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California priest's death ruled a homicide
The death of a beloved Roman Catholic priest in California has been ruled a homicide, the county coroner said Thursday.
The Rev. Eric Freed, 56, was found dead Wednesday in his church's rectory, spurring a murder investigation and leaving those who knew him in disbelief.
Police on Thursday named a suspect, Gary Lee Bullock, and announced that an arrest warrant for him has been issued. Authorities are looking for Bullock and for Freed's vehicle, a 2010 Nissan Altima.
FULL STORYVenezuela takes over toilet paper factory
When you're running low on toilet paper and getting desperate, what do you do? If you're the Venezuelan government, you take over a toilet paper factory.
On Saturday, Vice President Jorge Arreaza announced the "temporary occupation" of the Paper Manufacturing Company's plant in the state of Aragua. The aim, he explained, is to review the "production, marketing and distribution (of) toilet paper."
"The ... People's Defense from the Economy will not allow hoarding or failures in the production and distribution of essential commodities," the vice president said.
FULL STORYMan jailed, suspected in 4 Tennessee slayings
Jacob Allen Bennett has been detained for the killings of four people - who were between the ages of 16 and 22 - found dead in a car off a rural Tennessee road, authorities said.
Bennett, 26, was taken into custody on midnight Thursday, hours after the four victims were found. Authorities have not given a possible a motive in the case nor has Bennett been charged yet, though they've also expressed confidence they believe they have the perpetrator.
"The citizens of Cumberland County and Crossville can rest assured that we have the person who committed the crimes in custody, that the community is safe," said Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn.
FULL STORYArizona woman once on death row goes free
For the first time in well over a decade - and months since a federal judge overturned her murder conviction - Debra Milke is free.
A short time after the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office indicated she would be leaving, video showed someone who appeared to be Milke being driven away Friday from the Lower Buckeye Jail in Phoenix. Sheriff's office spokesman Brandon Jones subsequently confirmed that Milke had been released.
A jury convicted Milke of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse and kidnapping on October 12, 1990, less than a year after her 4-year-old son was found dead. She was sentenced to death a few months later.
But this March, a federal judge tossed Milke's conviction after her ruling she did not receive a fair trial.
FULL STORYNo federal civil rights probe into teen's death
The U.S. Justice Department will not conduct a civil rights investigation in the case of a teenager found dead in a rolled-up mat at his southern Georgia high school, a spokesperson for that agency said Wednesday.
Kendrick Johnson, 17, was discovered dead last January 11 headfirst in a rolled wrestling mat in the Lowndes County High School gymnasium in Valdosta, Georgia.
The Justice Department's criminal division is aware of concerns about Kendrick's death, but after reviewing the investigative file, it determined there is not "sufficient indication of a civil rights violation to authorize a civil rights investigation," according to the agency's spokesperson.
FULL STORY
Weiner faces off with voter in Brooklyn bakery
Beleaguered New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner got into a war of words Wednesday with a man who lashed out at him for being "married to an Arab," in addition to chastising the former congressman about his well-documented sexting scandal.
The comment is an apparent reference to Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, whose parents are from India and Pakistan.
After the man described Weiner "disgusting," the former congressman shot back by calling him a "jackass."
4 killed when plane crashes into houses
Four people - including a 1-year-old child - were killed when a turboprop plane slammed into a neighborhood in East Haven, Connecticut, authorities said Saturday.
The chief medical examiner's office in nearby Farmington identified those killed as William Henningsgaard, 54, and Maxwell Henningsgaard, 17, both of Medina, Washington; and Sade Brantley, 13, and Madisyn Mitchell, 1, both of East Haven.
FULL STORY
Police report: Zimmerman pulled over in Texas
George Zimmerman - who was acquitted earlier this month on murder charges tied to Trayvon Martin's death - was stopped this weekend for a traffic violation in North Texas, according to a report from the Forney, Texas, police department.
The incident happened shortly after noon Sunday, when an officer pulled over Zimmerman's 2008 gray Honda for what was described only as a traffic stop.
He was given a verbal warning, police said.
FULL STORY
U.N. off to Syria to probe chemical weapons
U.N. inspectors will travel to Syria "as soon as possible" to investigate three reports of chemical weapons use, a U.N. spokesperson said Wednesday.
The announcement of the upcoming visit followed talks last week between Syria's government and a U.N. representative for disarmament affairs, according to the U.N. statement.
Syria has been embroiled in a bloody civil war for more than two years, during which more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced or become refugees in other countries, according to the United Nations.
Amid the fighting, there have been numerous allegations that chemical weapons have been used.
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Report: Kim Kardashian has baby girl
There's now one more Kardashian to keep up with.
On Saturday - according to E!, the network behind her family's hit reality show– Kim Kardashian gave birth to a baby girl. The report did not give a name for the newborn, but did say she came into the world at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
She's the first child for the 32-year-old Kardashian, who has modeled, acted and launched business ventures but is best known as a reality TV star with a huge international following, having amassed some 18 million Twitter followers
FULL STORY
Disneyland worker arrested after explosion
A 22-year-old who works at Disneyland was arrested hours after a small explosion in Mickey's Toontown section.
The Tuesday evening blast did not hurt anyone, but it did rattle nerves and prompt the evacuation of that part of the California theme park for a few hours.
Anaheim police on Wednesday identified the suspect in the explosion as Christian Barnes, a Long Beach resident and an outdoor vendor at Disneyland. Booked on suspicion of possessing a destructive device, Barnes is being held on $1 million bail.
