Despite brain tumor, Kennedy races in regatta

Despite brain tumor, Kennedy races in regatta

HYANNIS PORT, Mass. — Sen. Edward Kennedy took the helm of his sailboat “Mya” on Monday and rode a stiff southern wind from Nantucket back to Hyannis in a regatta just a week after undergoing a brain biopsy that diagnosed him with cancer.

The Massachusetts Democrat made partially good on a pledge from the prior week by competing in the second half of the “Figawi” boat race between the island and Cape Cod. Kennedy also missed a commencement address he was slated to deliver Sunday at Wesleyan University. Instead, he asked Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama to address the graduates at the Middletown, Conn., campus.

Coptic church leader killed at Delaware fundraiser

NEWARK, Del. — A leader of a Coptic church was shot to death during a fundraiser by a man who had differences with the church, Delaware State Police said. Malak Michael, 63, of Bear, Del., who was leading St. Mary Coptic Church’s committee to build a new church, was shot during a fundraiser for the new facility Sunday evening at the Hilton Wilmington/Christiana, police said.

Monir George, 58, of Whitehall, Pa., was charged early Monday with first-degree murder and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was ordered held without bail at the Howard Young Correctional Institute.

Lander prepares to dig

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander spent its first full day in the Martian arctic plains checking its instruments in preparation for an ambitious digging mission to study whether the site could have once been habitable.

The three-legged lander set down Sunday in relatively flat terrain cut by polygon-shaped fissures. Phoenix was to take more views of its surroundings to help scientists zero in on a digging site and also take images of its onboard instruments, including its trench-digging robotic arm.

The earliest engineers would move Phoenix’s 8-foot-long arm will be today, but it’ll be another week before the lander takes the first scoop of soil.

Scorpion stings shopper

BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. — One young shopper at a Wal-Mart in West Virginia had to watch out for more than falling prices.

A 12-year-old girl picking up a seedless watermelon from a bin was stung Sunday by a tan, inch-long scorpion that had apparently stowed away in a shipment from Mexico.

Megan Templeton, of Barboursville, was taken to the hospital as a precaution but later released. Her father, William Templeton, said the pain was a little worse than a bee sting.

He initially didn’t believe his daughter when she said she had been stung by a scorpion, but then he saw the critter scurry underneath a box. It was captured by Wal-Mart employees.

Handguns, 5 bodies found

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Authorities said Monday they found two handguns with the decomposed bodies of five family members discovered in a home overlooking the ocean in a wealthy, gated Orange County community.

It was unclear how the family died and neither homicide nor suicide could immediately be ruled out, said sheriff’s Lt. Erin Giudice. She said there was no threat to the community and deputies were not searching for any suspects.

The handguns were found near the bodies of a man and woman in their 40s or 50s who were discovered together Sunday in a downstairs closet, Giudice said. The bodies of a woman in her 70s and two sisters in their early 20s were found in the attached bedroom, she said.

Militants bomb pipeline

LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s main militant group carried out the latest in a spate of oil-pipeline bombings Monday, cutting output from Africa’s biggest oil industry and pressing its demand that the government send more oil money to the region.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said the sabotage of a pipeline-switching station marked the anniversary in office of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who took power May 29, 2007, with a promise to calm the oil region.

The militants, who are turning their focus from military-style raids to bombings with propaganda value, said the attack was intended to show that Yar’Adua had “failed after one year in office to ensure peace, security and reconciliation in the Niger Delta region.”

Associated Press