Californians deal with freezing temps, snow

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Oddly enough, even polar bears at the San Diego Zoo are getting a helping hand with the unseasonable freezingtemperatures sweeping across California.

Zookeepers turned up the heat for some animals and offered shelter to polar bears as a cold snap continues through the weekend, promising to bring the coldest overnight temperatures.

While polar bears tolerate frigid climes, the zoo animals lack the fat layers that naturally occur in the wild to fully protect them from the cold so zookeepers offer them shelter and "warming apparatuses" in case they seek it, zoo spokeswoman Jenny Mehlowsaid.

"The animals do take this in stride because they're wearing a nice, warm fur coat," she said.

The National Weather Service forecasted near-record low temperatures Saturday and Sunday nights.

Frost and freeze warnings were in effect early Sunday for parts of San Diego County with lows in some areas dipping to 25 and even lower in the mountains, according to the weather service. On Saturday, the town of Ramona in eastern San Diego County recorded a low of 23 degrees, breaking the 24 degrees set in 2007.

Temperatures dropped to 5 degrees in the snow-covered Big Bear mountain resort east of Los Angeles on Saturday. Even the snowbird haven of Palm Springs saw temperatures hover around freezing at night.

Freeze warnings were issued for Sunday morning across wide swaths of the Los Angeles Basin. Residents were being urged to cover outdoor plants and bring pets inside.

In Sonoma County, homeless shelters handed out extra warm clothes to protect people from frigid overnight temperatures.

In the San Joaquin Valley, the heart of California's citrus production, growers prepared for another round of freezing temperatures early Sunday after seeing little crop damage since Thursday night.

"Last night was not a problem, but tonight and Monday morning could have the potential to be pretty cold," Paul Story, director of grower service at California Citrus Mutual, said Saturday.

Farmers run wind machines and water to protect their fruit, which can raise the temperature in a grove by up to 4 degrees, Story said. Existing moisture, sporadic rain and cloud cover can also help keep in heat.

Israel evacuates Palestinians from West Bank tent outpost

Air pollution in Beijing goes off the index

BEIJING (AP) — People refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing's murky skyline on Sunday as the air quality in China's notoriously polluted capital went off the index.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said on its website that the density of PM2.5 particulates had surpassed 700 micrograms per cubic meter in many parts of the city. The World Health Organization considers a safe daily level to be 25 micrograms per cubic meter.

PM2.5 are tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size, or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair. They can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

The Beijing center recommended that children and the elderly stay indoors, and that others avoid outdoor activities.

The U.S. Embassy also publishes data for PM2.5 on Twitter, and interprets the data according to more stringent standards.

In the 24-hour period up to 10 a.m. Sunday, it said 18 of the hourly readings were "beyond index." The highest number was 755, which corresponded to a PM2.5 density of 886 micrograms per cubic meter. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's air quality index goes up to only 500, and the agency advises that anything greater than 300 would trigger a health warning of "emergency conditions," with the entire population likely affected.

While some people vowed to stay indoors with air purifiers turned on, Beijing's streets were still fairly busy Sunday, and there was the familiar sight of heavy traffic on main thoroughfares.

A young couple strolled along hand in hand in the central business district, both with matching white masks strung around their faces. Two Taiwanese tourists wore masks they said they had brought with them because they heard Beijing's pollution was so bad.

"I don't know why there is such heavy haze these past days. It's really quite serious compared with the air quality three days ago," said a 33-year-old lawyer, who would give only his surname, Liu, as he adjusted his own mask. He said he had ventured out only because he needed to go shopping.

Beijing's air started to worsen on Thursday. The Beijing monitoring center has said the pollution is expected to linger until Tuesday.

PM2.5 can result from the burning of fuels in vehicles and power plants.

Weather conditions are a factor in the recent poor air quality, as a lack of wind means pollutants can easily accumulate and fail to dissipate, said Pan Xiao Chuan, a professor at Peking University's public health department.

"Recent pollution doesn't mean there is an increase in the discharge of pollutants," he said.

