Gordon now a hurricane but unlikely to menace land
Miami – Hurricane Gordon formed over the open Atlantic on Tuesday, and a new tropical depression formed off the coast of Africa, forecasters said. Meanwhile, Hurricane Florence sped toward its demise into the cooler waters off Canada’s maritime provinces after battering Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center said.
Gordon, with top sustained winds of 75 mph, was destined to remain over open waters and will not threaten land, forecasters said.
Florence, the season’s second hurricane, blew out windows, peeled off roofs and knocked out power to thousands in Bermuda on Monday. It was expected to pass just southeast of Newfoundland in the next day or so, the hurricane center said in its final advisory about Florence.
The eighth tropical depression of the Atlantic season developed Tuesday off the coast of west Africa. It had top sustained winds of 35 mph and could become a tropical storm today, forecasters said. Helene is the next name on the list; sustained winds in a tropical storm are at least 39 mph.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30. The hurricane center’s latest forecast for the season predicts seven to nine hurricanes.
DETROIT
Pact reached to end 16-day teachers strike
Striking teachers and the city school district reached a tentative contract agreement Tuesday after 16 days of picketing.
The deal was reached with the 9,500-member Detroit Federation of Teachers after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick brought the two sides together, school spokesman Ken Coleman said. The district had wanted $88 million in concessions to help close a $105 million deficit.
The union’s executive board approved the deal. The union scheduled a vote for this morning on whether to return to work while a ratification vote takes place through the mail. Classes could start as early as Thursday.
BUFFALO, N.Y.
Find may be rifle used to shoot two troopers
Authorities said Tuesday they recovered a rifle that may have been used by a fugitive suspected in the shootings of two state troopers, one of whom died.
State police found the .308 rifle Sunday, after searching areas where Ralph “Bucky” Phillips was believed to have spent time before he was captured Friday.
Phillips escaped April 2 from a New York jail. He is charged with attempted murder in the June shooting of a state trooper and is suspected of shooting troopers Joseph Longobardo and Donald Baker Jr. on Aug. 31.
Longobardo died after being struck in the leg while staking out the home of Phillips’ former girlfriend. Baker has been in critical condition.
GETTYSBURG, Pa.
Homework reward a toke, mom admits
A woman facing drug charges admitted in court that she smoked marijuana with her 13- year-old son, often to reward him for doing his homework.
Amanda Lynn Livelsberger, 30, pleaded guilty to several misdemeanor drug charges Monday in Adams Country court and will be sentenced Nov. 27.
She admitted she had been smoking marijuana with her son since he was 11 and had also smoked with two of his friends.
NEW DELHI
New-bird discovery the first in 50 years
A new bird species has been found in India, the first time such a discovery has been made here in more than 50 years.
Bugun Liocichla was spotted in May in the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary near the Chinese border, said Ramana Athreya, a member of Mumbai’s Natural History Society.
Athreya, who found the bird, named it after the local Bugun tribe. The bird has a black cap, a bright yellow eye patch and multicolored wing patches, he said Tuesday. It can be seen on the website of Birdlife International, an alliance of conservation organizations, at www.birdlife.org.
ISTANBUL, Turkey
Bomb kills 7, hurts 17 in active rebel area
A bomb struck a predominantly Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, killing seven people and wounding 17, the local governor’s office said.
Authorities said the bomb in the city of Diyarbakir was made from powerful explosives and was set off by a cellphone timer.
Although nobody claimed responsibility, the blast occurred in a region where Kurdish separatist rebels are known to be active. Diyarbakir is Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city.
