Fire breaks out aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ship

BALTIMORE (AP) — A fire that broke out aboard a Royal Caribbean ship Monday did enough damage that the rest of the cruise was canceled and the cruise line said the more than 2,200passengers aboard will be flown from the Bahamas back to Baltimore.

The fire that began at 2:50 a.m. Monday was extinguished about two hours later with no injuries reported. A cause wasn't immediately known.

Royal Caribbean said in a series of tweets that executives have met with passengers and that the cruise line is arranging flights for all 2,224 guests on Tuesday. It said passengers will receive a full refund of their fare and a certificate for a future cruise.

Aboard ship, the captain announced that passengers needed to go to their muster stations, rousingMark J. Ormesher from his stateroom on the Grandeur of the Seas.

Ormesher said in an email to The Associated Press that immediately after the captain's announcement, his room attendant knocked on the door and told him and his girlfriend to grab their flotation devices, saying it wasn't a drill.

Orsmesher, a native of England, who lives in Manassas, Va., said he and his girlfriend smelled acrid smoke as they went to their muster station, the ship's casino. The crew quickly provided instruction.

"This encouraged calm amongst the passengers," he said. Passengers were required to remain at their stations for four hours, he said, and the captain "provided us as much information as we needed to stay safe."

Ormesher, who is 25 and on his first cruise, said the air conditioner had been shut off, and as the hours passed and the ship got hot, bottled water was passed around. The crew and passengers remained calm, and helped those who needed it. Crying babies were given formula and held while their parents used the bathrooms.

Royal Caribbean said in a statement on its website that most public areas and staterooms were safe and power, propulsion and communications systems functioned without interruption. Photos show an substantial area on one end of the ship burned on several decks.

The ship had sailed from Baltimore on Friday and arrived in Freeport, Bahamas, Monday afternoon.

In Freeport, passenger Andrea Sanders of Washington, D.C., said she slept on the deck with hundreds of other passengers as smoke billowed out of the stern of the ship. "I was terrified with it being my first cruise," Sanders told The Freeport News as she ate lunch in port.

Royal Caribbean said all guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for.

Carnival Corp. also had trouble with fire aboard ship earlier this year.

The 900-foot Triumph was disabled during a February cruise by an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages while the ship was towed to Mobile, Ala. It remained there for repairs until early May when it headed back to sea under its own power .

On the Granduer, after passengers were allowed to leave their stations, Ormesher said he saw water on the outside of deck 5 and in the hallways. The mooring lines were destroyed he said; crew members brought new lines from storage.

The damage at the rear of the ship "looks bad," Ormesher said; burned out equipment was visible.

Magnus Alnebeck, general manager of the Pelican Bay Hotel, said his staff was asked to hold rooms for passengers, although it was not yet clear how many would stay there.

Missing mom's diary foreshadows family tragedy

Evidence released Monday, May 20, 2013, by the West Valley City Police Department shows Susan Powell's last will and testament scribbled on paper. It was locked in a safety deposit box at her bank on a folded note dated June 28, 2008. Police released the case file, which includes details that have been kept under wraps since Powell vanished in 2009. Among the thousands of pages of investigative documents police have now released, the detailed journals foreshadow the tragic ending of a family in turmoil, and clearly point a finger of blame at her husband, Josh, for her mysterious disappearance. (AP Photo/West Valley City Police Department)

Evidence released Monday, May 20, 2013, by the West Valley City Police Department shows a portion of Susan Powell's last will and testament scribbled on paper. It was locked in a safety deposit at her bank on a folded note dated June 28, 2008. Police released the case file, which includes details that have been kept under wraps since Powell vanished in 2009. Among the thousands of pages of investigative documents police released this week, Powell's detailed journals foreshadow the tragic ending of a family in turmoil, and clearly point a finger of blame at her husband, Josh, for her mysterious disappearance. (AP Photo/West Valley City Police Department)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Susan Powell had been married about a year when she started writing a journal. She was a love-struck, 20-year-old newlywed, dreaming of the future she would build with her husband.

"I just feel incredibly lucky to have Josh," she wrote in 2002.

