AFGHANISTAN
Attacks kill 3 NATO service members
Three NATO service members and one civilian working with the international coalition in Afghanistan were killed Saturday in three separate attacks in the country’s east and south. The coalition said insurgents in the east killed one service member and the civilian, while a roadside bomb killed another service member. NATO also said an improvised explosive device killed a service member in the south. NATO gave no other details of the attacks, nor the nationalities of the dead. The deaths bring to 66 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this year.
ITALY
Respiratory virus cases confirmed
Three people were being treated Saturday for a new respiratory virus that is alarming global health officials, in the first cases in Italy, the country’s health ministry said. All three patients were reported to be in good condition and were being treated in isolation. The virus is related to SARS, which killed about 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003. The U.N. health agency said earlier Saturday that it had been informed of 51 confirmed cases of the new virus since September. Thirty of those cases were fatal. Most of those infected had traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.
CALIFORNIA
Lutherans elect first openly gay bishop
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America elected its first openly gay bishop to a six-year term on Friday at an annual assembly in Southern California, officials said. The election of the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin comes after the church’s controversial rule change in 2009 that allowed gays and lesbians to be ordained in the largest U.S. Lutheran denomination. More than 600 congregations have left the denomination since the change. Officials say Erwin is also the first Native American to be elected. Erwin is part Osage Indian.
NEW JERSEY
Boy’s family sues shooter’s parents
The family of a 6-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed by a 4-year-old playmate is suing the younger child’s parents. The lawsuit brought by Brandon Holt’s family accuses Anthony and Melissa Senatore, of Toms River, of recklessness that led to the child’s death, The Asbury Park Press reported. They seek undisclosed damages in the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in state Superior Court in Ocean County. Brandon was killed April 8 while playing “pretend shooting” with the Senatores’ 4-year-old son in the neighborhood where both families lived.
WASHINGTON
U.S., China plan talks on hacking
The United States and China have agreed to hold regular, high-level talks on how to set standards of behavior for cybersecurity and commercial espionage, the first diplomatic effort to defuse the tensions over what the United States says is a daily barrage of computer break-ins and theft of corporate and government secrets. The talks will begin in July. U.S. officials say they do not expect the process to immediately yield a significant reduction in the daily intrusions from China.
NEW YORK
Morgue’s refrigerator up for sale
New York’s Office of General Services has turned to eBay in an attempt to sell off a huge, steel morgue refrigerator now located at a Manhattan psychiatric hospital. Bidding on Saturday afternoon was up to $475 for the four-drawer unit, but that price doesn’t include delivery. Buyers have to be willing to remove the fridge themselves from the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. The auction runs through June 6.
TEXAS
Home with link to assassin on market
The Dallas rooming house where Lee Harvey Oswald lived in the weeks leading up to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has gone on the market for $500,000. The house, which has been in Patricia Hall’s family since about 1942, went on the market Saturday. Oswald, the accused assassin of Kennedy, rented the small room on Oct. 14, 1963, from Hall’s grandmother, Gladys Johnson. Oswald briefly returned to the house on Nov. 22, 1963, about 30 minutes after Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas. Hall said she had considered selling the house for years, but decided the time was right because this year marks the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination.
About the Author
