MEXICO CITY — A second migrant survived the massacre of 72 Central and South Americans near the U.S. border, Mexican authorities confirmed Wednesday, and they said he has given information that helped their investigation. Authorities had kept secret the information about the other survivor, a Honduran, to protect him, said a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, Ricardo Najera.
VALLEJO, Calif. — A murder suspect who led officers on a high-speed chase with his dead girlfriend in the passenger seat is a central figure in the investigation of at least four killings, authorities said Wednesday.
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — The baby sitter of a 4-year-old South Florida girl who disappeared more than a decade ago has been charged with the child’s death. Authorities have charged 33-year-old Melissa Jones with aggravated manslaughter of a child.
MILLINOCKET, Maine — Police in Millinocket, Maine, are puzzled as to why the town’s late police chief had a realistic looking fake bomb in his home. The device was found by the new owners of the home, which had remained empty for several years, when they were moving in on Saturday.
SAN’A, Yemen — A Yemeni appeals court upheld on Sunday the death sentences against four al-Qaida militants in deadly attacks that included the assault on the U.S. Embassy and the killing of two Belgian tourists in 2008, a court official said.
TAMPA — A growing sinkhole has swallowed a car and forced 11 families to evacuate a building near the University of South Florida. Hillsborough County Fire Rescue says the sinkhole measures about 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep.
MOSCOW — The Cold War-style intrigue over a reputed spy ring nabbed in the U.S. deepened Wednesday as word emerged of a possible scheme to swap Russians who hid in American suburbia for an imprisoned arms-control researcher and others who passed secrets to the U.
MARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas — A wily teenage thief who hopscotched his way across the U.S. and escaped in a stolen plane to the Bahamas lived up to his legend Wednesday, eluding a manhunt after allegedly committing a new series of break-ins on a normally quiet island.
TALLAHASSEE — Two Florida A&M officials have been indicted by the federal government for conspiring to embezzle Housing and Urban Development money. U.S. Attorney Pamela Marsh said Wednesday that Eugene Telfair and Robert Nixon were indicted on charges of conspiracy, theft from an organization receiving federal funds and embezzlement.
PHOENIX — President Barack Obama’s administration sued Arizona on Tuesday to throw out the state’s toughest-in-the-nation immigration law and keep other states from copying it. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Phoenix said the law, due to take effect July 29, usurps the federal government’s “pre-eminent authority” under the Constitution to regulate immigration.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI will soon issue a document outlining the church’s procedures for handling clerical sex abuse cases that will gather the norms now in use and make them permanent and legally binding, a Vatican official and canon lawyer said Tuesday.
NEW YORK — An alleged member of a Russian spy ring that authorities say operated under deep cover in America’s suburbs vanished in Cyprus on Wednesday, a day after being released on bail. The man, who had gone by the name Christopher Metsos and was wanted in the U.
PEKIN, Ill. — For days before he died in a federal prison, Adam Montoya pleaded with guards to be taken to a doctor, pressing a panic button in his cell over and over to summon help that never came. An autopsy concluded that the 36-year-old inmate suffered from no fewer than three serious illnesses — cancer, hepatitis and HIV.
BELIZE CITY — Tropical Storm Alex moved into the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after weakening to a depression as it swirled across Belize and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, dumping rains that left at least four people dead across the region.
OCEAN RIDGE — U.S. Border Patrol authorities have taken 34 people, reportedly from Cuba, into custody after they came ashore on a beach in South Florida. The immigrants arrived in Ocean Ridge, about 15 miles south of West Palm Beach, on a 28-foot boat early Sunday.
SEATTLE — Two big coalitions of states are competing for federal dollars to create a series of new national academic tests to replace the current patchwork system. In the current system, every state gives a different test to its students. In some states, passing the exam is a graduation requirement.
PANAMA CITY — When she was 19 and carefree, Megan Thompson went to a party with her boyfriend, drank a few beers, took some Xanax and then drove home. Thompson believes she passed out while driving and does not remember anything until the next morning.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama wrested a $20 billion compensation guarantee and an apology to the nation from British oil giant BP Wednesday, announcing the company would set up a major claims fund for shrimpers, restaurateurs and others whose lives and livelihoods are being wrecked by the oil flooding into the Gulf of Mexico.
MEXICO CITY — Mexican soldiers shot two children in April in their family’s vehicle, and apparently altered the crime scene to try to blame the deaths on drug cartel gunmen, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said Wednesday.
TAMPA — An AWOL soldier who allegedly tried to drive onto MacDill Air Force base in an SUV loaded with weapons and ammunition sat in a county jail Wednesday, as military officials refused to answer questions about what he might have been planning to do.
MORELIA — A government media tour to promote tourism in southwestern Mexico went awry when machete-wielding Indians briefly kidnapped 13 reporters on the trip, officials said Sunday. Fifteen people trying to film a beer commercial were also abducted.
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