Prince Claus, husband of Dutch queen, dies

Prince Claus, husbandof Dutch queen, dies
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Prince Claus, the German-born husband of Queen Beatrix who employed wit, charm and patience to overcome Dutch hostility and win the affection of his adopted nation, died Sunday. He was 76.
Claus had been in and out of intensive care for several months with respiratory and heart problems. Doctors at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam said he died of Parkinson's disease and pneumonia, according to a government statement.
He was admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit two weeks ago with a lung infection. He had been fitted with a pacemaker over the summer.
Claus' marriage to Beatrix was initially resisted by the Dutch public, with many residents upset about his service with the Nazi army in World War II and membership in the Hitler Youth.
But his eventual acceptance was reflected on Sunday, when the country's television and radio stations interrupted regular programming to air special newscasts and documentaries on Claus' life. The government declared a period of mourning and instructed public buildings to fly flags at half-mast until his burial.
Claus' body will be taken to the royal palace in The Hague today, the government said. His body will be kept there to let friends and the public pay respects. Although no date was set for his funeral, Claus will be buried in the Oranje-Nassau family tomb in Delft.
Suspect in deathsof children kills self
BOSTON -- A man died Sunday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a day after he reportedly strangled his girlfriend's teenage daughter and shot their 5-year-old son.
Jose Alvarez, 39, died at about 5:45 p.m., a Massachusetts General Hospital spokeswoman said.
Saturday afternoon, police found 13-year-old Katherine Herpin dead in the apartment Alvarez shared with his girlfriend and the children in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. Authorities said she had been strangled.
Shortly afterward, police found Alvarez and Elia Mendez, 5, in a minivan in Somerville. Both were critically injured with gunshot wounds to the head.
The boy was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital. Alvarez was taken to the hospital and put on life support.
A note written in Spanish found in the minivan was translated Sunday and may provide a motive. Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley would say only that the letter "is more along the lines of an admission than an apology."
The children's mother, Dora Mendez, owned the minivan. She was not at home when her daughter was killed.
Meteor seen in West
SALT LAKE CITY -- Residents in Utah, Colorado and southern Wyoming saw a fireball, which some said had a long tail of green, orange and purple flames that raced across the night sky.
"People said it had a 500-foot tail and it was huge, like a meteor, and green and orange," La Plata County, Colo., sheriff's dispatcher Kristy Lee said.
The fireball was seen Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
"It was probably a meteor burning up in the atmosphere," said Peter Wilensky, meteorologist with the National Weather Service/Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.
No man-made objects fell from space Sunday night, said Maj. Ed Thomas, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., which tracks satellites and space debris.
"We don't have a mission to track meteorites, but that's got to be what it is," Thomas said.
Honoring a soda jerk
GREENSBURG, Kan. -- After 50 years as a soda jerk, Richard Huckriede's importance is about to be enshrined.
"He's kind of an icon in Greensburg," said Paula Davis, president of the historical society.
Money is being raised for a life-sized cardboard cutout of Huckriede's image for a soda fountain exhibit at the Kiowa County Museum.
Huckriede, 73, moved to Greensburg, with a population of 1,574, as a young man, and began to work at Hunter Drug Store after high school, selling sodas for a nickel a glass.
"I just really never had any plans to do anything else," the lifelong bachelor said. "I guess I've always enjoyed the people."
On Wednesday, Huckriede celebrated his 50th anniversary at Hunter Drug.
"No plans to retire," said Huckriede, whose title is general clerk, but doesn't mind being called soda jerk.
Associated Press