California

Erratic winds hamper firefighting efforts

Firefighters were hampered by erratic wind and low humidity Monday as they made slow progress against a fire that had burned nearly 12,000 acres and four homes in the Northern California wine country.

The fire, which started Friday northeast of Geyserville in Sonoma County, had been 20 percent contained, and full containment was not expected until Wednesday, said Janet Marshall, spokeswoman for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“These are very erratic winds, which can be blowing perpendicular to one another,” she said.

Two firefighters had been injured, but not critically.

Illinois

Muslim leaders rally community to vote

American Muslim leaders ended their largest annual meeting with a rousing plea to thousands of community members that they vote in the presidential election.

Muslims urgently want to register their political presence in this country as a step toward ending what many believe are excesses in the war on terror.

“We have to demand justice,” said Mahdi Bray, head of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, as the convention wound down Sunday night.

The American Muslim Taskforce, an umbrella group for top U.S. Muslim organizations, met behind closed doors separately from the weekend conference, deliberating whether to make an endorsement in the race.

American Muslims hold special importance this election year because they have strong communities in battleground states such as Michigan, Ohio and Florida.

Nigeria

Sudan crisis talks reportedly deadlocked

Peace talks on Sudan’s violence-torn Darfur region are deadlocked, one mediator said Monday, as the African Union’s chief appealed to the Sudanese government and rebels to compromise.

The 2-week-old talks in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, have failed to move past the crucial question of disarming — with rebels saying they will lay down their guns only after Sudan’s pro-government militia, the Janjaweed, does so.

“It appears deadlocked, as the two sides are holding to their hard-line positions,” Brig. Gen. Festus Okwonko, a mediator and commander of the African Union’s cease-fire monitoring troops in Darfur, told reporters.

Negotiations are aimed at ending a 19-month conflict in Darfur that has killed at least 30,000 people and forced more than 1.2 million from their homes.