Washington, D.C.

Official warns security of ports shortchanged

The Homeland Security Department has allowed federal grants for improving security at America’s ports to be spent on low-priority problems rather than the most serious vulnerabilities, the agency’s outgoing watchdog says.

In a draft report to be released next month, Homeland Security Department Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin says port security spending should be governed by the most pressing priorities rather than local politics.

“The DHS does not have a strong grant evaluation process in place by which to address post-award administration issues, including measuring progress in accomplishing DHS’ grant objectives,” Ervin said in a recent summary of the report.

Virginia

Surrogate, 55, delivers triplets for daughter

A 55-year-old woman acting as a surrogate for her daughter gave birth to triplets Tuesday.

Tina Cade delivered her own grandchildren, two boys and one girl, by Caesarean section at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital. She experienced “mild complications,” which the hospital said is not uncommon for such surgery.

Cade carried the babies for her oldest daughter, Camille Hammond, who suffers from endometriosis. They are pictured above.

Last winter, Cade began hormone treatment to prepare her for pregnancy, and in the spring she was implanted with three test-tube embryos.

The boys weighed 4 pounds 9 ounces, and 3 pounds 12 ounces; the girl weighed 4 pounds 10 ounces.

Pennsylvania

Arson suspect didn’t get Christmas presents

A man angry that he got no presents for Christmas burned down his parents’ house early the next morning, police said.

Steven Murray, 21, was charged with arson and risking a catastrophe in the blaze that broke out early Sunday. No one was injured.

Police said Murray had himself committed to a hospital on Christmas Day, but then signed himself out and walked eight miles home. Later he told police he saw the flames in the distance.

But officers said his jacket smelled of smoke and they found a lighter in his pocket and a gas can near the front door.

“He was irritated that his family gave him no presents for Christmas,” Lower Southampton police officer Peter Liese said.

Syria

Nation denies helping Iraqi insurgents

Syria is responding with a mixture of bravado and denial to mounting accusations by the United States and Iraq that it’s a staging ground for the Iraqi insurgency with key support coming from a half brother of Saddam Hussein and Baath Party leaders here.

Damascus has accused Washington of making it a scapegoat for American failures to quell the fighting in Iraq, even as Syria moves to try and defuse tensions with the United States.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa struck a defiant tone in an address at the annual meeting of leaders of the National Progressive Front, the country’s highest ruling body, in the most extensive comments yet by a senior Syrian official on the subject.

“They accuse Syria of sending money and arms,” he said, but the Iraqi people “have plenty of money and arms, and we are the ones who worry about the movement of arms from Iraq to Syria.”