A winter storm that contributed to at least five deaths in the Midwest pummeled the mid-Atlantic region for a second day Sunday, bringing with it an icy mix that knocked out power, cancelled flights and contributed to hundreds of car accidents.
Virginia State Police said the driver of a military surplus vehicle was killed late Saturday after he lost control on Interstate 81 because of slick road conditions.
Police said Ronald W. Harris, 73, of Gainesville, Georgia, died after his vehicle was struck by two tractor-trailers. The two tractor-trailer drivers were taken to a hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening. The state medical examiner was expected to determine later whether Harris' death was storm-related.
Virginia State Police said they responded to more than 230 traffic crashes and helped more than 100 disabled vehicles in Virginia from midnight to noon Sunday.
The storm knocked out power for nearly 200,000 people in Virginia and North Carolina on Sunday, ..

Wintry mix of snow, freezing rain pummels mid-Atlantic

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The new head of Venezuela's increasingly defiant congress was pulled from his vehicle and briefly detained by police Sunday, a day after the US backed him assuming the presidency as a way out of the country's deepening crisis.
The confusing incident, which drew swift international condemnation, is bound to ramp up tensions between the opposition and government following President Nicolas Maduro's swearing in for a controversial second term this month.
A video circulating on social media purports to show the moment in which Juan Guaido is intercepted on his way to an anti-government town hall meeting in the port city of La Guaira.
In the video shot on a cellphone by a motorist stuck in traffic, several men in ski masks and carrying assault weapons are seen struggling to shut the door on someone being pushed into an SUV before racing down a highway.
While it was not possible to identify Guaido in the 33-second video, his wife, Fabiana Rosales, said on Twitter that he had been detained ..

Venezuelan congress leader briefly detained amid standoff

Researchers say a pack of wild canines found frolicking near the beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast carries a substantial amount of red wolf genes, a surprising discovery because the animal was declared extinct in the wild nearly 40 years ago.
The finding has led wildlife biologists and others to develop a new understanding that the red wolf DNA is remarkably resilient after decades of human hunting, loss of habitat and other factors had led the animal to near decimation.
"Overall, it's incredibly rare to rediscover animals in a region where they were thought to be extinct and it's even more exciting to show that a piece of an endangered genome has been preserved in the wild," said Elizabeth Heppenheimer, a Princeton University biologist involved in the research on the pack found on Galveston Island in Texas. The work of the Princeton team was published in the scientific journal Genes.
The genetic analysis found that the Galveston canines appear to be a hybrid of red wolf and coyote, but 

DNA of wolf declared extinct in wild lives on in Texas pack

Canadian air traffic controllers are buying pizzas for their American counterparts as a show of support during the U.S. government's partial shutdown.
Nav Canada's national media manager Ron Singer said Sunday the initiative began when employees at Edmonton's control center took up a collection to buy pies for controllers in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Anchorage, Alaska.
All seven of Canada's control centers and many towers have since joined in and ordered pizzas for their U.S. counterparts working along the border, many of whom have taken to social media to express their gratitude.
Singer says there's a bond between Canadian and American air traffic controllers since the two work closely together to manage cross-border airspace.
Some 10,000 air traffic controllers in the United States have been working without pay.

Canada air traffic controllers buy pizza for US colleagues

The head of Iran's nuclear program said the Islamic Republic has begun "preliminary activities for designing" a modern process for 20-percent uranium enrichment for its 50-year-old research reactor in Tehran, signalling new danger for the nuclear deal.
The comment on state television Sunday from Ali Akbar Salehi increases the pressure on the international community as 20-percent enrichment would mean Iran has abandoned the terms of the 2015 atomic accord.
President Donald Trump already pulled America out of the accord in May and resumed sanctions on Tehran. So far, United Nations inspectors say Iran continues to comply with the deal's terms, which limits enrichment to 3.5 percent.
Salehi said "we are at the verge" of being ready, without elaborating in his remarks.
The US donated the reactor to Iran in 1967.

Nuclear chief says Iran exploring new uranium enrichment

Pope Francis is offering new parents a bit of advice, telling them it's perfectly normal to fight but just not in front of their children because of the "anguish" it causes.
Francis asked permission Sunday to give his counsel during a ceremony to baptise 27 newborns, an annual tradition that fills the frescoed Sistine Chapel with newborns, their parents and godparents.
Amid coos and wails, Francis told parents that they had taken on an important new job of transmitting the faith to their children  a job he said begins at home.
Francis then offered some off-the-cuff advice.
He says "it's normal for spouses to fight ... it'd be strange if they didn't. Do it, but so that the children don't hear it or see it.

Pope to parents: It's OK to fight, just not in front of kids

Police say three German skiers have been killed in an avalanche in the Austrian Alps and a fourth is missing.
The bodies of the men, aged 57, 36 and 32, were recovered Saturday evening near Lech, a few hours after the wife of one of the skiers reported them missing.
Police in Vorarlberg, Austria's westernmost province, said Sunday they had to call off the search for another German, age 28, because of heavy snow and the risk of avalanches.
The avalanche deaths bring to at least 24 the number of weather-related deaths reported in parts of Europe this month.
On Saturday, authorities in southern Germany and Austria used a break in the weather to clear heavy loads of snow from roofs and roads.

