In brief: China holds Nagin as flu precaution

NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and his wife have been quarantined in China after a passenger on their flight exhibited flu-like symptoms.

Nagin’s office said Sunday the couple and a security guard were quarantined at a hotel in Shanghai as a precaution and were exhibiting no swine flu symptoms.

His office says a passenger had “signs and symptoms of an influenza-like illness suspected to be of the H1N1 subtype.” Spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett says people sitting near that passenger on the flight from Newark, N.J., were quarantined.

Tornadoes hit Colorado

AURORA, Colo. – At least five tornadoes touched down in Colorado on Sunday, with one overturning benches and a car outside a mall in a Denver suburb and injuring a man who tried to take pictures of a twister.

The man was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, said Battalion Chief Mark Turley of the Aurora Fire Department.

The National Weather Service said the tornado that damaged the mall touched down south of Buckley Air Force Base just before 2 p.m. and may have been on the ground for about 30 minutes, taking an 8- to 10-mile path across southeast Aurora.

Many spots in the Denver area also were pelted with hail as big as baseballs.

Man hitches ride from Ethiopia

CHANTILLY, Va. – Federal authorities said they’ve discovered a stowaway who arrived at a Washington-area airport in the cargo hold of a flight from Ethiopia.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steve Sapp said ground personnel at Dulles International Airport were pulling baggage from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 500 when they noticed an arm sticking out.

Sapp says the stowaway was an Ethiopian man who was exhausted and dehydrated. He was taken to Reston Hospital Center and is now being held at a federal detention center.

Sapp says the man has been charged with being a stowaway and will be deported, but is not a security threat.

He says the flight departed from Addis Ababa and stopped in Rome before landing at Dulles shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday.

Blast at pastor’s home accidental

FORT WORTH, Texas – Authorities say they are investigating a natural gas explosion at the Fort Worth, Texas, home of megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes.

Fort Worth fire spokesman Lt. Kent Worley says the blast Sunday in the sunroom of the home appears to have been an accident. Authorities say no one was injured and there was no fire. The sunroom was heavily damaged. Worley says the room had a gas-fed pool heater and a large gas-fed barbecue.