Around the Nation

New storm causes floods in South

BILOXI, Miss. | A spring storm dumped heavy rains and baseball-size hail and whipped up winds across the Southeast on Saturday, flooding homes and cars in parts of Mississippi and Alabama.

The system also hit the central part of the country with snow, prompting blizzard warnings and a disaster declaration in Kansas and was blamed for two traffic deaths in Oklahoma.

About 100 roads in southern Mississippi were impassable at the height of the bad weather because of the flooding, including the main route into Biloxi, Harrison County Emergency Management Director Rupert Lacy said. Some residents had to be rescued from their stalled and stranded cars, and others were helped from flooded homes, Mr. Lacy said.

More than 200 homes in the Biloxi area sustained flood damage and two roads sustained major pavement washouts, he said. The Biloxi area had 5 to 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, said Bobby Weaver, operations chief for the county emergency agency.

Obama has hopes with Iran on drugs

The United States hopes to “constructively engage” with Iran on issues related to Afghanistan at an international conference in The Hague on Tuesday, a senior White House official said Saturday.

Iran said Thursday that it would attend the U.N. conference, proposed by Washington, which will have delegates from more than 80 countries.

“It’s our assessment, and we believe it’s theirs, that there are issues as it relates to, for example, narcotics that present an opportunity for Iran to engage Afghanistan in a way that can address … a concern that we also have about Afghanistan,” White House Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough told a conference call with reporters, referring to Iran.

The problem of heroin abuse in Iran could create an opportunity for cooperation on the issue, Mr. McDonough said.

“Obviously, we all know that revenue from the poppy trade and the heroin trafficking funds extremists in the south, in particular,” he said. “And we’d like to see, given the not-insubstantial heroin abuse problem in Iran, some opportunity to cooperate with Iran on that issue.”

Spanish judge prepares Gitmo case

NEW YORK | A top Spanish court has moved toward starting a probe of six former George W. Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in connection with suspected torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the New York Times said Saturday.

The criminal investigation would focus on whether they violated international law by providing a legal justification for torture at the U.S. naval base detention facility in Cuba, the Times said.

The paper said the National Court in Madrid had assigned the case to Judge Baltasar Garzon, who has attempted, with some success, to try such right-leaning leaders as Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Henry Kissinger of the United States and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy. He also has denounced the U.S. government over the Guantanamo Bay prison and campaigned against the Iraq war.

Judge Garzon accepted the case and sent it to prosecutors. The complaint also names John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer, and Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense for policy. Spain can claim jurisdiction in the case because five Spanish citizens or residents who were prisoners at Guantanamo Bay say they were tortured there.

U.S. invites nations to climate forum

President Obama is launching a Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate to help bring about a U.N. agreement on global warming, the White House said Saturday.

Leaders from 16 major economies have been invited to a “preparatory session” April 27-28 in Washington to “help generate the political leadership necessary” to achieve an international pact to cut greenhouse-gas emissions later this year, the White House said in a statement.

The White House said the meeting would spur dialogue among developed and developing countries about the issue “and advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.” The group’s preparatory sessions would culminate with a major meeting in Italy in July.

The major economies include Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States. Denmark, which is hosting a U.N. meeting at the end of this year to forge a pact that would take over from the Kyoto Protocol, and the United Nations also were invited.

Virus sickens 100, closes Mass. college

WELLESLEY, Mass. | A Massachusetts college is shutting down for several days after 100 students and staff were sickened by a virus that causes a type of stomach flu.

Students and faculty have been afflicted with severe nausea and vomiting at Babson College in Wellesley. State Department of Health spokesman Tom Lyons says the norovirus is “miserable,” but isn’t life threatening.

The college has about 3,400 undergraduate and graduate students. It’s expected to be closed until at least Wednesday, while campus buildings are cleaned. Students are allowed to remain in their dorms, but classes and athletic events are canceled.

School officials say they don’t know the source of the virus, which often is spread by handling food. But Mr. Lyons says town health inspectors don’t think this outbreak is food related.

From wire dispatches and staff reports