Sex offender charged with Fla. girl's death

This family photo via the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office shows 8-year-old Charish Lilly Perriwinkle. Authorities said she was was abducted Friday night, June 21, 2013 while shopping with her mother a Walmart Supercenter in Jacksonville, Fla. ander body was found Saturday at a church Saturday morning, June 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Family Photo via the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office)

Police gather at the Highlands Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. on Saturday, June 22, 2013 where authorities said the body of 8-year-old Charish Perriwinkle was found. An Amber Alert was issued after she went missing Friday night, but authorities began a murder investigation after her body was found at the church. (AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union, Will Dickey)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A registered sex offender recently released from jail was charged Saturday with murder in the death of an 8-year-old Florida girl abducted while shopping with her mother.

Donald James Smith of Jacksonville was taken into custody after police cornered his white van on Interstate 95, said Mike Williams, director of investigations at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Authorities had put out an Amber Alert with details of Smith's van early Saturday, hours after receiving a 911 call from Charish Perriwinkle's mother about the missing girl.

Prior to the alleged abduction Friday night, Smith, 56, befriended Charish and her mother at a dollar store, and "offered to take them to Wal-Mart and buy her family some clothes," Williams said.

"They appeared to be down on their luck and he could help them out."

After spending a couple hours inside the Wal-Mart together, Smith offered to buy hamburgers and walked with Charish to the front of the store, Williams said.

Instead of stopping to buy the snack, Smith walked Charish outside and the two of them got into his van, Williams said.

The girl's mother called 911 when she realized Charish and Smith were missing. An Amber Alert was issued, and a tip about a suspicious van spotted in the woods near a church led investigators to Charish's body Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, an officer working at the scene of a traffic crash on Interstate 95 on Saturday morning recognized Smith's van as it drove past her and called it in.

The highway was shut down while other officers pulled Smith over and arrested him. He has not cooperated with investigators, Williams said, and it was not immediately known whether he had an attorney.

Williams declined to answer reporters' questions about how Charish died or what Smith did in the hours between his disappearance with the girl and his arrest, saying that the investigation remains open.

Smith has been a registered sex offender since a 1993 conviction in Duval County for attempted kidnapping and selling obscene materials. He has been arrested several times since then, most recently in 2009 on a charge of child abuse after making obscene phone calls to a 10-year-old girl, making verbal threats, and impersonating a social worker with the Florida Department of Children and Families who claimed to be investigating the girl's family.

Smith pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in that case and was released from jail May 31.

Williams said Smith had just met with police Friday morning to comply with a state law that requires sex offenders to verify their address once a year.

In a highly publicized case in 2009, a 7-year-old northeast Florida girl was abducted while she walked home from school. Police later found Somer Thompson's body in a Georgia landfill. A man who lived with his parents in Somer's Orange Park neighborhood pleaded guilty in 2012 to kidnapping, raping and murdering the girl and was sentenced to life in prison.

Somer's mother was quoted by The Florida Times-Union (http://bit.ly/19qmLAV) as saying that she was sickened by the news of Charish's abduction.

"Her (Charish's mother) nightmare has just begun," Diena Thompson said.

Wildfire grows, but teams work to save Colo. town

Two horses graze on a ridge as smoke from area fires fills the sky Saturday, June 22, 2013, near Monte Vista, Colo. Fire crews with tankers and hoses at the ready stood guard Friday night as a massive and fast-burning wildfire threatened a popular mountain tourist enclave in southwestern Colorado, forcing the evacuation of more than 400 people. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Firefighters from the San Juan Hotshots based in Durango, Colo, clear brush from around structures Saturday, June 22, 2013, in South Fork, Colo. Fire crews with tankers and hoses at the ready stood guard Friday night as a massive and fast-burning wildfire threatened a popular mountain tourist enclave in southwestern Colorado, forcing the evacuation of more than 400 people. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

DEL NORTE, Colo. (AP) — A wildfire threatening a tourist region insouthwestern Colorado mushroomed to about 100 square miles Saturday, but officials said that they remained optimistic they could protect the town of South Fork.

The rapid advance of the erratic blaze prompted the evacuation of hundreds of summer visitors and the town's 400 permanent residents Friday, and it could be days before people are allowed back into their homes, cabins and RV parks, fire crew spokeswoman Laura McConnell said. South Fork Mayor Kenneth Brooke estimated that 1,000 to 1,500 people were forced to flee.