Experts say they thought the PM2.5 readings were the highest since Beijing started publishing that data early last year. Public pressure forced the publication of the more detailed air quality data, as a growing Chinese middle class is increasingly vocal about the quality of the environment in which it lives. Hourly air quality updates are now available online for more than 70 cities.

Air pollution is a major problem in China due to the country's rapid pace of industrialization, reliance on coal power, explosive growth in car ownership and disregard to environmental laws. It typically gets worse in the winter because of heating needs.

Several other cities, including Tianjin on the coast east of Beijing and southern China's Wuhan city, also reported severe pollution over the last several days.

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6 arrested in new rape of a bus passenger in India

An India woman lights candles in Gauhati, India, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 in remembrance of a young woman who was gang- raped on a moving bus in New Delhi. The case has sparked protests across India by women and men who say India's legal system doesn't do enough to prevent attacks on women. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Police said Sunday they have arrested six suspects in another gang rape of a bus passenger in India, four weeks after a brutal attack on a student on a moving bus in the capital outraged Indians and led to calls for tougher rape laws.

Police officer Raj Jeet Singh said a 29-year-old woman was the only passenger on a bus as she was traveling to her village in northern Punjab state on Friday night. The driver refused to stop at her village despite her repeated pleas and drove her to a desolate location, he said.

There, the driver and the conductor took her to a building where they were joined by five friends and took turns raping her throughout the night, Singh said.

The driver dropped the woman off at her village early Saturday, he said.

Singh said police arrested six suspects on Saturday and were searching for another.

Gurmej Singh, deputy superintendent of police, said all six admitted involvement in the rape. He said the victim was recovering at home.

Also on Saturday, police arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly raping and killing a 9-year-old girl two weeks ago in Ahmednagar district in western India, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Her decomposed body was found Friday.

Police officer Sunita Thakare said the suspect committed the crime seven months after his release from prison after serving nine years for raping and murdering a girl in 2003, PTI reported Sunday.

The deadly rape of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus in December led to the woman's death and set off an impassioned debate about what India needs to do to prevent such tragedies. Protesters and politicians have called for tougher rape laws, police reforms and a transformation in the way the country treats women.

"It's a very deep malaise. This aspect of gender justice hasn't been dealt with in our nation-building task," Seema Mustafa, a writer on social issues who heads the Center for Policy Analysis think tank, said Sunday.

"Police haven't dealt with the issue severely in the past. The message that goes out is that the punishment doesn't match the crime. Criminals think they can get away it," she said.

In her first published comments, the mother of the deceased student in the New Delhi attack said Sunday that all six suspects in that case, including one believed to be a juvenile, deserve to die.

She was quoted by The Times of India newspaper as saying that her daughter, who died from massive internal injuries two weeks after the attack, told her that the youngest suspect had participated in the most brutal aspects of the rape.

Five men have been charged with the physiotherapy student's rape and murder and face a possible death penalty if convicted. The sixth suspect, who says he is 17 years old, is likely to be tried in a juvenile court if medical tests confirm he is a minor. His maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility.

"Now the only thing that will satisfy us is to see them punished. For what they did to her, they deserve to die," the newspaper quoted the mother as saying.

Some activists have demanded a change in Indian laws so that juveniles committing heinous crimes can face the death penalty.

The names of the victim of the Dec. 16 attack and her family have not been released.

Iran confiscates over a ton of narcotics a day

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's media are reporting that police confiscate over a ton of narcotics a day from smugglers.

Gen. Ali Moayedi, head of Iran's anti-narcotics police, is quoted by newspapers Sunday as saying that some 30 drug smugglers and addicts are identified and arrested every hour in Iran. He said over 200,000 were detained in the past nine months alone.

Iran lies on a major drug route between Afghanistan and Europe, as well as the Persian Gulf states.

Moayedi said that over 1,286 kg (2,835 pounds) are confiscated each day. This represents about a fifth of the total drugs that officials have previously said enter Iran --- of the rest, nearly 700 tons are consumed inside Iran and the remaining 1,300 tons are transited to Europe.