A Christmastime wave of severe weather continued Friday as a tornado touched down in north-central Alabama, including part of Birmingham, the state’s largest city.
Witnesses spotted the funnel outside the city about 5 p.m. An hour later, the National Weather Service confirmed that first responders were on the scene along Jefferson Avenue in a working class neighborhood about eight miles from downtown Birmingham.
Lt. Sean Edwards, a Birmingham police spokesman, said trees are down and people were trapped inside damaged houses, adding that several people were taken to hospitals for treatment of minor injuries, but further details were not immediately available.
Ruthie Green went door-to-door in a coat and a bicycle helmet to check on neighbors after the storm and swept debris from her front porch as more emergency responders arrived in the neighborhood.
“I been listening to the news all day so I was kind of preparing,” Green said. When the tornado warning came up on her iPad, Green said she ran to a closet.
The Latest: Alabama pastor finds church collapsed in storm
The latest developments on the severe storms across the U.S. (all times local):
Pastor Melvin Howard of the Mount Olive Full Gospel Church said he came rushing to the area of Jefferson Avenue and 50th Street in Birmingham, Alabama, when he heard the storm hit. Several houses on the block had been destroyed and partially blown into the street. Police and fire crews canvassed the area Friday night as lightning illuminated the scope of the damage.
Howard said his church’s building had collapsed but no one was inside at the time.
“We’re just there to salvage what we can salvage,” Howard said. “Mikes and p.a. systems of that magnitude that we know someone would go in and take,” he said.
Top Syrian rebel killed in airstrike near Damascus
picture: strapless wedding dressBEIRUT (AP) — An airstrike near the Syrian capital on Friday killed top rebel commander Zahran Allouch, the head of one of the most powerful Saudi-backed insurgent groups fighting against President Bashar Assad’s government near the seat of his power Damascus, opposition activists said.
Allouch’s death a month before expected peace talks between government and opposition representatives in Geneva is a blow to insurgents fighting to topple Assad and a boost to government forces who have been bolstered by the Russian military intervention in Syria in the past few months.
It was not immediately clear who was behind his death.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an airstrike hit an Army of Islam meeting near the Damascus suburb of Otaya, killing several rebel commanders including Allouch. It said it was not clear whether it was a Russian or Syrian airstrike.
The Observatory said the warplanes struck a meeting during which Army of Islam commanders were preparing to launch an offensive against government forces and those of Lebanon’s Hezbollah near Damascus.
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Obama: 6 killed in Afghanistan were ‘outstanding’
KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (AP) — President Barack Obama said the six U.S. service members killed this week in a suicide attack in Afghanistan were “outstanding, brave men and women” as he delivered a Christmas Day gesture of gratitude to U.S. troops for how much they sacrifice to keep Americans safe and free.
The six service members were killed Monday at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the largest U.S. facility in the country, when a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden motorcycle into a joint NATO-Afghan patrol. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
“As we know, when you’re deployed overseas, it’s tough,” Obama said in brief remarks at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay. He said that although his administration has been bringing home troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, “there are still folks over there every single day and it’s still dangerous, as we saw this past week, where we had some outstanding, brave men and women who were killed.”
“So we never take for granted what all of you do for the American people,” Obama said. “You help keep us free. You help keep us strong. Whatever service you’re in, whatever branch, we are extraordinarily grateful for everything that you do every single day.”
The Christmas visit to the Marine Corps Base has become an annual tradition for Obama and his wife, Michelle, during the family’s yearly vacation in his native Hawaii. The first lady and Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, head a nationwide initiative to rally public support for active-duty and retired service members and their families.
Late-night earthquake rattles Pakistani capital, Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A strong earthquake shook parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan early Saturday, rattling buildings and forcing sleeping residents out of their homes.
More than 30 people were injured as houses or walls collapsed in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, said emergency rescue service spokesman Bilal Ahmed Faizi. A total of 41 people were taken to hospitals in the city, according to doctors and rescue officials.
Pakistani official Ghulam Rasool told The Associated Press that the magnitude-6.9 quake was centered in Tajikistan near the Afghan border, beginning after midnight and lasting for 59 seconds.
However, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake measured at magnitude 6.2 and was centered in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. Twitter users in the Afghan capital, Kabul, reported feeling the tremors.
Hamid Nawaz, the head of Pakistan’s disaster management authority, said they were still assessing damage. He confirmed that some old homes and walls collapsed in Peshawar, but he refused to share further details.
Months after deadly West Bank arson, case makes progress
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities are expected to soon raise charges against Jewish extremists suspected in a July arson attack on a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents — a case that has been unsolved for months and that helped fuel the current wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
But the protracted and drawn-out investigation has raised questions as to why the process is taking so long when authorities often swiftly arrest and prosecute Palestinians suspected in attacks on Israelis.
