GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip
Leader of Hamas decides not to seek re-election
Additional Photos
Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal won’t seek re-election, the Palestinian Islamic militant group said in a statement Saturday.
The move opens the group to a leadership struggle, as it is not immediately clear who could succeed the charismatic, widely respected Mashaal.
It contributes to political turbulence within Hamas, which has recently faced criticism for continuing to be based in Damascus as the Syrian government violently cracks down on demonstrators throughout the country.
In the statement from Hamas’ official email account, the Palestinian group urged him to reconsider his decision, saying the issue of who leads the decades-old militant movement should be left to Hamas. The group says the decision shouldn’t be made by one person — even its leader.
“The movement urges (Mashaal) to reconsider, and to leave this issue to the Shura Council, with full respect to his wishes (not to run again), considering this is a public matter that the Hamas institutions should decide, and not an individual person,” the statement said.
The Shura Council is the top-level body in Hamas that elects its leadership.
RENO, Nev.
Family of fire victim forgives man who started blaze
As rain helped crews surround a brush fire that destroyed 29 homes and forced thousands to flee, the family of the blaze’s only known fatality said Saturday that prosecuting the man who admitted to starting it wouldn’t “do any good.”
June Hargis, 93, was found dead in a studio apartment next to her daughter’s home in Washoe Valley, where the fire started Thursday. Sheriff Mike Haley said her cause of death has not been established, so it’s not known if it was fire related. No other fatalities or major injuries were reported.
Fire officials say an “extremely remorseful” elderly man admitted Friday to accidentally starting the fire when he improperly discarded fireplace ashes outside his home in the valley’s north end.
Hargis’s son, Jim Blueberg, 68, said he didn’t think filing criminal charges against the elderly man “would do any good.”
“The man had the courage to come up and say he did this. He’s remorseful. I think he’s punished himself enough. It was a silly, stupid mistake to make, there’s no doubt about that. But I just want him to know I forgive him, and my heart goes out to him,” he said.
The fire, which grew to more than 6 square miles, burned through sagebrush, pastures and pines in a rural area with scattered small neighborhoods south of Reno.
Gov. Brian Sandoval, who toured the area Friday, said “there is nothing left in some of those places except for the chimneys and fireplaces.”
LAFAYETTE, N.J.
Fast-moving fire destroys barn, killing 22 show horses
Authorities say a fast-moving fire destroyed a barn, killing 22 show horses owned by a noted New Jersey equestrian family and worth tens of thousands of dollars each.
State Police Sgt. Brian Polite said the barn was engulfed in flames when troopers arrived around 2 a.m. Saturday in Lafayette. The blaze was soon extinguished, but all the horses inside were killed.
Polite said the animals were valued at $10,000 to $60,000 apiece.
Betty Hahn, whose family owns the horses, told The Star-Ledger that no hay or fuel was stored in the barn, so she’s baffled about how the blaze began.
— From news service reports
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