Shuttle countdown back under way
The three-day countdown for the shuttle Atlantis began Sunday as NASA resumed its long-delayed efforts to launch the spacecraft.
After three years of waiting in the aftermath of the shuttle Columbia disaster, and then another delay last week because of storms and a lightning strike, Atlantis is being prepared to take off at 12:29 p.m. Wednesday. It will carry a payload essential to the stalled construction of the International Space Station – a massive set of trusses and solar panels that will provide the energy needed to power the laboratories that will follow.
NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said the crew is working around the clock to get the vehicle ready – a process that usually takes eight days once the vehicle arrives at the launch pad, but this time will be done in six. “There’s no wiggle room here at all,” he said.
CASSADAGA, N.Y.
Ambushed state trooper dies
One of two troopers ambushed while searching for an escaped convict who once promised to “splatter pig meat” all over, died Sunday of his injuries, state police said.
Joseph Longobardo was shot in the leg Thursday night while staking out the property of a former girlfriend of Ralph “Bucky” Phillips.
The announcement came in the midst of one of the largest manhunts in New York history.
Longobardo’s leg had been amputated Saturday after suffering severe blood loss, police said.
Troopers held a candlelight vigil Sunday for Longobardo and Donald Baker Jr., the other trooper shot in the woods of Chautauqua County. Baker, who was shot in the back, remained in critical condition in a medically induced coma, police said.
DULUTH, Minn.
Smoke prompts emergency landing
A Northwest Airlines flight to London made an emergency landing after smoke was reported in the cabin, and passengers waited aboard for nearly 10 hours before the trip was canceled early Sunday.
Flight 44 from Minneapolis landed without incident just before 9:50 p.m. Saturday at Duluth International Airport, as airport fire trucks stood by. Passengers remained aboard until about 7:30 a.m. Sunday.
No injuries were reported among the 255 passengers and 10 crew members.
Chicago
Candle blamed for deadly fire
A candle in an apartment without electricity was believed to have caused one of the city’s deadliest fires in years, a blaze Sunday that killed six children ages 3 to 14, some of whom screamed “we’re burning” as neighbors watched helplessly.
The victims’ mother and three siblings were injured.
The third-floor, three-bedroom apartment on the city’s North Side also had no smoke detector, said visibly shaken Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco.
“This is the largest multiple fire fatality we’ve had from a single fire in quite a few years. I mean it’s children. It’s difficult for everyone involved,” Orozco said.
Commonwealth Edison spokesman John Dewey said the apartment hadn’t had electricity since May, but he wouldn’t say why it was turned off, citing confidentiality reasons.
Firefighters found most of the children huddled in the apartment’s front room, not far from the spot where the fire probably started, said fire department spokesman Larry Langford.
The fire broke out just after midnight, Langford said.
The dead were identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Vanessa Ramirez, 14; Eric Ramirez, 12; Suzette Ramirez, 10; Idaly Ramirez, 6; Kevin Ramirez, 3; and Escarlet Ramos, 3.
Fire officials initially said all the children were siblings, but the medical examiner listed a different address for Ramos.
WASHINGTON
Medicare chief ready to resign
Medicare and Medicaid chief Dr. Mark McClellan intends to resign, the Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. An announcement could come as early as Tuesday, the paper reported.
McClellan, a physician and economist, was one of President Bush’s economic advisers and served as the Food and Drug Administration commissioner before he was tapped in 2004 to administer the government’s health programs for the elderly and impoverished.