A jarring video that aired this week on Israeli TV showing extremist Jews brandishing rifles and knives during a frenzied wedding party — some stabbing photos of the slain Palestinian toddler — has ratcheted up criticism that authorities have treated rogue Israelis with kid gloves for too long.
The arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh while his mother Riham and father Saad later died of their wounds. Ali’s 4-year-old brother, Ahmad, survived but is still being treated at an Israeli hospital.
The firebombing, carried out under cover of darkness while the family slept, sparked deep soul-searching by Israelis rattled by the horrific attack. It was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged “zero tolerance” in the fight to bring the assailants to justice.
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2 dead, 12 injured as 200 migrants try to enter Spain by sea
MADRID (AP) — Two people drowned and at least 12 others were injured when they tried to get to a small patch of Spanish territory in North Africa by swimming from Morocco and scaling a barbed-wire fence that juts into the sea, Spanish and Moroccan news agencies reported Friday.
The dead and hurt were among more than 200 people trying to reach the enclave of Ceuta, which borders Morocco and is across the Strait of Gibraltar from mainland Spain.
More than a million people hoping to escape war and poverty have made their way into Europe this year, according to migration monitors, but attention has been focused on two more common routes — across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece or across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy.
Thousands of African migrants also try to enter the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla each year hoping to get to Europe. Fifteen drowned trying to reach Ceuta last year; the two deaths Friday are the first there this year.
Those who make it typically are not sent back, but are taken to detention centers and allowed to apply for asylum. Sometimes they’re flown to the Spanish mainland.
On Muslims, Democrats find an unlikely ally: George W Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taunted by Republicans to declare war on “radical Islamic terrorism,” Democrats are turning to an unlikely ally: George W. Bush.
President Barack Obama, under pressure to be more aggressive on terrorism, regularly cites his predecessor’s refusal to demonize Muslims or play into the notion of a clash between Islam and the West. It’s a striking endorsement from a president whose political rise was predicated on opposition to the Iraq war and Bush’s hawkish approach in the Middle East.
As Hillary Clinton put it, “George W. Bush was right.”
Laying out her plan to fight domestic terrorism, Clinton reminded voters in Minneapolis earlier this month of Bush’s visit to a Muslim center six days after the Sept. 11 attacks. She even quoted his words from that day about those who intimidate Muslim-Americans: “They represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.”
Bush, of course, was not referring to the 2016 Republican presidential field. Clinton certainly was.
Pope urges Christmas prayers for Syria, Libya peace
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis issued a Christmas Day prayer that recent U.N.-backed peace processes for Syria and Libya will quickly end the suffering of their people, denouncing the “monstrous evil” and atrocities they have endured and praising countries that have taken in refugees.
Speaking from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis issued a plenary indulgence for all Catholics in hopes of spreading the church’s message of mercy in a world torn by war, poverty and extremist attacks. The sun-soaked St. Peter’s Square was under heavy security, as it has been since the Nov. 13 Paris attacks by Islamic extremists that left 130 dead.
An indulgence is an ancient church tradition related to the forgiveness of sins. Francis announced it after delivering his annual “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) speech listing global hotspots and his prayers for an end to human suffering.
Francis referred to the “brutal acts of terrorism” that struck the French capital this year, as well as attacks in Egypt’s airspace and in Beirut, Mali and Tunisia. He denounced the ongoing conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine and issued words of consolation to Christians being persecuted for their faith in many parts of the world.
“They are our martyrs of today,” he said.
Serena Williams wins AP Female Athlete of Year for 4th time
Serena Williams spent a good portion of 2015 deflecting questions about whether she could complete the Grand Slam. After coming oh-so-close, she can acknowledge how much she cared about the rare feat.
“I wanted it. But … winning one (major title) is not easy. And then, (when) you have a ‘bounty’ on your head, it’s even harder,” she said with a laugh. “If you know anything about me, I hate to lose. I’ve always said I hate losing more than I like winning, so that drives me to be the best that I can be.”
Williams’ will was on display time and again, along with her best-in-the-game serve and other skills, fashioning comeback after comeback to nearly become the first tennis player in more than a quarter-century to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a season. In a vote by U.S. editors and news directors, Williams was chosen as The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for the fourth time.
Results were announced Friday.
Williams collected 50 first-place votes and 352 points. Carli Lloyd, whose hat trick in the final lifted the U.S. women’s soccer team to the World Cup title, was the runner-up, with 14 first-place votes and 243 points. UFC star Ronda Rousey finished third, one spot ahead of the woman she stunningly lost to last month, Holly Holm. UConn basketball player Breanna Stewart was fifth.
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