Boston Herald - Boston Herald

Czech police seek US man suspected of 4 murders

Associated Press — Thu, 23 May 2013 06:49:05 -0400

PRAGUE — An American man suspected of killing four people is on the run in the Czech Republic and likely armed, officials said Thursday.

Brno Police spokeswoman Petra Vedrova identified the man as Kevin Dahlgren, born in 1992, and released his photograph. A Facebook page showing the same photograph says that Dahlgren is from Palo Alto, California, and lives in Brno, the Czech Republic's second-largest city.

Polish man gets quick face transplant after injury

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:07:53 -0400

WARSAW, Poland — A 33-year-old Polish man received a face transplant just three weeks after being disfigured in a workplace accident, in what his doctors said Wednesday is the fastest time frame to date for such an operation. It was Poland's first face transplant.

Brutal attack in London heightens terror fears

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:14:28 -0400

LONDON — Two men with butcher knives hacked another to death Wednesday near a London military barracks and one then went on video to explain the crime — shouting political statements, gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver. Soon after, arriving police shot and wounded the unidentified assailants and took them into custody.

The brutal daylight attack galvanized this city and raised fears that terrorism had returned to London.

Iceland forms center-right govt, halts EU talks

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:44:16 -0400

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The leader of the center-right Progressive Party was chosen as Iceland's new prime minister Wednesday and promptly announced a halt to talks with the European Union about joining the 27-nation bloc.

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson spoke about the policy shift at a press conference after being selected premier.

"The government intends to halt negotiations between Iceland and the European Union," he said. "We will not hold further negotiations with the European Union without prior referendum."

Trial for captain in deadly shipwreck in Italy

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:04:01 -0400

ROME — An Italian judge has ordered the captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship to stand trial for manslaughter in the vessel's shipwreck off the coast of Tuscany, which killed 32 people.

Judge Pietro Molino, at a closed-door hearing Wednesday in the town of Grosseto, agreed to prosecutors' request that Capt. Francesco Schettino of Italy be tried on charges of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning the vessel while many of its 4,200 passengers and crew were still aboard.

Irishman charged with 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombing

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:03:29 -0400

DUBLIN — British prosecutors have charged a 61-year-old Irishman with the 1982 IRA attack on the queen's cavalry in Hyde Park, a nail-bombing at a top London tourist attraction that left four soldiers and seven horses dead.

Wednesday's surprise arraignment of John Downey in a London court came on the 15th anniversary of the ratification of the Good Friday peace accord for Northern Ireland, which sought to end three decades of bloodshed over the disputed British territory.

EU steps up fight against tax evasion by end 2013

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:46:58 -0400

BRUSSELS — The European Union's leaders took a major step in tackling tax-dodgers Wednesday by pushing to end bank secrecy across the bloc's 27 members by the end of the year.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the agreement to set up an automatic exchange of bank information among the EU's tax authorities — which has been long resisted by Austria and Luxembourg — as a "breakthrough".

Beatles' lyrics headed for British Library

Associated Press — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:22:40 -0400

LONDON — Shakespeare, the Magna Carta — and now some of John Lennon's finest lyrics.

The British Library on Wednesday added substantially to its already formidable collection with handwritten lyrics to Beatles' classics "Strawberry Fields Forever", "She Said She Said" and "In My Life."

The pope and the devil: Is Francis an exorcist?

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:29:44 -0400

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis' fascination with the devil took on remarkable new twists Tuesday, with a well-known exorcist insisting Francis helped "liberate" a Mexican man possessed by four different demons despite the Vatican's insistence that no such papal exorcism took place.

Suicide at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:50:39 -0400

PARIS — Some 1,500 visitors were cleared out of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a man put a letter on the altar of the 850-year-old monument Tuesday, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.

It's the first suicide in decades at the landmark site, Monsignor Patrick Jacquin, the cathedral's rector, told The Associated Press.

"It's unfortunate, it's dramatic, it's shocking," Jacquin said. The motives for the suicide, and the contents of the man's letter, were unclear.

The Paris prosecutor's office identified the man as 78-year-old Dominique Venner.

Harry Potter book with author notes sold for $228K

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:22:49 -0400

LONDON — For fans of the boy wizard, this could be the most coveted copy of all the "Harry Potter" books in the world.

