Gunbattle rocks Gao after rebels surprise French, Malians


GAO, Mali (Reuters) - Islamist insurgents launched a surprise raid in the heart of the Malian town of Gao on Sunday, battling French and local troops in a blow to efforts to secure Mali's recaptured north.


Local residents hid in their homes or crouched behind walls as the crackle of gunfire from running street battles resounded through the sandy streets and mud-brick houses of the ancient Niger River town, retaken from Islamist rebels last month by a French-led offensive.


French helicopters clattered overhead and fired on al Qaeda-allied rebels armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades who had infiltrated the central market area and holed up in a police station, Malian and French officers said.


The fighting inside Gao was certain to raise fears that pockets of determined Islamists who have escaped the lightning four-week-old French intervention in Mali will strike back with guerrilla attacks and suicide bombings.


After driving the bulk of the insurgents from major northern towns such as Timbuktu and Gao, French forces are trying to search out their bases in the remote and rugged Adrar des Ifoghas mountains, far up in the northeast.


But with Mali's weak army unable to secure recaptured zones, and the deployment of a larger African security force slowed by delays and kit shortages, vast areas to the rear of the French forward lines now look vulnerable to guerrilla activity.


"They infiltrated the town via the river. We think there were about 10 of them. They were identified by the population and they went into the police station," said General Bernard Barrera, commander of French ground operations in Mali.


He told reporters in Gao that French helicopters had intervened to help Malian troops pinned down by the rebels, who threw grenades from rooftops.


Malian gendarme Colonel Saliou Maiga told Reuters the insurgents intended to carry out suicide attacks in the town.


SUICIDE BOMBERS


No casualty toll was immediately available. But a Reuters reporter in Gao saw one body crumpled over a motorcycle. Malian soldiers said some of the raiders may have come on motorbikes.


The gunfire in Gao erupted hours after French and Malian forces reinforced a checkpoint on the northern outskirts that had been attacked for the second time in two days by a suicide bomber.


Abdoul Abdoulaye Sidibe, a Malian parliamentarian from Gao, said the rebel infiltrators were from the MUJWA group that had held the town until French forces liberated it late last month.


MUJWA is a splinter faction of al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM which, in loose alliance with the home-grown Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine, held Mali's main northern urban areas for 10 months until the French offensive drove them out.


Late on Saturday, an army checkpoint in Gao's northern outskirts came under attack by a group of Islamist rebels who fired from a road and bridge that lead north through the desert scrub by the Niger River to Bourem, 80 km (50 miles) away.


"Our soldiers came under heavy gunfire from jihadists from the bridge ... At the same time, another one flanked round and jumped over the wall. He was able to set off his suicide belt," Malian Captain Sidiki Diarra told reporters.


The bomber died and one Malian soldier was lightly wounded, he added. In Friday's motorbike suicide bomber attack, a Malian soldier was also injured.


Diarra described Saturday's bomber as a bearded Arab.


Since Gao and the UNESCO World Heritage city of Timbuktu were retaken last month, several Malian soldiers have been killed in landmine explosions on a main road leading north.


French and Malian officers say pockets of rebels are still in the bush and desert between major towns and pose a threat of hit-and-run guerrilla raids and bombings.


"We are in a dangerous zone... we can't be everywhere," a French officer told reporters, asking not to be named.


One local resident reported seeing a group of 10 armed Islamist fighters at Batel, just 10 km (6 miles) from Gao.


OPERATIONS IN NORTHEAST


The French, who have around 4,000 troops in Mali, are now focusing their offensive operations several hundred kilometers (miles) north of Gao in a hunt for the Islamist insurgents.


On Friday, French special forces paratroopers seized the airstrip and town of Tessalit, near the Algerian border.


From here, the French, aided by around 1,000 Chadian troops in the northeast Kidal region, are expected to conduct combat patrols into the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.


The remaining Islamists are believed to have hideouts and supply depots in a rugged, sun-blasted range of rocky gullies and caves, and are also thought to be holding at least seven French hostages previously seized in the Sahel.


