Combined briefs package

At lease 34 dead as big storms strike

Tropical Storm Ingrid and the remnants of Tropical Storm Manuel drenched Mexico’s Gulf and Pacific coasts with more torrential rains Monday, flooding towns and cities, cutting off highways and setting off deadly landslides in a national emergency that federal authorities said had caused at least 34 deaths. The Mexican government said the country had not seen a similar weather crisis since 1958, when the country was hit simultaneously by two tropical storms on separate coasts. Some of the heaviest damage was in the southern coastal state of Guerrero, where Mexico’s government reported 15 confirmed deaths from Manuel.

MASSACHUSETTS

Homeless man honored for honesty

A homeless Boston man who turned in a backpack containing tens of thousands of dollars in cash and traveler’s checks says even if he were desperate he wouldn’t have kept “even a penny.” Glen James was honored Monday at police headquarters, where Commissioner Edward Davis thanked him for his honesty and gave him a special citation. James found the backpack at a shopping mall Saturday. He flagged down patrolling officers and handed it over. The backpack contained $2,400 in U.S. currency, almost $40,000 in traveler’s checks, Chinese passports and other personal papers. Authorities identified the backpack’s owner a Chinese student who was visiting another student in Boston.

NORTH CAROLINA

Woman in anti-smoking ads dies

Federal health officials are mourning the death of a North Carolina woman featured prominently in a graphic government ad campaign to get people to stop smoking. Terrie Hall died Monday of cancer at a hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C. She was 53. A former smoker whose voice box was removed years ago, Hall took a leading role in the campaign that showed how smoking-related cancer ravages the body. Officials believe the campaign led as many as 100,000 Americans smokers to quit.

CALIFORNIA

Tour features serial killer’s house

A former boardinghouse run by a California woman convicted of killing her elderly tenants and burying them in the yard became a tourist destination over the weekend. The Victorian duplex in Sacramento that had been operated by Dorothea Puente was one of five featured houses on the Sacramento Old City Association’s home tour on Sunday. The house has been renovated since the 1980s, when authorities dug up seven bodies in its front and back yards. Still, visitors could see the room where Puente drained the body fluids from her victims. Authorities said Puente drugged and killed her victims and stole their Social Security checks.

CONNECTICUT

Man in priest meth case in court

A man who helped a priest sell methamphetamine is seeking a reduced sentence, citing his poor health and saying the priest was the driving force behind the drug sales. Kenneth DeVries, of Waterbury, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He is scheduled to be sentenced today in federal court in Hartford. Monsignor Kevin Wallin was pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport for nine years. He resigned in June 2011, citing health and personal reasons. He was suspended from public ministry last year. He pleaded guilty to a drug charge in April and faces 11 to 14 years in prison.

HAWAII

Shipper to pay for molasses cleanup

The chief executive of the transit company responsible for spilling 1,400 tons of molasses in Hawaii waters says the company will pay for cleanup and other costs without passing them on to taxpayers or customers. Matson Navigation Co. CEO Matt Cox said Monday that he was sorry for the spill, and the company won’t ship molasses until it’s confident a similar spill will not occur. State officials have collected about 25,000 dead fish and other animals from surrounding waters since the Sept. 9 spill.

ITALY

Shipwrecked Concordia wrested off reef

Using a vast system of steel cables and pulleys, maritime engineers on Monday gingerly winched the massive hull of the Costa Concordia off the reef where the cruise ship capsized near an Italian island in January 2012 and were poised to set it upright in the middle of the night. Thirty-two people died on Jan. 13, 2012, when the Concordia slammed into a reef and toppled half-submerged on its side after coming too close to Giglio Island. The Concordia’s captain is on trial for alleged manslaughter.