Six Young Children & A Woman Killed In PA Fire


DAN NEPHIN,
Associated Press Writer

Fire swept through a house in southwestern Pennsylvania early Saturday, killing six young children and a woman and injuring one other person, state police said.

Several people in the house were able to escape, state Trooper Brian Burden said.

Police said the young victims were four girls ages 4, 9, 7 and 10, and two boys ages 2 and 3. Authorities had not determined the relationship between the children and the woman, who was 26.

Robert Husner, who was staying in the home, said Joshua Arthur Sr., the father of three of the children, woke him and the two of them tried to rescue all six children, who were sleeping in two separate bedrooms.

"The flames were just too high," said Husner, 27. "I couldn't get in, there was so much smoke."

The home's gas furnace was not working so the residents were using space heaters throughout the home to keep warm, Husner said. Authorities said it was unclear whether they contributed to the fire, which was being investigated by a state police fire marshal.

State police identified the victims as Rebecca Eddy, 26, and her children Tiffany Blake, 10, Rebecca Blake, 9, and Diamond Blake, 7; and Arthur's children, Donna Jo Arthur, 5, Joshua Arthur Jr., 3, and Christopher Arthur, 2. Arthur was listed in serious condition at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh. Husner and two other people escaped from the flames, authorities aid.

Firefighters arrived at 3:15 a.m. and found flames 10 to 15 feet high shooting from the split-level house, Waynesburg Volunteer Fire Company Chief Larry Marshall said.

"Fire was shooting out all the windows and doors," Marshall said. The blaze was under control in about 30 minutes, "but it was too late," he said.

Neighbor Mike Vukmanic, 23, who lives about 100 yards away, said he called 911 after he heard "a screaming, pounding noise" and looked out to see the home's back door open and flames inside.

A few minutes later, Vukmanic said, "it was just engulfed."

Vukmanic's stepfather, Tony Simonetti, ran to the house and found a man who told him there were people inside.

"I looked. There was no way to get into the house," Simonetti said.

Waynesburg is in rural southwestern Pennsylvania about 35 miles from Pittsburgh.

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Nigerian Government Cancels Advert On CNN

The Nigerian government on Thursday canceled an advert it had placed on U.S. television channel CNN because of a report broadcast last week about militants holding hostages in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

Information Minister Frank Nweke said Nigeria had demanded an apology from the station over the report, which he said depicted the situation in the Niger Delta in an "unethical and subversive" way.

"The government of Nigeria considers it improper to continue to run a promotional material about the country in a medium that has consistently, even unprofessionally, depicted it and her people in a denigrating manner," Nweke wrote to CNN.

Asked to comment on the government's announcement, a CNN spokesman in the United States reiterated that the television channel stood by its story: "We stand by ... (the) report."

The report showed masked gunmen and the 24 Filipino hostages they were holding in the remote creeks of the anarchic Niger Delta, where kidnappings of foreign workers are a common problem. The 24 captives have since been released.

In a long statement on February 9 attacking the report, Nweke said it sensationalized the problems of the delta and misrepresented Nigeria as a country in perpetual crisis.

In that earlier statement, Nweke said the Nigerian security agencies were investigating "subversive" activities by some foreign correspondents, without naming them.

Some Nigerian journalists have been arrested in past months over political stories, drawing international criticism, but there have been no recent examples of foreign journalists facing serious problems with the authorities.

Nigeria is due to hold elections in April that should mark the first democratic transition from one civilian government to another in Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer.

Britain expressed concern last month over the arrests of several Nigerian journalists and said the press should be allowed to cover the elections free from intimidation.

Nweke is the architect of a campaign called "Heart of Africa" that seeks to improve Nigeria's image. The advert that the government pulled from CNN was part of that campaign.

Nigeria has also bought advertising space on London buses and in underground train stations to display Heart of Africa billboards showing glamorous, successful Nigerians.

The campaign aims to debunk Nigeria's image abroad as a country blighted by corruption, crime, poverty and inter-communal violence. One of the slogans is "Nigeria. It's not what you think."

