1. Wildfire closing in on SF Bay area’s water source
TUOLUMNE CITY, Calif. (AP) — A raging wildfire in Yosemite National Park rained ash on the reservoir that is the chief source of San Francisco’s famously pure drinking water, and utility officials Monday scrambled to send more water toward the metropolitan area before it becomes tainted.
Nearly 3,700 firefighters battled the approximately 230-square-mile fire, the biggest wildfire on record in California’s Sierra Nevada. They reported modest progress, saying the fire was 15 percent contained.
“It’s been a real tiger,” said Lee Bentley, fire spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. “He’s been going around trying to bite its own tail, and it won’t let go but we’ll get there.”
Utility officials monitored the clarity of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and used a massive new $4.6 billion gravity-operated pipeline system to move water quickly to reservoirs closer to the big city. The Hetch Hetchy supplies water to 2.6 million people in the San Francisco Bay area, 150 miles away.
2. Egyptian Islamist groups seek truce with army
CAIRO (AP) — Two former militant groups offered to call off street protests if the government agrees to ease its pressure on Islamists, a move that underscores how a onetime strong Islamist movement is now bowing to an unprecedented crackdown by security authorities.
The proposal comes after the military rounded up hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and other Islamists in the wake of the country’s worst bout of violence, which followed the Aug. 14 clearing of two sprawling sit-in camps housing protesters calling for the reinstatement of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader.
Trial opened for the Brotherhood’s supreme leader Mohammed Badie and two other senior officials on Sunday on charges of inciting the murder of anti-Morsi protesters on June 30, the anniversary of his inauguration when millions took to the street to call on him to step down. The first day of their trial coincided with the retrial of ex-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2011, over similar charges.
3. Military removes commander of nuclear weapons unit
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. (AP) — The Air Force has removed the commander of a nuclear weapons unit at a Montana base following a failed safety and security inspection that marked the second major misstep this year for one of the military’s most sensitive missions.
Military leaders say the decision to relieve Col. David Lynch of command at Malmstrom Air Force Base stems from a loss of confidence. They say it is not the result of the failed inspection this month first reported by The Associated Press on Aug. 13.
Lynch will transition into retirement, base spokesman Sgt. Robert Biermann said Sunday. Lynch’s command included the 341st Missile Wing, which operates land-based nuclear missiles known as 450 Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The unit failed a review of its adherence to rules that ensure the safety, security and control of its nuclear weapons.
4. Teen survives flight in aircraft wheel in Nigeria
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A young teenager dashed across a runway at a Nigerian airport, hid in the wheel well of a jet and survived a 35-minute domestic flight, the airline and aviation authorities said Sunday.
Passengers and crew had alerted the pilots that a boy was seen running to the plane as it was taxiing to take off Saturday from southern Benin City, Arik Airline spokesman Ola Adebanji said. The pilots alerted the country’s aviation agency, he said.
The incident highlighted the growing concerns about airport security in Nigeria, which is fighting an Islamic uprising mainly contained in the northeast of the country, where there is a state of emergency.
Despite the possible presence of the boy, the pilots opted to continue with their takeoff, Federal Aviation Agency of Nigeria spokesman Yakubu Dati said.
Most stowaways don’t survive. The body of a suspected stowaway fell from an Air France plane over Niger, also in West Africa, in July and was discovered lifeless in a western suburb of the capital, Niamey, officials said. The plane was coming from Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, and was scheduled to continue to Paris.
Last year, Nigeria gained a coveted U.S. safety status that allows its domestic carriers to fly directly to the U.S.
5. Report: Snowden reached out to Russia back in HK
MOSCOW (AP) — NSA leaker Edward Snowden spent two days in the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong directly before flying to Moscow on what turned out to be an abortive attempt to reach asylum in Latin America, the respected newspaper Kommersant reported Monday, citing unidentified sources in Snowden’s circle and the Russian government.
If true, this would suggest greater Russian involvement in Snowden’s efforts to escape American justice than President Vladimir Putin’s government has acknowledged. The newspaper also reported that Cuba was instrumental in blocking Snowden’s further travels.
Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance, flew to Moscow on June 23, with a ticket that would take him on to Cuba the following day. From there he could travel to countries willing to offer him asylum, including Bolivia and Venezuela. But he did not board the flight to Havana and remained in limbo until being granted asylum in Russia on Aug. 1.
