5 dead, 3M without power after snow storm
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A deadly weekend storm that brought high winds and snow to the U.S. Northeast caused more than 3 million customers to lose electricity, officials said.
At least five deaths were attributed to the rare pre-Halloween snowstorm. The New York Daily News reported family members said an Kheowla Ramprasad, 77, of New York's Bronx borough died Saturday night when her home lost electricity to power her ventilator and police said a 20-year-old woman died in an ice-triggered, multi-vehicle crash on New York's Cross Bronx Expressway Sunday that left 16 people injured.
The New York Times reported three other deaths in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
The Times said Connecticut and Massachusetts were among the hardest-hit. Governors in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut declared states of emergency, and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared an emergency in 13 counties.
Voice of America reported more than 3 million homes and businesses were without electricity.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Sunday morning more than 750,000 homes in his state were without power, a record, the Times said The number of people without power was expected to rise as utilities shut off sections of the grid to make repairs, Malloy told the Times.
More than 660,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts were without electricity, and there was no word on when power would be restored.
More snow was expected in Maine Sunday as the deadly storm that dropped up to 2 feet of snow on the mid-Atlantic and New England clears out, officials said.
Hackers threaten Mexican drug cartel
VERACRUZ, Mexico, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Anonymous threatens to expose a Mexican drug cartel's associates if it doesn't free one of the international Internet hacking group's members, a video shows.
The unidentified Anonymous member allegedly was kidnapped by the Zetas during a street protest in the Mexican state of Veracruz, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday.
"You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him," a masked man says in a video allegedly posted online on behalf of Anonymous. "We cannot defend ourselves with a weapon … but we can do this with their cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession.
"It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located.
The video claims Anonymous will publish the identities and addresses of the violent drug-trafficking syndicate's associates, including corrupt police, and disclose the syndicate's businesses, the newspaper said.
"It is a gutsy move," said Mike Vigil, a retired head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "By publishing the names, they identify them to rivals, and trust me, they will go after them."
3 dead, 3 missing in grain elevator blast
ATCHISON, Kan., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Three people were dead and three were missing after a grain elevator explosion in Kansas that also left two workers critically injured, officials said Sunday.
Three deaths were confirmed by Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking, while three more people were "unaccounted for" at the Bartlett Grain Co. grain elevator, the Atchison (Kan.) Daily Globe reported.
Two other individuals, Pat Maxwell and Clinton Ellerman, both Bartlett employees, were airlifted to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., with critical injuries.
Family members confirmed Bartlett employees Curtis Fields of Atchison and John Locke of Denton were two of the three killed in the blast. Travis Keil, a Kansas grain inspector, was one of the three still missing. The identities of the third fatality and other two missing had yet to be released.
The recovery effort was halted Sunday after officials decided the facility was unsafe. Cocking said the recovery processes would continue after Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials deem the facility safe.
"The scene is unstable, Cocking said. "It will have to be shored up before rescue crews can continue work."
The explosion at the Bartlett Grain facility happened about 7 p.m. Saturday as workers were loading grain into rail tankers, The Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported.
Initial reports from the company and fire officials suggested the explosion and fire were caused by grain dust suspended in the air that can become volatile given the right temperature, humidity and a spark of origin.
Treasure in U.S. aid to Iraq said stolen
BAGHDAD, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Iraq during the war were stolen by Iraqi officials, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says.
"Hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars ... [were] stolen by senior Iraqi officials for their own personal gain," Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr. told CNBC Saturday.
While Bowen said he was satisfied most of the money made it to the entities meant to get it, he said he still had questions about what happened to some of the money left over when the Coalition Provisional Authority was disbanded.
"Two hundred and 17 million [dollars] was in the basement of the Republican palace in cash," Bowen said. "That last tranche is what we continue to be concerned about."
Bowen said he would investigate the status of as much as $12 billion in assets shipped to Baghdad between 2003 and 2004.
The United States should take some basic financial lessons from its experience in Iraq, he said.
"Pouring cash -- hundreds of millions in dollars of cash -- across a war zone is a foolish thing to do," he said.
"And it will bring out the lesser parts of certain people and lead them to criminal conduct. I've had to go and pursue them, investigate their wrongdoing and ensure their prosecution."
