Interstate shootings linked, police say

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Authorities said Tuesday they had evidence to connect a dozen shootings over the past seven months along an interstate highway just south of the state capital, including one in which a woman was killed.

Police said that bullets in four of the shootings, including one that targeted an elementary school, came from the same gun. While ballistics tests did not link the rest of the shootings, investigators "are comfortable" all 12 are connected, Franklin County sheriff's Chief Deputy Steve Martin said.

The shootings began in May and have occurred along a 5-mile stretch of Interstate 270.

WASHINGTON - Efforts to curb drunken driving, which have stalled in recent years, need to be jump-started, the government's top highway safety official says.

Among Dr. Jeffrey Runge's suggestions: more prosecutors and courts dedicated to drunken driving cases.

"Since the early 1990s, we haven't made any progress," said Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The number of alcohol-related driving deaths in 2002 was 17,419, nearly the same as in 2000 and 2001. Of those, more than 15,000 were killed by people with a blood-alcohol level higher than 0.08, which is the legal limit in 45 states, Runge said.

Runge's comments coincide with today's launch of Mothers Against Drunk Driving's 17th annual red ribbon campaign. MADD President Wendy Hamilton said the organization plans to distribute 6-million red ribbons to motorists this year.

A sudden burst of snow and freezing rain swept across wide swaths of the Northeast on Tuesday, glazing roads and bridges and causing hundreds of traffic accidents. Four people were killed on the roads.

Accumulations were light in most places, but the blowing snow created blizzard-like conditions that cut visibility and made pavement slippery across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Several major Connecticut highways were closed, and traffic was snarled on nearly every major highway in Massachusetts. Some New Jersey highways were slicked with a mixture of snow and freezing rain.

WASHINGTON - The Consumer Product Safety Commission is advising consumers to throw away 448,000 mini flashlights that came as free gifts with the purchase of multipurpose lighters because the lights can pose a burn risk.

There have been two reports of the battery compartments of the flashlights overheating. No injuries have been reported.

The flashlights came as free gifts with the purchase of Aim n' Flame II multipurpose lighters. For more information, call SCI Promotion Group toll-free at 1-877-746-7426.

ALVIN, Texas - A man pushed his wife to safety Tuesday but was unable to rescue five young children who perished in a fire that swept through the family's apartment.

The midday blaze erupted in the second-floor apartment of Salim Charina, a convenience store worker, his wife, Candace Town, and their children: Zain, 4; Zohaib, 3; Shafna, 2; and 2-month-old twins Amann, a boy, and Cyra, a girl.

Charina was hospitalized in critical condition, and his wife was hospitalized in fair condition with an apparent back injury. The fire's cause is under investigation.

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