NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON: Virus delays Clinton's trip

A stomach virus is forcing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to delay for a day an overseas trip that will focus on providing more support for the Syrian opposition. The State Department said Sunday that the illness has forced Clinton to move her flight to Morocco to Tuesday. The Obama administration is expected to recognize the Syrian opposition's new leadership council. Clinton is likely to announce that step Wednesday with the Friends of Syria group. She also is to meet with Moroccan King Mohammed VI for talks on the rise of al-Qaida-linked extremists in northern Mali. Her schedule includes stops in Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

PENNSYLVANIA: Dad's gun kills boy, 7

State police say a 7-year-old boy killed when his father's gun went off outside a gun store had been buckling himself into a safety seat in the man's truck. The boy was shot Saturday at Twigs Reloading Den in East Lackawannock Township, 60 miles north of Pittsburgh. Police say the father, Joseph V. Loughrey, 44, didn't realize a bullet was in the chamber. Craig Allen Loughrey, 7, was shot in the chest in the backseat.

ALASKA: Bad air a threat in North

Alex Lee got a parting gift at the end of his heart operations at Stanford University Medical Center earlier this year: surgeon's masks. Doctors knew Lee, 19, would be returning home to Fairbanks, and gave him the masks to protect himself from air polluted with suspended particulate that can cause irregular heartbeat or a heart attack. Lee is diagnosed with Down syndrome. "They gave us a box of masks and said, 'Stay out of it the best you can," said his mother, Patrice Lee. The young, the elderly and the weakened in Fairbanks risk accelerated health problems every winter because of particulate. Much of it comes from wood smoke produced by homeowners trying to cut their fuel bills.