671 million mission began with a launch from Cape Canaveral last November.
SPACE STATION
SpaceX launches 3-D printer, other station gear
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX cargo ship is rocketing toward the International Space Station.
The company launched its unmanned Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Sunday aboard a Falcon rocket. It’s carrying more than 5,000 pounds of station supplies for NASA, including a 3-D printer, the first one bound for orbit.
Dragon will reach the space station Tuesday. It’s the fifth station shipment for the California-based SpaceX.
Sunday’s weather was ideal for flying, unlike Saturday, when rain forced a delay.
The 3-D printer was developed by Made in Space, a California company. It’s sturdier than Earthly models to withstand the stresses of launch, and meets NASA’s strict safety standards. NASA envisions astronauts one day cranking out spare parts as needed. For now, it’s a technology demonstrator.
AS-AFGHANISTAN
UPDATE: Afghan presidential candidates sign power deal
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s two presidential candidates have signed a power-sharing deal for the roles of president and chief executive three months after a disputed runoff that threatened to plunge the country into turmoil and complicate the withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops.
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who will become president, and Abdullah Abdullah signed the national unity government deal as outgoing President Hamid Karzai watched. The deal follows weeks of negotiations on a power-sharing arrangement following accusations of fraud in the June runoff vote.
The deal is a victory for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who first got the candidates to agree in principle to share power during a July visit.
The inauguration to replace Karzai — who has been in power since late 2001 — is expected within days.
G20 FINANCE MINISTERS
G-20 says close to goal of $2 trillion in growth
SYDNEY (AP) — Finance chiefs from the 20 largest economies say they are close to reaching their goal of boosting world GDP by more than $2 trillion over the next five years.
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey is the host of the Group of 20 meeting in the northern Australian city of Cairns. He said on Sunday that the G-20 finance ministers and central bankers had agreed to more than 900 policy initiatives to meet the goal they set earlier this year.
The G-20 said an analysis of those initiatives show they should boost the combined gross domestic product of member countries by 1.8 percent above levels expected for the next five years. That’s just short of the group’s target of 2 percent.
ESCAPED INMATES
Authorities: 5 inmates escape from California jail, 4 caught
MADERA, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say four of five inmates who escaped from a central California jail have been caught.
Madera County sheriff’s spokeswoman Erica Stuart says the four were captured Saturday night, about 24 hours after they escaped from a county jail. No further details were available.
She says 33-year-old Juan Lopez, 26-year-old Jorge Lopez-Diaz, 25-year-old Abel Ramos and 19-year-old Ricardo Cendejas are all now in custody. All are from Madera.
Twenty-nine-year-old Roel Soliz of Chowchilla remains at large.
The men were being held in custody on various charges including attempted murder and armed robbery. It’s unclear how they escaped.
GENERAL MOTORS-RECALL
GM recalls 221,558 sedans for fire risk
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling 221,558 Cadillac XTS and Chevrolet Impala sedans because the brake pads can stay partially engaged even when they’re not needed, increasing the risk of a fire.
The recall involves Cadillacs from the 2013-2015 model years and Impalas from the 2014 and 2015 model years. There are 205,309 vehicles affected in the U.S.; the rest of the vehicles are in Canada and elsewhere.
GM says the electronic parking brake arm that applies pressure to the back of the brake pads may not fully retract after use. If the brake pads stay partially engaged with the rotor, excessive brake heat may result in a fire.
GM says it knows of no accidents or injuries related to the defect.
GM will notify owners and repair the vehicles for free.
SYRIA
Kurdish fighters enter Syria from Turkey to counter advance by Islamic State group
BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say hundreds of Kurdish fighters are crossing into Syria from Turkey to defend a Kurdish area under attack by Islamic State militants.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local Kurdish officials say hundreds of fighters have been streaming into the Kobani area in northern Syria. Islamic State insurgents have barreled through the area over the past week, seizing villages and forcing thousands of Syrian Kurds to flee.
Syrian Kurdish fighters had been successfully fighting off the militants for the past two years. They even clashed with the Islamic State group’s fighters in northern Iraq, carving a safe passage for thousands of embattled Iraqis of the Yazidi minority.
But the tide changed this month, as Islamic State fighters used weapons and armor seized from Iraqi soldiers to advance into the Kobani area.
Kurdish officials are appealing for international assistance.
LEBANON
State media: Suicide car bomber kills 3 in Lebanon
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s state media says that three people were killed in a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint manned by the Shiite Hezbollah militia.
The NNA news agency said the bomber detonated his explosives-rigged vehicle on Saturday at the checkpoint about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from the Syria border.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the casualties were bystanders or Hezbollah fighters.
It was the first such bombing since February. The attack was likely linked to the war in neighboring Syria.
Sunni militants, including the Islamic State group, are trying to punish the Iranian-backed Hezbollah because its fighters are battling alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The neighboring Syrian conflict has taken on sectarian overtones, with mostly Sunni rebels fighting to overthrow Assad.
Sunni militants claimed responsibility for previous bombings in Lebanon.
CHINA-FUGITIVES ABROAD
China says 88 fugitives returned from abroad
BEIJING (AP) — China’s police ministry says 88 fugitives wanted for graft, fraud and other economic offenses have been extradited or returned on their own from the United States, Canada and other countries.
The ministry said Sunday that one fugitive had spent 14 years in Canada and was accused of embezzling 60 million yuan ($10 million). A ministry statement said another was arrested in Thailand and others “were persuaded” to return from the United States, Belgium and other countries.
The government of President Xi Jinping is in the midst of the latest in a series of crackdowns dating back two decades against chronic and pervasive official corruption.
In July, authorities launched a campaign dubbed Fox Hunt 2014 to track down official corruption suspects who have fled abroad.
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