Briefs package

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on Sunday released a former U.S. Army private who the guerrillas seized in June after he refused to heed local officials’ warnings and wandered into rebel-held territory. Kevin Scott Sutay, who is in his late 20s, was quietly turned over to Cuban and Norwegian officials along with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the same southeastern region where he had disappeared four months earlier. Secretary of State John Kerry immediately thanked Colombia’s government in a statement for its “tireless efforts” in securing the Afghanistan War veteran’s release. Kerry also thanked the Rev. Jesse Jackson for advocating it.

UNITED KINGDOM

Britain braces for massive storm

Driving rains and high winds lashed the U.K. on Sunday evening, and forecasters said the storm could cause widespread disruptions for early morning commuters. Officials said a 14-year-old boy was feared dead after being swept out to sea while apparently playing in the surf in southern England. Coastguard and police rescuers searched late Sunday for the boy in high seas with poor visibility, but after several hours the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it had turned into a search and recovery operation. Winds were expected to pick up through the night and into the early hours today. Railways and airports cancelled many services amid warnings over treacherous road conditions and the risks of debris from falling trees and flooding.

NEW YORK

Chinese immigrant accused in stabbings

A Chinese immigrant who neighbors said struggled to survive in America was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of his cousin’s wife and her four children in their Brooklyn home — using a butcher knife. The suspect, 25-year-old Mingdong Chen, implicated himself in the killings late Saturday, police said. Chen is a cousin of the children’s father and had been staying at the home for the past week or so, police said.

CALIFORNIA

Governor frees pimp’s killer

California Gov. Jerry Brown has decided to allow freedom to a woman who received a life sentence when she was a teenager for killing her former pimp. Brown decided late Friday not to take action on a state parole board’s decision to grant parole to Sara Kruzan, thereby allowing the decision to go into effect, his spokesman Evan Westrup said Saturday. Kruzan was 17 when she was sentenced to life in prison for the 1994 shooting death of George Gilbert Howard in a Riverside motel room. She contended that he sexually abused her and had groomed her since she was 11 to work for him as a child prostitute.

INDIA

Bombs kill five at political rally

Several small bombs killed five people and wounded 98 Sunday in the northern Indian city of Patna, officials said, hours before the main opposition candidate for prime minister was due to address a political rally. After seven homemade bombs went off, there reportedly was a brief period of panic among some of the hundreds of thousands of people gathered to see Narendra Modi, the controversial leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party. However, the rally went on, and Modi, the longtime chief minister of western Gujarat state, made no mention of the blasts during his speech, focusing instead on attacking the ruling Congress Party-led government.

NEW YORK

AG wants Attica riot documents unsealed

New York’s attorney general has asked a state judge to release sealed documents about the 1971 riot and retaking of Attica state prison in an effort to reveal the full history of the nation’s bloodiest prison rebellion and answer the questions of families whose loved ones died there. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wants the court in Wyoming County to open hundreds of detailed pages about investigations into the five September days when inmates took control of the maximum-security prison in rural western New York until state troopers and guards stormed the facility and fatally shot 29 inmates and 10 hostages. The sealed documents are part of a 1975 report by a special commission that examined New York’s efforts to investigate the riot and its aftermath.