Before long, however, she found herself torn. A growing sense of danger was telling her to grab her kids and flee, but her strong religious faith led her to believe she could save her young family. The journal entries turned grim.

"If I die, it may not be an accident even if it looks like one," she wrote in 2008. "Take care of my boys."

She went missing the following year and hasn't been seen since. Her husband later killed their sons and himself. No one was ever charged in her disappearance, and the people at the center of the police investigation — her husband, his brother and their father — are all either dead or in prison.

As leads have gone cold, the chief agency in the investigation, the West Valley City Police Department, has closed the case saying for the first time they believe Josh Powell played a role in killing his wife and that his brother Michael Powell helped get rid of her body. Both men denied involvement in her disappearance before committing suicide about a year apart.

With the investigation over, police released thousands of pages of documents, providing new details about a scandal that made national headlines with each development.

Susan Powell's story first gained attention when she vanished from her suburban Salt Lake City home in the middle of the night in December 2009. The documents released May 20 show that police focused on her husband, doubting his alibi from the outset.

Josh Powell said his wife went missing shortly after he left to go camping in the high desert with their sons, who were 2 and 4 years old at the time, despite a snowstorm that blanketed the area.

The police investigation led to searches of abandoned mines in Utah and neighboring Nevada, and authorities kept their attention on Josh Powell even as he moved from West Valley City, Utah, to Puyallup, Wash., where he ultimately attacked his boys with a hatchet last year after saying he "had a big surprise" for them. He then set his home on fire, causing an explosion that killed them all as a social worker watched in horror.

It was the sum of the missing woman's fears, and her journal entries show the downward spiral.

Susan Cox and Josh Powell married in spring 2001 at a Mormon temple in Portland, Ore., about four months after meeting at a Latter-day Saints singles dance. They didn't have much money. But they had their faith and each other.

They were regulars at church and sang together in the choir. One Sunday morning they overslept and missed service, so instead they walked together in the fresh snow.

"Some kids with a snow fort threw some snow balls at us and Josh did the same," she wrote in 2002. "He's just a big kid."

The newlyweds bounced from job to job and from apartment to apartment, sometimes living with Josh's father, Steve Powell. Susan Powell wrote that her husband was "computer smart," but she worried that he couldn't keep a regular job.

Money was a constant problem. They disagreed over whether to tithe 10 percent of their income to the church, with Josh Powell considering it a waste of money, according to the journal. He also wanted to spend as little as possible on food, proclaiming, she wrote, "The food we eat will only be from our garden and if we don't grow it, we will not eat it. We will only buy dairy products and meat."

Eventually, Susan Powell found steady work at a call center to support the family financially. Her husband's behavior, meanwhile, grew increasingly controlling, according to both the handwritten journal and police records.

Josh Powell tried to cut his wife off from the world, limiting her computer and phone access. He had calls to their home forwarded to his cell and would decide which messages she received. He refused to let her have a cellphone of her own.

According to a police interview, Susan Powell's sister, who is not identified by name, stated, "He wouldn't let me talk to Susan a lot, and he monitored my conversations with her." The sister said she began calling Susan Powell at work so Josh Powell couldn't eavesdrop.

Things weren't going well, and Susan Powell knew it.

"I can't believe our marriage deteriorated so quickly. I feel so blind and naive and foolish," she wrote in 2008.

She also came to see her father-in-law as a meddlesome and negative influence on her husband.

Josh Powell began to distance himself from the Mormon church, as Steve Powell had done years earlier. Father and son took countless family photographs, which she wasn't allowed to see. And the men talked on the phone for hours each week, conversations that often triggered fits of anger in the younger man, according to documents.

Steve Powell is behind bars on voyeurism charges after being convicted of taking photos of young neighbor girls without their knowledge, a crime that emerged after police seized computer hard-drives from his Puyallup, Wash., home while investigating Susan Powell's disappearance. He has denied involvement, but Steve Powell became a public figure in the case after going on national television and saying he and his daughter-in-law had been falling in love.

Documents show Susan Powell was uncomfortable with Steve Powell's feelings, which she considered a one-sided sexual obsession.

She sent notes to friends in 2009 from a work email address, saying she needed to "take a shower" after reading lyrics to songs her father-in-law posted on his website. She wrote that his song "I'm Missing You," is directed toward her: "I can love you in a secret way. I can love you each and every day."

