Syria crisis sparks clashes in Lebanon

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he asked the army and security forces "to impose the law and order" in Tripoli.NEW: Demonstrations and clashes occur, and four deaths are reportedThe unrest occurs in the northern Lebanese city of TripoliThe prime minister asks security to "strike with an iron fist"

(CNN) -- Lebanon dispatched troops Friday to quell clashes that arose in the city of Tripoli over the Syrian crisis.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on TV that Lebanese army reinforcements went to two neighborhoods to "put an end to what happened."

The clashes were between Lebanese Alawites who support the Syrian government and Sunni Muslims who oppose it. There also had been a large demonstration in Tripoli in support of the Syrian people.

The clashes in Tripoli killed one soldier and three civilians and injured two soldiers and 10 civilians, the army said. Lebanon's National News Agency said one of those killed was an official with the Democratic Arab Party, an Alawite entity.

"I asked the military and the security forces to impose the law and order in the city and strike with an iron fist," said Mikati, who noted that authorities are investigating.

"I am not accusing anyone. We don't know who started the clashes," he said. "The timing is suspicious, and the civil peace is a red line that no one can cross."

The Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shiite Islam that dominates Syrian leadership; Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite. The majority of Syrians are Sunni Muslim.

There's been tension between the two groups in Lebanon. Alawites and Sunni/leftist militias fought at various junctures during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war until the Syrians established a presence there.

The majority of the Sunnis in Tripoli loathe the Syrian regime, but the Alawites in northern Lebanon thrived during the Syrian presence. Tensions have increased between the groups during the most recent Syrian crisis.

CNN's Nada Husseini contributed to this report.

CNN

Arizona wildfire sparks fresh alerts

NEW: Air quality alerts for eastern Arizona, parts of New MexicoOfficials prepared for winds of up to 30 miles per hour SaturdayContainment of the fire is expected to be more difficultPower companies are seeking contingencies if lines are closed

(CNN) -- Red-flag warnings, indicating critical fire ignition conditions, were in effect Saturday in eastern Arizona, where a massive wildfire grew to 430,000 acres.

Still, crews were making progress in the eastern section of the Wallow fire, said Rita Baysinger, spokeswoman for the Southwest Interagency Incident Management team. Other firefighters were awaiting improved conditions.

Firefighters have created "lines" to contain the fire. To keep the fire from spreading, they burned off areas to destroy ground fuel that feeds the large fire. That work continued Saturday.

"Today is the day that the good work we did over the last two days gets challenged," U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Suzanne Florey told CNN earlier in the day.

As of Saturday afternoon, the fire was 5% contained.

New Mexico health and environment officials said air quality for much of New Mexico and eastern Arizona was expected to worsen over the weekend because of wildfires.

Heavy smoke could affect those in sensitive groups, including children, pregnant woman, asthma sufferers and people with lung and heart disease, the New Mexico Environment Department said.

The National Weather Service said smoke plumes from Arizona wildfires will continue moving toward Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Heavy smoke has permeated communities around the largest Arizona blaze.

"We have not seen the sun clearly for several days," Baysinger said.

The flames have consumed 29 homes, 22 of them in the evacuated city of Greer.

On Friday, air and ground crews concentrated on protecting residences and structures in and near the evacuated cities of Springerville and Eagar.

Power companies said Friday that they are still watching the huge fire and its potential impact on crucial transmission lines that supply power to hundreds of thousands.

The blaze -- about the size of Houston -- has caused authorities to evacuate thousands of people since the wildfire began sweeping through the Apache National Forest on May 29.

CNN's Phil Gast and journalist Craig Johnson contributed to this report.

CNN

Shoe attack on China web censor sparks online buzz (AFP)

SHANGHAI (AFP) – Internet users in China are hailing a student who claims to have thrown a shoe at the architect of the country's so-called "Great Firewall" of Internet controls during a university appearance.

Police in central China on Friday refused to comment on the alleged attack on Fang Binxing at Wuhan University by a student who identified himself online only as "hanunyi".

But the student has been hailed by web users -- posts that were later deleted by authorities under the very system that Fang designed to snuff out information or comment that the government considers a threat to its authority.

Supporters immediately offered the student cash, plane tickets, buffet dinners at five-star hotels, pornography and a virtual private network, or VPN, to help him scale the "Great Firewall".

"When I think of the shoe hitting Fang right in the face, I'm so happy," wrote one Twitter user identified as "gaodongmei", who was presumably using a VPN to access the site which is officially blocked in China.

Some reports said eggs were thrown at Fang but missed their mark. No photos or videos of the reported shoe attack were immediately available.

Thousands of Chinese Internet users vented their anger at Fang in December when he opened a microblog account on web portal Sina.com, which operates a tightly-managed Twitter clone. Fang closed the account within days.

"He is the enemy of all netizens who are forced to scale the wall all day long," said one typical comment, later deleted by web monitors.

Fang's name has been blocked from Internet searches in China since he was shouted off Sina.com.

Fang told the Global Times newspaper in a rare interview in February that he had endured "dirty abuse ... as a sacrifice for my country".

He defended the "Great Firewall" as an urgent necessity and said the censorship technology should be made even stronger.

"Drivers just obey the rules," Fang said, comparing web controls to traffic controls. "So citizens should just play with what they have."

