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(Apr 26, 2015 10:07 AM CDT) Two people are dead and Coast Guard crews are continuing their search this morning for at least five people missing in the water after a sudden and powerful storm capsized several sailboats participating in a regatta near Mobile Bay, Ala. The storm rolled through the area about 4pm yesterday and NPR reports that winds quickly went from 15 knots to 50. One body was found yesterday and another this morning. Apparently there were a number of vessels that became distressed, either capsized or what have you, Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier told Al.com. They were scattered anywhere from Dauphin Island Bridge all the way out into Mobile Bay and across to Fort Morgan. It was a wide area. More than 100 sailboats and as many as 200 people were participating in the Dauphin Island regatta in Mobile Bay. It's been a very tragic day, Michael Smith, with the Buccaneer yacht club, told WSFA-TV. We've had a lot of breakage, missing people, fatalities. Susan Kangal, who was on a boat, told WSFA it was the worst storm that she has seen. We were probably an inch from capsizing; everybody was ready to jump. I didn't have a life jacket on, she said. The boats were part of the 57th iteration of the race. Officials say about 40 people were rescued from the bay yesterday; one man was rescued from the water by the Coast Guard around 9pm, Petty officer Carlos Vega said.

(Jan 27, 2013 2:40 PM) Canada's Liberal party of Ontario made history twice yesterday by choosing the province's first female leader and its first openly gay leader, the Ottawa Citizen reports. At the governing party's leadership convention, Kathleen Wynne beat Sandra Pupatello by 1,150 to 866 on the third ballot to become Ontario's new premier. The vote signals a shift to the left for Liberals (really Canada's center party) and may mean that the provincial parliament will actually function again: Outgoing premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature when he stepped down in October.

(Nov 9, 2017 2:35 PM) Louis CK appears to be the latest to fall in Hollywood's sexual misconduct scandal: In a bombshell New York Times report, five women accuse the comedian of masturbating in front of them or asking to do so. The women include: Courteney Cox and David Arquette, for example, were the executive producers of the pilot Corry was working on at the time, and they confirm the awful incident. Comedian Tig Notaro says that while she once had a good relationship with Louis CK, who released her 2012 comedy album about her cancer diagnosis that gave her career a big boost, she has since learned that his victims are not only real, but many are actual friends of mine within the comedy community. Rumors of such behavior by Louis CK have circulated for years, and he often jokes about masturbation and sexual hangups in his own work. The Times reports that he appeared to acknowledge his misbehavior in apologetic messages to Schachner and Corry; he declined to talk to the newspaper for its article. In the lead-up to its release, the premiere of his new movie was abruptly canceled Thursday, as was his planned appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Thursday night. Click for the full Times article.

(Sep 20, 2009 12:25 PM CDT) An aspiring California horrorcore rapper who posted songs about killing on his MySpace page is being held as a suspect in the murder of four people, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, 20, was arrested as he awaited a flight back home from Virginia, where the bodies were discovered in the home of a Farmville professor. The victims were believed to be the professor, her husband, their daughter, and a teenage friend. McCroskey's relationship with the victims was unclear, but a MySpace message from the daughter said she was looking forward to McCroskey's visit, police said. McCroskey calls himself Syko Sam on his MySpace page. I've killed many people and I kill them real slow. It's the best feeling, watching their last breath. Stabbing and Stabbing til there's nothing left, he sings in one of his songs. A friend who owns Serial Killin Records called McCroskey a great kid.

(Dec 27, 2015 5:56 AM) Tornadoes swept the Dallas area leaving at least eight people dead in the latest freakish winter weather event that on Sunday also could include heavy snow and massive flooding. The Texas tornadoes that touched down after dark Saturday followed days of tumultuous weather in the Southeast including unusual winter tornadoes that left 18 people dead there over the Christmas holiday. A National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth said several tornadoes touched down in the Dallas area, although the full extent of damage would not be known until daylight Sunday. The storm blew the roofs off homes and left vehicles mangled or upside down, power lines down, natural gas lines burst, trees toppled, and debris strewn across neighborhoods. The damage stretched over about a 40-mile-long area around Dallas. The Red Cross said it was setting up shelters for people whose homes were damaged by the storm. I think everyone understands now the gravity of what happened, says a rep for American Red Cross of North Texas. On the other side of Texas, a snowstorm accompanied by plunging temperatures was expected to leave up to 16 inches in West Texas and much of New Mexico through Sunday evening. In the Southeast, two more deaths linked to weather were reported Saturday in Mississippi, bringing that state's death toll from severe weather over Christmas to 10. Late Saturday, one death was reported in Alabama. Severe storms are forecast through Monday as a strong cold front pushes through. Tornadoes are possible.

(Jun 22, 2014 2:25 PM CDT) Three men who escaped by helicopter from a Quebec City-area prison two weeks ago were captured early today at a Montreal residence, Quebec provincial police said. The fugitives were arrested by police investigators, accompanied by SWAT team members, around 1:30am at a luxury condo in Old Montreal, reports the Montreal Gazette. Quebec police Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said further arrests in the case are likely as the investigation into the June 7 escape continues. It could be a person who helped them escape from prison or a person who helped them hide from us, Bilodeau said. Police did not divulge further details about how they finally found the fugitives--Yves Denis, 35, Denis Lefebvre, 53, and Serge Pomerleau, 49. They are due in court in Quebec City tomorrow. The three men were originally arrested as part of Operation Crayfish in 2010, which dismantled a network of drug traffickers, and were awaiting trial when a helicopter plucked them from a detention-center courtyard in Quebec City, triggering an international manhunt. Interpol placed them on its list of the world's most wanted fugitives. Shortly after the daring breakout it was revealed that a judge had granted the three inmates looser restrictions the day before they escaped; an official said she doesn't know why the judge agreed to the request. Now the Quebec government has ordered an internal investigation into the jailbreak and yet another high-flying breakout that occurred in March.

(Oct 19, 2017 7:46 PM CDT) A two-story, Star Wars-inspired Halloween yard display in Ohio is enticing kids to get toy lightsabers and attracting hundreds of visitors from across the state, the AP reports. Elevator mechanic Nick Meyer, 39, spent about $1,500 and 10 hours a weekend for half a year to build a replica of the four-legged All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT walker. He built it with his carpenter friend Anthony Paroda, and it's been such a success that spectators are donating money for them to build another display next year. At 19 feet, the replica is nearly as tall as Meyer's home in Parma, a Cleveland suburb. The cockpit of the AT-AT walker is outfitted with lights that glow red at night, and a mannequin fashioned to resemble a Star Wars Stormtrooper soldier stands guard in front.

(May 23, 2017 6:56 PM CDT) Ohio police say a man who fell down a cliff and spent four days in a ravine was rescued after he crawled onto a nearby golf course, despite having broken his legs, pelvis, and wrist, the AP reports. A worker at the course in Elyria, Ohio, was doing routine maintenance when he stumbled upon 30-year-old Gerald Muskiewicz and called for help, says Elyria Police Capt. Chris Costantino. Muskiewicz was naked and suffering from hypothermia when he was found. Muskiewicz told officers he had stripped his clothes off after falling because they had gotten soaked in a river and the weather was getting chilly. Temperatures in Elyria, about 25 miles west of Cleveland, dipped into the 50s over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. He's very fortunate, Costantino says. If it wasn't for the worker who was able to find him, the end result certainly could have been tragic. Muskiewicz told officials he had been speaking with his ex-wife while walking along a road above a cliff around 2am Friday morning, and that she had agreed to meet him near the golf course at the bottom of the cliff. He lost his footing while making his way down toward the golf course, Muskiewicz told detectives. The cliff is anywhere from 30 feet to 100 feet high, depending on where he fell, fire officials tell WJW-TV. There was no man-made path down the cliff, Costantino says. There's a strong possibility that alcohol or drugs played a factor in the fall, Costantino says, adding that police are not looking into the incident as a criminal matter at this time.

(May 20, 2010 4:45 AM CDT) White House staffers kept a very close eye on the guest list as the Obamas hosted Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his wife at the second state dinner of the Obama presidency last night. No gatecrashers slipped through this time, and one assistant secretary of state was actually sent home to get proper ID, the AP reports. The 200 guests who made it through after their invitations were triple-checked included Whoopi Goldberg, George Lopez, and Olympic speed skater Shani Davis. The Mexican duo of Rodrigo y Gabriela, followed by Beyonce, provided entertainment after a dinner of Oregon wagyu beef with a Oaxacan black mole sauce. Today is a celebration of the bonds between the United States and Mexico, including the music that brings us together and moves us a little bit and hopefully gets us literally moving on the dance floor at some point, Obama told the guests.

(May 18, 2017 3:43 PM CDT) US Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning was released Wednesday from military prison after serving seven years of a 35-year-sentence for sharing classified documents with WikiLeaks. On Thursday, she shared the first photo of herself since she was locked up, People reports. Okay, so here I am everyone!! Manning captioned the photo on Instagram. According to NBC News, it's the only public photo of Manning--who was born Bradley Manning--presenting as a woman besides a low-quality selfie taken immediately before she started her prison term. The ACLU says the photo was taken by a filmmaker working on a documentary about Manning.

(Jun 5, 2008 10:28 AM CDT) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man said to have planned the Sept. 11 attacks, asked a judge to be put to death today, MSNBC reports. During his arraignment at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base a military judge told Mohammed he could face the death penalty. Mohammed replied, Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time. Mohammed, wearing a turban and a long beard, looked quite different than the photograph widely circulated after his 2003 capture in Pakistan. Four other suspects linked to the 2001 terror attacks on the US were also arraigned before the long-awaited tribunal; each faces war-crimes, conspiracy, and other charges in the deaths of 2,973 people.

(Dec 6, 2019 1:48 AM) Indian police on Friday fatally shot and killed four men suspected of raping and killing a woman in southern India, leading some to celebrate their deaths as justice in a case that has sparked protests across the country. The men, who were in police custody and had not been formally charged with any crime, were taken to the crime scenes, both where the rape and killing are suspected of taking place and the spot where the woman's body was burned about a third of a mile away, according to an official in the police commissioner's office. Another police official, speaking under condition of anonymity, said the suspects tried to grab an officer's firearm and escape, the AP reports. The burned body of a 27-year-old woman was found last week in an underpass near Hyderabad after she went missing the previous night. The high-profile case has sparked protests across India. About 300 people gathered at the crime scene to praise police for killing the suspects. Some hugged officers and lifted them into the air chanting long live police, while others showered them with flowers. But some observers condemned the killings. This type of justice is counterfeit, said Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association. The killings are a ploy to shut down our demand of accountability from governments, judiciary and police, and dignity and justice for women.

