Combined briefs package

5 snowboarders killed in avalanche

Authorities recovered the bodies of five snowboarders who were killed Saturday in a backcountry avalanche on Colorado’s Loveland Pass. Clear Creek County Sheriff Don Krueger said multiple search and rescue crews located the bodies. A sixth snowboarder was caught in the slide, but that person’s condition was not known. Krueger said authorities believe the snowboarders triggered the avalanche, which he said was about 600 yards wide and eight feet deep. Colorado Avalanche Information Center forecaster Spencer Logan said there have been weak layers in Colorado’s snowpack since early January.

SYRIA

More U.S. aid bound for Syrian rebels

The United States is providing Syrian rebels with $123 million in new nonlethal aid, which may include body armor, armored vehicles, night vision goggles and advanced communications equipment. The additional aid will double the nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition as well as increase humanitarian aid. In a related development, European nations were considering changes to an arms embargo that would allow arms transfers to the Syrian opposition. But European Union action seemed unlikely before May.

ILLINOIS

FBI: Man wanted to join terrorists

An Illinois teenager was arrested at an airport on his way to try to join a terrorist group in war-torn Syria, the FBI said Saturday. Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, was arrested Friday night as he attempted to board a flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Turkey, which borders Syria, the FBI said. He hoped to join an al-Qaida-affiliated group fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in a civil war, the FBI said. Tounisi, a U.S. citizen, was snared in an Internet sting after contacting a sham website set up by the FBI that purported to hook up would-be fighters with terrorists, the federal complaint says.

CHINA

Mine blast kills 18, injures 12

A coal mine explosion killed 18 and injured 12 in the northeast China, the state news agency says. Local authorities said the Saturday afternoon blast occurred in Helong city in Jilin province. Rescue work ended and the effort turned to an investigation into the cause of the explosion, authorities said. China’s mines are the deadliest in the world. Safety has tightened in recent years, but regulations are often ignored.

ITALY

President re-elected in troubled balloting

Parliament on Saturday re-elected Giorgio Napolitano to an unprecedented second term as president after party leaders persuaded the 87-year-old to serve again in hopes of easing the hostility that has thwarted formation of a new government. Napolitano easily surpassed the simple majority required to be elected Saturday afternoon. He garnered 738 votes, far more than the 504 needed for victory for another seven-year mandate. It took three days of balloting to choose a president, reflecting the legislature’s deep polarization following inconclusive nationwide elections in February.

TEXAS

4 fishermen missing in Gulf

The U.S. Coast Guard used boats, a helicopter and airplanes Saturday to search for four fishermen who went missing off the Texas Gulf Coast after their boat sank. The Coast Guard received a distress signal from the 50-foot vessel at 3:30 a.m. Friday, Petty Officer Richard Brahm said. The boat began sinking about 115 miles southeast of Galveston, not far from the Texas-Louisiana border. Brahm said the Coast Guard would continue searching through Saturday night.

COLORADO

Shots fired at pot holiday gathering

Gunfire erupted at a Denver park Saturday, injuring two people and sending tens of thousands gathered for an annual pot celebration fleeing the area, police said. A crowd of marijuana smokers expected to swell to 80,000 had gathered at the park to mark the counterculture holiday known as 4/20 on the first celebration since Colorado and Washington made pot legal for recreational use. The shooting happened at about 5 p.m. and shortly after pot smokes shared hugs and joints in a mass 4:20 p.m. smoke-out. A sizable police force on motorcycles and horses had been watching the celebration. But officers didn’t arrest people for smoking in public, which is still illegal.