"Glance over the lyrics — they are creepy," she writes. "Especially when you know the background."

She wrote that she felt betrayed by her husband when he blamed her for "sending mixed signals" and encouraging his father's infatuation.

Her writings also suggest she saw something terrible coming.

She believed Josh had bipolar disorder, and wrote about his violent temper. She worried about saying things that would set him off and told her sister in the fall of 2007 that Josh Powell said he would kill her before agreeing to a divorce.

"Will he do something irrational? Do I need to pack up kids and run," she wrote in 2008. "Will he hurt me and/or take the kids, hurt them?"

Terrica Powell, who hasn't spoken publicly about her sons or ex-husband, said in a police transcript that Josh Powell was headstrong, impulsive and self-centered. Yet, she defended him, and she adored her daughter-in-law, according to the transcript. She said they both had "strong personalities."

"I would hear them yelling at each other," Terrica Powell told police. "Susan would yell at him, and he would yell at her. I never saw any violence or anything physical between them."

Others, however, described Josh Powell as abnormal and disturbing.

During their investigation, authorities circulated a questionnaire about him to neighbors in West Valley City.

"He had such odd behavior that we just started calling them 'JP Stories,'" said one neighbor, whose name was redacted.

Another told police: "I know Josh because he weirds me out! He is just weird!"

One woman said he made her uneasy, standing "right behind me" on a sidewalk without speaking. She called the encounter "creepy," according to police files.

Yet, Susan Powell's faith continued to provide her with hope that things would improve. She saw her husband's withdrawal from the Latter-day Saints as the root of their problems. She urged him to attend services, tithe and read the gospel.

"I'm hoping going to church and such will soften him back and let the Lord back in," she wrote just months before she disappeared.

She was encouraged they had started counseling and prayed for more children, maybe a girl or even twins. Her penultimate journal entry included a list of names: Adeline and Jadeline or Aubrey and Andrey.

It wasn't to be. Josh Powell had started an affair with a woman he met online, documents reveal. He called his wife a religious fanatic and said the church was brainwashing her, an opinion that mirrored his father's. This deeply troubled her, and she began to assert her independence.

According to police files she took the family car on her days off, and opened her own bank account so he couldn't control her spending. She got computer and a cellphone.

"I think he thought I would always be docile and do whatever he says," she wrote in an email to a friend in the fall of 2009. "Now I've learned the mother bear protection/survival mode so I'm stronger than I think he ever thought would happen."

She disappeared months later. Her husband killed their sons and himself in February 2012. Her father-in-law was convicted three months later. Within a year Michael Powell killed himself by jumping from a Minneapolis parking garage in February.

As for their sons, a dark granite gravestone in Susan Powell's hometown of Puyallup marks their short lives. It reads "Powell" at the top and has a picture of Susan with the young boys.

"Charlie J., Jan. 19, 2005, to Feb. 5, 2012."

"Braden T., Jan. 2, 2007, to Feb. 5, 2012."

Beneath the boys' names the marker mentions their mother.

"Susan, Oct. 16, 1981, Missing Dec. 6, 2009."

The bottom of the stone reads, "United In Heaven."

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Associated Press writers Paul Foy and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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Follow Brady McCombs at https://twitter.com/BradyMcCombs

Sen. McCain makes trip to Syria to visit rebels

By SUZANNE GAMBOA | Associated Press – 11 hrs ago

Associated Press/John McCain via Twitter - In this photo provided by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on his Twitter site, McCain visits troops at a Patriot missile site in southern Turkey, Monday, May 27, 2013.

FILE - In this Saturday, May 25, 2013 file photo, Republican Sen. John McCain speaks at a news conference at the World Economic Forum, held at the King Hussein Bin Talal Convention center, in Southern Shuneh, 34 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Amman, Jordan. McCain has quietly slipped into Syria for a meeting with Syrian rebels, spokeswoman Rachael Dean confirmed Monday, May 27, 2013. She declined further comment about the trip. The visit took place amid meetings in Paris involving efforts to secure participation of Syria's fractured opposition in an international peace conference in Geneva. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain, a proponent of armingSyrian rebels, quietly slipped into Syria for a meeting with anti-government fighters Monday.