(Mar 29, 2017 8:03 AM CDT) Since 2004, the UN has named six experts to compose the UN Group of Experts on Congo; on Monday, the bodies of two of them were discovered in a shallow grave. American Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan, a Swede, went missing March 12 while in the central Kasai province, where they were gathering information on a rebel uprising against the government that the New York Times describes as relatively new and poorly understood. The BBC received confirmation from a Congolese government rep that Catalan had been beheaded; Sharp had not. The body of their Congolese interpreter was also found, but three drivers who accompanied them remain missing. The rep cites a witness who says the group was ambushed and abducted. The UN is calling on the country to investigate. Human Rights Watch explains the Group of Experts play a role in the sanctions imposed by the Security Council on the Democratic Republic of Congo, and make recommendations as to which individuals and groups should be added to the list. In pursuit of that, they gather intel on everything from human rights violations to gunrunning. Per HRW, Their reports are among the most comprehensive and reliable sources of information about conflict dynamics in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The Times describes Sharp, 34, as incredibly well networked with the rebel leaders. Rebels go to church. You build a relationship with them there, he had reportedly said. HRW notes this marks the first such crime against international workers in the Kasai region, which has until lately enjoyed peace in contrast with the country's tumultuous east.

(Sep 20, 2018 7:11 AM CDT) Four children were killed and two other people were critically injured Thursday after a train slammed into an electric cargo bike in the Netherlands, per the AP. Police said the accident happened on a railway line in the town of Oss, about 60 miles southeast of Amsterdam, at a rail crossing close to the town's railway station. The crossing has warning lights, and red and white barriers to keep pedestrians off tracks when trains pass. Police said the electric bike belonged to a children's day care center and was taking children to school when the collision happened. Investigations were underway to establish the cause.

(Apr 30, 2014 5:13 PM CDT) If the 9-to-5 grind leaves you feeling like your day is shot, be thankful you're not living on the planet Beta Pictoris b. Scientists have calculated that its entire day is only eight hours long, reports the Los Angeles Times. The reason is that the gas giant's equator is spinning at about 62,000mph, reports Space.com, compared with 29,000mph for Jupiter and our own pokey 1,060mph. Beta Pictoris b is spinning much faster than any planet in our solar system and is the fastest spotted to date anywhere. The discovery is a milestone in that it's the first time astronomers have figured out the rotation rate of an alien planet, reports Red Orbit. Beta Pictoris b is relatively young at 20 million years old, relatively mammoth with 10 times the mass of Jupiter, and relatively close at about 63 light-years away. The exoplanet is also really hot, and the Bad Astronomy blog at Slate notes that it will cool and shrink as it ages. That will spin it up even faster, like an ice skater spins faster when she brings her arms in, writes Phil Plait. In a few hundred million years, Beta Pic b may have a day only three hours long. (Click to read about another space milestone, the discovery of a new Saturn moon.)

(Dec 21, 2016 12:12 AM) Disney and Aeropostale are among six retailers that have agreed to stop using on-call scheduling, a system worker advocates have said means too much unpredictability for employees. The change in scheduling was made following an inquiry by nine attorneys general. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday about 50,000 workers nationwide will benefit. On-call scheduling requires employees to call before a scheduled shift to find out if they have to work that day. Worker advocates say it can leave employees scrambling for child care, unable to hold second jobs, and with uncertain paychecks. People should not have to keep the day open, arrange for child care, and give up other opportunities without being compensated for their time, Schneiderman said in a statement. Rounding out the six companies are Carter's, David's Tea, PacSun, and Zumiez. They're among 15 retailers who received a joint letter from the attorneys general, the AP reports.The other nine companies--American Eagle, Payless, Coach, Forever 21, Vans, Justice Just for Girls, BCBG Maxazria, Tilly's Inc., and Uniqlo--say they don't use on-call scheduling or have recently ended it. Other retailers have changed their practices. Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, rolled out a new scheduling system in July in about 650 Neighborhood Market stores that gives hourly workers more certainty about their schedules.

(Jul 17, 2014 3:23 PM CDT) If you have to use the loo at Chicago's WaterSaver Faucet Company, you better do it in six minutes or fewer--per day. A local union says the factory has installed swipe card systems on its bathrooms to time potty breaks, slapping employees with disciplinary measures if they exceed the allotted time, CNNMoney reports. Hit 60 minutes or more over the last 10 working days and you're in trouble, Teamsters local 743 argues in a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The union says some 19 workers were unfairly disciplined in June alone. There have been meetings with workers and human resources where the workers had to explain what they were doing in the bathroom, a union rep says. WaterSaver's CEO, Steve Kersten, says the policy came about because some employees were spending too much time on the toilet: More than 120 hours of production were lost in May due to bathroom visits, he says, noting employees should be able to do their business during regular breaks, which total one hour per day. Don't use the bathroom at all while on the clock? You'll be rewarded with $1 per day, thrown on a gift card at the end of the month, Kersten says. However, that doesn't quite balance out the invasion of privacy inherent in monitoring bathroom time, the union rep argues, adding, the company has spreadsheets on every union employee on how long they were in the bathroom. Meanwhile, Kersten admits there's no such swipe card system on his bathroom at work.

(May 26, 2011 2:35 AM CDT) David Cameron says he knows all too well how millions of Americans felt on September 11, 2001. His wife, Samantha, then pregnant with their first child, had flown into New York the day before and he spent 5 frantic hours back in Britain trying to contact her, recalled the British prime minister, speaking at a joint press conference with President Obama. Samantha, he says, was caught up in chaotic scenes a few miles from Ground Zero. I will never forget the 5 hours of trying to get hold of her, and she will never forget the New Yorkers she met that day or the sense of solidarity that she felt that day and we have felt ever since that day, Cameron said. Today, as we come up to its 10th anniversary, we should remember the spirit of that city and the sympathy we feel with those who lost their loved ones.

(Apr 1, 2015 1:12 PM CDT) Another tragedy in the same mountain range where the Germanwings plane went down: Three people are dead, one is critically injured, and seven others are missing after an avalanche in the French Alps swept away a group of skiers, reports CNN. The avalanche occurred around Alpine Ecrins National Park in southeastern France, reports the Local. That's about 75 miles north of where the passenger jet crashed. The area doesn't have official slopes, reports ABC News, but skiers are known to hike up on their own in order to ski down. Heavy snow in recent days apparently drew them in.

(Aug 23, 2018 10:00 AM CDT) Tourists love to break Italy's law against jumping into its many fountains, but two men who stripped down to their underwear for a photo-worthy dip have particularly irked locals with their fountain of choice. After all, the fountain sits at Rome's Altar of the Fatherland, which holds the tomb of an unknown soldier and represents Italy's 500,000 dead during World War I, reports the New York Times. Police are now on the hunt for the culprits, one of whom dropped his drawers for a photo obtained by the Guardian, and both of whom have been described as English speakers. Or, as Interior Minister Matteo Salvini calls them, idiots. I would know how to 'educate' these idiots if they get caught, Italy is not their bathroom! Salvini tweeted Tuesday, per the Guardian. Police added that the scene at the monument, known in Italy as Altare Della Patria, seriously offended the national feeling and the memory of the fallen to whom the monument is dedicated. Authorities have asked witnesses and consulates in Rome for help in identifying the pair, who could face fines of $460. (Meanwhile, Florence is combating tourists with water hoses.)

(Jan 16, 2014 6:51 AM) Three people are dead after a deadly shooting last night in Elkhart, Indiana: A gunman entered Martin's Super Market just after 10pm and began firing from one area of the store to the next, killing two women before he was shot dead by police. The gunman--a local white man in his 20s--pointed a semiautomatic handgun at arriving officers, who fired, WXIN reports, though WNDU notes several rounds were exchanged between the man and police. The two victims--a staff member in her late teens or early 20s and a customer in her 40s--were found 10 to 12 aisles apart, making this a huge crime scene, a police spokesman says. The relationship between the victims and shooter, who was also carrying a large knife, isn't known, but we are pretty confident that Elkhart's quick response to the scene most definitely saved lives tonight, the spokesman said, adding, There is not a day that goes by it seems anymore that we aren't learning about a school shooting or at a business. We hope this would never come to our hometown, and here it is. One man, whose mother works at the store, said it was evacuated after gunshots were heard. She told me that she heard what sounded like gunshots and everybody around her was telling her that they heard gunshots, he said, adding, You can't even go to the grocery store and not be safe.

(Oct 26, 2017 1:26 AM CDT) George HW Bush issued his second apology in two days Wednesday after another actress accused him of groping her during a photo-op. Jordana Grolnick told Deadspin that the former president touched her inappropriately in 2016, when he came backstage during the intermission of a Maine production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He reached his right hand around to my behind, and as we smiled for the photo he asked the group, 'Do you want to know who my favorite magician is?' As I felt his hand dig into my flesh, he said, 'David Cop-a-Feel,' Grolnick said. She said other people present laughed politely and out of discomfort and Barbara Bush quipped that he would get himself put into jail. On Tuesday, Bush apologized after actress Heather Lind accused him of very similar behavior during a 2014 screening of Turn: Washington's Spies. A spokesman delivered another apology after Grolnick's accusation. At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures, the spokesman said, per People. To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke--and on occasion, he has patted women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. He said Bush apologizes most sincerely to anyone has he offended.

(Feb 9, 2012 7:11 AM) Ten of the first 11 states to apply for a waiver from the controversial No Child Left Behind law will be freed from the law's requirements by President Obama today, the AP reports. Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee received the waivers; New Mexico's application was not approved, but it is working with the White House to get the OK. Another 28 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, are expected to seek waivers in the future; the heavily populated states of California, Pennsylvania, and Texas are among those that have not yet signaled they will apply. The waiver releases the states from the law's strict requirements--including one dictating that all students must be proficient in math and reading by 2014--as long as the states create another viable improvement plan. States without a waiver will continue to be held to the NCLB standards, Arne Duncan said this week. Republicans have accused Obama of overreach in granting the waivers, but the AP notes that there is widespread bipartisan agreement that the law needs to be fixed. It came up for renewal in 2007, but efforts to fix it have been hindered by disagreements ever since.

