briefs

***DUP. ALERT PBP: Note Florida population brief.***

GERMANY

WWII weapon kills 1, hurts 13

A World War II bomb or mine exploded in a western German town on Friday, killing the driver of a bulldozer and wounding 13 other people, police said. The explosion happened in an industrial area of Euskirchen, near Bonn, at a property used by a construction firm to sort and dispose of rubble. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the explosives had long been buried in the ground or had inadvertently been brought to the site in a delivery of demolition waste. Windows, roofs and doors as farway as 400 yards were damaged in the blast, police said. Explosives experts were working to determine what the device was.

COLORADO

Teacher accused of seeking topless photos

A Colorado junior high school teacher has been accused of asking female students to send him topless photos. Randy Majors, 58, was arrested this week on eight felony counts related to sexual exploitation of children in western Colorado, according to court records. He was released Thursday on $20,000 bond. Police began investigating in November after a mother told police she found a Facebook message from the teacher asking her 16-year-old daughter to send nude pictures without telling anyone.

PENNSYLVANIA

Priest released from custody amid appeal

A church official who recently won an appeal of his landmark conviction in the priest-abuse scandal was released from custody Friday, and the city’s Roman Catholic archbishop defended the decision to use church funds to help with bail. Monsignor William Lynn was staying at an undisclosed location in Philadelphia after being processed at a city jail. Lynn, who left a state prison on Thursday after 18 months behind bars, is the first U.S. church official to have been charged for hiding complaints that priests were molesting children.

MEXICO

Dutch police nab cartel enforcer

Police in the Netherlands arrested a suspected top enforcer for the powerful Sinaloa Cartel for drug charges he faces in Southern California, a U.S. federal law enforcement official said Friday. The law enforcement official said the suspect captured in Amsterdam is Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa. Arechiga, 33, is believed to be a top enforcer for Ismael Zambada, who co-heads the Sinaloa drug organization along with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

VIRGINIA

School fined $5,000 over massacre

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan agreed to a $5,000 fine against Virginia Tech stemming from the April 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead. The penalty announced Friday is the second assessed against Tech for a violation of the federal Clery Act, which requires schools to issue timely warnings of campus threats. In December 2012, Duncan fined Tech $27,500 for failure to issue a timely warning the morning of the April 16, 2007, shooting on the Blacksburg campus.

FLORIDA

Florida set to pass N.Y. population

Sometime this year, Florida will surpass New York in population, becoming the nation’s third-most populous state. The milestone is validation of the increasing influence of the Sunshine State as it approaches being home to 20 million residents. Once Florida passes New York, only California and Texas will have more people.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Escapee from mental hospital captured

A South Carolina patient who escaped from the mental hospital to which he was committed after a judge ruled he had little grasp of reality when he killed his mother and stepfather was captured Friday in Tennessee. Jason Carter escaped Thursday and managed to ditch the 1991 white state van he stole from the hospital and buy a Chevrolet Lumina during his 24 hours as a free man, investigators said. A cellphone signal alerted authorities to a motel off Interstate 40 west of Nashville, Tenn., where Carter, 39, was taken into custody about 9:15 a.m., the Tennessee Highway Patrol said in a news release. How Carter had the money to buy a car and make his way 475 miles away is not yet known.