Texas tornado devastation includes Habitat homes

Texas tornado devastation includes Habitat homes

GRANBURY, Texas

Habitat for Humanity spent years in a North Texas subdivision, helping build many of the 110 homes in the low-income area. But its work was largely undone during an outbreak of 13 tornadoes Wednesday night that killed six people and injured dozens.

On Thursday, authorities combed through debris in Granbury, while residents awaited the chance to see what was left of their homes. Witnesses described the two badly hit neighborhoods as unrecognizable, with homes ripped from foundations and others merely rubble.

Granbury, about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth, bore the brunt of the damage. The National Weather Service’s preliminary estimate was that the tornado had wind speeds between 166 mph and 200 mph. Other tornadoes spawned from the violent spring storm damaged nearby Cleburne and Millsap.

Glover wins ‘American Idol’

LOS ANGELES

Candice Glover was crowned the new “American Idol” on Thursday after defeating country singer Kree Harrison.

The booming 23-year-old R&B vocalist from St. Helena Island, S.C., looked stunned when “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest announced she bested soulful 22-year-old country singer Harrison from Woodville, Texas. The vote count was not announced.

Brothers arrested in parade shooting

NEW ORLEANS

Two brothers with a history of drug arrests and suspected ties to a neighborhood gang each face 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder in a shooting spree that brought a sudden bloody end to a Mother’s Day parade in a New Orleans neighborhood.

The arrests by city police and U.S. marshals came less than four days after gunfire scattered the crowd and wounded 20 people — 19 hit by bullets and one while trying to flee.

Akein Scott, 19, was arrested without incident late Wednesday at an eastern New Orleans residence. His brother, Shawn Scott, 24, was arrested Thursday morning as he tried to flee another residence in the city, police said.

Former boyfriend accused of killing woman’s embryo

TAMPA, Fla.

The 28-year-old son of a Florida fertility doctor has been charged by federal authorities with tricking his girlfriend into taking a pill used to induce labor and cause an abortion, killing the embryo she was carrying.

John Andrew Welden was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges of product tampering and first-degree murder and faces up to life in prison if convicted of the murder charge. He’s also the defendant in a lawsuit filed in state court by his ex-girlfriend, 26-year-old Remee Lee.

Associated Press