Saturday night, officials provided an estimate of the size of the wildfire burning through a rugged and remote mountainous region, but said they wouldn't have a better idea of its size until infrared imaging is done overnight.

Some business owners were being allowed back into South Fork during the day Saturday to tie up issues left unattended in the rush to leave.

Officials, meanwhile, closely monitored an arm of the blaze moving toward the neighboring town of Creede.

"We were very, very lucky," said Rio Grande County Commissioner Carla Shriver. "We got a free pass yesterday."

McConnell said no structures had been lost and the fire was still about 5 miles from the town.

The blaze had been fueled by dry, hot, windy weather and a stand of dead trees, killed by a beetle infestation. The fire's spread had slowed for a while Saturday morning after the flames hit a healthy section of forest. Fire crews remained alert as more hot, dry and windy weather was forecast.

The wildfire, a complex of three blazes, remains a danger, officials said.

"The fire is very unpredictable," Shriver told evacuees at Del Norte High School, east of the fire. "They are saying they haven't quite seen one like this in years. There is so much fuel up there."

Winds picked up Saturday afternoon and a heavy black again permeated the air in Del Norte, where a Red Cross shelter was set up for evacuees. Anticipating the mandatory South Fork evacuation would last for days, the Red Cross promised more supplies and portable showers.

Ralph and Leilani Harden of Victoria, Texas, spend summers in South Fork.

"We jumped out of the South Texas hot box into the Colorado frying pan," Ralph Harden said.

Bob and Sherry Mason bought the Wolf Creek Ski Lodge on the Western Edge of South Fork about a year and a half ago.

"This (wildfire) was in our contingency plan being in Colorado, but we didn't expect it this soon," Bob Mason said.

New fire crews, meanwhile, descended from other areas to join more than 32 fire engines stationed around South Fork, with hoses and tankers at the ready. Firefighters also worked to move potential fuel, such as lawn furniture, propane tanks and wood piles, away from homes and buildings.

The town of Creede's 300 residents were under voluntary evacuation orders as officials feared the fire could reach the roads leading out of town.

The heavy black smoke, broken up only by an orange glow over the outlines of the San Juan mountains, was so thick Friday that the plume helped keep an 18-square-mile wildfire burning 100 miles to the east near Walsenburg from spreading as fast as it would have otherwise.

Susan Valente, an on-site spokeswoman for the fire near Walsenburg, said the shade helped keep the forest from drying out in the hot afternoon sun. Residents from 300 homes remain evacuated while in the city of Walsenburg and the town of Aguilar remain on pre-evacuation notice, meaning residents must be ready to flee at a moment's notice.

"Fire conditions are prime with the combination of fuels, heat, winds and low humidity," fire information officer Mike Stearly of the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center, "It's expected to be like this through next Tuesday."

There are 12 wildfires burning in Colorado that have scorched 133 square miles, which includes the Black Forest fire that destroyed 511 homes north of Colorado Springs and is the most destructive in Colorado history.

Indian army: bad weather hampering rescue efforts

GAUCHAR, India (AP) — Bad weather was hampering efforts Sunday to evacuate thousands of people stranded in the northern India state of Uttarakhand where nearly 1,000 people have died inmonsoon flooding and landslides, army officials said.

The army suspended helicopter flights to rescue people stranded in Uttarakhand after dense fog descended on the Himalayan region. Instead, troops built makeshift bridges and people were being brought to safety by road, Brig. Uma Maheshwar said.

Tens of thousands of people were still stranded in high mountain passes and temple towns in Uttarakhand after torrential rains washed away homes and roads and triggered landslides that cut off communication links with large parts of the state nearly a week ago.

Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna told reporters late Saturday that the death toll had reached 1,000. The exact number of people who have died in the torrential downpours and flooding of the Ganges River and its tributaries will be known only once rescue efforts end, he said.

More rain was expected in the worst-hit Chamoli and Uttarkashi districts over the next few days, said Anand Sharma of the state's meteorological office.

Tens of thousands of devout Hindus make a pilgrimage to Uttarakhand, visiting four of Hinduism's holiest shrines located in the state during the summer months. Many pilgrims and tourists were caught when the region was hit by early monsoon rain this year.