The U.S. and European governments back the French-led operation as a defense against Islamist jihadists threatening wider attacks, but rule out sending their own combat troops.


To accompany the military offensive, France and its allies are urging Mali authorities to open a national reconciliation dialogue that addresses the pro-autonomy grievances of northern communities like the Tuaregs, and to hold democratic elections.


Interim President Dioncounda Traore, appointed after a military coup last year that plunged the West African state into chaos and led to the Islamist occupation of the north, has said he intends to hold elections by July 31.


But he faces splits within the divided Malian army, where rival units are still at loggerheads.


(Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra in Bamako; Writing by Joe Bavier and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Kevin Liffey)



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Decision on Kurien likely before budget session: Chacko

NEW DELHI: Congress's dilemma over the controversy surrounding Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien is becoming pronounced ahead of Parliament's budget session as the opposition, mainly the Left bloc, is bound to ramp up its demand for the Kerala leader's removal.

As demands for Kurien's sacking get louder, the ruling party has indicated that a decision will be taken before the coming budget session of Parliament.

The issue is haunting the party's top leadership as it will be awkward for the Congress to let Kurien preside over the upper House when it debates a legislation relating to women's safety and security.

"The high command is seized of the matter and a decision will be taken before the coming budget session of Parliament," AICC spokesman P C Chacko told reporters.

The party leadership is keeping a close watch on how the 17-year-old Suryanelli rape case unfolds in the public domain in the coming days before taking a call on the demand.

"We will be taking decision on all issues, including this, before the Parliament session begins (on February 21). The high command will not be closing its eyes to any issue coming before the party," Chacko said.

Opposition parties led by the Left Front have been demanding Kurien's sacking as Rajya Sabha deputy chairman in the wake of the victim of the 1996 Suryanelli case recently reiterating her charge against him.

However, Kurien has claimed innocence and blamed the renewed controversy on political motivation of his rivals.

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over


NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.


The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.


The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.


But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.


For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.


Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.


"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.


In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.


Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications


But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.


So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.


Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.


The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.


Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.


___


Online:


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/


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$1M Reward for Capture of Fugitive Ex-Cop Dorner













A $1 million reward was offered today for information leading to the arrest of Christopher Dorner, as authorities in Big Bear, Calif., scaled back their search for the disgruntled ex-cop, who is suspected in three revenge killings.


"This is the largest local reward ever offered, to our knowledge," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference today. "This is an act of domestic terrorism. This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered."


The money for the reward was pooled by businesses, government, local law enforcement leaders and individual donors, Beck said.



PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings


The reward comes on the fourth day of a manhunt for Dorner, who has left Southern California on edge after he allegedly went on a killing spree last week to avenge his firing from the police force. Dorner outlined his grievances in a 6,000 word so-called "manifesto" and said he will keep killing until the truth is known about his case.


Dorner's threats have prompted the LAPD to provide more than 50 law enforcement families with security and surveillance detail, Beck said.


Authorities are chasing leads, however they declined to say where in order to not impede the investigation.


Dorner's burned-out truck was found Thursday near Big Bear Lake, a popular skiing destination located 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.






Irvine Police Department/AP Photo











Manhunt for Alleged Cop Killer Heads to California Mountains Watch Video









Christopher Dorner Search: Officials Search for Ex-officer in the Mountains Watch Video









Hundreds of Officers on Hunt for Alleged Cop Killer Watch Video





Investigators found two AR-15 assault rifles in the burned-out truck Dorner abandoned, sources told ABC News.


The truck had a broken axle, which may be the reason he decided to set fire to it, the police sources said.


Full Coverage: Christopher Jordan Dorner


Officers have spent the past couple of days going door-to-door and searching vacant cabins. The manhunt was scaled back to 25 officers and one helicopter in the resort town today, according to the San Bernadino Sheriff's Office.