Austria: 3 German skiers killed in avalanche, 4th missing

An Afghan official says at least nine people were killed when a gas cylinder exploded in Kabul.
Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, says several people were also injured in the late Saturday explosion inside a residential house in the Afghan capital.
Such incidents are common in Afghanistan, especially during the bitterly cold winters.
Last week, a fire that began at a gas station in Kabul, spread overnight to a nearby apartment complex, killing three people and causing much damage.
Authorities said 42 suffered burns and other injuries.
A gas-filled tanker parked at the station caught fire, causing the blaze to spread quickly.
A police investigation is still under way into that incident.

Afghan official: Gas cylinder blast leaves 9 dead in Kabul

Tired but smiling, an 18-year-old Saudi woman who said she feared death if deported back home arrived Saturday in Canada, which offered her asylum in a case that attracted global attention after she mounted a social media campaign.
"This is Rahaf Alqunun, a very brave new Canadian," Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said arm-in-arm with the Saudi woman in Toronto's airport.
Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun smiled broadly as she exited an airport arrival door sporting a Canada zipper hoodie and a UN High Commissioner for Refugees hat, capping a dramatic week that saw her flee her family while visiting Kuwait and before flying to Bangkok.
Once there, she barricaded herself in an airport hotel to avoid deportation and tweeted about her situation.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would accept Alqunun as a refugee.
Her situation has highlighted the cause of women's rights in Saudi Arabia, where several women fleeing abuse by their families have been caught trying to ...

Woman who fled Saudi Arabia reaches her new home in Canada

A news agency says 19 miners were killed when a coal mine collapsed in northern China.
The official Xinhua News Agency says rescuers are looking for two miners who still are missing following the disaster Saturday in the northern province of Shaanxi.
Xinhua says another 66 miners were rescued.
Authorities say the number of fatalities in China's coal mines has fallen sharply over the past decade but the industry still is the world's deadliest.

Report: Chinese coal mine accident kills 19

The Federal Aviation Administration says it has brought about 500 safety inspectors back to work and expects more to return next week, potentially easing strains on the aviation system amid a partial federal government shutdown.
Most of the FAA's 3,000 safety inspectors have been sidelined during the 22-day shutdown.
But the agency is accelerating efforts to bring them back.
Agency spokesman Gregory Martin didn't provide specifics in an email to the Associated Press Saturday.
Inspectors oversee and certify inspections by airline and repair-shop employees. They're not considered essential employees who must work during shutdowns.
The shutdown has hit aviation hard . About 10,000 FAA air traffic controllers are on the job but not getting paid. Some Transportation Security Administration screeners are staying home rather than work without pay.

FAA bringing back safety inspectors sidelined by shutdown

A massive winter snowstorm making its way across the Midwest and into the Mid-Atlantic region dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of Missouri and contributed to at least five deaths, authorities said Saturday.
The storm moved into Kansas and Nebraska from the Rockies on Friday, then east into Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, covering roads and making driving dangerous.
Part of Interstate 44 near St. Louis was blocked for several hours Saturday, and at one point the Missouri State Highway Patrol warned of traffic delays as long as eight hours.
The storm was expected to spread east into the Mid-Atlantic region, with between 7 and 15 centimeters of snow expected in the Washington area, including parts of northern and central Maryland, by Sunday.
Forecasters said heavier snow and higher amounts could fall in mountain areas north of Interstate 64, such as Charlottesville and Staunton, Virginia Missouri had gotten the worst of the storm by Saturday, with the National Weather ...

Storm dumps snow on Midwest; at least 5 dead in crashes

Assailing President Donald Trump for "a crisis of leadership," former Obama Cabinet member Julian Castro joined the 2020 presidential race Saturday as the rush of Democrats making early moves to challenge the incumbent accelerates, while anticipation grows around bigger names still considering a White House run.
Castro, who could end up being the only Latino in what is shaping up to be a crowded Democratic field, made immigration a centerpiece of his announcement in his hometown of San Antonio, less than 200 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Two days after the president visited the border to promote his promised wall, Castro mocked Trump for claiming that the U.S. faces an "invasion" from its ally to the south.
"He called it a national security crisis," Castro said. "Well, there is a crisis today.
It's a crisis of leadership. Donald Trump has failed to uphold the values of our great nation."
Castro, the 44-year-old grandson of a Mexican immigrant, said he was running for president ...

Former Obama housing chief Julian Castro joins 2020 campaign

German police say a small plane has crashed east of Berlin, killing two people.
The two-engine aircraft took off from the town of Strausberg late Saturday morning and came down in a field near Praedikow, a few kilometers (miles) away.
Police said on Twitter that it isn't yet possible to give a reason for the cause of the crash in which two men died. They gave no information on the victims.