FULL STORY
2 dead in severe San Antonio flooding
Two women died Saturday - one of them swept away after being inches from her would-be rescuers - due to raging floodwaters in San Antonio, which braced for yet more drenching rains.
San Antonio International Airport received 9.57 inches of rain Saturday morning alone, CNN meteorologists said, and a number of rivers and creeks were well above flood stage.
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Man arrested in Washington state ricin probe
A 37-year-old man arrested Wednesday in Washington state as part of a probe of ricin-laced letters threatened in one such letter to injure and kill a federal judge, a grand jury indictment alleges.
FBI agents arrested Matthew Ryan Buquet on Wednesday afternoon, and he made his initial court appearance in Spokane later in the day, the federal agency's Washington state office said in a news release.
A grand jury charged Buquet with mailing threatening communication, claiming he "knowingly and willfully" mailed through the U.S. Postal Service a letter "containing a threat to injure and kill Judge (Fred) Van Sickle," according to the indictment. Van Sickle is a senior judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.
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UK: Fatal cleaver attack an act of terror
They first hit the man, thought to be a British soldier, with a car in broad daylight. Then the two attackers hacked him to death and dumped his body in the middle of a southeastern London road.
As the victim - dressed in what appeared to be a T-shirt for Help for Heroes, a charity that helps military veterans - lay prone, one of the two attackers found a camera.
"We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone," said a meat-cleaver-wielding man with bloody hands, speaking in what seems to be a London accent.
British Prime David Cameron called the act a terrorist attack.
FULL STORY
Trains collide in Connecticut; dozens hurt
Two Metro-North passenger trains heading in opposite directions collided during rush hour Friday evening, damaging both trains and leaving some "bloody" and wounded as a result, a witness and transit official said.
A train heading from New Haven to New York City derailed around 6:10 p.m., hitting the other train in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. That caused some cars on the second train, which was destined for New Haven, to likewise leave the tracks.
Two Bridgeport hospitals were treating dozens of patients, three of whom were in serious condition, officials said.
FULL STORYSeason's first named storm forms in eastern Pacific
The hurricane season opened Wednesday with a flourish, and more specifically, with the debut of its first named storm, Tropical Storm Alvin.
Tropical Depression 1-E was upgraded and named a tropical storm on Wednesday, which happens to be the first day of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, according to the National Hurricane Center. The Atlantic hurricane season officially starts on June 1, and both seasons end November 30.
"Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours," the Miami-based hurricane center said, "and Alvin could become a hurricane in a couple of days."
FULL STORY
Alaska volcano spews ash 20,000 feet
An Alaska volcano exhibiting "elevated seismic activity" has spewed ash clouds skyward - as high as 20,000 feet above sea level - an observatory reported Wednesday.
As was the case a day earlier, the Pavlof Volcano was on "watch" status on Wednesday because of heightened activity, and it was also under an orange code that relates to how its rumblings might affect planes flying over its summit. Both these alert levels are the second most serious out of four options, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
The same alert levels also continue to apply Wednesday to the Cleveland Volcano, which like Pavlof is in the Aleutian Island range southwest of mainland Alaska. Lava was reported flowing Tuesday at Pavlof and Cleveland.
FULL STORYCleveland suspect could face murder counts
First came the pain - a decade of torture, torment and terror for three captive women and one of their young daughters.
Now comes the prosecution and - if there's a conviction - punishment for the man accused of being responsible for their hell.
Ariel Castro appeared silently in court Thursday, his head down, as he was arraigned on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, accused of holding the women captive in his Cleveland home. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lauren Moore ordered Castro held on $8 million bond - $2 million for each of the three women and the child born to Amanda Berry before they were freed Monday evening.
Hours later, the top prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced he'd press for more charges - "for each and every act of sexual violence ... each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault (and) all his attempted murders."
Furthermore, Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said he'd try to persuade a grand jury to indict the 52-year-old Castro for "aggravated murder" for the termination of his captives' pregnancies. He cited a state law that a person can be charged with murder - a conviction that could lead to the death penalty in Ohio - for killing unborn children.
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Police: Student shot 2 inside Virginia college
An 18-year-old student drove to a community college campus located inside a western Virginia mall on Friday, walked in, then opened fire - wounding two women - before being subdued by an off-duty security guard and two police officers, authorities said.
Christiansburg, Virginia, police Chief Mark Sisson identified the suspect Friday night as Neil Allen MacInnis, who he said was a student at New River Community College.
An item on the online forum 4chan - posted at 1:52 p.m. Friday, three minutes before police estimated the shooting began - said it was from Neil MacInnis, who wrote that he goes to the same community college's satellite campus in Christiansburg.
The post urged people to check out an online stream of the New River Valley Public Safety scanner and promised, "I'm gonna give y'all the details because the news never gets it right."
FULL STORY
Probe reopened in case of teen's alleged rape
Police in eastern Canada announced Friday they "are reopening the investigation involving Rehtaeh Parsons," the 17-year-old who tried to kill herself after she was allegedly gang-raped and bullied.
Rehtaeh, a high school student from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was taken off life support Sunday, three days after she attempted to hang herself.
The HRM Partners in Policing - which includes Halifax Regional Police and a locally based division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - said in a statement Friday it was reviewing the case "in light of new and credible information that has recently been brought forward to police."
FULL STORY
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