(Jan 30, 2009 9:52 AM) The bank stabilization plan the White House is cooking up may mix two competing strategies, the Wall Street Journal reports, setting up a bad bank to buy portions of banks' toxic assets while offering guarantees against future losses on part of the remainder. The goal is to bolster banks and get credit moving while limiting the cost to taxpayers. The bank, possibly managed by the FDIC, would likely only buy assets that have already been severely marked down by banks, preventing a devaluing of other bank holdings. Many of the remaining troubled assets would be insured against loss. More capital injections are likely, adding to the $335 billion already spent. The bank plan will be rolled out in the coming weeks, along with the stimulus package now in Congress, a plan to stem foreclosures, and a regulatory overhaul.

(Jun 23, 2009 4:01 PM CDT) At least one person looks to have benefited more from Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff, ProPublica reports. Jeffry Picower, a secretive philanthropist and investor in medical technologies, is on the books as having withdrawn some $5.1 billion in returns from 1995 to 2008, well beyond his original investment. Records show some fishy numbers in Picower's accounts, and the Madoff trustee has filed a lawsuit against him. While the suit vaguely alleges that Picower knew or should have known about the scam, the numbers speak volumes. For years, Picower made quarterly withdrawals conveniently adding up to round numbers like $250 million, but it's the rate of return that's otherworldly. One year, an account earned 950%; 550% was not uncommon. Picower's charitable foundation conveniently folded just after the scheme came to light.

(Feb 25, 2014 1:41 PM) The State Department said today it has expelled three Venezuelan diplomats in response to last week's expulsion of three US consular officials from Caracas. Venezuelan envoys First Secretary Ignacio Luis Cajal Avalos, First Secretary Victor Manuel Pisani Azpurua, and Second Secretary Marcos Jose Garcia Figueredo, have 48 hours to leave the US. Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro expelled three US diplomats from Caracas on Feb. 17, saying they were supporting opposition plots to overthrow him. Since Feb. 12, Venezuelan opponents of Maduro have been staging countrywide protests that the government says have left at least 15 people dead and wounded about 150. Authorities have detained 579 people, of whom 45, including nine police officers and members of the National Guard, remain in custody. Though violent protests have died down, Venezuela remains tense.

(Jan 4, 2008 3:00 AM) Riding a record turnout of young, independent and new voters, Barack Obama decisively won the Democratic caucuses in Iowa last night, with John Edwards narrowly edging out Hillary Clinton for second. With all Democratic precincts reporting, Obama, aiming to be the first black president of the United States, prevailed with a commanding 38%; Edwards took 30% and Clinton 29%, CNN reports. Both Clinton and Edwards vowed to keep fighting for the nomination as the race heads for the first primary Tuesday in New Hampshire. I am so ready for the rest of this campaign, said Clinton. Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd pulled negligible support in Iowa, and both Dodd and Biden said they would drop out of the race.

(Jul 30, 2016 12:18 PM CDT) A gunman killed three and injured a fourth person early Saturday in a suburban Seattle home where young people had gathered, the AP reports. The suspect was pulled over and arrested three counties away, Officer Myron Travis of the Mukilteo Police Department said. About 15 to 20 people were in the home at the time of the shooting, and all have been interviewed by police, he said. Police did not release the names of the victims, but a woman tells the AP her granddaughter hid in a closet to escape. Susan Gemmer says her 18-year-old granddaughter was hanging out with friends at the home when a young man showed up with a rifle. Gemmer says the gunman shot two people at a fire pit before going onto a roof and firing more shots from there. Washington State Patrol trooper Will Finn said the male suspect was pulled over around 2am near Chehalis, about 113 miles from the shooting. Finn declined to release information about his identity. No motive has been given for the shooting. But Gemmer says the shooter and one of the victims had recently broken up.The shooting happened in the Chennault neighborhood of Mukilteo, a waterfront town of about 20,000 people, 25 miles north of Seattle.

(Jul 8, 2012 4:24 PM CDT) A bomb in eastern Afghanistan today killed six NATO service members, on a day where a total of 29 people died from roadside bombs and insurgent attacks. NATO said the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device but provided no further details about the attack and did not identify the dead service members. The statement said NATO's policy is to allow national authorities to give details about the soldiers. A surge in Afghan and coalition forces during the past two years routed Taliban fighters from many of their strongholds in the south, but the insurgents have stepped up their attacks this summer to take back key areas. The service members' deaths were the latest today caused by bombs planted by insurgents along roadsides, paths or mountain tracks. In addition to the six NATO deaths, bombs and attacks killed 16 Afghan civilians, five policemen, and two members of the US-led coalition in southern Afghanistan, Afghan and NATO authorities said.

(May 23, 2017 12:11 AM CDT) The search for 12 jurors and six alternates for Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial is off to a brisk start even though a third of the initial jury pool had an opinion about Cosby's guilt or innocence and an equal number said they or someone close to them had been sexually assaulted, the AP reports. Three men and two women, all white, were selected Monday. The lawyers studied each person's race, sex, age, occupation, and interests to try to guess their inherent sympathies, experts said. Cosby, in an interview last week, said he thinks race could be a motivating factor in the accusations against him. Cosby is charged with drugging and molesting a Temple University women's basketball team manager at his home near Philadelphia in 2004. He has called the encounter consensual. Dozens of other women have made similar accusations against Cosby, 79, but Judge Steven T. O'Neill is allowing only one of them to testify at the June 5 trial in suburban Philadelphia. The jury from Pittsburgh will be sequestered nearly 300 miles from home. Two of the men selected said they or someone close to them had been sexually assaulted, but they insisted they could judge the case fairly. Of the group of 100 potential jurors summoned Monday, 41 will return for further questioning Tuesday.

(May 30, 2010 3:34 PM CDT) Dario Franchitti has won the Indianapolis 500, beating Dan Wheldon to help Chip Ganassi become the first car owner to win at Indy and the Daytona 500 in the same year. Franchitti's victory today was his second at the Indy 500 in four years and denied Helio Castroneves a chance to become the fourth driver to win a record four times at the Brickyard. Castroneves was running in the top 3 until he stalled coming out of a pit stop on the 145th lap. He finished ninth, as none of Roger Penske's drivers came across in the top seven. Tony Kanaan started in the 33rd position and rose as high as second, but had to pit for a splash of fuel with four laps to go and finished 11th.

(Jan 26, 2009 6:18 AM) Two US helicopters crashed today in northern Iraq, killing four American troops, the military said. The military said the crash happened at about 2:15am local time and it does not appear to be by enemy action. Iraqi officials said the crash site was located about 180 miles north of Baghdad. All the dead were Americans, said a US military rep.

(Sep 2, 2009 7:06 AM CDT) Donald Trump fixes part of the Miss Universe pageant to make sure the prettiest girls don't get cut too soon, the competition's choreographer tells Guanabee. It's just kind of common knowledge that he picks six of the top 15 single-handedly, says Michael Schwandt. Before the show, The Donald has all the girls lined up, in alphabetical order, looks them over, and has an assistant take notes. It's a lot of work to get these girls that don't speak English in alphabetical order, Schwandt notes. It's kind of the last thing anybody wants to do but we have to do it. Why? His reason for doing so, as he told me and he's told the girls before, is that he left it all up to preliminary judging in the past and some of the most beautiful women, in his opinion, were not in the top 15 and he was kind of upset about that. And he decided that he would pick a certain number and let the judges pick a certain number.

(Oct 5, 2011 8:58 AM CDT) Dust storms are once again rolling across Arizona, leading to a series of crashes that killed one person and shut down Interstate 10 for hours. Another six people are in critical condition following the three accidents yesterday, the Arizona Republic reports. One pile-up involved 16 vehicles, the BBC notes. The dust storms are the worst we've ever seen, says one official. Visibility was so poor at the time that the injured were driven, not flown, to the hospital.

(Mar 10, 2015 12:10 PM CDT) Two University of Oklahoma students accused of leading the racist chant that emerged on video this week now aren't just homeless, they're school-less. University President David Boren announced today that the two unidentified students have been expelled, reports KOCO.com. I have emphasized that there is zero tolerance for this kind of threatening racist behavior at the University of Oklahoma, he said. I hope that the entire nation will join us in having zero tolerance of such racism when it raises its ugly head in other situations across our country. The expulsions follow the closing of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon frat, meaning members have until tonight to clear the frat house. The students can appeal Boren's decision, and a story in the Oklahoma Daily, the campus newspaper, suggest they might have a case if they decide to do so on freedom-of-speech grounds. If the extent of it is what we see in those 11 seconds of video, I don't see a constitutional basis for [expulsion], the executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education tells the newspaper. The frat's house mother has a video problem of her own.

(Sep 20, 2017 12:27 AM CDT) Police say seven officers were injured during a weekend shootout in central Oklahoma, including one who remains hospitalized. Police initially said two officers were wounded Sunday as they tried to serve a search warrant following a kidnapping attempt in Chickasha, about 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, the AP reports. Chickasha Police Chief Goebel Music said Tuesday that seven officers were injured after the suspect allegedly opened fire from a home. Music says two officers were taken to a hospital. One was treated for shrapnel wounds and released. The other was repeatedly shot in the arm and remains hospitalized. Music says the five other officers were treated at the scene for lesser injuries. The suspect, 61-year-old Alex Warren Klingler, is jailed on complaints including shooting with intent to kill. Music says police went to Klingler's home after he allegedly tried to pull a woman into his car, using so much force that both her wrists were broken, the Chickasha Express-Star reports. Five officers fired their weapons during the hour-long standoff. No member of the Chickasha Police Department or any other agency left their post, but they stood their ground against an assailant who had attempted grievous harm on a woman within our community, the chief says.

(Nov 22, 2016 6:55 PM) A group of notable academics believes it's found persuasive evidence that something is fishy with the presidential votes in three swing states, and it's encouraging Hillary Clinton to ask for a recount, New York Magazine reports. The group, which isn't going on the record at the moment, includes prominent computer scientists and election lawyers. In Wisconsin, the group found Clinton got 7% fewer votes in counties that used voting machines instead of paper ballots or optical scanners. The group estimates hacking or vote manipulation in those counties may have cost Clinton 30,000 votes; she lost Wisconsin by 27,000. The group says there's also evidence of possible vote tampering in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Clinton would need all three of those states to win the electoral college. The group of academics is pushing for an independent review of votes in those three states--especially in light of Russia's hack of the DNC--something that the White House is against. The Clinton camp was informed of the evidence last week but hasn't publicly commented. They have until Friday to ask for a recount in Wisconsin; deadlines in Michigan and Pennsylvania are next week. Meanwhile, NPR reports Clinton's lead in the popular vote is 1.75 million and growing. A voting data analyst believes she'll end up winning the popular vote by 2.5 million--thanks to 2 million uncounted votes in California--the largest-ever margin of victory for someone not becoming president.