Malaysia declares emergency as Indonesia smoke pollution thickens

Villagers sit on their motorcycles as they get ready to leave their homes as a fire burns a palm oil plantation in the Bangko Pusako district in Rokan Hilir, in Indonesia's Riau province June 22, 2013. REUTERS/Beawiharta

A man smoking a cigarette is silhouetted against the haze-filled sky as he waits for a ferry bound for Malaysia's Malacca, at Dumai port, Indonesia's Riau province, June 22, 2013. REUTERS/Beawiharta

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia declared a state of emergency in two parts of the southern state of Johor on Sunday, as smoke from land-clearing fires in Indonesia pushed air pollutionabove the level considered hazardous.

The illegal burning of forests and other land on Indonesia's Sumatra island, to the west of peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, to clear space for palm oil plantations is a chronic problem during the June-September dry season.

The "haze" caused by fires in Riau province on Sumatra has also shrouded neighboring Singapore but air quality in the city state improved over the weekend after reaching hazardous levels.

"Prime Minister Najib Razak has agreed to declare emergency status in Muar and Ledang with immediate effect," Malaysian Natural Resources and Environment Minister G. Palanivel said in a Facebook post.

Palanivel said the air pollution index in the two districts had exceeded 750. A reading above 300 indicates that air pollution is hazardous.

Domestic media quoted the minister as saying cloud seeding would be carried out in the affected areas.

All 211 schools in the area are to be closed until further notice, residents have been advised to stay indoors and face masks have been distributed, Khaled Nordin, chief minister of the state, said, also via posts on Facebook.

Schools have been ordered shut in the neighboring state of Malacca, where pollution has also reached hazardous levels. Schools were also ordered to close in one district in Pahang state.

All domestic airports managed by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) are operating as usual despite the haze, the national news agency quoted the airport operator as saying.

The current visibility level of 1 km was still safe, but runways would have to close if visibility fell under 300 m, it quoted Malaysian airports official Azmi Murad as saying.

Indonesian officials have deflected blame by suggesting companies based in Malaysia and Singaporemay be partly responsible. Malaysia-listed Sime Darby and Singapore's Wilmar Group both deny the charge.

(Reporting by Siva Sithraputhran; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Bombs hit Syrian capital Damascus, Aleppo

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Syrian rebels assaulted a police station in the heart of Damascus on Sunday shortly after a powerful explosion went off in the same neighborhood, activists said. At least ten died in the violence in the Syrian capital.

Meanwhile, a car bomb in the northern city of Aleppo killed 12 government soldiers, the activists said.

The attacks come as Syrian government forces press an offensive in the outskirts of the capital, and an 11-nation group that includes the U.S. meets in the Qatari capital of Doha to coordinate military aid and other forms of assistance to the rebels.

The explosion in the capital went off behind a bakery in the Ruken al-Deen neighborhood, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It reported 10 wounded and said there was no immediate claim of responsibility. The Syrian news agency SANA confirmed the blast and said there were casualties but did not give a number.

Later, three rebels attacked Ruken al-Deen's police station, the Observatory said. The attack left the three rebels and four policemen dead and nine others wounded.

Meanwhile, the Observatory said rockets fell in the Damascus suburb Jarmana and the Abbasid district in the heart of the capital. It said there was material damage and unspecified number of injuries.

The Syrian army has been moving against rebels in districts outside Damascus that are used as launching pads to attack the capital, President Bashar Assad's seat of power. Troop movements and heavy shelling Saturday appeared to be an attempt to cut links between rebel-held districts there.

Elsewhere, the Observatory said 12 soldiers loyal to Assad were killed in a car explosion in the suburbs of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial capital.

It provided no other details, but both the government and the opposition have recently declared offensives in Aleppo.

Meanwhile, the group dubbed the Friends of Syria have been meeting in Qatar. Late Saturday, the donors agreed to do more to help the embattled rebels, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. While he offered no specifics, Kerry said the assistance would help change the balance on the battlefield.

Kerry also denounced Assad for inviting Iranian and Hezbollah fighters to fight alongside his troops, saying the Syrian president risked turning the civil war into a regional sectarian conflict.

Syria's al-Thawra newspaper, the mouthpiece of the government, assailed the Friends of Syria meeting for providing aid to the rebels.

"It's clear that the enemies of Syria are rushing to arm the terrorists to kill the chances for holding the Geneva conference," the newspaper said, referring to a gathering planned to bring Assad's government to negotiate an end to the crisis with the fighting rebels.

It pledged that the Syrian army would "continue the showdown to eliminate terrorism and restore security and stability."

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