On Saturday, Beck announced he would reopen the investigation into Dorner's firing but said the decision was not made to "appease" the fugitive ex-cop.


"I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner's allegations regarding his termination of employment, and to do so I have directed our Professionals Standards Bureau and my Special Assistant for Constitutional Policing to completely review the Dorner complaint of 2007; To include a re-examination of all evidence and a re-interview of witnesses," Beck said. "We will also investigate any allegations made in his manifesto which were not included in his original complaint."


Dorner is suspected of killing Monica Quan and her fiancé Keith Lawrence last Sunday in their car in the parking lot of their Irvine, Calif., condominium complex. Both were struck with multiple gunshot wounds.


Quan's father, Randall Quan, was a retired captain with the LAPD and attorney who represented Dorner before a police review board that led to Dorner's dismissal from the force in 2008.


On Wednesday, after Dorner was identified as a suspect in the double murder, police believe he ambushed two Riverside police officers, killing one and wounding the other.


The next day, Randall Quan reported he received a taunting call from a man claiming to be Dorner who told him that he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to court documents documents.


Anyone with information leading to the arrest of Christopher Dorner is asked to call the LAPD task force at 213-486-6860.


ABC News' Dean Schabner, Jack Date, Pierre Thomas, Jason Ryan and Clayton Sandell contributed to this report.



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Three Korean doctors slain in north Nigeria: police






KANO, Nigeria: Men armed with knives slit the throats of three South Korean doctors in a pre-dawn attack Sunday in a volatile town in northeastern Nigeria in the latest in a spate of killings of foreigners in recent months, police said.

The attack in Potiskum also came just two days after gunmen killed at least 10 people in horrifying attacks on two Nigerian polio clinics in a new blow to the campaign to wipe out disease, but it was not clear if the incidents were related.

Yobe State police commissioner Sanusi Rufa'i would not say if the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has been active in Potiskum, was responsible for Sunday's killings, but that the attack was being investigated.

He said unknown attackers scaled the fence of an apartment housing the three doctors at around 1:00 am and slit their throats, initially describing the victims as Chinese.

"Further investigations have shown that the victims were Korean nationals and not Chinese as earlier stated. They were doctors from South Korea," Rufa'i told AFP, in comments confirmed by a senior military official in the state.

Residents said the Koreans, whose bodies were found by neighbours, were employees of the state ministry of health and had been living in the city for one year.

In Seoul, the foreign ministry said it was checking the reports, but noted that few Koreans live in the town.

"The chance that the slain would be Koreans is not high," a foreign ministry official told Yonhap news agency. "But we are checking further related situations via diverse channels."

A local resident said the bodies of the Koreans were found in their room by neighbours who alerted security agents,

"People became worried when the doctors did not open their door in the morning," one resident who did not want to be named told AFP.

He said the victims had their throats slit, but it was not immediately clear if the assailants also came with guns.

"It is still premature to point any accusing fingers but we have commenced an investigation to unravel the killings," said Rufa'i, adding: "No arrest has been made."

Sunday's attack was the latest in a spate of killings of foreigners, especially Chinese nationals, in the country's restive northeast.

In November, gunmen shot dead two Chinese construction workers in nearby Borno State, the stronghold of the Boko Haram extremists.

Three other Chinese nationals have also been killed in separate attacks in the region.

Although no group claimed responsibility for the attacks, they were similar to previous strikes against foreigners by Boko Haram.

Violence linked to Boko Haram is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

The killings in Potiskum, which lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the state capital Damaturu, followed attacks on other health workers in the northern city of Kano on Friday.

Nine women and a man were shot dead in two separate attacks in Kano after a local cleric denounced polio vaccination campaigns and some local radio stations aired conspiracy theories about the vaccine being a Western plot to harm Muslims.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned Friday's killings, describing them as "dastardly terrorist attacks" and vowed to track down the perpetrators.

