In the Nation

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An armed man who held a year-old boy hostage in a barricaded Sacramento apartment complex for several days was fatally shot by police Friday night, authorities said.

Police used an explosive charge to make a hole and create a line of sight into the apartment where Anthony Alvarez, 26, had been barricaded since Wednesday, Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman Tim Curran said.

After the explosive went off, Alvarez presented himself and was shot multiple times, Curran said. At least two officers opened fire. Alvarez did not fire on police and was pronounced dead at the scene, Curran said. The child suffered only an abrasion on his leg and was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Curran said.

The standoff began when authorities tried to arrest Alvarez Wednesday. He was wanted in an investigation into three armed robberies and for allegedly firing at an officer on June 4.

- AP

SEATTLE - A blaze tore through a Seattle apartment Saturday morning and killed five people, including several children, fire officials said. The fire was reported in the city's Fremont neighborhood north of downtown.

The first engine to respond had a problem with a pump that prevented it from spraying water on the fire, but another arrived two minutes later and was able to fight the fire, Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said. The fire was out within about 40 minutes of when it was reported.

It was the highest death toll for a Seattle fire in recent memory. Fremont is a trendy neighborhood on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, known for its giant statue of Russian revolutionary Vladimir I. Lenin and an annual summer solstice parade.

- AP

PORTLAND, Ore. - The search for a missing 7-year-old Portland boy grew larger Saturday as teams spent another day combing the hills and deep woods near a rural elementary school.

Second grader Kyron Horman disappeared on June 4 after a science fair at Skyline Elementary School. Saturday was the ninth day searchers spent looking for him.

"The search continues, and it expands to previously unsearched areas," Capt. Monte Reiser of the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said. Men and women in fluorescent-colored vests and T-shirts were out on the roads and in the hills near the school Saturday. - AP

A clam boat that was isolated off Massachusetts after pulling up mustard-gas-tainted munitions shells pulled in to shore after preliminary tests showed it had been decontaminated. Coast Guard Petty Officer Lauren Jorgensen said the Pursuit docked in New Bedford on Saturday. She said more samples from the vessel, based in Atlantic City, had to be cleared by Environmental Protection Agency labs before the boat could head home.