(Feb 21, 2014 10:09 AM) An eviction hearing for a formal tribal chairwoman ended in a hail of bullets yesterday at the Cedarville Rancheria American Indian tribal office in California. Alturas police say Cherie Lash Rhoades, also known as Sherie Lash, opened fire at around 3:30pm, shooting six people and killing four of them, KRCR reports. When she was out of bullets, she allegedly ran into the kitchen, grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed one of her victims again. One blood-drenched witness escaped and ran to get police. Police say they found Rhoades outside, running with the knife still in her hands. A Rancheria employee helped tackle her, the Redding Record Searchlight reports. The two surviving victims were flown to the hospital. Rhoades allegedly killed two women, ages 19 and 45, and two men, 30 and 50, during the rampage. The tribe, which has just 35 members, had been considering evicting Rhoades and her 24-year-old son, who was also at the meeting, from Rancheria property.

(Sep 7, 2009 7:13 AM CDT) Eleven people were injured when a man threw acid at a busy market yesterday in the fourth such attack in the Chinese special administrative region this year. Nine people suffered burns and were treated on site, while two more were taken to the hospital. A 28-year-old man was arrested, CNN reports. There's no proof that he's linked to the three earlier attacks.

(Sep 8, 2013 7:48 AM CDT) The bar isn't set really high in Pakistani politics, because leaving office willingly when you're supposed to makes history: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari stepped down today at the end of his five-year term, becoming the first democratically elected president in the country's history to complete his full term in office. At a ceremony at the presidency, an honor guard bid farewell to a smiling Zardari. His successor, Mamnoon Hussain, is scheduled to be sworn in tomorrow. Zardari rose to power after the assassination of his wife, two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in a December 2007 attack. Analysts count his completion of a full term in a hostile political environment to his credit, as well as his strong stance against Islamic militancy. However, economic mismanagement and a failure to tackle the country's energy crisis hurt Zardari's popularity, they say. In an interview with Geo TV to be aired tomorrow, Zardari talked about lost opportunities and admitted that the economy could have been better managed, adding, More work could have been done. His other major accomplishments include transferring power in democratic elections in a country plagued by military coups. Pakistani army dictators ruled for most of the country's 66-year history. He also agreed to a constitutional amendment that transferred many of the president's powers to the prime minister, leaving his position as largely ceremonial. Hussain, a textile businessman from the newly elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is set to replace Zardari as president.

(Aug 19, 2008 5:11 AM CDT) Asian stocks hit a two-year low today and European markets opened lower amid fears that the US will be forced to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In Tokyo the Nikkei tumbled 2.3%, leading declines across the region. Stocks of big European banks such as Barclays and Societe Generale were sliding. The slump signals that the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression is still far from bottoming out. The weak economic outlook also led oil to drop to below $112 a barrel. The dollar rallied once again, climbing to $1.46 per euro, but investors cautioned against seeing that as a sign of health. It has little to do with dollar strength but more the weakness of the other currencies, warned one strategist.

(Jan 21, 2013 3:30 PM) Scientists have spotted four-stranded DNA in humans for the first time and say it could provide a key to fighting cancer, the BBC reports. A Cambridge University team revealed the find to Nature Chemistry last year, saying the quadruple helix may arise when a cell is unstable or in a dysfunctional state--like one that leads to cancer. We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction, said Cambridge chemist Shankar Balasubramanian. They found that four-stranded DNA occurred most often when a cell is copying its DNA right before dividing. That could link the quadruple helix to cancers, which are often caused by genes that mutate to boost DNA replication. Perhaps synthetic molecules could curb the out-of-control cell proliferation that leads to tumors: I'm hoping now that the pharmaceutical companies will bring this on to their radar, said Balasubramanian. Some 60 years ago, two other Cambridge scientists burst into a pub and announced their discovery of the secret to life : the DNA double helix.

(Jan 4, 2017 4:30 PM) A Florida Highway Patrol trooper spotted a car parked along the interstate with its hazard lights on around 1:30am Saturday and stopped to investigate. He found a couple dead on the side of the road nearby and their three children still strapped into their car seats, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. Authorities say the couple had a history of drug abuse, and it appears 32-year-old Daniel Kelsey may have died from an overdose. Questions remain about the cause of death for 30-year-old Heather Kelsey, and authorities are waiting on the results of an autopsy. The couple's three children--ages 2, 1, and an infant--were unharmed. Authorities don't believe the car had been on the side of road for longer than 30 minutes. The children are staying with relatives. There were no signs of foul play or trauma, though it remains unclear why Daniel and Heather Kelsey got out of the car before dying, CBS News reports. They had been married for nearly six years. It boggles me, a family friend tells WFTV. I'm blown away by it. I don't want to believe it.

(Sep 17, 2019 8:20 AM CDT) As officials try to figure out what's causing a spate of vaping illnesses, some proving fatal, news of another death has come in. CNN reports that the most recent e-cigarette fatality, the nation's seventh so far, is a 40-year-old from California, the second death in that state. A Monday release from the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency says the victim died after complications suspected to be related to severe pulmonary injury associated with vaping, per Public Health Officer Karen Haught. She warns others that long-term effects of vaping on health are unknown and that anyone considering vaping should be aware of the serious potential risk associated with vaping. Under the direction of Gov. Gavin Newsom, California is already pushing back, with a $20 million anti-vaping ad campaign and a crackdown on counterfeit products, as well as a closer look at adding firmer warnings on e-cigarette packaging and upping the tax on vaping paraphernalia. In addition to the deaths, officials are looking at hundreds of other cases of lung illness said to be tied to vaping, spread across 36 states and in the US Virgin Islands. The other vaping-linked deaths have taken place in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Oregon. Last week, President Trump vowed to ban flavored e-cigarettes. (An Alabama school is fighting vaping in an unusual way.)

(Feb 3, 2018 5:13 PM) An Italian gunman with extreme right-wing sympathies shot and wounded six African immigrants Saturday in Italy during a two-hour drive-by shooting spree, the AP reports. Police photos showed the shooting suspect with a neo-Nazi tattoo prominently on his forehead as he sat in custody and an Italian flag tied around his neck as he was arrested in the central Italian city of Macerata,. Authorities identified him as Luca Traini, 28. Traini had run for town council on the anti-migrant Northern League's list in a local election last year in Corridonia, the party confirmed, but its mayoral candidate lost the race. The news agency ANSA quoted friends of his as saying that Traini had previously been affiliated with Italian extremist parties like the neo-fascist Forza Nuova and CasaPound.

(Aug 30, 2020 9:45 AM CDT) The highly anticipated convention bounce has been fading in recent election cycles. And anyway, the New York Times reports, polls usually show voters soon return to where they were. But President Trump has received a bounce this time that he can bask in: Two polls taken as the Republican National Convention ended show Joe Biden's lead at 6 percentage points, the smallest it's been in two months. A Yahoo News-YouGov poll measured the shift by contacting the same people it polled in late July. The new poll found Biden ahead 47%-41%, down from a 9-point lead the month before, Yahoo News reports. Trump's strength ratings may have driven his improvement. Before the convention, 33% attributed the quality to Trump, while 38% did afterward. Still, the president didn't pick up support from those looking for a law and order candidate. A Morning Consult poll taken Friday found a similar gap, with Biden on top 50%-40%. That was 4 points better than Trump polled last weekend. Biden had no comparable bump after the Democratic National Convention, per Morning Consult; Trump did have a bounce in 2016. But because fewer voters are undecided this time, polls show Biden in better shape now than Hillary Clinton was then. Trump has been hammering voters with warnings about suburban life, and he did narrow that gap to 6 points; Biden now leads among 50-42 among suburban voters. The GOP convention didn't improve Trump's likability ratings, though it did hurt Biden's. As before, 55% view the president unfavorably and 43% favorably. Biden fell from 51% to a 49% favorability rating after the Republican convention. (GOP convention showed who owns the party now.)

(Feb 10, 2010 11:50 AM) New York police have released thousands of aerial photographs taken on Sept. 11, 2001, providing a dramatic new view of the destruction of the World Trade Center. ABC News obtained the pictures with a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year. So far, the network's posted only 12 online, but it received 2,779 on nine CDs.

(Jun 29, 2012 3:19 AM CDT) The Flaming Lips have rocked their way into the record books by playing eight gigs in eight cities in the space of 24 hours, toppling Jay-Z's record of seven. The veteran psychedelic rockers from Oklahoma kicked off the tour with a gig in Memphis and finished up in New Orleans with 20 minutes to spare, StarPulse reports. Stars including Jackson Browne and Grace Potter joined the band for duets along the way. The tour was more about the fans than getting into the Guinness Book of World Records, frontman Wayne Coyne says--but he's happy to have broken the record. To be published alongside the man who ate 22 pounds of his own boogers, beside the woman with the longest toenails, or perhaps even to be published beside an individual who has had maybe 1,000 cockroaches stuffed into their ears ... that, to me, would be one of life's absurd joys, he says.

(May 7, 2013 1:18 PM CDT) A 12-week-old puppy somehow managed to survive for four of those weeks in an impounded car in Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reports. Little Kia is believed to have subsisted on McDonald's trash and cigars that were left in the Buick, which was impounded April 8 for being illegally parked, but employees at the tow lot saw no sign of any water in the car. She arrived at the city's animal shelter after finally being found yesterday, emaciated and dehydrated and looking more like an 8-week-old puppy, and was finally able to eat a little dog food. The terrier-schnauzer mix is expected to survive--KSHB notes that the cooler weather likely had a hand in that--and will be placed in a foster home so she can be trained and get veterinary care before going up for adoption in two weeks. Employees at the tow lot are upset, and say they're not sure how Kia went undetected for so long; it's possible she was hiding, and employees typically don't unlock doors when a car arrives locked, as this one did. No one ever came to claim the car or the dog. City officials are investigating.

