One of Tuskegee Airmen dies in Columbus hospital

One of Tuskegee Airmen dies in Columbus hospital

COLUMBUS — H.M. Cummings, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the country’s first group of black military pilots and crew, has died.

His nephew says Cummings had been sick with pulmonary distress and died Thursday of complications in surgery at a Columbus, hospital. He was 90.

Cummings, a native of Dublin, Ga., was among a group of remaining Tuskegee Airmen who traveled to Washington, D.C., in January to watch President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Nephew Herndon R. Cummings of Kettering, Ohio, said Saturday his uncle was overjoyed by the experience.

The airmen dealt with racial prejudice along with the pressures of World War II. Blacks previously had not been allowed to fly in the military. They trained as a segregated unit at an air base in Tuskegee, Ala.

Psychological analysis filed in al-Qaida case

NEW YORK — Newly filed court records reveal evidence regarding the life of a U.S.-trained scientist accused of being an al-Qaida operative.

The documents, filed in the past few days in federal court in Manhattan, contain the analysis of psychologists who have treated Aafia Siddiqui since her arrest last summer. One psychologist disputes claims that she was held captive overseas from 2003 to 2008.

The psychologist says Siddiqui told the FBI she was working in Pakistan in 2005 and went to Afghanistan in 2007 to look for her ex-husband.

She is charged with shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents after her capture last year in Afghanistan.

Palin’s replacement will seek post in 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Republican inheriting the job as Alaska governor from resigning Sarah Palin plans to seek a full term in office in 2010.

Palin spokesman David Murrow says Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will run for a four-year term as governor.

The 46-year-old former state senator will be sworn in as governor July 26, the date Palin steps down. The current term expires in early December 2010.

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, abruptly announced her resignation Friday.

Palin and her representatives are keeping mum about her future plans, but the governor has been seen as a likely presidential contender in 2012.

Lightning strike kills 1, injures 18 in Florida

LAKELAND, Fla. — Officials say one person has been killed in a lightning strike at a Fourth of July gathering in central Florida and at least 18 others were taken to hospitals.

Polk County spokeswoman Cindy Rodriguez said at least 80 people had gathered outside a Lakeland home Saturday when lightning hit a wooden barn nearby.

Emergency crews transported victims to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, a hospital and a medical center. Authorities did not immediately identify the person killed nor provide details on the condition and identity of the injured.

According to the National Weather Service, there are about 1.5 million lightning strikes a year in Florida.

43 plane-crash bodies ID’d

SAO PAULO — Officials say medical examiners have identified an additional eight of the 51 bodies recovered from the Air France flight that plunged into the Atlantic five weeks ago.

A statement released Saturday by the Public Safety Department of the northeastern state of Pernambuco says that so far, 43 bodies have been identified.

Nine bodies have been identified as Brazilian men, eight as Brazilian women, nine as foreign men and 17 as foreign women.

Last week, Brazil ended its search for bodies and debris from the plane that disappeared with 228 people on board on June 1.

Boat capsizes, killing man

WEST ISLIP, N.Y. — Police say a New York man has died after his boat capsized during a regatta on Long Island’s Great South Bay.

Suffolk County police say John Everitt, 65, was participating in the 83rd Annual Babylon Yacht Club Sailboat Regatta when the boat suddenly capsized at noon Saturday. Both Everitt and his wife, Virginia, went overboard.

Everitt was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:38 p.m. His wife wasn’t hospitalized.

The 15-foot Vanguard 15 was impounded to the Suffolk Country Marine Bureau.

Associated Press