Small plane crashes in field in eastern Germany, 2 dead

A mining company truck has crashed into a minibus in northern Sweden, and Swedish media are reporting that six people have died and one person is injured in the crash.
The Swedish mining company Kaunis Iron said one of its trucks crashed head-on with another vehicle north of the village of Masugnsbyn, in the Kiruna municipality close to the border with Finland just before 2 am Saturday.
The company said the lorry's driver escaped unharmed from the crash.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet said the crash left six of the seven passengers dead in the minibus, which was carrying foreigners.
One person was dispatched to a hospital by helicopter.
Swedish police confirmed the accident but did not provide details on the casualties.
The Norwegian news agency NTB said the victims were not from neighbouring Nordic countries.

Mining truck crashes into minibus in Sweden; 6 reported dead

French authorities said two firefighters were killed and 47 people injured in a powerful explosion and fire apparently caused by a gas leak at a Paris bakery Saturday that blasted out windows and overturned cars.
Firefighters pulled injured victims from windows and evacuated residents as smoke billowed over Rue de Trevise in the 9th arrondissement of north-central Paris.
The Paris prosecutor's office said that two firefighters have been killed in the bakery blast, correcting the overall figure of four dead given earlier by France's interior minister.
Authorities said 10 people were in critical condition and 37 others less seriously injured.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters at the scene "unfortunately the human toll is particularly serious."
He paid homage to the courage of rescuers who notably saved the life of one firefighter who was buried under the rubble for two and a half hours.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who was also at the scene, extended a "message of ...

2 firefighters killed in Paris bakery blast; dozens injured

Thousands of people wearing yellow vests started marching in the streets of Paris as others were gathering in the central French city of Bourges amid high security measures as authorities feared possible violence between police and protesters Saturday.
In Paris, a few thousand people set off from near the Finance Ministry in eastern Paris at around 11 am (1000 GMT; 5 am EST) and were walking peacefully in the central streets of the capital.
They were planning to head toward Champs-Elysees avenue.
Paris police say 24 people were arrested Saturday before the protests started, primarily for carrying potential weapons.
Meanwhile, yellow vest protesters were also gathering in Bourges, a provincial capital with a renowned Gothic cathedral and picturesque wood-framed houses, where online groups mounted calls through the week for actions.
Authorities deployed 80,000 security forces nationwide for a ninth straight weekend of anti-government protests.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner ...

Thousands march in 9th straight French yellow vest protests

France's interior minister says that four people have been killed, including two firefighters, and 47 have been injuredin the blast at a bakery that was apparently caused by a gas leak in central Paris.
Christophe Castaner told reporters at the scene "unfortunately the human toll is particularly serious."
He said 10 people are in critical condition and 37 others less seriously injured.
He paid homage to the courage of rescuers who saved the life of one firefighter who was buried under the rubble for two and a half hours.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who was also at the scene, extended a "message of affection and solidarity" to the victims.

4 dead, including 2 firefighters, in Paris blast

An Afghan official says at least five security forces have been killed after their checkpoint came under attack by insurgents in southern Kandahar province.
Aziz Ahmad Azizi, provincial governor's spokesman, says two other police were wounded in Saturday's attack in Spin Bolduk district.
He said seven Taliban insurgents were killed and six others were wounded in the fighting.
Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, Taliban's spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Taliban insurgents have been carrying out near-daily attacks targeting Afghan forces.
The violence comes despite stepped-up efforts by the United States to find a negotiated end to the country's 17-year war.

Afghan official: Taliban attack on checkpoint kills 5 police

Nissan Chief Performance Officer Jose Munoz, who took a leave of absence a week ago, has resigned, the first high-profile departure at the Japanese automaker publicly acknowledged as related to the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
Munoz said in a statement on LinkedIn Saturday he made the decision after serious thinking because the company was "involved in matters that have and will continue to divert its focus," referring to Ghosn's case.
Munoz is among several executives media speculated might succeed Ghosn, who led Nissan for two decades.
Nissan confirmed the resignation, effective immediately.
There have been other recent departures from Nissan, but Nissan has denied they were related to Ghosn's case.
Munoz, a Spaniard who oversaw Nissan's global strategies, worked for Nissan for 14 years.
"I love the company, my talented co-workers and Nissan's industry-leading dealers," he said.
Ghosn, arrested November 19, has been charged with breach of trust and falsifying financial ...

Nissan executive Munoz resigns after Ghosn's arrest

The United States ramped up its criticism of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday with an explicit call for the formation of a new government in the country.
The State Department said in a statement that it stood behind the head of Venezuela's opposition-run congress, Juan Guaido, who said on Friday he is prepared to step into the nation's presidency temporarily to replace Maduro.
The statement was the latest in a barrage of Trump administration attacks on Maduro, whose inauguration to a new term as president on Thursday has been widely denounced as illegitimate.
"The people of Venezuela deserve to live in freedom in a democratic society governed by the rule of law," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said.
"It is time to begin the orderly transition to a new government.
We support the National Assembly's call for all Venezuelans to work together, peacefully, to restore constitutional government and build a better future."
"The United States government will continue ..

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