Boko Haram has claimed to be fighting for the creation of an Islamic state, but its demands have shifted repeatedly and it is believed to include various factions. Criminal gangs and imitators are also suspected of carrying out violence under the guise of the group.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer, is divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

- AFP/ck



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Israel's Lieberman says Palestinian peace accord impossible


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has no chance of signing a permanent peace accord with the Palestinians and should instead seek a long-term interim deal, the most powerful political partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.


The remarks by Avigdor Lieberman, an ultranationalist whose joint party list with Netanyahu narrowly won a January 22 election while centrist challengers made surprise gains, seemed designed to dampen expectations at home and abroad of fresh peacemaking.


A spring visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by U.S. President Barack Obama, announced this week, has stirred speculation that foreign pressure for a diplomatic breakthrough could build - though Washington played down that possibility.


In a television interview, ex-foreign minister Lieberman linked the more than two-year-old impasse to pan-Arab political upheaval that has boosted Islamists hostile to the Jewish state.


These include Hamas, rivals of U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who control the Gaza Strip and spurn coexistence with Israel though they have mooted extended truces.


"Anyone who thinks that in the center of this socio-diplomatic ocean, this tsunami which is jarring the Arab world, it is possible to arrive at the magic solution of a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians does not understand," Lieberman told Israel's Channel Two.


"This is impossible. It is not possible to solve the conflict here. The conflict can be managed and it is important to manage the conflict ... to negotiate on a long-term interim agreement."


Abbas broke off talks in late 2010 in protest at Israel's settlement of the occupied West Bank. He angered Israel and the United States in November by securing a U.N. status upgrade that implicitly recognized Palestinian independence in all the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.


Israel insists it will keep East Jerusalem and swathes of West Bank settlements under any eventual peace deal. Most world powers consider the settlements illegal because they take up land seized in the 1967 Middle East war.


Lieberman, himself a West Bank settler, said the ball was "in Abu Mazen's (Abbas') court" to revive diplomacy.


Abbas has demanded Israel first freeze all settlement construction. With two decades gone since Palestinians signed their first interim deal with Israel, he has ruled out any new negotiations that do not solemnize Palestinian statehood.


Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev noted that Lieberman, in the Channel Two interview, had said he was expressing his own opinion.


Asked how Netanyahu saw peace prospects for an accord with the Palestinians, Regev referred to a speech on Tuesday in which the conservative prime minister said that Israel, while addressing threats by its enemies, "must also pursue secure, stable and realistic peace with our neighbors".


Netanyahu has previously spoken in favor of a Palestinian state, though he has been cagey on its borders and whether he would be prepared to dismantle Israeli settlements.


Lieberman's role in the next coalition government is unclear as he faces trial for corruption. If convicted, he could be barred from the cabinet. Lieberman denies wrongdoing and has said he would like to regain the foreign portfolio, which he surrendered after his indictment was announced last year.


(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Stephen Powell)



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After Afzal Guru's hanging, focus now on Rajoana


CHANDIGARH: With the hanging of Afzal Guru on Saturday, the focus is now on Balwant Singh Rajoana, sentenced to death in the assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh. The Akalis had virtually pulled Rajoana out of the jaws of death when Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son and SAD president Sukhbir Badal had pleaded with the then President to defer the hanging, just two days before he was to be executed on March 31 last year. Rajoana had, however, refused to challenge the death sentence.

On Saturday, as the BJP upped its attack on the UPA for the "delay in hanging Guru," its ally, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), maintained silence. Both the Badals and the SAD spokesperson avoided queries from TOI on their stand regarding Rajoana.

The Congress, meanwhile, accused the BJP of "doublespeak" and dared SAD to clarify its stand on Rajoana. This Babbar Khalsa International terrorist who conspired to kill Beant Singh was awarded the death sentence by a CBI special court in July 2007 along with another terrorist, Jagtar Singh Hawara. The Punjab and Haryana high court had in October 2010 upheld Rajoana's death sentence, while changing the capital punishment meted out to Hawara to life imprisonment.

