7-year-old boy survives brush with tornado in North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - A 7-year-old boy was recovering on Sunday after a tornado sheared off the walls of his North Carolina home, snatched him from his bed and threw him 350 feet onto the embankment of a nearby interstate, the boy's grandmother told Reuters.

Jamal Stevens suffered only minor injuries from the Friday twister that demolished his family's two-story home in Charlotte near Interstate 485, where Jamal was found by his family a few minutes after the twister struck his neighborhood.

"I've never seen or heard anything like that," said Patricia Stevens, recalling the moment the twister "sucked out the walls" of the house in the darkness. "It was a terrible sound. I never want to go through that again. I don't want anyone to ever go through that again."

At the house, whose second story was blown away, little was left except for a garage and an exposed internal staircase. Pink insulation and debris littered the yard, which abuts the embankment of the interstate.

Stevens said that she had been sleeping on a downstairs sofa the night the tornado hit while her daughter-in-law and four young grandchildren, ages 3 through 7, slept upstairs.

The lightning and thunder suddenly picked up, there was a terrible noise, and then her daughter-in-law started passing the children down the stairs to Stevens, starting with 3-year-old twins Ashley and Amber.

When the mother ran back upstairs to get Jamal and 5-year-old Ayanna, Stevens pulled herself and the children behind the couch.

"That's when the whole wall was just sucked out," Stevens said. "I was just sitting there and I just saw the walls get sucked out. I was like, 'Wait a minute, am I seeing this right?'"

She yanked open the bathroom door, thinking of the safety measures she'd heard on TV about gathering the children and crouching in the tub, but the door was all that was left.

"The bathroom was gone, and I was looking outside," she said, adding that she then covered the twins and raced to find Jamal and Ayanna, both of whom had been sucked out of the home.

Little Ashley was unscathed. Her twin sister, Amber, was found under the rubble in the living room, alive but injured. Ayanna had been hurtled into a neighbor's yard, and Jamal had been swept onto the embankment of the interstate, Stevens said.

The children were taken to Levine Children's Hospital where Jamal was treated and released, a hospital spokesman said. Two of his sisters were held for observation and released on Sunday.

"The kids this afternoon were in pretty good spirits," said Phil Whitesell, spokesman for the Carolinas Healthcare System, adding that their mother had been weeping earlier in the day.

"She was obviously very thankful that her kids were safe," he said. "I think they were all pretty anxious to be together."

Stevens was waiting on Sunday to see her daughter-in-law for the first time since the twister destroyed the home. Jamal's biggest concern, she said, was that his beloved Xbox video game console didn't survive the storm.

While they lost everything but the clothes they were wearing, Stevens said she was counting her blessings.

"People see the house and they keep saying they can't believe we got out," she said. "They just keep saying that."

(Reporting By Karen Brooks in Austin and Chris Keane in Charlotte; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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7-year-old boy survives brush with tornado in North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - A 7-year-old boy was recovering on Sunday after a tornado sheared off the walls of his North Carolina home, snatched him from his bed and threw him 350 feet onto the embankment of a nearby interstate, the boy's grandmother told Reuters.

Jamal Stevens suffered only minor injuries from the Friday twister that demolished his family's two-story home in Charlotte near Interstate 485, where Jamal was found by his family a few minutes after the twister struck his neighborhood.

"I've never seen or heard anything like that," said Patricia Stevens, recalling the moment the twister "sucked out the walls" of the house in the darkness. "It was a terrible sound. I never want to go through that again. I don't want anyone to ever go through that again."

At the house, whose second story was blown away, little was left except for a garage and an exposed internal staircase. Pink insulation and debris littered the yard, which abuts the embankment of the interstate.

Stevens said that she had been sleeping on a downstairs sofa the night the tornado hit while her daughter-in-law and four young grandchildren, ages 3 through 7, slept upstairs.

The lightning and thunder suddenly picked up, there was a terrible noise, and then her daughter-in-law started passing the children down the stairs to Stevens, starting with 3-year-old twins Ashley and Amber.

When the mother ran back upstairs to get Jamal and 5-year-old Ayanna, Stevens pulled herself and the children behind the couch.

"That's when the whole wall was just sucked out," Stevens said. "I was just sitting there and I just saw the walls get sucked out. I was like, 'Wait a minute, am I seeing this right?'"

She yanked open the bathroom door, thinking of the safety measures she'd heard on TV about gathering the children and crouching in the tub, but the door was all that was left.

"The bathroom was gone, and I was looking outside," she said, adding that she then covered the twins and raced to find Jamal and Ayanna, both of whom had been sucked out of the home.

Little Ashley was unscathed. Her twin sister, Amber, was found under the rubble in the living room, alive but injured. Ayanna had been hurtled into a neighbor's yard, and Jamal had been swept onto the embankment of the interstate, Stevens said.

