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First Posted: 5/5/2013
SAN FRANCISCO
5 women die in limo fire
A limousine traveling on a major bridge over San Francisco Bay burst into flames, killing five women who were trapped inside and injuring four other women who escaped, authorities said Sunday.
The limo was carrying the nine women and its driver when it caught fire around 10 p.m. Saturday on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, California Highway Patrol officer Art Montiel told The Associated Press.
Five of the women were trapped in the 1999 Lincoln, but the four others managed to get out after the vehicle came to a stop on the bridge, the CHP said.
The names of the dead were not expected to be released until Monday.
BAGHDAD
9 killed in Iraq attacks
A series of attacks including a blast near an Internet cafe in a Sunni area of Baghdad killed nine people and wounded dozens on Sunday in and around the Iraqi capital.
The attacks came amid heightened sectarian tension following a deadly security crackdown on a camp in northern Iraq run by Sunnis, protesting what they consider to be their second-class treatment by the Shiite-led government. Government investigators say the April 23 incident left 40 people dead, while a spate of follow-up attacks and battles has killed well over 200 more.
The bloodshed has raised fears that the country could be heading for a new wave of sectarian fighting like that which nearly pushed it to the brink of civil war in the middle of the last decade.
NEW YORK
Prof apologizes for remark
Niall Ferguson, a Harvard history professor and author, apologized on Saturday for saying economist John Maynard Keynes was less invested in the future because he was gay and had no children.
Ferguson said his remarks at an earlier conference were “as stupid as they were insensitive.”
During a question-and-answer session after a prepared speech at the Altegris Strategic Investment conference in Carlsbad, Calif. on Thursday, Ferguson was asked to comment about Keynes, an influential 20thcentury British economist who advocated government spending as a way to make up for lagging demand in a down economy.
Ferguson suggested that Keynes philosophy was shaped by his homosexuality. Keynes, therefore, had no children so he wasn’t as invested in future generations as others might be, Ferguson said.
On Saturday Ferguson acknowledged the remarks and said he “deeply and unreservedly” apologized.
“I should not have suggested – in an off-the-cuff response that was not part of my presentation – that Keynes was indifferent to the long run because he had no children, nor that he had no children because he was gay,” he said in a statement in response to an e-mailed query.
“It is obvious that people who do not have children also care about future generations,” he added.
BEDFORD, Mass.
Gerbils vie for crown
The American Gerbil Society’s annual pageant brought dozens of rodents scurrying to New England this weekend for a chance to win “top gerbil.”
The Bedford competition called for agility demonstrations in which the gerbils must overcome obstacles and race to the end of a course. Breeders of the small animals vie for coveted ribbons based on body type and agility.