Boy, 5, is first child in Pa. to die of H1N1 flu

Boy, 5, is first child in Pa. to die of H1N1 flu

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania health officials are confirming that a 5-year-old boy from Adams County is the state’s first child to die of H1N1 flu.

The state Health Department said Tuesday the child died Saturday from complications related to the flu. His name isn’t being released.

Nineteen Pennsylvania adults also have died from the disease. Most infections are occurring among younger people.

Amish leaders charged, didn’t report molester

MARSHFIELD, Mo. — Four Amish leaders in southwest Missouri who chose to “shun” an accused child molester in their community rather than report him to authorities were charged Tuesday with failing to report the sexual abuse.

Webster County prosecutor Danette Padgett said all four are bishops and face one misdemeanor count each of failure to report child abuse as a mandatory reporter.

Under Missouri law, people with “responsibility for the care of children” are required to report suspected child abuse. Examples of mandatory reporters under the statute are doctors, nurses, social workers and teachers and ministers who are not engaged in a “privileged communication.”

An attorney for the men, Will Worsham, questioned whether they can be considered mandatory reporters. He said the Amish do not separate government and religion and that a bishop is akin to a mayor or city councilman.

Another N. Korean threat

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea claimed Tuesday that it has successfully weaponized more plutonium for atomic bombs, a day after warning Washington to agree quickly to direct talks or face the prospect of a growing North Korean nuclear arsenal.

The announcement underlined Pyongyang’s impatience over securing one-on-one talks with Washington, as well as the difficulties in dealing with a regime that resorts to threats and provocations to get what it wants.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said North Korea had finished reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear-fuel rods, which experts say would provide enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least one more nuclear bomb.

Israeli general: Hamas rocket can reach Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM — Hamas militants in Gaza have successfully test-fired an Iranian rocket able to reach Israel’s largest urban center, the country’s military intelligence chief said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee that the rocket could fly 37 miles and strike metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported.

Until now, rockets fired from Gaza have reached up to 25 miles, putting one-eighth of Israel’s population within rocket range.

Yadlin said the rocket was fired in recent days, but no further details were immediately available from his testimony before the closed session.

Justice of peace resigns

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and the groom was black has resigned.

Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office spokesman Jacques Berry says Keith Bardwell’s resignation was effective Tuesday.

Bardwell refused to perform the ceremony for Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay because they are of different races.

Bardwell has acknowledged he routinely recuses himself from marrying interracial couples because he believes such marriages cause harm to the couples’ children.

Another justice of the peace eventually married the couple.

Humphrey and McKay have filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Bardwell.

Vatican defends review of US women’s orders

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican defended its review of U.S. women’s religious orders Tuesday amid criticism from the sisters that the process is secretive and amounts to a crackdown.

The Vatican ordered up the review in December, saying it wanted to study the quality of life of the 59,000 members in more than 400 Catholic women’s religious institutes amid a steep decline in their numbers.

But the sisters have both publicly and privately raised questions about the true aims of the study and whether it wasn’t really an investigation into whether they have strayed too far from church teaching.

Associated Press