U.N.: SYRIA NOT ANSWERING QUESTIONS
» Syria is UNITED NATIONS still failing to answer questions about its chemical weapons program, years after becoming a party to the chemical weapons convention, members of the U.N. Security Council said Wednesday.
Swedish Ambassador Olof Skoog, the current council president, said many members raised the issue during a closed meeting on Syria’s chemical weapons at which U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu gave a briefing by video.
Britain’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Jonathan Allen, said before the meeting that members would be discussing “how to ensure the Syrian regime dismantles their chemical weapons program.”
Men plead no contest in deadly California warehouse fire.
OAKLAND, CALIF.»
As grieving relatives of victims watched and sobbed, two men each pleaded no contest Tuesday to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a devastating fire at a dilapidated California warehouse that occurred during an unpermitted concert.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, Derick Almena could be sentenced to nine years in prison and Max Harris could receive a six-year sentence. A judge will sentence them at a later date.
With good behavior, both men are only expected to serve half their sentences. They have been in jail for a year.
David Gregory, whose 20-year-old daughter, Michela Gregory, was among the 36 victims, said that hearing the defendants say no contest was “some small sense of justice.” Still, he was dissatisfied with the outcome.
Alan Diaz, AP photographer behind Elian image, dies at 71.
MIAMI» Retired Associated Press photojournalist Alan Diaz, whose photo of a terrified 6-year-old Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez earned him the Pulitzer Prize, has died. He was 71.
Diaz’s daughter, Aillette Rodriguez-Diaz, confirmed that he died. The cause of death wasn’t immediately known.
“He was the king of the family,” Rodriguez-Diaz said. “He cared about all of his friends and colleagues. His life was photography and my mother.”
Diaz’s wife, Martha, died nearly two years ago.
Diaz’s iconic image shows an armed U.S. immigration agent confronting the boy in the Little Havana home where he lived with relatives after being found floating off the Florida coast.
Contaminated heroin putting users at risk in L.A.
ANGELES» Authorities LOS say black tar heroin in Los Angeles may be contaminated with bacteria that can cause death, putting injection drug users at greatest risk.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health says Tuesday it’s investigating three suspected cases of wound botulism from heroin use.
The illness can be mistaken for a drug overdose and includes symptoms including drooping eyelids, blurred vision and trouble breathing.
Officials warn that contaminated drugs look the same as drugs that do not contain bacteria. And “cooking,” or heating, the heroin will not kill the bacteria.
Botulism can spread between users who share needles. — Denver Post wire