GAZA STRIP
Hamas shaves heads of Gaza youths
Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have started grabbing young men with long or gel-styled spiky hair off the streets, bundling them into jeeps, mocking them and shaving their heads, two of those targeted and a rights group said Sunday. Hamas has been slowly forcing its fundamentalist interpretation of the religion on already conservative Gaza since it overran the territory in 2007, but the new crackdown on long hair and tight or low-waist pants — in several cases accompanied by beatings — appears to be one of the most aggressive phases of the campaign. The hair crackdown came just days after the Hamas-run parliament in Gaza passed an education bill mandating separate classrooms for boys and girls from the age of nine.
CONNECTICUT
Governor criticizes gun lobbyists, NRA
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy harshly criticized gun industry lobbyists on Sunday, saying they are doing too little to halt gun violence. Just three days after he signed into law new restrictions on weapons and large-capacity magazines, the governor compared Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, to “clowns at the circus” and said lobbyists want to ensure that the industry can sell guns indiscriminately. Representatives of the NRA did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Clinton office hostage taker missing
A New Hampshire man who took hostages at a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign office in 2007 escaped from a minimum-security correctional facility, authorities say. The state Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons said Leeland Eisenberg was missing from his room during a head count Sunday afternoon at the Calumet Transitional Housing Unit in Manchester. Eisenberg, 52, was sentenced in May 2010 to 3 ½ to 7 years for probation violations. He would have been eligible for parole in August.
ISRAEL
Nation marks Holocaust memorial day
Israel dedicated its annual memorial day Sunday for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust to mark 70 years to the Warsaw ghetto uprising, a symbol of Jewish resistance against the Nazis in World War II. At the opening ceremony at nightfall, President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both linked the desperate Jewish revolt of 1943 to the warrior mentality that enabled the establishment of Israel five years later.
JAMAICA
Record try ends with rescue of rowers
Two Canadians and two Americans attempting to set a world record for an unassisted, human-powered row across the Atlantic Ocean were rescued after a rogue wave capsized their boat after 73 days at sea, the U.S. Coast Guard and organizers said Sunday. The four endurance rowers, including Canadian Olympic gold medalist Adam Kreek, were rescued from waters some 400 miles north of the U.S. Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. They were attempting to row more than 4,000 miles between the West African nation of Senegal and Miami and set a Guinness World Record.
VENEZUELA
Candidate’s backers rally in capital
A general expectation that Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor will win next weekend’s presidential election didn’t dim the spirits Sunday of more than 100,000 backers of challenger Henrique Capriles. Most of the people who converged by foot in Caracas on a hot, sunny afternoon tried to shrug off forecasts of victory for Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn in as acting president after Hugo Chavez died March 5 following a long battle with cancer. Capriles said the big turnout in the capital was evidence that he’d win at the ballot box next Sunday.
CALIFORNIA
Ex-porn star arrested for alleged battery
Former adult film star Jenna Jameson was arrested Saturday evening after a report that she attacked someone at an Orange County home. Newport Beach police Lt. Evan Sailor said the alleged victim put Jameson under citizen’s arrest until police arrived at the home on the upscale Balboa Peninsula. Jameson, 38, was given a court date to face a misdemeanor battery charge and released on her own recognizance. In May, Jameson was arrested for drunken driving after hitting a light pole in Westminster. She pleaded guilty in August was sentenced to three years’ informal probation.
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