COLUMBUS, Ohio

Legionnaire’s disease kills 5, sickens 39 at seniors center

Additional Photos

One of the remaining towers comes down Saturday at the decommissioned Kern Power Plant in Bakersfield, Calif. Five spectators were injured, including a man whose leg was severed, when shrapnel was sent flying, police said. More than 1,000 people had gathered at 6 a.m. in a nearby parking lot to watch the planned implosion. PGE Implosion The Associated Press

Health officials say Ohio’s largest outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease has killed five people and sickened 39 others at a retirement community since July.

The state Health Department said the outbreak at Wesley Ridge Retirement Community in Reynoldsburg in central Ohio has been linked to bacteria in an air conditioning cooling tower and several water sources.

Victims range in age from 63 to 99. About 200 people live at the center.

Legionnaires’ disease isn’t contagious. The rare form of pneumonia is contracted when people breathe in tiny droplets of contaminated water.

LOS ANGELES

Time Warner’s CBS blackout continues to affect 3 million

Time Warner Cable’s blackout of CBS continued Saturday, and neither side indicated a resolution of their dispute over fees is imminent.

Time Warner dropped CBS Friday in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other cities, leaving 3 million customers without the network’s programs. The issue is fees that the cable company pays CBS to air its programs.

Each has accused the other of making unreasonable demands. On Saturday the two sides even seemed to disagree on the status of negotiations. A Time Warner spokeswoman said Saturday that negotiations are ongoing. CBS said it expects talks to resume soon, but the decision rests with Time Warner.

Police disarm masked actors shooting film with fake guns

College filmmakers were using fake guns to shoot a robbery scene at a suburban Los Angeles coffee shop when the movie took a scary twist that wasn’t in the script.

Eight police officers were descending on the masked actors. The police were real, with very real guns drawn, and had no idea this was a movie.

“Drop the gun! Drop it! Drop it!” one officer yells on an audio recording police were carrying.

One of the actors immediately let go of his fake assault rifle. But another held onto his replica handgun, forcing officers to make a life-or-death choice. An officer knocked the gun from the actor’s hand and handcuffed him, drawing a peaceful climax to what could have been something far worse.

“One of the officers made the decision that had the man moved, he would have been killed,” said Glendora police Capt. Tim Staab. “It was just milliseconds from a tragedy.”

Police said it showed the dangers of movie-making for amateur film crews who don’t get permits and follow proper steps before taking to the street.

WASHINGTON

Trade official overrules ban on imports of iPads, iPhones

President Obama’s trade representative has vetoed a ban on imports of some Apple iPads and older iPhones, reversing a ruling in favor of rival Samsung Electronics.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Saturday overruled a June decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The commission banned imports of the iPhone 4 and some variants of the iPad 2 when it ruled that the Chinese-made Apple devices violate a patent held by Samsung.

But Froman said in a letter to the commission that he has concerns about patent holders getting too much leverage over competitors that use their technology under licenses.
Samsung and Apple are in a global legal battle over smartphones.

Apple argues that Samsung’s Android phones copy vital iPhone features.

Obama celebrates birthday with golf, weekend getaway

President Obama kicked off his birthday weekend Saturday with a round of golf with friends and a getaway to Camp David.

Obama, who turns 52 Sunday, left the White House just after 8 a.m., an unusually early start for the half-hour motorcade ride to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to squeeze in some golf before the celebration shifted to the presidential retreat in the state’s Catoctin Mountains.

The White House said that the president’s three golfing foursomes included some of his friends from Hawaii, where he grew up, and Chicago, where he lived before becoming president, along with current and former aides.

HARARE, Zimbabwe

Mugabe wins re-election; foe will challenge results

Zimbabwe’s longtime President Robert Mugabe won 61 percent of the presidential vote, trailed by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai at 33 percent, election officials announced Saturday.

Mugabe, 89, in power for 33 years, has won another five-year term.

Mugabe’s party won 158 of the 210 parliament seats, according to the results announced by the Election Commission. Tsvangirai’s party captured 50 seats and two went to independent candidates.

Tsvangirai earlier Saturday rejected the results as fraudulent and called for fresh elections. He urged a peaceful response to the alleged massive rigging by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party.

Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change party will challenge results from Wednesday’s voting.

MOSCOW

U.S. band’s show canceled over Russian flag incident

The American rock group Bloodhound Gang was kicked out of a Russian music festival and pelted with eggs after videos emerged of its bass player shoving a Russian flag down his pants at a recent concert in Ukraine.

Videos posted online of Wednesday’s concert in the Ukrainian city of Odessa show bass player Jared Hasselhoff pushing the Russian white, blue and red flag down the front of his pants and pulling it out the back. He then shouted to the audience: “Don’t tell Putin.”

The incident outraged the Russian government. Maria Minina, a spokeswoman for the weeklong Kubana festival in southern Russia, said Saturday that the band’s headlining performance the previous evening had been canceled.

ROME

City bans cars, scooters from historic boulevard

In a bid to protect its ancient glories from modern perils, Rome is banning cars and motor scooters from the boulevard that slices through the city’s ancient forums toward the Colosseum.

Traffic police started enforcing the new restrictions at dawn Saturday, diverting private cars and motor scooters to side streets, so they will no longer clog the Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Only buses, taxis, bicycles and pedestrians will be allowed on that boulevard, which was constructed in the 1930s by dictator Benito Mussolini so military parades could roll past reminders of the ancient Roman empire.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica

Officials plan to close zoos, freeing animals from cages

Costa Rican officials say they plan to close both of the country’s public zoos next year so that animals can be freed from their cages. But the foundation that runs the animal parks said Saturday it is trying to keep them operating.

Environment Minister Rene Castro announced in recent days that the 97-year-old Simon Bolivar zoo in central San Jose will become a botanical park next year. Another zoo west of the city, the Santa Ana Conservation Center, also would close. Together they hold 400 animals of 60 species, including a lion, crocodiles, monkeys and a tapir.

The Environment Ministry said the animals would be released into the wild or sent to rescue centers.

PARIS

Interpol issues global alert over recent prison escapes

Interpol has issued a global security alert in connection with suspected al-Qaida involvement in several recent prison escapes including those in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan.

The Lyon, France-based international police agency said that the alert follows “the escape of hundreds of terrorists and other criminals” in the past month. The alert calls on Interpol’s 190 member countries to help determine whether these events are linked, the organization said Saturday.

— From news service reports

Related Stories