Atlantic Ocean storm could threaten gulf later in week
A tropical-storm warning was in effect Sunday for the Cayman Islands as a tropical depression moved through the Atlantic on a path that could threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast this week as a hurricane, forecasters said.
The system was expected to become Tropical Storm Wilma by today, which would make it the 21st named storm of the season, tying the record for the most storms in an Atlantic season, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
The only other time so many storms have formed since record- keeping began 154 years ago was in 1933.
Sunday evening, the depression was centered about 155 miles southeast of Grand Cayman, forecasters said. It was moving west-northwest near 2 mph and had sustained winds near 35 mph. Depressions become tropical storms when their winds reach 39 mph.
Long-term forecasts show the storm would likely move west and north, putting the storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday or Friday. Forecasters said water temperature and other conditions were favorable for it to become a significant hurricane.
Winds compound
flooding problems
Emergency and utility crews across the Northeast worked Sunday to repair the damage caused by several days of rain and floods, but strong winds continued to cause problems.
In a signal to storm-weary residents that the worst was over, Gov. Mitt Romney lifted a state- of-emergency declaration. New Jersey’s emergency declaration was lifted Saturday night.
Parts of the Northeast have received more than a foot of rain since Oct. 7. The storm system killed at least 12 people from Pennsylvania to Maine. The latest death was discovered Sunday in Connecticut, where authorities said 54-year-old Elizabeth Cunningham fell into the rapids of the Natchaug River.
DeLay’s war chest
rises to $1.2 million
Cash in the campaign coffers of Rep. Tom DeLay rose to $1.2 million over the past three months, although much of the money came before the former majority leader was indicted in Texas.
DeLay raised about $920,000 in the three months that ended Sept. 30 in anticipation of a March primary race. His Democratic challenger in the November 2006 election is expected to be former Rep. Nick Lampson, who lost his seat in 2004 after he was forced to run in a new district under a redistricting plan pushed by DeLay.
An aide said Sunday that the fundraising set a record for DeLay. His previous three-month top haul was $800,000.
Trapped 600-pound man dies in fire
A fire destroyed a mobile home, killing a 600-pound, homebound man who could not be moved out in time despite the efforts of neighbors and firefighters.
Timothy Lee Morris, 45, called 911 from his home when it caught fire Saturday afternoon. His daughters, ages 8 and 13, summoned neighbors, pleading for them to help free their father.
“He was in the front room. We tried and tried to yank him out,” said a neighbor. “He kept saying, ‘Help,’ but we couldn’t get him out.”
Police and firefighters eventually were able to put Morris on a backboard and slide him out the front door. Morris suffered from several health problems, including breathing complications, and apparently died from smoke inhalation.
Inmate-ignited fire
kills 32, injures 2
A fire set by feuding inmates raged through a cellblock at a prison southeast of Buenos Aires early Sunday, killing 32 inmates and leaving two jailers injured.
All the deaths appeared to have been caused by asphyxiation after inmates were overcome by smoke, said Justice Minister Eduardo Di Rocco.
Di Rocco said inmates first began fighting just before midnight and then set mattresses and blankets on fire. The fire spread through one of several cellblocks in the sprawling prison in Magdalena, 45 miles southeast of Buenos Aires.
50 fired for suspected ballot-box stuffing
Election authorities said Sunday they have fired about 50 employees for suspected fraud in last month’s legislative polls, while human-rights advocates warned that about half of the winning candidates are believed to have links to armed groups.
The latest fighting, meanwhile, left eight insurgents dead.
The suspected election fraud cast a shadow on Afghanistan’s latest step toward democracy. About 680 ballot boxes, or 3 percent of the vote, were taken out of the counting process because of suspicions they were stuffed, said Richard Atwood, chief of operations for the joint U.N.-Afghan election commission.
Buddhist monk, two
temple boys killed
About 20 suspected Muslim separatists stormed a monastery, hacked an elderly Buddhist monk to death and fatally shot two temple boys Sunday in southern Thailand.
Two police officers and six other people were killed in separate incidents across Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, where more than 1,000 people have been killed since a centurylong struggle for an independent state reignited in 2004.
Buddhist temples in the region are typically well-guarded by soldiers and local volunteers, but eight guards left the temple in Pattani province two weeks ago because of a funding shortage, police Maj. Narucha Suwallapa said.
“The insurgents are very cruel. They killed the monk, the temple boys, and set fire to the monks’ living quarters,” Narucha said.
Four monks escaped the attack unhurt.
Two large statues at the temple were decapitated, according to a report by the state-run Thai News Agency.
