Castro looks thin but alert in latest photo

Castro looks thin but alert in latest photo

HAVANA — Fidel Castro looks thin and frail but alert in a photograph from last month posted on the Web site of the Russian Orthodox Church and obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday.

The ailing 82-year-old former president is seen standing and peering at the camera with a hint of surprise on his face. His gray hair is combed back and his wispy gray beard is neatly trimmed. As if for support, he is holding onto the arm of Metropolitan Kirill, the church’s top foreign relations official.

The church said the picture was taken Oct. 20, when Kirill was in Havana for the consecration of a new Orthodox cathedral.

Cuban state media covered that meeting but did not release any images. It was the first image of Castro published since June 17, when government-controlled broadcasts showed him chatting in a garden during a visit by his close friend, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Investigators cite reasons for Minn. bridge collapse

WASHINGTON — The metal plates holding the bridge together were simply too small. Then workers piled on nearly 300 tons of construction material. It all collapsed. Thirteen people died.

Safety investigators on Thursday singled out the undersized steel plates as the chief cause of last year’s deadly collapse of a highway bridge in Minneapolis.

But that wasn’t all. Contractors working on the bridge had stockpiled material on the center span over the Mississippi River, and that additional weight contributed to the collapse that killed 13 and injured 145, they said.

Federal investigators told the National Transportation Safety Board that the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge Aug. 1, 2007, was unavoidable once gusset plates in the center span failed.

Broken friendship may have led to Fla. shooting

MIAMI — A 15-year-old accused of fatally shooting her classmate was upset because the two had recently stopped talking, and she told police she brought a gun to school because she “wanted her to feel pain like me,” according to an affidavit.

Teah Wimberly, a 15-year-old sophomore at Fort Lauderdale’s Dillard High School, was ordered held in jail for 21 days Thursday, and will likely undergo a psychological examination before her next court date.

“She’s a very troubled young girl, and we asked the judge to order a confidential psychological evaluation,” said her attorney, Gary Kollin. Wimberly’s family was “distraught about the fact that a child has died” and “saddened by the fact that Teah is in custody.”

Wimberly is charged with first-degree murder and discharging a weapon on school property in the killing of Amanda Collette, also 15. Officer Mark A. Shotwell, who interviewed Wimberly, wrote in the affidavit that she said the two had been friends but recently stopped speaking. Investigators said Wimberly shot Collette, then walked to a seafood restaurant to call authorities and turn herself in. Prosecutors are considering charging her as an adult.

Explosion proves fatal at Colorado restaurant

PUEBLO, Colo. — One person is dead and five others injured after an explosion leveled a Colorado restaurant and damaged an adjacent building.

Pueblo County Coroner James Kramer said the victim died at a hospital after the explosion Thursday at Pueblo’s Branch Inn.

Crews were to search the buildings for anyone else who may be trapped inside. The rubble was still smoldering hours after the blast.

The cause of the blast is under investigation in Pueblo, about 100 miles south of Denver.

Associated Press