(Sep 6, 2012 6:02 AM CDT) A horrific story out of the French Alps: Four adults were found shot to death in or near a BMW yesterday, and beneath the legs of a dead woman cowered a 4-year-old, terrified but alive. She apparently spent some eight hours tucked beneath the body of her mother and next to her grandmother in the back seat of the car--while French investigators stood nearby, unaware, reports the AP. The car reportedly belonged to a British family vacationing at a nearby campground; the camp's owners said the girl's father was also killed, and police say a dead cyclist unconnected to the family was found dead nearby. Also injured: a 7-year-old girl, found near the car with skull fractures and three gunshot wounds, reports the Independent. She has been hospitalized, along with the 4-year-old. Police say the younger child likely went unnoticed by the firefighters, technicians, and doctors who peered into the car's windows because she was completely immobile among the bodies. But as soon as they opened the car door, she came out, smiled, and reached out her arms. She is talking, but is unable to explain what happened. The Independent reports that police speculate it was an attempted robbery or hijacking gone wrong, with one officer noting a handful of such attempts on tourist cars have happened in France this summer.

(Feb 10, 2010 11:50 AM) New York police have released thousands of aerial photographs taken on Sept. 11, 2001, providing a dramatic new view of the destruction of the World Trade Center. ABC News obtained the pictures with a Freedom of Information Act request filed last year. So far, the network's posted only 12 online, but it received 2,779 on nine CDs.

(Apr 27, 2020 12:48 AM CDT) The death toll from the August mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart is now 23. More than eight months after he was shot in the store's parking lot, Guillermo Memo Garcia has died, KTSM reports. The soccer coach leaves behind his wife and two children. Twenty girls from the team he coached were at the store on Aug. 3 selling snacks as a fundraiser when the shooting broke out. Five parents were shot, and the father of another coach was shot and killed. Garcia, whose wife was also among those shot, had been in the ICU since the shooting. He was the last remaining hospital patient from the shooting, KVIA reports. He fought long and hard, with the help of all his troops he won many battles but lost the war, Garcia's wife says in a statement. I would like to thank the community for all the love, support, and prayers. On behalf of the Garcia family we would like to give the community the opportunity to pay their respects but due to the current circumstances we feel that right now is not the right time. ... When the pandemic and social distancing orders pass we will have a proper memorial and mass where the community can pay their respects to an El Paso warrior!

(Jul 24, 2016 5:53 AM CDT) A shooting at a Texas apartment complex on Saturday left four people dead including the suspected shooter, reports the AP. Bastrop Police Det. Vicky Steffanic said at a news briefing that the dead were one man, two women, and a child. Another child was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, she said. The shooter is among the dead and there is no further threat to the public, Steffanic said. The identities of the dead are not being released pending notification of family. Steffanic declined to comment on a motive for the shooting. At least one nearby resident said that those found dead were residents of the complex. A guest of a hotel next-door to the complex said he heard five to eight shots so fast it sounded like fireworks, he tells the Austin American-Statesman. I was afraid to go outside. Police initially said there could be as many as five dead, but that was later revised to four when it was determined that the suspected shooter was among the fatalities. Bastrop is a town of about 7,500 people located 35 miles southeast of Austin.

(Jun 20, 2014 1:30 PM CDT) There are plenty of die-hard soccer fans out there, but few are receiving as much media attention during this World Cup as Brazil's Silva family. As a result of a genetic condition known as polydactyly, all 14 members of the four-generation family were born with an extra digit on each hand, the AP reports. That obviously brings each hand's total to six, a fact with special meaning in Brazil's latest quest to win the World Cup--a victory that would happen to be its sixth. Since the last World Cup we wanted Brazil to become hexacampeao, says Ana Carolina Santos da Silva, using the Portuguese term for six-time champion. But it didn't happen, so this year we really want Brazil to achieve the sixth.

(Aug 5, 2019 12:51 PM CDT) The number of people killed at an El Paso Walmart has increased by two to 22, officials said Monday, as two of the wounded succumbed to their injuries. The El Paso PD tweeted news of the two additional deaths this morning. Neither victim's name has been released. ABC News notes that the new death toll was given only hours after the final body was removed from the Walmart by the county coroner's office; the shooting occurred Saturday morning. The AP notes revised count brings the weekend's mass-shooting death toll to 31.

(Aug 9, 2016 8:08 AM CDT) Reports are conflicting as to what caused a Ferris wheel car to overturn at eastern Tennessee's Greene County Fair on Monday night: ABC News reports police aren't sure why the basket flipped, dumping the three girls riding in it onto the ground. An accident report filed by Family Attractions Amusement states the car caught on a bar, causing it to upend, which conflicts with an initial witness statement that suggested the car was being rocked. Whatever the cause, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports the trio fell 35 to 45 feet and survived, though WBIR reports one of the girls, a 6-year-old, suffered a traumatic brain injury and is intubated. At a Tuesday press conference, Greeneville Police Detective Capt. Tim Davis offered an apology for initial police reports that said all three girls were responsive, reports the Greeneville Sun. The young girl's 10-year-old sister is in stable condition, having injured her arm. Doctors expect to downgrade the oldest to fall, a 16-year-old, from critical to stable condition. The Sun reports the Ferris wheel was last inspected June 21. All mechanical rides at the fair are currently shut down pending an inspection.

(Aug 11, 2016 12:17 PM CDT) Green Day just released the pop-punk band's first new music (not counting a Christmas single) since 2012, NME reports. According to Rolling Stone, new song Bang Bang is a grim, high-speed dive into the mind of a potential mass shooter. To get into the brain of someone like that was freaky, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong says. After I wrote it, all I wanted to do was get that out of my brain because it just freaked me out. Revolution Radio, Green Day's 12th studio album and first since being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is scheduled to be released in October.

(Jan 15, 2012 11:13 AM) The death toll in the Costa Concordia disaster has hit five, as divers discovered the bodies of two elderly people at an emergency gathering point that submerged when the cruise ship tipped over, reports the AP. There are 15 people still unaccounted for today, after authorities pulled a cabin service worker from the ship, as well as a honeymooning South Korean couple from an unsubmerged part of the vessel after hearing their screams. We are still searching for bodies, but in the hope that there might have been an air pocket to enable survival, an Italian Coast Guard commander said. The search is turning perilous, notes the AP, with divers braving murky waters filled with debris--as well as the possibility that the ship could shift suddenly and sink in nearby deeper waters. There are tents, mattresses, other objects moving which can get tangled in the divers' equipment, says the commander. An Italian prosecutor confirmed that the ship's captain is facing charges of abandoning ship after an incensed French couple saw him evacuating under a blanket on a lifeboat before all the passengers had escaped; he could face up to 12 years. Click through the gallery for more scenes from the staggering wreck.

(Jul 16, 2009 8:49 PM CDT) A pair of powerful bombs exploded at two luxury hotels in an upscale Jakarta business district, killing 8 and wounding at least 50, officials said. The blasts at the neighboring Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels blew out windows and scattered debris and glass across the street. Both hotels are strong draws for foreigners. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, Indonesia's first terror major attack in three years. A man who was jogging by the hotels said he first heard a loud explosion at the Marriott. Five minutes later, a bomb followed at the Ritz. The Manchester United football team was scheduled to stay at the Ritz on Saturday and Sunday nights for a friendly match against the Indonesian All Stars.

(Dec 22, 2010 12:22 PM) Two Chicago firefighters died today after the wall of a burning building collapsed on them. Crews were trying to put out a fire in an abandoned South Side commercial building when the wall collapsed, trapping four firefighters and injuring 12 others, the Chicago Tribune reports. All four of the trapped men were rescued, but two died of the injuries they had sustained. Of the remaining firefighters, the fire department says that four are in the hospital in critical condition, while another 10 are in stable condition. They worked hard, got them out fast, the fire commissioner said. The incident happens to come on the 100th anniversary of the infamous Union Stockyards fire, which killed 21 Chicago firefighters--the single greatest loss of professional, big-city firefighters until the 9/11 attacks.

(Mar 5, 2008 12:35 PM) It's easy to applaud the generosity the Ivy League is lavishing on the middle class, but it could have unintended consequences, Newsweek notes. Second-tier schools and elite public universities rely on the highly talented middle-class kids Harvard and company are targeting. Schools compete hard for those students, said Colgate's VP of finances. But Colgate's $700 million can't compete with Harvard's $34 billion war chest. To protect their elite status, schools like Colgate will probably sweeten the package for top middle-class kids, one economist predicts, taking money away from the students who really need it: low-income students. But optimists say big universities have taken the cream of the crop for years. The number of kids we're talking about is very small, said one admissions dean.

(Dec 4, 2019 6:22 AM) South Korea has been rocked by the third sudden death of a K-pop star in two months. Cha In Ha, a member of the boy band Surprise U who'd also appeared in a short film and TV drama, was found dead at his home on Tuesday at age 27, per Reuters. A cause of death was not immediately known. In a Monday post on Instagram, Cha--real name Lee Jae-ho--had written, Everyone be careful not to catch the cold, Reuters reports, while Variety translates the message as Everybody, watch out. The photo reportedly showed him looking moodily at his phone. His death is the third of a K-pop star since October amid what some are calling a toxic fan culture fraught with online abuse, per the Guardian. Singer Sulli, real name Choi Jin-ri, had been vocal about her mental health struggles and depression before she was found dead in a suspected suicide at age 25, per the Guardian. A few weeks later, her friend Goo Hara, 27, was found dead at her home. She'd suffered online abuse during a court battle with an ex-boyfriend who'd threatened to release explicit video filmed without her consent. Reuters found no reports suggesting Cha suffered similar abuse. However, a rep for talent agency Fantagio has asked for rumours not to be spread, and for speculative reports not to be released as his family grieves the death that is still hard to believe. (Two K-pop stars were just imprisoned for rape.)

(May 27, 2012 1:44 PM CDT) Iran plans to build two new nuclear reactors and retract an earlier offer to stop enriching uranium up to 20%, the nation's top nuclear official told state news today, the New York Times reports. Iran will build a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bushehr next year, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani said, according to AFP. He said the second plant is planned for southwestern Iran sometime in the coming years. Designs for the 360-megawatt facility near the Iraqi border have been finished and we are reviewing it, he said. Abbasi Davani's announcement is sure to complicate future nuclear talks between Iran and Western powers, the Times notes. Suspension of uranium enrichment was a central demand in several United Nations Security Council resolutions. We have no reason to retreat from producing the 20% because we need 20% uranium just as much to meet our needs, Abbasi Davani was quoted as saying. The state news report follows a leak this week that Iran had enriched some uranium as high as 27%.

