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Bride killed limo fire: Limo fire kills 5 on San Mateo Bridge

They were heading out on what was supposed to be one of the happiest nights of Neriza Fojas' life, a party to cap off the bridal shower she'd been celebrating with eight of her nurse friends. Then the women's stretch limousine headed west over the San Mateo Bridge - and horror erupted. Just after 10 p.m. Saturday, flames burst out in the back of the 1999 Lincoln Town Car. The driver pulled over, and he and four of the women managed to escape. But the other five passengers, including Fojas, remained trapped. They couldn't get out the rear doors, so they tried to squeeze through a small window into the driver's compartment. Within seconds, the back end was engulfed and it was too late. Emergency workers later found Fojas and four of her friends clustered under the 3-by-1 1/2-foot window. The women, all in their 30s and 40s, died in the flames. "This is one of the most horrific things I've seen in 21 years with this office," San Mateo County's medica

Syria Is Not Iraq

IN the search for an American response to the civil war in Syria, the favorite guidebook seems to be our ill-fated adventure in Iraq. We have another brutal Middle East autocrat holding power on behalf of a sectarian minority. We have another dubious cast of opposition factions competing for foreign patronage. We hear some of the same hawks — John McCain, Paul Wolfowitz — exhorting us to intervene, countered by familiar warnings of “quagmire.” We even have murky intelligence claims that the regime has used weapons of mass destruction. This time, though, we have a president who, having opposed the costly blunder of Iraq and been vindicated, is holding back. The theme song at the National Security Council is “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” As a rule, I admire President Obama’s cool calculation in foreign policy; it is certainly an improvement over the activist hubris of his predecessor. And frankly I’ve shared his hesitation about Syria, in part because, during an earlier column-writing int

Hungary's Prime Minister Denounces Anti-Semitism

Hungary's prime minister told an international assembly of Jews on Sunday that his government has declared "zero tolerance" on anti-Semitism, but his speech failed to impress those gathered who said he has failed to confront the country's largest far-right party. Addressing the opening session of the World Jewish Congress, Prime Minister Viktor Orban acknowledged that anti-Semitism was on the rise both in Europe and Hungary, attributing it partly to the economic crisis affecting the region. "Anti-Semitism is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated," Orban told some 600 delegates at the meeting, adding that it was his government's "moral duty to declare zero tolerance on anti-Semitism." While delegates applauded some parts of Orban's speech on Sunday, the WJC was also quick to express its disappointment that he had not specifically talked about the country's third biggest political force, the far-right Jobbik party, whose politicians in

British M.P. Rejects Accounts of Assaults

LONDON — Nigel Evans, the senior Conservative member of Parliament who has been questioned by the police over accusations of rape and sexual assault involving two men, said Sunday that the allegations were “completely false.” In a statement to reporters outside his house in the Lancashire County village of Pendleton, Mr. Evans said the complaints were four years old and were made “by two people who are well known to each other and who until yesterday I regarded as friends.” Mr. Evans, 55, was interrogated by the Lancashire police for most of the day on Saturday and was released with an order to return for further questioning next month. He has not been charged. The police also searched his car and house. The allegations concern two men in their 20s and cover a period from 2009 until a few weeks ago, according to British news reports. Mr. Evans is one of the two deputy speakers in the House of Commons. He has been a member of Parliament since 1992 and was elected to the deputy speak

Bride killed limo fire: Limo headed to party catches fire on Calif. bridge; 5 women trapped inside killed

Bride killed limo fire , A limousine taking nine women to a night on the town to celebrate a newlywed bride erupted in flames, killing five of the passengers who were trapped inside as the other four escaped with burn and smoke inhalation injuries, authorities said Sunday. Relatives said the bride was among the dead. The driver, who was not hurt, told investigators he was driving the women on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge Saturday night when one of them complained of smoke inside the passenger compartment, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said. He said he pulled over, got out, and saw the back of the 1999 Lincoln Town Car fully engulfed in flames, Foucrault said. By the time firefighters rushed to the scene and put out the fire, authorities found five badly burned bodies huddled near the partition that separates the driver from the passengers. “My guess would be they were trying to get away from the fire and use that window opening as an escape route,” Foucrault said. He said

Justin Bieber Attacked

Justin Bieber attacked , Justin Bieber fan tackled the singer onstage during a concert in Dubai over the weekend, according to a United Arab Emirates report and a mobile phone video posted on YouTube . News website The National reported that an unsuspecting Bieber was rushed from behind on Sunday night during his second show at Dubai's Sevens Stadium as part of the Believe world tour. The teen star enraged fans the previous night, and again on Sunday night, when he turned up two hours late for both concerts in the same city. Advertisement A video purporting to be of Sunday's concert shows a male in a white T-shirt and denim shorts run onto the stage and grab a singer, dressed all in black, before security officers swarm onstage and tackle the young man. The singer was able to free himself and dash to the side of the stage just seconds before a grand piano the star had been playing was tipped over in a tussle between the fan and a bodyguard. Although the piano was rendered unp

Justin Bieber attacked

Justin Bieber attacked ,  Justin Bieber was attacked by an overzealous fan at his show in Dubai on Sunday, May 5, but luckily for the singer, security guards were on-hand and quickly tackled the fan before he could disrupt the show too much. "A man ran on stage during 'Believe' and tried to grab Justin and knocked the piano over," a source close to the 19-year-old pop star tells Us Weekly of the incident. "He was a fan. Security detained the young man. All was fine and Justin continued the show." In footage shot by a fellow fan in the audience, Bieber was at the piano when the fan rushed onto the stage to grab him, and in his attempt to flee from the security guards, the stage stormer knocked the piano off its hinges so that it was upended in the middle of the stage. Bieber and his band managed to finish off the song without further incident, however, and later returned to the stage for an encore performance of "Boyfriend"