Tornado kills at least 89 in Joplin, Mo.
JOPLIN, Mo., May 23 (UPI) -- A tornado that slammed into Joplin, Mo., killed at least 89 people, City Manager Mark Rohr said Monday.
Rohr said the Sunday night tornado, described by one resident as "quite horrific," cut a 6-mile path through the center of the city.
The National Weather Service was forecasting another storm to hit the area Monday with wind speeds up to 60 mph and quarter-inch hail.
Twisters also roared through Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin, authorities said.
The Joplin tornado struck the heart of the city "and it's very dense in terms of population," Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer told CNN. He said more than 40 rescue units from Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri were sent to help.
The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader said St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin took a direct hit. KSHB-TV, Kansas City, Mo., reported fires throughout the hospital.
Nearly 200 patients had to be evacuated. Many were taken to Freeman hospital in Joplin and others were flown to other St. John's hospitals in Springfield and northwest Arkansas, KSPR-TV, Springfield reported.
X-rays from St John's were found in driveways 70 miles away, said Ray Foreman, a meteorologist with KODE-TV in Joplin.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help deal with the disaster.
President Barack Obama, who is visiting Ireland, called Nixon and pledged aid from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the White House said.
"The president has directed FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate to travel to Missouri to ensure the state has all the support it needs," a spokesman said, and a FEMA team is en route to Joplin.
In Minneapolis, police declared an exclusion zone Monday in part of the tornado-pummeled North Side, where only residents will be allowed in once the area is considered safe, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
One person was killed and 29 hurt in at least three tornadoes that struck the Twin Cities Sunday.
Obama has pint with his Irish 'cousins'
DUBLIN, Ireland, May 23 (UPI) -- Visiting his mother's ancestral village Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama drank Guinness at a pub with Irishmen who could be his distant cousins.
"You look a little like my grandfather," he said to one man in Moneygall, where his great-great-great-grandfather was born.
"I've been told it makes a difference who the person behind the bar is," Obama said at the bar at Ollie Hays, "that people are very particular who is pouring the Guinness, am I right about that?"
"There are millions of Irish-Americans who trace their ancestry back to this beautiful island," the president said. "Part of why this makes it so special is because the Irish influence on American culture is so powerful in the arts, in politics, in commerce.
"And with that, let me have a pint."
Air Force One landed at Dublin Airport Monday morning and Obama and his wife were flown to President Mary McAleese's official residence in Phoenix Park in a windy helicopter ride.
There Obama signed the official guest book and planted an Irish upright oak, which later will be moved to a location in the park near trees planted by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.
FBI seizes reputed Philadelphia mob boss
PHILADELPHIA, May 23 (UPI) -- Reputed Philadelphia crime boss Joseph Ligambi and several associates were arrested in raids Monday, the FBI said.
The arrests followed a five-year investigation of "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his organization, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Law enforcement sources said the charges involve a gambling and loan-sharking ring.
Other reputed mob figures arrested include Anthony Staino, Martin Angelina, Gaetan Lucibello and Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello.
Monacello was convicted in an organized crime case in Pennsylvania's Delaware County on gambling counts two years ago and put on probation. That investigation gave the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and state police information leading to the new case.
Ligambi, 71, has been the mob chief in Philadelphia since Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino went to prison for racketeering a decade ago, authorities say.
Ligambi, a former soldier in the Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo crime family, served 10 years on a murder charge until his conviction was overturned and he was freed in 1997, the report said.
Death-row inmate wants court disqualified
PHOENIX, May 23 (UPI) -- A death-row inmate in Arizona says his scheduled Wednesday execution should be halted and the state Supreme Court disqualified from his case.
Donald Beaty, 56, sentenced to death by lethal injection for the 1984 murder of a 13-year-old newspaper carrier in Tempe, said the Supreme Court should be disqualified because of a death-row tour by the justices, who also met with the Arizona Department of Corrections director to discuss execution schedules and methods while they were considering his case, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday.
Beaty said several of the justices had participated in a tour of his cell block on May 11 after meetings with Charles Ryan, the corrections director.
A motion filed Sunday by U.S. Assistant Public Defender Sarah Stone characterized the meetings as ex parte communications --meetings with a judge by parties from only one side of a case without the knowledge of the other side.
Judicial rules forbid such communications.
Representatives for the Arizona Supreme Court and the Department of Corrections declined comment because the matter is before the court, but Assistant Arizona Attorney General Kent Cattani termed the accusations of ex parte meetings "simply inaccurate," the Republic reported.
Yemen President refuses to sign deal
SANAA, Yemen, May 23 (UPI) -- Gulf diplomats were airlifted from an embassy building and forced to suspend a transition deal following Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh's refusal to sign.
Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and western diplomats Sunday were forced to suspend a deal requiring Saleh to resign after he failed to show up to sign the Gulf brokered deal for a third time, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said.
The meeting took place at the United Arab Emirates embassy in Sanaa.
Hundreds of armed loyalists surrounded the building for hours blocking entrances to the embassy before they were airlifted to the presidential palace, the agency said. There opposition officials signed the deal.
Saleh refused to sign saying the deal should be signed in a public ceremony together with opposition officials.
"We are here standing on a solid ground. If the opposition comes we have peace, security and stability. But if they don't comply they are dragging us into civil war. And they will have to take responsibility for the bloodshed in the past and the blood which will be spilled later on because of their stupidity," the agency quoted Saleh as saying.
The deal calls for Saleh to step down within 30 days and transfer power to his vice president in return for immunity from prosecution, the agency said.
Following Saleh's refusal, the Gulf Arab states issued a statement announcing the suspension of the transition deal, the agency said.
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are members of the GCC, a political and economic union.