(Sep 13, 2017 5:21 AM CDT) Millions of people in Florida are still without power after Hurricane Irma, and the outage has led to more than one deadly incident. Police say three people in Orlando died from carbon monoxide poisoning Tuesday after running a generator inside their home. Another four family members were hospitalized in serious condition, the Orlando Sentinel reports. A police spokesman says two adults and a child died and it's not looking so good for the family members in the hospital, News 6 reports. Authorities, who say at least another dozen people in the area were sickened by generators in their garages, warn that generators should never be used indoors. At least one similar death has happened in Miami. Irma left at least 13 million people without power in Florida and the rest of the Southeast, leaving many people struggling with the heat amid one of the biggest blackouts in US history, the AP reports. The biggest thing we've got to do for people is get their power back, says Florida Gov. Rick Scott. In the Miami area, those still without power include the 15,000-person Century Village retirement community, where residents can't plug in oxygen machines or comply with the boil-water advisory, the Miami Herald reports. The state's largest utility, Florida Power & Light, says it aims to restore power to the east coast by Sunday and the southwest part of the state within 10 days.

(Oct 15, 2015 5:33 PM CDT) A 6-month-old girl died Thursday after being tossed from the window of an apartment building, witnesses and police said, the third child killed that way in the city in three months. The New York Police Department said a 25-year-old woman believed to be the infant's mother was in the Bronx apartment with four children at the time. The three other children were taken to a hospital. They were not injured. The woman was taken from the home in the Fordham Heights neighborhood to a hospital for an evaluation. No charges have been filed. A witness told WABC that the woman had been dangling the child outside of the window. And then that's when the neighbors started screaming, 'No, no, no, no!' Lizette Rodriguez said. They were yelling at her, 'Don't do it! Think about it.' Rodriguez said the woman said, 'I'm going to throw the baby out the window,' and the woman was screaming, 'We're all gonna die!' And that's when I figured, OK, this is time to call 911. She said she heard the baby hit the ground while she was dialing. This is the third death of a child tossed from a New York apartment since August. Last month, a newborn girl with her umbilical cord still attached was found dead outside an apartment building in the University Heights section of the borough; her mother was arrested. In August, police arrested a Queens woman in connection with the death of her month-old son, who was thrown from a fourth-floor window.

(Jan 29, 2015 4:03 PM) It looks like President Obama will be dusting off his veto pen for just the third time in his presidency: The Senate today voted to build the Keystone oil pipeline by a vote of 62-36, reports the Hill. And while nine Democrats joined Republicans in favor of the bill, the total of 62 falls short of the two-thirds majority that would be necessary to override the president's promised veto. Before it hits Obama's desk, however, the bill has to be reconciled with one that passed the House. The Wall Street Journal predicts that will happen within a week. The White House today reiterated that Obama will not sign the measure as long as a State Department review of the pipeline remains in progress. That might be finished this month, reports Politico, which sums up the state of Keystone like this: Despite the intensity of the debate in Congress, Keystone is still largely where it began: a symbol to Republicans of the White House's hostility to fossil fuels, and to Democrats as another effort by GOP to do the bidding of Big Oil.

(Dec 24, 2020 8:51 AM) A few weeks ago, Google found itself in the midst of a controversy over the departure of Dr. Timnit Gebru, who says she was fired after sending out an email criticizing the company. Now, a second Black woman who used to work for Google is slamming it, and she says she's got the receipts to prove she was wrongly fired herself. Calling herself the MOST successful diversity recruiter in the history of Google, April Christina Curley took to Twitter Monday to tell her side of the story. She says the company terminated her in September after she'd been solely responsible for recruiting students from HBCUs. Curley writes that, despite stellar performance on her part, I was repeatedly denied promotions, had my compensation cut, placed on performance improvement plans, denied leadership opportunities, yelled at, [and] intentionally excluded from meetings. Curley also says one of her managers (female and white) told her that her strong Baltimore accent was a disability she should disclose at internal meetings and that she never felt comfortably supporting my work because she was 'intimidated' by me and therefore never considered me for leadership opportunities. Curley says she has more on the awfully racist recruitment and hiring practices I saw at Google but will save those anecdotes for a later time. NBC News has more on other complaints this year about diversity at Google, where Black women make up 0.7% of the tech workforce. We've seen what happens to Black women in Google who push against the status quo, one employee tells NBC. It's usually that they're forced to leave the company. A Google rep tells Business Insider the company has a large team of recruiters working to bring in HBCU students, adding, We don't agree with the way April describes her termination, but it's not appropriate for us to provide a commentary about her claims. Gebru herself has also responded to Curley's story, calling it a heartbreaking account.

(Oct 16, 2019 11:48 AM CDT) The fourth and final man wanted in a campaign finance case involving Rudy Giuliani associates has been arrested. David Correia, the Florida man who was named in a grand jury indictment along with three other men on campaign finance violation charges, was taken into federal custody Wednesday at New York City's Kennedy Airport, the AP reports. Two other Florida businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman (who hail from Ukraine and Belarus, respectively), were arrested last Wednesday, and Ukrainian-born California businessman Andrey Kukushkin was arrested Thursday in San Francisco. Correia was born in the US; all four men are US citizens, CBS San Francisco reports. They are accused of funneling foreign money into US elections, CNN reports, with the Miami Herald reporting Parnas and Fruman allegedly got $1 million in wire transfers from an unnamed foreigner to put toward amassing political support for a new recreational marijuana business. Correia and Kukushkin allegedly conspired with the men to make those donations while trying to secure a recreational pot license, reports the Washington Post. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, denies any knowledge of illegal campaign donations. All are expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan Thursday.

(Dec 19, 2019 12:06 AM) A 20-year-old attacker carried out a series of stabbings and carjackings at a suburban Portland shopping center and in a nearby town Wednesday, killing one person and wounding three others before being arrested, authorities say. Police in the city of Beaverton say two people were stabbed inside a Wells Fargo bank and a man was stabbed at a gym next door, the AP reports. After the stabbings, the assailant stole the man's car and drove into the suburb of Tigard, where he stole another woman's car and stabbed her, Officer Matt Henderson said at a news conference. The man eventually got out of the car and ran from officers before being caught, police say.

(Dec 9, 2014 2:00 PM) Andrew Shannon put his hand through a $12 million Monet at the National Gallery Ireland two years ago, and it looks like he'll be spending the next five years behind bars for his trouble. Though he initially told cops that he was trying to get back at the state by ruining Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat, the Metro notes that his tune changed significantly when faced with a jury of his peers, telling them that he'd felt faint and fell. CCTV footage told a different story, however, and he was found guilty after 90 minutes of deliberation. Shannon also has to steer clear of galleries for 15 months after he gets out. It's not the first time this has happened to a Monet.

(Jul 22, 2010 9:24 AM CDT) A Greyhound bus carrying 35 people heading to Sacramento from Los Angeles crashed on a highway in California's Central Valley early this morning, killing six and injuring many others. The bus driver swerved to avoid another crash involving an overturned minivan, slammed into the concrete center divider, and then hit another vehicle and a tree at about 2am just outside downtown Fresno. Six people are said to have died, and early reports say there are multiple injuries. The bus departed Los Angeles late last night and stopped in Fresno, one of about eight scheduled stops, before continuing on its route to Sacramento. Northbound lanes of Highway 99, a major route through the San Joaquin Valley, have been closed since the crash.

(Sep 1, 2017 2:10 AM CDT) Thursday was a big day in the border wall business: US Customs and Border Protection announced that four concrete wall prototypes had been chosen from among more than 200 proposals. The border wall designs, each 30 feet long and up to 30 feet tall, will be built in the San Diego area over 30 days and then tested for 30 to 60 days by Homeland Security officials, reports the Washington Post. CBP Acting Deputy Commissioner Ronald Vitiello said testing would look at things like the aesthetics of it, how penetrable they are, how resistant they are to tampering, and scaling or anti-claim features. He added that officials testing the wall would use small hand tools, not ballistic kind of things, reports the BBC. The contracts were awarded to companies from Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, and Texas. Officials say four more contracts for prototypes of non-concrete barriers will be awarded next week. The decision was originally expected in June, but the process was slowed down by objections from companies that failed to be chosen as finalists. Officials say that the companies building the prototypes will not necessarily be the ones chosen to build the full version of the border wall, which has been criticized as unnecessary by Democrats and others worried that FEMA funding might be cut to pay for it, the New York Times reports. (President Trump has threatened to shut down the government if funding for the wall isn't approved.)

(Nov 24, 2012 2:24 PM) Guess he didn't mind the cold: A naked man sat on the statue of a 19th-century prince in downtown London yesterday, striking poses and waving his arms around while police tried to coax him down, the Telegraph reports. Police also closed off a street near Trafalgar Square to traffic and a gathering crowd. At one point the man stood on the head of the statue--of Prince George, the first Duke of Cambridge--and then sat on George's head. He finally came down after about three hours and was taken away by police under the Mental Health Act, the BBC reports. I just laughed, said a woman visiting from the US. It's an experience. But the owner of a pub complained that business owners lost money when police cordoned off the road; he also wondered why one naked man required eight police cars, two fire trucks, and four mounted police. But a Scotland Yard rep said that in a situation like this, public safety is paramount.

(Apr 23, 2011 3:54 PM CDT) Vegans are rich, obsessive sissies, right? Not exactly, writes Carol J. Adams for the Washington Post. She lays out five myths surrounding the 0.5% of Americans who abstain from everything animal.

(Nov 27, 2016 5:43 AM) New Orleans Police say one man is dead and nine others injured following a shooting in the French Quarter, reports the AP. Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said during a news conference that officers responded about 1:30am Sunday to the shooting at the intersection of Iberville and Bourbon streets. Harrison said the shooting victims, whose ages ranged from 20 to 37, included two females and eight males. One male victim died at a hospital. Harrison said police do not know what motivated the shooting, but one male victim was among two men arrested on firearms charges. Harrison said the shooting happened despite an increased police presence for the Bayou Classic football game Saturday night between Southern and Grambling universities. This was the wrong place to bring firearms, he tells WDSU. We've made that clear, and now we've apprehended a number of people through our proactive efforts for carrying firearms in the French Quarter and we will continue to do that.

(Jul 8, 2013 4:10 PM CDT) Five Indonesian men have been trapped up a tree since Thursday, when they accidentally killed a tiger cub and were subsequently chased up the tree by Sumatran tigers. A sixth member of the group was killed by the tigers, the BBC reports. The group was in a national park looking for agarwood, a rare wood used to make incense, which can be sold for around $505 a kilogram. They were trying to trap deer for food, but one of the traps caught a tiger cub instead; adult tigers came to investigate and attacked the men. Those who escaped up the tree used cellphones to call for help. Local villagers tried to rescue them, but were scared off by the four large tigers still circling the tree. Thirty members of a search and rescue team arrived at the Gunung Leuser jungle Saturday, but the police chief says it could take as long as three days for the team to reach the men. If the tigers remain under the tree, we may have to shoot or sedate them, he adds. (The Jakarta Globe indicates he's talking about shooting them with an anesthetic.) Another group had to be rescued from a similar situation recently.

