PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Inquirer endorsed Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama Saturday for their parties’ presidential nominations. The Inquirer said that McCain, an Arizona senator, has “personal bravery, political courage and a confident sense of how he would lead this country.” “He’s the authentic candidate in a field of wannabes and flip-floppers,” the paper wrote. For Democrats, the Inquirer said Obama, an Illinois senator, “offers more than pretty words. In debates and speeches, he has provided details of a White House program that, with adjustments, could produce the outcomes this nation needs,” the paper wrote.
California: Victim of avalanche
As a fierce storm barreled toward Southern California on Saturday, searchers found the body of a third avalanche victim and rescued a missing snowboarder who survived a frigid night in the San Gabriel Mountains. Officials were “confident that there’s no one else that’s been missing” and called off search efforts, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy said. Avalanches are unusual in the San Gabriel Mountains, authorities said, but so was the 3 feet or more of new snow that hit the region in a matter of days this week.
@3. Headline Briefs 14 no:Christian Brando dies at hospital
Christian Brando, the troubled son of actor Marlon Brando, who made headlines in 1990 when he was arrested in the shooting death of his half-sister’s boyfriend, died early Saturday. He was 49. Brando died from complications of pneumonia at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, an attorney for Marlon Brando’s estate said. Christian Brando was born in Los Angeles on May 11, 1958. His mother was Marlon Brando’s first wife, the actress Anna Kashfi, who was born in Calcutta, India.
Nevada: Monte Carlo closed
The burned exterior facade along the roof of the Monte Carlo hotel-casino will have to be removed or secured before the Las Vegas Strip resort can reopen, the chief county building inspector said Saturday. The chief of the Clark County Building Department said the 32-story building will remain closed until resort owner MGM Mirage Inc. completes work to the roof-line foam building material damaged in Friday’s blaze. A spokesman for the casino company said he could not say how long that would take.
Florida: Deadly wreck on runway
A car speeding down a private airport runway ran off an embankment and was airborne for 200 feet before smashing into a tree early Saturday, killing all five young men in the vehicle, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Investigators did not know whether the BMW was alone or was racing another car at the “fly-in” community of Jumbolair Aviation Estates, where pilot-actor John Travolta has a home. The car ran off the 85-foot-high embankment at the end of the runway. When it struck the large tree, the car split in half, scattering wreckage over an area of 200 square feet.
Afghanistan: American snatched
Gunmen kidnapped a burqa-clad American aid worker and her driver in Kandahar early Saturday, the latest in a series of kidnappings of foreigners in the troubled country. Cyd Mizell, who worked in Kandahar for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, was snatched from a residential neighborhood as she was on her way to work. The aid group’s director, said the group had not been contacted by the kidnappers and that he did not know their identity or demands.
Egypt: Nuclear reactor project
Egypt will begin taking bids in February to build the country’s first nuclear reactor, the state-run news agency reported Saturday. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced plans for the nuclear power project last year, saying it would diversify Egypt’s energy resources and preserve the country’s oil and gas. He said the reactor would be for peaceful, power-generating purposes only and that Egypt would not seek a nuclear bomb.
Jordan: Terrorist leader dies
George Habash, whose radical PLO faction gained notoriety after the simultaneous hijackings of four Western airliners in 1970 and the seizure of an Air France flight to Entebbe, Uganda, died Saturday in Jordan. He was 81. The group also was responsible for gunning down 27 people at Israel’s Lod airport in May 1972. The former guerrilla leader, a rival of Yasser Arafat, died of a heart attack in Amman, a member of the Palestine National Council said.
Venezuela: South American cash
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his Latin American allies on Saturday to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from U.S. banks, warning of a looming U.S. economic crisis. Chavez made the suggestion as he hosted a summit aimed at boosting Latin American integration and countering U.S. influence. “We should start to bring our reserves here,” Chavez said. “Why does that money have to be in the north? … You can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
From Herald news services
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