Hundreds evacuated as Montana wildfire spreads
Big Timber, Mont. – An enormous wildfire that has prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people continued to spread Monday, a Forest Service official said.
“We’re still working on this thing on all fronts,” said Dixie Dees, a fire information officer.
The fire, in south-central Montana, has burned 26 homes and is classified as the nation’s No. 1 firefighting priority. It has spread across 180,000 acres, or more than 280 square miles, since lightning sparked it Aug. 22. It was about 20 percent contained, officials said.
About 265 homes were evacuated Sunday night on the western flank of the blaze, said Kelly O’Connell, Sweetgrass County disaster and emergency services coordinator.
Fire officials feared that wind and higher temperatures this week would create extreme fire conditions.
About 770 firefighters and support personnel are working the blaze, on the ground and with helicopters and heavy air tankers.
Fire officials have ordered more people and equipment to help fight the fire in anticipation of a difficult week.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
Forecast favorable for Wednesday launch
After more than a week of storm delays, NASA may be getting its best shot weather-wise for launching space shuttle Atlantis, officials said Monday.
There was only a 20 percent chance that weather would prohibit the shuttle from blasting off at 12:28 p.m. Wednesday as planned, said Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer.
The window Wednesday opens before Florida’s afternoon summer thunderstorms normally blow through, and a tropical depression brewing in the Atlantic wasn’t expected to interfere.
If Atlantis doesn’t lift off Wed nesday, NASA will try again Thursday and also Friday.
MIAMI
Tropical depression may be upgraded
A tropical depression brewing over the open Atlantic was nearing tropical-storm strength Monday night, forecasters said.
At 9 p.m. MDT, it had sustained winds of 35 mph, 4 mph shy of becoming a tropical storm and the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
It was centered about 1,100 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, moving northwest at 13 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
The depression will be named Florence if it reaches tropical- storm strength. Forecasters said it was expected to do so today.
It comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Ernesto, briefly the season’s first Atlantic hurricane.
HOWELL, Mich.
Judge: Jury-ducker plagiarized paper
As far as the judge was concerned, the paper he ordered Brandon Dickens to write as punishment for ducking jury duty was plagiarized. To Dickens, 20, the report merely contained “quoted” material.
Not surprisingly, Livingston County Circuit Judge David Reader had the last word.
“Really, what I was looking for, Mr. Dickens, was your own work,” Reader said last week in upping Dickens’ punishment from three days in the courthouse to four days – and ordering him to rewrite the paper.
Dickens originally landed in Reader’s doghouse in June, when he failed to return to jury duty after a lunch break. The judge ordered him to spend three days observing a civil trial and to write a five-page paper on the history of jury service.
VIENNA
EU, Iran may discuss uranium enrichment
The EU’s foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, and Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, tentatively agreed late Monday to meet in Vienna on Wednesday to try to bridge differences over Tehran’s nuclear program, U.N. and European officials said.
At issue is Tehran’s refusal to consider freezing uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, despite pressure by the U.N. Security Council.
MEXICO CITY
Tribunal expected to rule for Calderon
Mexico will have a final decision today on its disputed July 2 presidential race, with the top electoral court expected to declare ruling-party candidate Felipe Calderon president-elect.
But the long-awaited ruling by the Federal Electoral Tribunal is unlikely to end potentially explosive uncertainty or close the growing political divide gripping the country.
Most court rulings so far have favored Calderon, who has a 240,000-vote advantage over leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. While the tribunal has the power to annul the election, there are no signs it plans to do so.
Lopez Obrador has said he won’t accept the ruling and is moving forward with plans to establish a parallel government.
JERUSALEM
Olmert wants talks with Palestinians
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signaled a need Monday to pursue talks with the Palestinians, an official said.
Olmert’s government also issued bids to build 700 homes in major settlements in the West Bank – its largest settlement construction project since taking office in May.
There have been no official contacts between Israel and the Palestinians since the militant Hamas group, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, won Palestinian parliamentary elections.
But with Israel’s recent war in Lebanon putting a chill on Ol mert’s West Bank pullout program, the Israeli leader again broached the idea of talks.