(Nov 25, 2017 12:55 PM) The US Navy says two sailors from Florida and another from Louisiana died in an aircraft crash in the Philippine Sea, the AP reports. In a news release, the Navy's 7th Fleet said the families of Lt. Steven Combs and Airman apprentice Bryan Grosso of Florida and airman Matthew Chialastri of Louisiana were notified of their deaths following the Wednesday crash.

(Mar 2, 2009 6:23 AM) AIG posted a quarterly loss of $62 billion today--the largest in American history--following news that Washington will provide an additional $30 billion in cash to the insurer and loosen the terms on previous loans. The Treasury and Fed have now intervened four times to prop up AIG, reports the Washington Post. Once again, federal officials said they had no choice but to save the company, fearing global upheaval if it failed. The government's lending to AIG far outstrips rescues for Citigroup, Bank of America, and other bailed-out institutions. Today's deal is a nearly complete reversal of last September's effort; instead of acting as a short-term lender at high rates, now the government is wiping out interest and receiving preferred shares. The Treasury is expected to continue offering support for AIG to help the company shrink and sell off some of its businesses.

(Mar 3, 2009 11:35 AM) What's more impressive, having eight babies, or having two--one from each womb? Sarah Reinfelder, whom the New York Post has tastefully dubbed Womber Woman, did the latter, thanks to a condition called uterus didelphys, or double uterus. One in every 2,000 women has didelphys, it turns out, but most aren't aware of it until they get pregnant, and sometimes not even then, ob-gyn Robert Zurawin tells Scientific American. Most women with two wombs only get pregnant in one--Reinfelder's case is one of only three recorded in the last 40 years--and if they don't get an ultrasound early enough in the pregnancy, the womb with the child will block the other from view. Others, however, will know they have the condition from birth, because they'll have a second cervix and vagina.

(Oct 14, 2009 3:32 PM CDT) Two investors who lost a combined $2.4 million to Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme have sued the SEC for negligence. The lawsuit argues that the commission should reimburse the plaintiffs for their losses because it failed in its duty to protect investors. Regulators had countless opportunities to catch Madoff and botched all of them, it says. Instead of watching the backs of ... investors, the SEC--through its negligence--was effectively watching Bernie Madoff's back, says the plaintiffs' attorney, reports CNNMoney. Now it is time for the SEC to be held accountable and for the federal government to do what the law says it must do: compensate the victims for its negligence.

(Aug 17, 2011 9:19 AM CDT) Three guests and two employees were sent to the hospital yesterday after lightning struck at SeaWorld's Discovery Cove water park in Orlando. Firefighters were called to the park just after 5pm, as a storm that meteorologists had warned would produce excessive lightning passed through, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Three other employees were taken to a local medical clinic, but none of the eight total people affected are believed to have been directly hit, and all have now been released from medical care.

(Jul 29, 2016 5:55 AM CDT) Two members of the San Diego Police Department's Elite Gang Unit were shot in the city around 11pm Thursday and one officer has since died. It isn't clear what led to the shooting in the Southcrest neighborhood; the officers were participating in a traffic stop when the shots were fired. NBC San Diego reports the officer who died was hit a number of times in the upper torso. The San Diego PD confirmed the news in a tweet, writing, It is with a very sad heart that we announce the death of one of our Officers tonight. Pray for his family. Department Chief Shelley Zimmerman said he had a wife and children. The second officer is in surgery. Keep him in your prayers, the department tweeted. Authorities were spotted searching the neighborhood hours later with helicopters and SWAT vehicles shortly before announcing one suspect is in custody, per the Los Angeles Times. We are still searching the area for other possible suspects, police say.

(Jun 4, 2014 4:59 PM CDT) Just how dangerous was the Obama administration's move to swap five Guantanamo detainees for Bowe Bergdahl? It's hard to say, but as of January roughly 29% of the 614 Guantanamo detainees released so far had returned to the fight, the Wall Street Journal reports, based on Director of National Intelligence figures. CNN offers a little more nuance to that figure, noting that only about 100 (16.6%) have been confirmed as returning to terrorist activities, while another 70 are suspected of doing so. In some cases, that's had dire consequences. The Journal details the story of three Moroccan militants who wound up forming a vicious militant group in Syria, spearheading a major massacre of religious minorities last August. Two have since died, and their deaths brought outpourings of militant grief. It's like if a famous singer dies, one member of their group said. They were in Guantanamo, defying America. Still, CNN notes that the numbers are low compared to the 50-60% recidivism rate for inmates released from normal US prisons. The specific prisoners swapped for Bergdahl were mostly detained early in the Afghan war based on their association with the Taliban regime, rather than with al-Qaeda--though some allegedly had directly associated with Osama bin Laden.

(Apr 29, 2008 2:08 PM CDT) Members of the family in the Austrian incest case have met for the first time and interacted with astonishing ease, an official at the clinic where they're being treated told the AP. Although the children who were imprisoned with their mother had never met their other siblings or grandmother, their reunion on Sunday went smoothly, the clinic director said. It was astonishing how easily it happened--how the mother and grandmother came together, said the director. Prosecutors say they are looking into charging Josef Fritzl, who held his daughter captive for 24 years, with murder through failure to act of a child who died in infancy. A conviction could carry a 20-year prison sentence in addition to the 15 years he faces for rape.

(Sep 27, 2017 10:50 AM CDT) Encountering a foot-and-a-half-long rat might be nightmarish for some, but for Tyrone Lavery, it heralded a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. Back in 2010, the mammalogist was exploring the Solomon Islands when he heard locals describe vika, a giant tree-dwelling rat with teeth powerful enough to break open coconuts. Reports of such a rat had circulated for decades. But though he searched for years, Lavery only managed to find some rather large rat poop, reports the Guardian. In 2016, however, Lavery was able to examine a rat that had died after falling from a tree downed by loggers and knew immediately his quest for vika was over. Uromys vika, as it has now been named, is the first new rat species discovered in the Solomon Islands in 80 years. At 18 inches long and 2.2 pounds, the specimen within the family of mosaic-tailed rats is about four times the size of a common rat. It's pretty spectacular, says Lavery, per a release. And though it was just so hard to find, the researcher is happy his persistence paid off. If we hadn't discovered it now, it might never have gotten discovered due to the logging of the rainforest canopy the rat inhabits through use of its scaly tail and clawed back feet, Lavery says, per National Geographic. He also describes the rat's ability to chew holes in tree nuts. Given that Lavery believes the species' total habitat is 31 square miles, his paper in the Journal of Mammalogy requests that the rat be immediately classified as critically endangered. (Check out these weird new bees.)

(Nov 12, 2014 4:31 PM) Three US sailors on port leave in Istanbul got an up-close look at anti-American sentiment when a group of young men began taunting and then physically confronting them, reports NBC News. At one point, the assailants put plastic bags over the heads of the Americans, who were not in uniform. All three managed to escape and were safely back aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Ross. The incident began when one man announced, Because we define you as murderers, as killers, we want you to get out of our land. Damn America! Others in the group then began pelting the Americans with trash and roughing them up. The Americans got away amid chants of Yankee go home. The US embassy in Ankara called the attack appalling and said we have no doubt the vast majority of Turks would join us in rejecting an action that so disrespects Turkey's reputation for hospitality. The LA Times quotes local media as saying the attack had echoes of what's known as the hood event of 2003, when US troops in Iraq detained Turkish special forces and covered their heads with bags.

(Nov 9, 2013 8:23 AM) It's gruesome: Four people are accused of torturing a California marijuana dispensary owner with a blowtorch and cutting off his penis in an attempt to force him to reveal where he had buried piles of cash in the desert. The defendants mistakenly believed the victim was hiding money and left him for dead on the side of the road, Orange County authorities said in announcing the case yesterday. He survived his injuries. Ryan Anthony Kevorkian, 34, and his wife, Naomi Josette Kevorkian, 33, were arrested in Fresno, a day after the FBI arrested 34-year-old Hossein Nayeri in Prague. Another man, Kyle Shirakawa Handley, 34, was arrested in October of last year. Prosecutors said the victim was a prosperous medical marijuana dispensary owner who took some of his pot suppliers--including Handley--to Las Vegas last year for an extravagant weekend. After the trip, Handley told friends that the dispensary owner was wealthy, and they hatched a plan to kidnap and rob him, say prosecutors. They were convinced, mistakenly, that he was burying money in the desert outside Palm Springs. At the spot where the men believed the victim had hidden his money, they cut off his penis, poured bleach on him in an effort to destroy any DNA evidence, and dumped him on the side of the road, authorities allege. A woman kidnapped with him managed to get help after the assailants left.

(Jun 2, 2016 8:11 PM CDT) Army teams and other emergency crews are searching along a Fort Hood creek for four soldiers still missing from a truck that overturned in the swift water, killing at least five and injuring three, the AP reports. Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug says the search continued after teams late Thursday night found the bodies of two soldiers who had been in the vehicle. Three others were found dead shortly after the 2 1/2-ton truck overturned in Owl Creek during a morning training exercise on the sprawling Central Texas army post.Three soldiers were rescued and were hospitalized in stable condition. Aerial and ground crews searched the 20-mile creek, which winds through heavily wooded terrain on the northern fringe of the 340-square-mile Army base, after the truck flipped in swift floodwaters during a late-morning training exercise. Fort Hood spokesman John Miller says the low-water crossing of the creek was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck, called a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, from the road. The vehicle resembles a flatbed truck with a walled bed and is used to carry troops. Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week, and more than half of the state is under flood watches or warnings, including the counties near Fort Hood. At least six people died in floods last week in Central and Southeast Texas.

(Feb 17, 2013 12:31 PM) Rafael Nadal beat David Nalbandian 6-2, 6-3 in the Brazil Open final today, winning his first title since returning from a seven-month layoff to treat his left knee. Nadal thrust his arms into the air and pumped his fist after a long ball by Nalbandian made him the champion of the indoor clay-court tournament for the second time. The Spaniard also won the event in 2005. It was Nadal's 51st singles title, and first since winning the French Open for the seventh time last June. Nadal struggled to find a rhythm in the beginning but was still able to break Nalbandian's serve twice to take the first set. The 93rd-ranked Nalbandian made his first appearance in a final since he was disqualified for kicking an ad board and injuring a line judge last June. The 26-year-old Nadal, currently No. 5 in the world, is recovering from a torn and inflamed tendon in his knee. Meanwhile, Victoria Azarenka bounced Serena Williams out of the Qatar Open, reports the AP.

