UPI NewsTrack TopNews

Hamas forces attack mosque; 16 killed

GAZA, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Hamas forces opened fire Friday on a Gaza mosque where the leader of an al-Qaida affiliate had just spoken, setting off fighting that killed at least 16 people.

The fighting, which also injured more than 100 people, erupted after the radical cleric delivered an incendiary anti-Hamas sermon, Haaretz reported. Authorities said among those killed was Jibril al-Shimali, a senior Hamas military leader, Ynetnews.com reported.

Ynetnews reported local Salafi leader Abdul Latif Musa told worshipers Gaza is an Islamic emirate. He faulted Hamas for not being sufficiently strident in pursuing the imposition of Islamic law in the Gaza Strip and said he was casting his support to al-Qaida, the Israeli news Web site said.

"We belong to al-Qaida and our leader is Osama bin Laden," Musa was quoted as saying.

The mortar fire into the mosque set off clashes between hundreds of followers of Jund Ansar Allah, an al-Qaida affiliate, and Hamas.

After the fighting ended, Hamas blew up Musa's house with its occupants inside, sources told Debkafile.

Rafah is in the southern part of Gaza and site of the border crossing into Egypt. Al-Qaida has been attempting to infiltrate southern Gaza with people, weapons and money, Debkafile said, citing counterterrorism sources.

Morakot death toll tops 500 in Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Typhoon Morakot, described as the worst storm to hit Taiwan in 50 years, has killed more than 500 people, President Ma Ying-jeou said Friday.

Ma asked foreign governments for prefabricated homes and helicopters capable of lifting heavy machinery, The Guardian reported Friday.

Authorities say they no longer have hopes of finding anybody alive beneath the mudslide covering Hsiao-lin village, Kaohsiung county, where about 400 people are believed to have died.

Speaking at a national security meeting, Ma warned that rebuilding and repair may be "even more difficult and cumbersome" than the rescue effort, The New York Times reported. He estimated the damage at $1.5 billion and said at least 7,000 people have lost their homes.

The Taiwanese president has been criticized for a slow response to the devastation created by the typhoon, which hit Taiwan late last Friday. The government only requested international assistance Thursday after earlier rejecting it.

While witnesses were describing houses slipping into the sea Sunday as water-logged mountainsides gave way, the official death toll was only 117.

Almost a week after the typhoon, thousands of people remain trapped in isolated towns with little food and water.

The Taipei Times quoted emergency operation center officials as saying about 10,200 people in the mountainous regions of southern Taiwan remained trapped in mudslides, under collapsed bridges or threatened by flooding rivers nearly a week after Morakot ripped through the island nation.

Meanwhile, a tragic development was disclosed in Xiaolin village, the worst hit by the storm.

Although more than 1,000 people have so far been rescued, including about 300 in Xiaolin, a county official said 300 more were feared dead, the Taipei Times reported.

The BBC, quoting the fire agency disaster relief officials, reported more than 390 people were believed to have been buried alive by a mudslide in the village.

Obama: Critics try to 'scare the heck out of everybody'

BELGRADE, Mont., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama pitched healthcare reform Friday in Montana, a state with a reputation for not tolerating a lot of federal government oversight.

Obama took on reform package critics, who recently became more raucous at town hall community meetings, saying those who oppose health insurance reform and their political allies "try to scare the heck out of everybody.

"For all the scare tactics out there, what is truly scary, what's truly risky is if we do nothing," Obama said at an airplane hangar at Belgrade Airfield.

He said the reforms he advocates would, among other things, bar health insurance companies from canceling coverage once a person gets sick, denying coverage for a pre-existing condition, or capping coverage. The 10-year plan would not increase the deficit, he said.

"This is not some government takeover," he said, addressing one of the opponents' claims. "I don't want government bureaucrats meddling in your healthcare, but I also don't want insurance bureaucrats meddling in your healthcare, either."

He repeated that a public health insurance option was an option consumers can consider if they are shopping for coverage. He also commented on the tense town hall meetings hearings that have been televised recently.

"TV loves a ruckus," Obama said.

Before Obama took the microphone, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, tackled the misconceptions surrounding healthcare reform.

"Let me tell ya, there's plenty of dishonesty out there about what healthcare reform will or will not do," Baucus said.

He labeled "bogus" claims that reform would mean rationed care, cutting care for seniors or breaching doctor-patient confidentiality.

"These outrageous myths are being busted wide open," Baucus said. "They're just plain baloney."

Manson follower 'Squeaky' Fromme released

FORT WORTH, Texas, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- The would-be assassin of President Gerald Ford, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, walked out of a federal prison in Texas Friday, a prison spokesman said.

Fromme, a follower of serial killer Charles Manson, finished serving her sentence for the 1975 assassination attempt in July 2008, but served additional time for a 1987 prison escape, ABCNews.com reported.

"Lynette Fromme was released about 8 a.m. today," prison spokeswoman Maria Douglas said. She completed her sentence at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.

Fromme aimed a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol at Ford on Sept. 5, 1975. The gun had four bullets, but none was chambered, and an alert Secret Service agent grabbed the gun from her. At the time of the assassination attempt, Manson and several followers were serving life sentences for the so-called Tate-LaBianca murders, in which Manson followers killed actress Sharon Tate and six others in the actress' California home one night and followed that bloodbath the next night by killing socialite Leno LaBianca and his wife.

Fromme's trial lawyer, John Virga, told ABCNews.com he did not know where she would go once released from prison.

Special Olympics' Shriver remembered

HYANNIS, Mass., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- More than 100 people gathered in Hyannis, Mass., Friday to attend the private funeral of the late Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Among those notable names attending Friday's funeral at St. Francis Xavier church on Cape Cod were U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, The Boston Globe said.

Shriver died Tuesday of unspecified causes at the age of 88, ending a life that included founding the international Special Olympics organization that currently involves 3 million athletes in 181 countries.

"Literally every dimension of their lives has been improved as a result of the work of Eunice Kennedy Shriver," Robert Johnson, Special Olympics Massachusetts president, said of Shriver's efforts to help those with disabilities. "Her ability to inspire others was greater than any single person's I've ever met. She was intense. She was determined. She was passionate."

Shriver was also remembered Thursday with a public wake in Centerville, Mass. More than 1,000 people attended the six-hour wake at Our Lady of Victory church, The Boston Globe reported.

Child TV reporter interviews Obama

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- An 11-year-old Florida boy was cast into the spotlight Friday because of a kid-TV interview he conducted with President Barack Obama.

Damon Weaver, 11, of Palm Beach County, appeared on the CBS Early Show, CNN's American Morning and MSNBC to tell what it was like to have a one-on-one with the leader of the free world, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.

"The president is a normal person," Damon said about his chat with Obama at the White House.

Damon asked the president 11 questions, mostly concerning education, his teacher Brian Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman and Damon's mother accompanied the kid-TV reporter on the visit.

Damon became an Internet sensation last year when he conducted a one-on-one interview with then-vice presidential candidate Joe Biden during a campaign stop.

His 10-minute interview of the president was posted on YouTube Thursday night.