Combined briefs

The wife of a Louisiana man charged with killing a preacher had filed a rape complaint against the pastor two days before the shooting, but it’s not yet clear if there was an assault or a consensual sexual relationship, a sheriff said Monday. Woodrow Karey is charged with fatally shooting Ronald Harris Sr., 53, during a revival service Friday at the Tabernacle of Praise Worship Center in Lake Charles. Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said Karey found the messages on his wife’s cellphone on Sept. 21, a few days before she filed the complaint and less than a week before the shooting.

PAKISTAN

Suspected drone strike kills 4

A suspected U.S. drone strike Monday killed four people in an attack on a compound in North Waziristan, a volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and local journalists. The missile strike, which occurred in Datta Khel District, a known sanctuary of local and foreign Islamist militants, was the second in the area in two days.

IRAQ

Bombings kill dozens in Baghdad

A new wave of bombings tore through Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 55 people, officials said. Most of the blasts were car bombs detonated in Shiite neighborhoods, the latest of a series of well-coordinated attacks blamed on hard-line Sunni insurgents determined to rekindle large-scale sectarian conflicts. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida’s local branch in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq.

ILLINOIS

NTSB probes Chicago train crash

A commuter train was likely unmanned when it crashed into another train outside Chicago during morning rush hour, officials say. Chicago Transit Authority spokeswoman Lambrini Lukidis said video from the scene shows no driver at the controls of an empty train that crashed into another train carrying passengers Monday morning. As many as four dozen people were hurt, though officials said none of the injures were life threatening. Lukidis said the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

FLORIDA

Famed cookbook author dead at 89

Marcella Hazan, the Italian-born cookbook author who taught generations of Americans how to create simple, fresh Italian food, died Sunday. She was 89. Hazan died at her Florida home, according to an email from her son, Giuliano Hazan, and posts on Facebook and Twitter from her husband and daughter-in-law. Hazan was best known for her six cookbooks, which were written by her in Italian and translated into English by Victor, her husband of 57 years.

NEW JERSEY

State appeals gay marriage ruling

Gov. Chris Christie’s administration on Monday asked New Jersey’s top state court to take an appeal of a judge’s ruling that the state must allow gay marriage. Citing “far-reaching implications,” Acting Attorney General John Hoffman made the request in a letter to the state Supreme Court, which usually does not weigh in on cases until after an appeals court has made a ruling on them. Hoffman said he is also asking the judge who issued the decision Friday to grant a stay, delaying the implementation date from Oct. 21 until the matter can be settled.

SUDAN

Security forces fire tear gas at protesters

Sudanese security forces fired volleys of tear gas to disperse a demonstration held inside a women’s university in the Sudanese capital Monday, witnesses said, the latest in a weeklong wave of protests against the country’s autocratic president. The protest erupted at al-Ahfad university in the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman, a stronghold of the opposition. Protests started last week when the government lifted fuel subsidies, causing food prices and transportation fares to spike. The protests quickly escalated into calls for President Omar al-Bashir’s ouster.