World / Nation Briefs August 20, 2011

Despite Assad's assurances, 20 killed in Syria

BEIRUT - Syrian security forces killed at least 20 protesters Friday despite promises by President Bashar Assad that the military operations against the 5-month-old uprising are over.

The killings, which came as thousands poured into the streets across Syria, suggest the autocratic leader is either unwilling to stop the violence - or not fully in control of his own regime.

Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is facing the most serious international isolation of his rule. On Thursday, the United States and its European allies demanded he step down.

Military operations have subsided in the past few days, following a fresh crackdown on major flashpoint cities that started at the beginning of the month to root out anti-government protesters.

But persistent gunfire and shootings, along with Friday's killings, underscore the difficulty of any kind of diplomatic pressure achieving results in the absence of any appetite for military intervention.

3 dead, 1 missing in Pittsburgh flash flooding

PITTSBURGH - A pair of storms that pounded Pittsburgh on Friday cut electricity to hospitals and universities and submerged more than a dozen vehicles in a flash flood that killed a woman and two children and left another person presumed dead.

Officials said drivers were overwhelmed as water rose up to 9 feet in some places along Washington Boulevard, which parallels the Allegheny River in the city's Highland Park section.

Rescue crews used inflatable boats to reach marooned drivers, though some swam to safety on their own. Rhodearland "Bob" Bailey of Penn Hills, who is about 80, was rescued from the roof of his car.

"I can swim a little bit and was looking at a tree branch," Bailey said. "I heard one woman yelling for help, but the water was coming down so fast, I couldn't see. ... I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Lord have mercy."

The area received 2.1 inches of rain in an hour, said Rihaan Gangat, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. But an earlier storm meant the region was drenched by 3 to 4 inches of rain overall on Friday.

The three victims, whose names were not released, were unable to escape their vehicle, which was completely submerged and pinned to a tree, Pittsburgh public safety director Michael Huss said at a news conference.

Rescuers floated over the car without knowing it was below.

Heroic act prompts debate on immigration

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The man who chased down a suspected child abductor and saved a 6-year-old girl from what could have been a horrible fate was honored as a hero Friday. But he is also gaining a new kind of celebrity: as a poster child of sorts for immigration rights in state and national immigration debates.

Antonio Diaz Chacon, 23, is married to an American and has been in the country for four years. But Chacon says he abandoned attempts to get legal residency because the process was difficult and expensive.

Diaz Chacon revealed his immigration status to Univision this week and confirmed to The Associated Press that he is illegal, prompting chatter on the Internet and social networking sites that his case underscored immigrant rights positions in two ongoing political debates.

Some argue he is an example of the kind of immigrant the federal government will now largely leave alone. The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that deportations would focus on criminals.

"As exceptional as his story is," said Christina Parker, a spokeswoman for Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso, Texas, "it points to the fact that most undocumented immigrants living in the United States are not criminals. He's more than not a criminal now. He's a hero."

Bus crash kills 35 in south Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - A government spokesman says a bus has careened off a mountain road in south Afghanistan, killing 35 people including women and children.

Kandahar provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayubi says the overloaded bus was traveling through Dand district of Kandahar province Saturday when it swerved and rolled about 40 yards off the road. He says 26 people were injured.

In eastern Nangahar province, spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai says an explosives-packed rickshaw exploded near the car of an Afghan intelligence agent, killing him and wounding four people.

And Afghan army spokesman Najibullah Majibi says a rickshaw-bomb detonated near an Afghan army truck in the western province of Herat, killing two soldiers and injuring three.

- The Associated Press