Spokeswoman Rachael Dean confirms the Arizona Republican made the visit. She declined further comment about the trip.

The visit took place amid meetings in Paris involving efforts to secure participation of Syria's fractured opposition in an international peace conference in Geneva.

And in Brussels, the European Union decided late Monday to lift the arms embargo on the Syrian opposition while maintaining all other sanctions against Bashar Assad's regime after June 1, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said following the meeting.

Two years of violence in Syria has killed more than 70,000 people. President Barack Obama has demanded that Assad leave power, while Russia has stood by Syria, its closest ally in the Arab world.

McCain has been a fierce critic of Obama administration policy there while stopping short of backing U.S. ground troops in Syria, but he supports aggressive military steps against the Assad regime.

Gen. Salem Idris, chief of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army, accompanied McCain across the Turkey-Syria border. McCain met with leaders of the Free Syrian Army from across the country, who asked him for increased U.S. support, including heavy weapons, a no-fly zone and airstrikes on Syrian government and Hezbollah forces, according to The Daily Beast, which first reported the senator's unannounced visit.

The White House declined to comment late Monday.

A State Department official said the department was aware of McCain crossing into Syrian territory on Monday. Further questions were referred to McCain's office.

Last Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to provide weapons to rebels in Syria, as well as military training to vetted rebel groups and sanctions against anyone who sells oil or transfers arms to the Assad regime. McCain is a member of the committee.

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Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Paris contributed to this report.

Chicago man charged in slaying of 6-month-old girl

FILE - This undated file Watkins family photo shows Jonathan Watkins, 29, of Chicago, holding his 6-month-old daughter Jonylah Watkins. Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, says 34-year-old Koman Willis has been charged in the death of Jonylah who was shot while sitting in her father's lap in a minivan. Willis was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, and his bond hearing is set for Tuesday, May 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Watkins Family, File)

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man accused of killing a 6-month-old girl in a shooting that also wounded her father was seeking revenge for the theft of a video game console, authorities said Monday.

Koman Willis was charged with first-degree murder Monday in the death of the infant, Jonylah Watkins, who was shot on March 11 while sitting in her father's lap in a minivan. The baby's father,Jonathan Watkins, was seriously wounded in the attack, and police say he was the intended target.

The shooting, which took place in the middle of the day in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the city's South Side, was one of several earlier this year that brought attention to the gang violence in Chicago.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters the suspect is a documented gang member with 38 previous arrests and was acting in response to a burglary at his mother's home.

"He knew Jonylah's father, Jonathan, and shot him in retaliation for a stolen video game system," McCarthy said. "Jonylah was obviously not the intended target of this assault."

Willis is also charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, said Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. A bond hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. If found guilty, Willis could be sentenced to life in prison. Illinois does not have the death penalty.

Chicago police devoted a large amount of resources to the case. Willis had long been a suspect, McCarthy said, but "the question was whether or not we could show it in a court of law."

Lt. Kevin Duffin, who led the investigation, told reporters that detectives found key witnesses last week.

Willis surrendered to police Saturday, McCarthy said. Police and the state's attorney's office could not immediately provide information about the man's attorney.

In March, McCarthy had said Watkins, who also has an extensive criminal history, was cooperating with the investigation but that there was "a lot more" help he could provide.

At the girl's funeral, several people lamented the "code of silence" that keeps some residents from reporting crimes, cooperating with authorities or even fingering members of rival gangs who have targeted them.

Religious leaders speaking at the funeral service implored those in attendance to transform gang-riven neighborhoods.

The shooting came just weeks after the slaying of Hadiyah Pendelton, a 15-year-old drum majorette who was shot a mile from President Barack Obama's home just days after she performed at the president's inauguration in Washington, D.C. Police believe she was gunned down in a case of mistaken identity.

Pendleton's death was one of more than 40 homicides in Chicago in January, a total that made it the deadliest January in the city in more than a decade. Last year, homicides in Chicago topped 500 for the first time since 2008.

However, homicides are down since then. Chicago had 109 homicides this year as of May 12, according to the latest Police Department crime statistics. That's a 39 percent drop compared with the same period last year.