While Sukhbir Badal, who is also deputy CM, parried queries from TOI, Gagandeep Brar, special principal secretary to the CM said that he was indisposed and would not be able to comment. However, the CM did find time to meet a 21-member delegation from Iowa, US, on Saturday morning.

The Punjab Congress attacked the BJP, saying that its ally, SAD, was only trying to put roadblocks to a legal and constitutional process. "Rajoana should be meted out the justice due to him. The central government only agreed to have a look at his appeal but law must take its course. While sharing the stage at a function in Punjab, I had asked LK Advani the question on double standards. He refused to answer then as well," said Sunil Jakhar, leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly.

Other Congress leaders also attacked the BJP, saying it was during its rule that Parliament was attacked and that they were using a different yardstick for the assassination of Beant Singh who was a Congress CM.

Beant Singh was largely credited with wiping out terrorism from Punjab by dealing with terrorists with an iron hand along with supercop KPS Gill. He was assassinated by a human bomb, Dilawar Singh, at the high security Punjab civil secretariat here August 31, 1995. While Hawara was the mastermind of the assassination, Rajoana was the second human bomb to be used in case the first one failed.

There is also another militant, Devinder Pal Bhullar, who is on death row. He was found guilty of killing nine bystanders in a 1993 car bombing which was intended to kill Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, chairman of the All India Anti-Terrorist Front, and sentenced to death. He is also a suspect in two other terrorist attacks. His appeal against the conviction was dismissed by the Supreme Court on December 27, 2006, and his plea for clemency was rejected by President Pratibha Patil in May 2011.

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over


NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.


The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.


The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.


"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.


But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.


For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.


Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.


"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.


In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.


Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications


But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.


So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.


Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.


The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.


Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.


___


Online:


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/


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After Blizzard, Northeast Begins to Dig Out













The Northeast began the arduous process of cleaning up after a fierce storm swept through the region leaving behind up to three feet of snow in some areas.


By early this morning, 650,000 homes and businesses were without power and at least five deaths were being blamed on the storm: three in Canada, one in New York and one in Connecticut, The Associated Press reported.


The storm dumped snow from New Jersey to Maine, affecting more than 25 million people, with more than two feet falling in areas of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The Postal Service closed post offices and suspended mail delivery today in New England.


As the storm waned, officials in the hardest hit areas cautioned residents to remain indoors and off the roads to ease the clean-up.


Massachusetts was hard hit by the storm, with more than two feet of snow in Boston and even more in coastal areas. State police and national guard troops helped rescue more than 50 stranded motorists and even helped deliver a baby girl, according to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.


Patrick enacted the first statewide driving ban since the 1978 blizzard, which left 27 inches of snow and killed dozens. The ban was to be lifted at 4 p.m. today, the governor said.


However, Patrick cautioned residents to act with extreme caution even after the ban is over.


"Stay inside and be patient," Patrick said.


In Massachusetts a boy reportedly died of carbon monoxide poisoning as he helped his father shovel snow on Saturday, according to ABCNews.com affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston.


For residents along the coast, the waning snowfall didn't mean the end of the storm. Storm surges along the Massachusetts coastline forced some residents out of their homes Saturday morning.


"We've got 20-foot waves crashing and flooding some homes," Bob Connors on Plum Island told WCVB. "We have power and heat and all that. We just have a very angry ocean. In my 33 years, I've never seen the seas this high."






Darren McCollester/Getty Images











Blizzard Shuts Down Parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts Watch Video









Blizzard 2013: Power Outages for Hundreds of Thousands of People Watch Video









Blizzard 2013: Northeast Transportation Network Shut Down Watch Video





FULL COVERAGE: Blizzard of 2013


In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy declared a state of emergency and closed all roads in the state. The state police responded to more than 1,600 calls over the last 24 hours and the governor called up an additional 270 National Guard members.


"If you're not an emergency personnel that's required to be somewhere, stay home," Malloy said.


Overnight, snow fell at a rate of up to five to six inches per hour in parts of Connecticut. In Milford, more than 38 inches of snow had fallen by this morning.


