(Continued from page 26)

Francisco area burst into flames, killing five passengers who were trapped inside and injuring four others who escaped, authorities said.
• The limo was carrying nine passengers and a driver when it caught fire late Saturday night on the San Mateo bridge, California Highway Patrol officer Art Montiel told the Contra Costa Times.
• Five occupants became trapped, while the four others suffered injuries but managed to get out after the vehicle came to a stop on the bridge, the patrol said. The driver escaped uninjured.
• KGO reports that the victims were all women who are believed to be in their 30s.
• The blaze occurred around 10 p.m. PDT on westbound lanes of the bridge, which connects San Mateo and Alemada counties, about 20 miles southeast of San Francisco.
• ___

• HOUSTON (AP) -- National Rifle Association leaders told members Saturday that the fight against gun control legislation is far from over, with battles yet to come in Congress and next year's midterm elections, but they vowed that none in the organization will ever have to surrender their weapons.
• Proponents of gun control also asserted that they are in their fight for the long haul and have not been disheartened by last month's defeat of a bill that would have expanded background checks for gun sales.
• The debate over gun control legislation has reached a fever pitch in the wake of December's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 first-graders and six educators were killed. The expanded background checks bill supported by President Barack Obama and other lawmakers in response to the Connecticut shooting failed to pass in the Senate.
• During a fiery and defiant speech Saturday, Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, the public face of the NRA, said the "political and media elites" have tried to use Sandy Hook and other recent shootings "to blame us, to shame us, to compromise our freedom for their agenda." He said the proposed bill "got the defeat that it deserved" and that the measure would do nothing to prevent the next mass shooting.
• "We will never surrender our guns, never," LaPierre told several thousand people during the organization's annual member meeting, which is part of the yearly NRA convention being held this weekend in Houston. More than 70,000 NRA members

(Continued on page 28)