Future of Colorado River on agenda in San Diego

Federal, state, tribal Colorado River users to meet in San Diego about water supply concerns

Associated Press -

Top water decision-makers from seven Western states plan to join conservation groups and Indian tribes in San Diego on Tuesday to begin hammering out rules for squeezing every useable drop from the overtaxed Colorado River.

The work meeting hosted by federal water managers comes amid dire predictions for the waterway. The U.S. interior secretary five months ago issued a call to arms and declared that the river already described as the most plumbed and regulated in the world would be unable to meet demands of a growing regional population over the next 50 years.

"We're looking at a very significant chance of declaring a shortage in the Colorado River basin in 2016," Michael Connor, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, said in an interview in advance of the conference.

"We really need to get to specifics, technical liabilities and the political feasibility of projects," he said.

Connor heads the federal agency responsible for what he called the most litigated and fought-over resource in the country. He said data projects 2013 will be the fourth-driest year in the Colorado River basin over the past 100 years. Last year was the fifth-driest year on record.

The river provides drinking water, power and recreation for some 40 million people in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. Its largest reservoirs — Lake Mead near Las Vegas and Lake Powell near Page, Ariz. — are projected to drop to 45 percent capacity by September, Connor said.

Mexico also has a stake in the river, and U.S. and Mexican officials signed a pact in November for new rules on sharing Colorado River water, including a deal that lets Mexico store water in Lake Mead. The deal provides for international cooperation to ensure that river water reaches the Gulf of California for the first time in decades.

Anne Castle, assistant interior secretary for water and science, called Tuesday's conference at a U.S. Geological Survey office near San Diego International Airport the start of a "next steps" process.

Castle said she hopes more ideas and practical solutions will surface to deal with shortages predicted by a study released by the bureau in December.

The report looked at supply and demand of Colorado River Basin water. It said that by 2060, with the Southwest's population expected to swell, the river won't be always able to serve all the residents, businesses, ranchers, Native Americans and farmers who rely on it.

"This 'next steps' process may serve as a template for the way to implement the analysis being done in all these basin studies," Castle said in a conference call. "Part of that is bringing together all the diverse interests that will be represented."

Castle said a Ten Tribes Partnership representative of Native American groups and several regional environmental advocates were expected to attend. Plans call for organizing a trio of work groups representing municipal, agricultural and conservation interests.

Jennifer Pitt, head of the Environmental Defense Fund's Colorado River Project, said groups including Western Resource Advocates, Protect the Flows and Nuestro Rio want to see more water banking, along with more efficient use of existing urban water supplies, the reuse of waste water, better watershed management and improved agricultural techniques.

"Communities that depend on the Colorado River — for water supply or as the foundation of a $26 billion recreation economy — cannot afford to wait," Pitt said in a statement.

Save The Colorado representative Gary Wockner said he also planned to attend.

When the Colorado River was tamed by dams and canal water allocations were made nearly a century ago, agricultural interests gained broad water and irrigation rights that helped transform California's vast arid Imperial Valley east of San Diego into one of the most productive winter fruit and vegetable, cotton and grain farming regions in the country.

Tension has grown in recent years along with the sprawl of thirsty cities including Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The seven river basin states responded by forging agreements on allotments in 2003 and guidelines for sharing the pain of shortage in 2007.

Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Las Vegas-based Southern Nevada Water Authority and a delegate to Tuesday's meeting, called the issues facing river users daunting, but not insurmountable.

A key concern in southern Nevada is the water level of Lake Mead — already marked in some places by 100-plus feet of white mineral "bathtub ring" showing the effect of years of drought. The reservoir is Las Vegas' major source of drinking water.

"These discussions aren't going to be easy," Mulroy said. "But the longer we have to work through some really gnarly issues, the better."

Tuesday's meeting comes two months after an annual report by the advocacy group American Rivers labeled the Colorado River the most endangered waterway in the nation. The listing drew an endorsement from Castle at the time for bringing visibility to the problems of drought and overuse.

Castle said Friday that the Interior Department recently released $8.3 million for programs under the ongoing WaterSMART effort. The acronym stands for Sustain and Manage America's Resources for Tomorrow.