In Fairfield, Conn. firefighters and police officers on the day shift were unable to make it to work, so the overnight shift remained on duty.


PHOTOS: Blizzard Hits Northeast


The wind and snow started affecting the region during the Friday night commute.


In Cumberland, Maine, the conditions led to a 19-car pile-up and in New York, hundreds of commuters were stranded on the snowy Long Island Expressway. Police and firefighters were still working to free motorists early this morning.


"The biggest problem that we're having is that people are not staying on the main portion or the middle section of the roadway and veering to the shoulders, which are not plowed," said Lt. Daniel Meyer from the Suffolk County Police Highway Patrol.


In New York, authorities are digging out hundreds of cars that got stuck overnight on the Long Island Expressway.


Bob Griffith of Syosset, N.Y., said he tried leave early to escape the storm, but instead ended up stuck in the snow by the side of the road.


"I tried to play it smart in that I started early in the day, when it was raining," said Griffith. "But the weather beat us to the punch."


Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone said the snow had wreaked havoc on the roadways.


"I saw state plows stuck on the side of the road. I've never seen anything like this before," Bellone said.


However, some New York residents, who survived the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, were rattled by having to face another large and potentially dangerous storm system with hurricane force winds and flooding.


"How many storms of the century can you have in six months?" said Larry Racioppo, a resident of the hard hit Rockaway neighborhood in Queens, New York.


READ: Weather NYC: Blizzard Threatens Rockaways, Ravaged by Sandy


Snowfall Totals


In New York, a little more than 11 inches fell in the city.


By this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said nearly all of the primary roads had been plowed and the department of sanitation anticipated that all roads would be plowed by the end of the day.


"It looks like we dodged a bullet, but keep in mind winter is not over," said Bloomberg.






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Tennis: Czechs lead Australia 2-0 in Fed Cup






PRAGUE: Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova handed holders Czech Republic a 2-0 lead over Australia after the first day of their Fed Cup World Group tie in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava on Saturday.

In the first rubber, Kvitova, the Czech number one and world number eight, beat Australia's 168-ranked Jarmila Gajdosova 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 in an hour and 35 minutes.

Safarova, the world number 18, then snatched two tie-breaks for a 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4) win over ninth-ranked Samantha Stosur in two hours and 28 minutes.

Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion who led the Czechs to Fed Cup victories in 2011 and 2012, struggled for composure in the first set before dominating the second.

"It wasn't an easy match and she had moments when she played very well, but she also helped me a few times," the 22-year-old Kvitova said.

"I was terribly nervous in the first set."

Gajdosova, who has sunk from a career-high ranking of 25 in the past two seasons, said she had played a "pretty decent match."

"I had a lot of chances in the first and second set. Unfortunately I didn't take them," said the 25-year-old Gajdosova, who was born in Slovakia which formed a single country with the Czech Republic until 1993.

On the hard surface in Ostrava, about 320 kilometres (200 miles) east of Prague, Safarova then battled Stosur in a tight game, with each giving up five breaks.

"It was very hard, the games with her are always tight. But I handled it very well," said the 26-year-old Safarova.

Stosur, 28, failed to convert five set points in the first set and then gave up a break as she served for the second set.

"Unfortunately for me, I guess she got all those important points to get it back even and then kick on and get each set," said the 2011 US Open champion.

On Sunday, Kvitova will first face Stosur. If she gives the Czechs a winning 3-0 lead, the tie will go straight to doubles, while if she loses, Safarova will take on Gajdosova.

In the doubles, Czechs Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, the world numbers three and four in the format, will face Australian Open finalists Casey Dellacqua (21 in doubles) and 16-year-old Ashleigh Barty (46).

The Czech Republic and former Czechoslovakia have won seven Fed Cup trophies together, just like Australia whose last success was back in 1974.

This puts both teams second in the historic Fed Cup rankings behind the US with 17 trophies.

- AFP/jc



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