A first edition copy of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" that contains author J.K. Rowling's notes and original illustrations fetched 150,000 pounds ($228,000) at a London auction on Tuesday.

Sotheby's said the work, offered as part of a charity book sale jointly organized with the English PEN writers' association, was sold to an anonymous bidder by telephone.

Gandhi's 'blood sample' fails to sell in Britain

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:21:34 -0400

LONDON — Dozens of Mohandas Gandhi's personal items have been sold at an auction, but a sample of blood purportedly from the Indian independence leader didn't draw high enough bids.

The memorabilia offered by British auction house Mullock's in Ludlow, England, included a handwritten will, a shawl, a pair of worn leather sandals and a rice bowl said to come from the house in India where Gandhi lived from 1917 to 1934.

Warsaw ghetto insurgent Boruch Spiegel dies at 93

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:26:22 -0400

WARSAW, Poland — Boruch Spiegel, one of the last remaining survivors of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising by poorly armed Jewish insurgents against the powerful Nazi German force that occupied Poland, has died. He was 93.

Spiegel died May 9 in Montreal, where he had spent the past four years in a nursing home, his son Julius Spiegel said Tuesday.

With Spiegel's death, the tiny group of survivors of the legendary World War II revolt that was crushed 70 years ago this month grows even smaller.

Spain backs sending defensive arms to Syria rebels

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:12:36 -0400

MADRID — Spain favors a partial lifting of sanctions against Syria that would allow the delivery of "defense material" to rebel groups to help protect the population, its foreign minister said Tuesday.

To date, Spain has defended sending only non-lethal aid. Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo said Syrians should decide their own future, but he added that Spain was "in favor of authorizing delivery of defense material for people's protection," a stance he said was shared by many European Union partners.

Georgian ex-PM detained on abuse of office charge

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:29:06 -0400

TBILISI, Georgia — Allies of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili — a former prime minister and a provincial governor — were charged on Tuesday with embezzlement and abuse of office in another sign of an ongoing power struggle between the country's top two officials.

After dominating Georgian politics for nine years, pro-Western Saakashvili suffered a humiliating defeat last fall when his party lost a parliamentary election to the Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who became Georgia's prime minister.

Germany's SAP to recruit tech staff with autism

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:27:23 -0400

BERLIN — German software giant SAP AG said Tuesday it plans to recruit people with autism to take make full use of their talents to process information.

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in communicating, emotional detachment and rigid or repetitive behavior. But some people with mild autism can perform complex mathematical tasks much better than the average population.

Pope expresses solidarity with tornado survivors

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:25:00 -0400

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has expressed his "closeness to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado," with special concern for "those who lost young children."

The pope posted a Twitter message to the survivors Tuesday, and followed up with a telegram to the archbishop of Oklahoma City, Paul S. Coakley.

The deadly tornado struck a suburb of Oklahoma City on Monday, destroying homes and an elementary school, and many of the victims were children.

Pigeon sale yields world record for feathered Bolt

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:35:51 -0400

BRUSSELS — Flying high above Europe's economic crisis, a local lightning-fast pigeon called Bolt became the world's most expensive racing bird when his Belgian breeder sold it for 310,000 euros ($400,000) to a Chinese businessman.

Prince William joins father in conservation plea

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:17:37 -0400

LONDON — Britain's Prince William has joined his father Prince Charles in urging global action to tackle the illegal poaching of wild animals.

William told a conservation conference at London's St. James's Palace that he is calling on his charity, the Royal Foundation, to engage young people in the cause.

The conference brings together policy makers and the private sector to develop solutions to stop the illegal trade in animal parts, including rhino horns and elephant tusks.

2nd day of riots in Stockholm suburb shakes Sweden

Associated Press — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:11:18 -0400

HUSBY, Sweden — Some 200 youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze in a largely immigrant suburb of Stockholm on Tuesday, the second day of rioting triggered by the fatal police shooting of a man wielding a knife.

Dozens of windows were smashed, 10 cars and several containers were set on fire, and seven police officers were injured. Cars and containers were also set ablaze in another of the Swedish capital's suburbs, Fittja, although police said it was not clear whether the two events were linked.