But such efforts have had to contend with a constant flow of bad news, especially from the Niger Delta, the impoverished wetlands region that accounts for all of Nigeria's oil output.

Kidnappings are an almost daily occurrence there, thousands of expatriate workers have fled and a fifth of oil production is shut down because of militant attacks.

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Hunger Kills 18,000 Kids Each Day Says The United Nations Organisation


EDITH M. LEDERER,
Associated Press Writer

Some 18,000 children die every day because of hunger and malnutrition and 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs, a "terrible indictment of the world in 2007," the head of the U.N. food agency said.

James Morris called for students and young people, faith-based groups, the business community and governments to join forces in a global movement to alleviate and eliminate hunger -- especially among children.

"The little girl in Malawi who's fed, and goes to school: 50 percent less likely to be HIV-positive, 50 percent less likely to give birth to a low birth weight baby," he said in an interview Friday. "Everything about her life changes for the better and it's the most important, significant, humanitarian, political, or economic investment the world can make in its future."

Morris, an American businessman and former president the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment, one of the largest charitable organizations in the U.S., is stepping down as executive director of the Rome-based World Food Program in April after five years of leading the world's largest humanitarian organization.

He said that while the percentage of people who are hungry and malnourished has decreased from a fifth of the world's population to a sixth of the population, the actual number of hungry people is growing by about 5 million people a year because of the rising population.

"Today 850 million people are hungry and malnourished. Over half of them are children. 18,000 children die every single day because of hunger and malnutrition," Morris said. "This is a shameful fact -- a terrible indictment of the world in 2007, and it's an issue that needs to be solved."

Morris said the largest number of malnourished children are in India -- more than 100 million -- followed by nearly 40 million in China.

"I'm very optimistic that India and China are very focused on this issue," he said. "They're making great progress -- (but) need to do more. (It) needs to be a top priority."

Elsewhere, there are probably 100 million hungry children in the rest of Asia, another 100 million in Africa where countries have fewer resources to help, and 30 million in Latin America, he said.

As Morris prepares to leave his post, he said the two issues of greatest concern are the increasing number of impoverished people and the "very significant, growing number of natural disasters around the world."

According to the World Bank, natural disasters have increased fourfold over the last 30 years, he said. That means several billion people need instant help over the course of a decade because of disasters such as the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, or drought in southern Africa.

The response to these disasters and conflicts such as in Sudan's Darfur region and Lebanon has meant that most development aid has been used to save lives -- not to help communities prevent disasters and promote development through agricultural programs, education for children and water conservation, Morris said.

The agency's biggest operation today is in Darfur, where violence and security are major problems and 2.5 million people have fled their homes and now live in camps.

"Our convoys are attacked almost daily. We had a truck driver killed there at the end of last year. Our convoys coming through Chad from Libya are always at risk. When the African Union troops were there, that was very helpful. The U.N. troops will be even more helpful," Morris said.

He was referring to a plan for an AU-U.N. force to be deployed in Darfur, which is awaiting approval from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

American diplomat Josette Sheeran will replace Morris, who plans to head home to Indianapolis.

"I will work as hard as I can every day of the rest of my life to see that more resources are available to feed hungry children," Morris said.

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Sylvester Stallone Detained At Sydney Airport for Undisclosed Contraband

Sylvester Stallone was detained for hours on arrival at Sydney Airport after officials found prohibited imports in his luggage and that of his entourage, media reported Saturday.

Australian Customs Service national investigations manager Richard Janeczko did not say what the items were or whose luggage among Stallone's party they were found in during a routine screening late Friday.

"As a result of having their luggage x-rayed, a number of prohibited items were seized by Customs," Janeczko told Ten Network television news. "Mr. Stallone was allowed to continue with his party and our investigations are continuing." He gave no other details.

Stallone emerged from the airport hours after his fellow passengers and signed autographs for fans, Ten reported. He declined to comment on the incident.

Stallone is in Australia to promote his movies "Rocky Balboa."

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