BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – A suspected tornado tore through Connecticut‘s largest city Thursday, toppling trees and power lines and collapsing several buildings as a powerful line of storms swept across parts of the Northeast. Remarkably, no serious injuries were reported.

Hundreds of bricks shook loose from buildings, trees split in half and crushed cars, and a billboard hung precariously several stories up over Main Street. Nine buildings were partially or fully collapsed, including three on East Main Street that were brought to their foundations. Rescuers searched the rubble to ensure no one had been inside.

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch declared a state of emergency after the fast-moving system of driving rain and wind gusts that reached 78 miles per hour in the area.

Jacqueline Arroyo, 44, said she saw a black cloud and ran inside to her third-floor apartment, where the window exploded. Trees were blown so ferociously they appeared to be coming out of the ground, and people were screaming, she said.

“All the wind started coming inside the house. I heard ‘boom, boom!’” she said. “It was so fast but terrifying.”

Read the whole hot breaking news

TRIPOLI (AFP) –
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met to ready an EU-Africa summit scheduled for later this year, Jana news agency said.

The two leaders on Thursday stressed “the importance of preparing the third EU-Africa summit well, so it will contribute to the development of Africa and do away with clandestine immigration” to Europe, the agency said.

They also discussed the situation in Iraq and in the Palestinian territories.

Tripoli did not give details about Zapatero’s programme during his snap visit which comes a week before the end of Spain‘s six-month EU presidency.

Spain played a major role in settling a diplomatic row between Libya and Switzerland that ended earlier this month when Tripoli allowed detained Swiss businessman Max Goeldi to return to his home country.

Read the whole hot breaking news

BELFAST (AFP) –
Police in Northern Ireland said they arrested a man under terrorism legislation in a joint operation with Spanish police, in what is understood to be an investigation into Basque separatist activities.

The suspect was detained in the centre of Belfast on Thursday, said a spokesman from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

“A 40-year-old man has this evening been arrested under terrorism legislation in a joint operation between the PSNI serious crime branch and Spanish police,” he said.

He has been taken to Antrim police station, said the spokesman.

Read the whole hot breaking news

TOKYO – Asian stock markets stumbled early Friday, falling lower after downbeat forecasts from retailers in the U.S. pulled shares down on Wall Street.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index fell 1.8 percent to 4752.27, while South Korea’s Kospi slipped 1.1 percent to 1720.38. Australia‘s S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.1 percent at 4,431.5.

The broad declines followed a dour showing in New York, where lackluster economic news pulled shares lower. Unemployment benefit claims failed to show hiring was increasing last week, durable good orders slipped last month, and orders of big-ticket goods were down in May.

Also in the U.S., concern over the state and contents of a bill in Congress to overall financial regulation pulled shares in the industry lower. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 145.64, or 1.4 percent, to 10,152.80, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 18.35, or 1.7 percent, to 1,073.69, completing its first four-day drop since early May.

In currencies, the dollar moved higher to 89.64 yen versus 89.54 in New York late Thursday. The euro climbed to $1.2321 from $1.2326.

Read the whole hot breaking news

RUSSELL, Kan. – Emergency workers have found the bodies of two workers who were killed when a portion of a grain elevator collapsed in central Kansas.

Russell police 911 supervisor Greg Rose said part of one of the Agco elevators collapsed Thursday afternoon. Russell is about 180 miles west of Topeka on Interstate 70.

Officials identified the victims as 21-year-old Max Greve of Hays and 19-year-old Sean Banks of Russell.

After the elevator collapse, authorities closed nearby U.S. 281. Crews used dump trucks and other heavy equipment to move the wheat in search of the missing workers. Their bodies were recovered about three hours later.

Read the whole hot breaking news