Dallas

Specialists to examine twins joined at head

Doctors at Medical City Dallas Hospital today will examine 1-year-old conjoined twins from Egypt to see whether they can be separated by surgery.

Ahemed and Mohamed Ibrahim’s situation is unusual because the boys are joined at the top of their heads.

About one in every 700,000 live births results in conjoined twins, said Dr. David Genecov, one of the craniofacial surgeons who will evaluate the twins. Twins joined at the head are the rarest.

Doctors are not sure whether it will be possible to separate the two without endangering their lives. They could continue to live as they are, but it would reduce their quality of life, Genecov said.

Another set of twins conjoined at the head, 11-month-old Maria Teresa Alvarez and Maria de Jesus Alvarez of Guatemala, are scheduled for surgery to separate them today at the UCLA Medical center in Los Angeles.

New York City

Apartment fire kills seven in Brooklyn

An apartment building caught fire on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, killing a couple and their five children, police said.

More than 150 firefighters tackled the three-alarm blaze that tore through all three of the building’s floors and caused the roof to collapse, police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Williams said.

The fire started just after 2:30 p.m. in a three-story building near Fort Hamilton Parkway and 70th Street in Bay Ridge, fire department spokesman Joseph Cestari said. When firefighters responded, the fire was already raging out of control.

The blaze started in a second-floor apartment kitchen; a woman who lived there tried to put it out but couldn’t, Cestari said. He said the woman left the apartment, and the flames spread to the rest of that floor and the third floor.

The children who died ranged in age from 9 months to 13 years, Cestari said.

The victims were not immediately identified, and no cause for the blaze had been cited.

St. Louis

Balloon adventurer skirts weather disaster

Stormy weather nearly sent adventurer Steve Fossett’s around-the-world ballooning quest splashing into the south Pacific.

Fossett used three gas burners on the balloon to counter downdrafts during squalls Sunday east of New Zealand. The balloon dipped as low as 400 feet above the sea.

“The margin for error was razor thin,” Fossett told his mission control center at St. Louis’ Washington University.

Fossett, 58, left Tuesday from western Australia, attempting to become the first solo balloonist to circle the globe.

On this sixth trip, Fossett has flown more than 6,000 miles in six days and hopes to complete the trip in 15 days.

San Francisco

EBay to offer insurance

Online retailer eBay Inc. plans to offer health insurance to merchants who make a living auctioning items on its popular site, a decision that may go a long way in keeping its smaller sellers content.

EBay chief executive Meg Whitman made the announcement during the weekend in Anaheim at the company’s eBay Live convention for buyers and sellers.

“Over the last two to two and a half years, we have seen an increasing number of people coming onto eBay and making eBay their full-time source of income,” company spokesman Kevin Pursglove said Sunday. “We’ve been hearing from our users that they wish there was some way eBay could work with an insurance provider to get health coverage. In many instances, they had left a brick and mortar job.”

The company hasn’t worked out the plan’s details or determined what the fees might be, but it hopes to offer the coverage by October.

Los Angeles

Cardinal asks for forgiveness

Acknowledging his own shortcomings in handling sexual abuse by the clergy, Cardinal Roger Mahony on Sunday “asked for forgiveness” from Southern California Catholics “for not understanding earlier the extent of the problem” or acting sooner to remove priests who abused minors.

Reading a pastoral letter at a Mass at his childhood parish in North Hollywood, Mahony also told parishioners that he deeply apologized to “members of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and especially to the victims of clergy sexual abuse.

“I ask for your forgiveness for not understanding earlier the extent of the problem, and for not taking swifter action to remove from the ministry anyone who had abused a minor in the past,” said Mahony, reading from a two-page letter that was read to congregations at the 287 churches throughout the three-county archdiocese.