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Bin Laden death sparks new talk over Patriot Act

WASHINGTON (AP) — Freshman Republican Randy Hultgren had no problem voting against extending the Patriot Act in February. But the death of Osama bin Laden, just weeks before part of the terrorist-fighting law expires, raises new questions for the Illinois congressman.

"It hasn't changed my mind, not yet," Hultgren said this week. "I want to see that we're doing it in a careful way, that we're seeing results from it."

There's no indication that the mission to take out bin Laden relied on the Patriot Act, which was designed after the Sept. 11 attacks to find terrorists inside the U.S. But the afterglow of the operation's success shined new light on the nature of the terrorist threat nearly a decade after the attacks bin Laden inspired.

Interviews with House and Senate experts on the law, from both parties, indicate this week's developments may have marginalized any effort to tighten the Patriot Act's protections and perhaps scuttled Senate plans to hold a full week of debate on the bill.

From its inception, the law's increased surveillance powers have been criticized by both liberals and conservatives as infringements on free speech rights and protections against unwarranted searches and seizures.

Some Patriot Act opponents suggest that bin Laden's demise should prompt Congress to reconsider the law, written when the terrorist leader was at the peak of his power. But the act's supporters warn that al-Qaida splinter groups, scattered from Pakistan to the United States and beyond, may try to retaliate.

"Now more than ever, we need access to the crucial authorities in the Patriot Act," Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

If bin Laden's death has any impact on the law's fate, "I hope?it'll be in the direction of extending the current law," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. "Most of us believe it's been an effective tool in the war on terror."

The provisions that expire May 27 allow the government to use roving wiretaps on multiple electronic devices and across multiple carriers and get court-approved access to business records relevant to terrorist investigations. The third, a "lone wolf" provision that was part of a 2004 law, permits secret intelligence surveillance of non-U.S. individuals without having to show a connection between the target and a specific terrorist group.

The Senate Judiciary Committee in March approved a bill that would extend the provisions until 2013, tighten its civil liberties protections and increase oversight. But there's evidence that bin Laden's death may have marginalized any such effort to do more than extend the law, as is. A Senate official not authorized to speak for the record said it wasn't clear that there would be a full week of floor debate on the Patriot Act as Majority Leader Harry Reid had indicated.

The law's fate, for now, resides in the Republican-controlled House and the odd pairing of GOP libertarians and Democratic liberals who have long viewed the Patriot Act as an oppressive overreach.

The new Republican majority in February underestimated the mistrust of the Patriot Act and tried to renew it for 10 months under rules that required a two-thirds supermajority. It failed. Instead, the Senate proposed a three-month extension, and House GOP leaders succeeded in passing it with a simple majority, 279-143.

Of the 'no' votes against the three-month extension, 26 came from Republicans. GOP leaders now are looking to a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee next Wednesday to test whether a straight extension, or one with changes, could draw votes from Democrats, too.

That has left the Senate's Patriot Act experts cooling their heels as they wait for the House to write a bill that might pass. On ice is a bill written by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Approved by his committee in March with bipartisan support, it would impose tighter standards on the government's access to library and other records and require more oversight of agencies that operate under the law.

Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has called for a clean extension through 2013. Several Republicans have proposed just making the expiring provisions permanent.

But as the magnitude of the bin Laden operation sank in, questions arose in the Senate as well as the House.

Freshman Sen. Mike Lee, the Utah Republican whose tea party backing helped him defeat incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett in a primary, was the sole Republican to vote for Leahy's bill to tighten the Patriot Act's civil liberties protections and beef up its oversight requirements.

But this week, Lee couldn't say whether he'd vote for it on the floor. He also did not rule out voting for a straight extension.

Leahy's bill "would do a better job of protecting civil liberties and privacy than current law," Lee said in a statement. But, he said, "I will need to see how the final reform package shapes up."

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Turtle sparks fast-moving blaze in NYC apartment

NEW YORK (AP) — Fire officials say a lumbering pet turtle sparked a fast-moving fire in a New York City apartment after crawling out of its tank and knocking over the terrarium's heat lamp.

Giovani, a 6-year-old African tortoise about the size of a soccer ball, survived. But officials say one firefighter and three police officers suffered smoke inhalation in Monday's fire in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Another turtle that lived in a water tank was killed.

The New York Post says both reptiles resided in their owner's bedroom. Eighteen-year-old Mohamed Salem and his family were not home at the time.

Fire officials say the heat lamp crashed to the floor, igniting a pile of art supplies, including thinner and paint. Within minutes, the Post reports, the fire spread through the third floor apartment.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Turtle sparks fast-moving blaze in NYC apartment

NEW YORK (AP) — Fire officials say a lumbering pet turtle sparked a fast-moving fire in a New York City apartment after crawling out of its tank and knocking over the terrarium's heat lamp.

Giovani, a 6-year-old African tortoise about the size of a soccer ball, survived. But officials say one firefighter and three police officers suffered smoke inhalation in Monday's fire in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Another turtle that lived in a water tank was killed.

The New York Post says both reptiles resided in their owner's bedroom. Eighteen-year-old Mohamed Salem and his family were not home at the time.

Fire officials say the heat lamp crashed to the floor, igniting a pile of art supplies, including thinner and paint. Within minutes, the Post reports, the fire spread through the third floor apartment.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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