The children were taken to Levine Children's Hospital where Jamal was treated and released, a hospital spokesman said. Two of his sisters were held for observation and released on Sunday.

"The kids this afternoon were in pretty good spirits," said Phil Whitesell, spokesman for the Carolinas Healthcare System, adding that their mother had been weeping earlier in the day.

"She was obviously very thankful that her kids were safe," he said. "I think they were all pretty anxious to be together."

Stevens was waiting on Sunday to see her daughter-in-law for the first time since the twister destroyed the home. Jamal's biggest concern, she said, was that his beloved Xbox video game console didn't survive the storm.

While they lost everything but the clothes they were wearing, Stevens said she was counting her blessings.

"People see the house and they keep saying they can't believe we got out," she said. "They just keep saying that."

(Reporting By Karen Brooks in Austin and Chris Keane in Charlotte; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Paul talks hemp, federal regulation in North Dakota visit

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised hemp as an alternative crop and said a free-market approach would protect the nation's environment Monday during North Dakota campaign stops that drew hundreds of cheering supporters.

North Dakota, which is holding Republican presidential caucuses March 6, is one of 13 states with a caucus or primary from Feb. 28 to March 6. North Dakota has 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention in August, although the caucus results will not dictate how any of them vote.

Paul campaigned in Williston, Dickinson, Jamestown and Bismarck on Sunday and Monday, following rival Rick Santorum's swing through Fargo, on the Minnesota border, and the northwestern oil-country town of Tioga last week.

In Jamestown, about 100 miles east of Bismarck, Paul was critical of the federal government's ban on the cultivation of industrial hemp, a crop that is related to marijuana but does not have its mind-affecting properties.

Industrial hemp is grown in neighboring Canada and other countries, where it is used to make paper, lotions, clothing and biofuels.

North Dakota's Legislature and Agriculture Department have pushed allowing hemp to be grown in the state. A state lawmaker who wanted to cultivate the crop filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration, seeking a declaration that doing so would be legal.

"There is no reason, in a free society, that farmers shouldn't be allowed to raise hemp," Paul said during a Jamestown appearance that drew about 300 people. "Hemp is a good product."

In Bismarck, where the Republican congressman spoke to about 1,200 people Monday night in the gymnasium of a private Christian school, Paul said enforcement of private property rights would be sufficient to protect citizens against pollution, rather than relying on the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

"The more socialized a system is, the worse the property is, and the worse the environment is," Paul said. "We should never be bashful about saying we believe in property rights ... and we don't have to give one inch and say that we're careless with the environment, because you don't have a right to pollute your neighbor's property."

In North Dakota's Republican presidential caucuses in 2008, Paul finished third behind Mitt Romney and John McCain, getting 21 percent of the almost 9,800 votes case.

Duane Sattler, of Richardton, was one of the sign-carrying Paul supporters who attended his Bismarck speech. His son, 13-year-old Shawn Sattler, sat nearby, waving an American flag.

"He's been standing alone a lot of times," Sattler said of Paul. "He votes for our personal freedoms, for sound money, and for less government and less taxes."

He became a Paul supporter during his presidential run in 2008, Sattler said. "I really went and did some research, and the deeper I dug, the more I liked the man," he said. "With the other candidates, the deeper I dug, the less I liked them."

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North Korea ruling party to meet, may make succession official

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's state media said on Monday its ruling Workers' Party will hold a key conference in April, the first since 2010, in which it is likely to make official the succession of power to its third generation of leadership.

The conference, to be held in mid-April, will come around the time of the centenary of the state founder Kim Il-sung's birth, which the North has planned to mark the launch of a new era as a "strong and prosperous nation."

"The Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee decides to convene the WPK Conference in mid-April Juche 101 (2012) to glorify the sacred revolutionary life and feats of Kim Jong-il for all ages and accomplish the Juche cause, the Songun revolutionary cause, rallied close around Kim Jong-un," the North's KCNA news agency said.

Juche is the North's homegrown state ideology mixing Marxism and extreme nationalism, preached by the state founder Kim Il-sung. Songun is his son's own ruling doctrine that translates to "military first."

Kim Jong-un, who is believed to be in his late 20s, was appointed vice chairman of the Workers' Party's Central Military Commission at a rare conference in September 2010, taking his first official title in rapid preparations for succession.

That meeting was the first of its kind in more than 30 years. Experts said the conference is reserved for making official special moves in the country's power hierarchy.

His father Kim Jong-il died in December last year, leaving the reclusive state in the hands of his untested son. Kim is believed to be backed by royal family members and aides, headed by the young leader's uncle and a top army general.

Kim Jong-un has been called "supreme commander" and has been at the head of state functions honouring his dead father.

So far he has appeared at ease in his new role and presided over "birthday" celebrations for his dead father in Pyongywang last week.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by David Chance)

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