PENNSYLVANIA
Hero medals honor 22 who risked lives for others
A Pennsylvania woman who lost her life while coming to the aid of a victim of domestic violence was one of 22 people honored with Carnegie medals for heroism on Thursday. Also honored were Alan B. Hall of Land O’Lakes, Fla., who died saving a 5-year-old from drowning in April 2012; and Tray Hughes Ross, 20, of Gainesville, Ga., who saved Harold Johnson, Jr., 76, from burning in November 2011. Other medal winners honored were from Michigan, Canada, Vermont, Tennessee, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, New Jerseyand Nebraska. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, based in Pittsburgh, says its mission is to recognize people who perform heroic acts in civilian life and to provide financial help to those disabled, or to the dependents of those killed, by their heroism.
NEW MEXICO
Bribery case linked to former governor ends in plea deal
A retired judge accused of funneling bribes to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson pleaded no contest Thursday to misdemeanor misconduct under a plea agreement that dismisses four felony charges. The deal for Michael Murphy, 67, marks the end of a high-profile case that shocked the judiciary two years ago when prosecutors implied the bribes were part of a long-running practice for picking judges in southern New Mexico. Under the deal, Murphy was given a 364-day suspended jail sentence, ordered to do 250 hours of community service and is barred from ever again holding public office or entering the state district court building in Las Cruces.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Senate panel backs Moniz for energy chief
The Senate Energy Committee has overwhelmingly endorsed the nomination of physicist Ernest Moniz to lead the Energy Department. The energy panel voted 21-1 Thursday to endorse Moniz, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina was the only one to oppose Moniz. Moniz has said he supports Obama’s all-of-the-above approach to energy and that a sharp increase in natural gas production is nothing less than a “revolution.”
PENNSYLVANIA
Prosecutors rest case against abortion provider
Philadelphia prosecutors have rested after five weeks of evidence against an abortion provider charged with killing a patient and seven babies. The move comes after a whistleblower said she saw more than 10 babies breathe before they were killed at Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s clinic. Witness Kareema Cross also said she saw three babies move limbs. But in defense questioning, she said she saw babies move after their necks had been cut, which is how Gosnell and his staff killed babies them if born alive. The defense argues that any movement seen was a post-mortem reflex.
MICHIGAN
Police: Teen abused, kept inside for four years
A 15-year-old boy was kept inside a home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for four years, rarely leaving a room made from tarps while being tortured and abused, police said Thursday. The teen’s mother and her boyfriend were arrested last week and are in the Delta County jail, charged with torture, child abuse and criminal sexual conduct, police said. The boy was discovered last Friday when a relative who hadn’t seen him asked police for help. Segorski said school officials were never suspicious of an absence because the teen was not enrolled in Escanaba schools.
CHINA
Experts unclear how bird flu infects humans
Experts in China are still stumped by how people are becoming infected with bird flu when many appear to have had no recent contact with live fowl and the virus isn’t supposed to pass from person to person. The uncertainty adds to challenges the Chinese government is facing in trying to control the spread of the H7N9 bird flu virus that has already killed 17 people and infected 70 others. Theories among experts about how the virus may be spreading run from the ways poultry is slaughtered in markets to infected droppings from migratory birds.
FRANCE
Four accused of anti-gay attack
Four people have been detained on suspicion of carrying out an attack at a Lille gay bar, the Interior Ministry said Thursday, amid nationwide tensions over a bill that would legalize gay marriage. Several other people were detained in Paris late Wednesday after a protest against gay marriage that ended with some demonstrators fighting police and damaging cars along the Champs-Elysees avenue. Legalizing gay marriage was one of President Francois Hollande’s campaign promises, and polls show a majority of voters support the idea. But opposition has mounted, largely from conservative groups from France’s heartland.
IRELAND
Gang steals rhino horns from museum storage
Masked men stole stuffed rhinoceros heads containing eight valuable horns from the warehouse of Ireland’s National Museum, police and museum officials said Thursday, in a heist being linked to an Irish Gypsy gang that specializes in such raids across Europe. Police said three men raided the storeroom in Swords, north of Dublin, on Wednesday night and tied up the lone security guard. He later freed himself and raised the alarm. The museum keeper said the eight horns could be worth a total of about $650,000 on the black market, based on their weight.
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