(Jul 15, 2013 3:06 AM CDT) After two decades of growing at an astonishing rate, China's economic growth has cooled off enough to cause problems in plenty of other economies. Figures released today show the economy grew 7.5% in the first quarter of this year, a rate many countries can only dream of but still the lowest since 1990, the BBC reports. Officials have set a target of 7.5% growth for the year, but analysts doubt China can hit even that modest target without stimulus measures. China's growth rate has been slipping since its 2007 peak, and its government faces the tricky task of reshaping the economy to make it reliant on consumer spending instead of heavy industry, the Wall Street Journal finds. The shift has hit some countries hard, including Indonesia and Australia, where unemployment is rising and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently declared that the China resources boom is over. But the picture is brighter for countries--including the US--whose exports go mainly to Chinese consumers.

(Aug 15, 2016 2:22 AM CDT) One person was shot and a police officer was injured as unrest gripped Milwaukee on Sunday for a second night after the fatal shooting of a black suspect. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn says the officer who shot 23-year-old Sylville K. Smith is also black, and that officer is now staying with relatives out of town amid concerns for his safety, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Flynn says Smith had a lengthy criminal record and was shot after fleeing a traffic stop on foot Saturday afternoon. The chief says Smith had a gun that he didn't drop when he was ordered to and, per body camera footage, the individual did turn toward the officer with the firearm in his hand. You can't tell when the officer discharges his firearm. Flynn says the officer certainly appeared to be within lawful bounds. Officials earlier said Smith was carrying a stolen handgun with 23 rounds of ammunition, Reuters reports. Before protests turned violent Sunday night, several of his sisters addressed a peaceful vigil. My brother was no felon, said Kimberly Neal. My brother was running for his life. He was shot in his back. Sherelle Smith, another sister, condemned the Saturday night violence that left businesses burned and four police officers injured, CNN reports. The National Guard was activated but not deployed during Sunday night's protest. Police say the person shot during Sunday's unrest is an 18-year-old man who was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. His connection to the protests is unclear.

(Feb 22, 2017 12:25 PM) For the first time, astronomers have discovered seven Earth-size planets orbiting a nearby star--and these new worlds could hold life, reports the AP. NASA and the Belgian-led research team announced the news Wednesday. This cluster of planets is 40 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. They circle tightly around a dim dwarf star called Trappist-1, barely the size of Jupiter. Three planets are in the so-called habitable zone, where water, and possibly life, might exist. The others are right on the doorstep. Scientists say they need to study the atmospheres before determining whether these planets could support some type of life. Last spring, the University of Liege's Michael Gillon reported finding three planets around Trappist-1. This is the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around the same star, he says, per CNN. Now the count is up to seven, and Gillon says there could be more.

(Jan 22, 2015 5:31 AM) Investigators found the bodies of two unidentified people yesterday in the charred remains of an Annapolis-area mansion that burned to the ground earlier this week, a fire official says. Cadaver dogs and searchers found the bodies, and four people remain unaccounted for, the county fire department spokesman says. I cannot say if they are adults or children, he says, adding that they were taken to the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore for identification. He says he doesn't know how long it will take to identify the victims and determine their cause of death. Owners Donald and Sandra Pyle and their four grandchildren have been missing since crews were called early Monday to the scene of the blaze, which reduced the 16,000-square-foot waterfront castle to ruins. Investigators began excavating the ruins yesterday, but although there are still many questions surrounding the blaze, the fire department spokesman says no accelerant-sniffing dogs have been brought in so far. We have never called the fire suspicious, he says. The house was constructed more like a commercial building than a typical residence, with heavy steel beams, he says, making it difficult to ensure the scene is safe for investigators to enter.

(Feb 11, 2020 5:31 AM) Through no fault of his own, a British businessman appears to have been a superspreader linked to at least 10 coronavirus infections in three countries, authorities say. Officials say the man was at a business conference in Singapore from Jan. 22 to Jan. 24, where he apparently caught the virus from an attendee from Wuhan, Live Science reports. After returning to his hometown in Hove, England, the man traveled to a ski resort in France with his family and flew home from Geneva, Switzerland, on Jan. 28. Officials say the man spread the virus to at least six people at the French resort, one of whom was diagnosed after returning home to Spain. Officials in Britain are investigating four coronavirus cases linked to the man, who is now in isolation in a London hospital, the Guardian reports. Authorities say they are trying to find and test everybody who had contact with the man, including those who sat near him on his EasyJet flight from Geneva to London. Superspreading, when a person passes an infection to an unusually large number of people, is a feature of nearly every outbreak and can have a major impact on how they develop, the BBC notes. The superspreader, Steve Walsh, tells the Argus that he has fully recovered from the coronavirus, though he is remaining in the isolation unit for now. He says he contacted Britain's National Health Service as soon as he found out he had been exposed to the virus and followed instructions to self-isolate at home before he was moved to the unit. Whilst I have fully recovered, my thoughts are with others who have contracted coronavirus, he says.

(Aug 19, 2019 12:03 AM CDT) At least 15 private boaters and around 50 firefighters are assisting the Coast Guard in the search for two firefighters who vanished after going on a fishing trip Friday. The Coast Guard says Brian McCluney and Justin Walker were last seen Friday morning when they left Port Canaveral on Florida's east coast, heading for the 8A Reef fishing spot, CNN reports. McCluney is a firefighter with Jacksonville Fire and Rescue and Walker is with Fire and Rescue in Fairfax County, Va. They were in a 24-foot Robalo center console boat. Family members contacted the Coast Guard around 6pm Friday after McCluney and Walker failed to return. The Coast Guard tweeted late Sunday that the search had covered more than 20,000 square miles from Florida to the Carolinas. The Coast Guard said it had investigated a civilian aircraft's report of seeing the boat 50 miles east of Jacksonville, but found only debris unrelated to the two men. McCluney's colleagues have been searching beaches in the area for clues that may have washed up, USA Today reports. His wife, Stephanie McCluney, thanked everybody involved in the search Sunday and urged people to remain positive. I have an army that is just holding me and bathing me in prayer, she said. We're holding prayer vigils, we're up all night.

(Jun 23, 2020 2:02 PM CDT) A neighbor heard screaming and phoned 911, and the scene police came upon in East Brunswick, New Jersey, on Monday afternoon was grim: three family members dead in a backyard pool, reports NJ.com. The victims have been described as an 8-year-old girl, her 32-year-old mother, and the girl's grandfather, whose age has been reported as 62 and 68. Police say they believe the screams heard by the neighbor were that of the mother and came from inside the pool. East Brunswick Police Chief Frank LoSacco said in a statement cited by the Bridgewater Courier News that it is too early to determine exactly what happened and information will be released as it is made available. ABC6 reports officials had an electrician inspect the scene; sources indicated it was possible there was an electrical issue in or near the pool. The family reportedly moved into the house roughly two weeks ago; per photos, the pool is an above-ground model that is detached from the house and has its own deck. Neighbors say a pool company had recently come to the home to open the pool for the season.

(Jul 20, 2015 7:22 AM CDT) Shirley Batchelder has lived a fantastic life. The 94-year-old of Franklin, Tenn., was married for 57 years to a man who was handsome as can be, has three children, plenty of grandchildren, and now hosts games at Steeple Chase Manor Retirement, just like her idols Pat Sajak and Vanna White, whom she once met. They were nice, Batchelder tells WSMV. But with a simple act, Batchelder has finally crossed her last wish off her bucket list: She put a five-second ad on TV. On a black background, three words stood out in white: Love one another, Batchelder says, adding it's up to you to do what you wish with her message.

(Aug 14, 2010 9:50 AM CDT) The FDA last night approved ella, a morning-after contraceptive that can be taken up to five days after unprotected sex. As the New York Times reports, the approval stirred up predictable reaction on both sides of the abortion debate, with opponents decrying a decision released late on a Friday night in August, while proponents lauded a decision based on the scientific evidence and not on the political controversy. Unlike Plan B, an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive good for only three days, ella will require a prescription. But it's unclear what impact the pill will have in the US: The Times reports that 1 million American women who don't intend to conceive have unprotected sex every night. But emergency contraception has no effect on pregnancy rates or abortion rates, says a consultant for ella's maker. Women just don't use them enough to make an impact.

(Sep 16, 2019 12:25 PM CDT) A family of five found dead on a cliff in Fiji. A one-year-old found alive, crawling nearby, having survived 36 hours in the wilderness. And an alleged witch doctor charged in the deaths. Police say Muhammad Raheesh Isoof, 62, lived next to Nirmal Kumar, 63, his wife Usha Devi, 54, for years in Fiji before Isoof and his wife moved to New Zealand. But they returned to Fiji last month for a visit, and allegedly met up with Kumar and Devi before their deaths. Found dead alongside them were their daughter Nileshni Kajal, 34, and her daughters Sana, 11, and Samara, 8. The baby found alive is Kajal's niece. Police say the victims had no visible injuries and one was found with an empty bottle of soda that had no label on it; postmortem exams have since linked all the deaths to a toxic substance, but more testing is being done, News.com.au reports. Kumar's brother says Isoof, known locally as a healer with special abilities, had been treating Devi for abdominal pains for years; a family friend tells Stuff.co.nz, They've performed rituals together at the beach and elsewhere. This is not the first time they've been out together. Investigators say both Kumar and Devi had a fascination with the occult and a long history with Isoof. Kajal's estranged husband, the father of Sana and Samara, supports that story and says Kumar and Devi were obsessed with witchcraft. As for the baby, Sumaira, one of the witnesses who saw her after she was first found says the fact that she could not yet walk likely saved her life and kept her from falling off the cliff. I grabbed her and changed her soggy diaper straight away and fed her two milk bottles, she tells the Fiji Sun, per News.com.au.

(NoneDate) Five men have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism outside a nuclear power facility in Britain, reports CNN. All five live in London and their homes were being searched, while roads near the Sellafield nuclear facility were temporarily closed. The arrests drew interest given the killing of Osama bin Laden, but police see no connection at this point. The men, in their 20s, were suspected of filming the facility, notes the Guardian.