Pollen is worst in years across US

Pollen is worst in years across US

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

Pollen: It’s on your car, in the air and especially in your sinuses.

From Florida to Texas to Colorado, 2010 is shaping up to be a monster of an allergy season. The words “pollen” and “allergy” are among the top 10 trending topics on Twitter in several U.S. cities. Experts say it’s the worst they’ve seen in years in many areas.

‘Munchkin coroner’ dies at age 94

Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner in “The Wizard of Oz” and proclaimed in the movie that the Wicked Witch of the East was “really most sincerely dead,” has died. He was 94.

His caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, said Raabe died Friday morning at a hospital in Orange Park, Fla. He was one of the few surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film.

Raabe was one of the 124 Munchkins in the film classic and one of only nine who had speaking parts.

Mall shooting kills 1

MUSKOGEE, Okla.

Police say a shooting inside a crowded Oklahoma mall has left one person dead and several injured in what witnesses described as a gunfight.

Gunfire broke out late Saturday afternoon in the Arrowhead Mall in downtown Muskogee.

Police spokesman Pedro Zardeneta says it’s unclear whether the person killed was among several involved in the shooting or a bystander.

Romney wins poll at GOP conference

NEW ORLEANS

Mitt Romney didn’t attend the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans but still got a boost from those at the conference.

The former Massachusetts governor won a test vote of likely 2012 presidential candidates — by one vote. He got 439.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul came in second with 438 votes, followed by Sarah Palin with 330 and Newt Gingrich with 321.

The results mean little to nothing. Conference staffers put names on the ballot of people they thought were likely to run, and many Republicans considering a bid were left off the list.

Mother: Bride, 13, was tied up, raped

SHUEBA, Yemen

A 13-year-old Yemeni child bride who bled to death shortly after marriage was tied down and forced to have sex by her husband, according to interviews with the child’s mother, police and medical reports.

The girl’s mother, Nijma Ahmed, 50, told The Associated Press that before her daughter lost consciousness, she said that her husband had tied her up and forced himself on her.

Elham Assi, 13, bled to death hours after she spoke to her mother and just days after she was married to a 23-year-old man. Her husband, Abed al-Hikmi, is in police custody.

The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen.

Judge OKs deal in ’80s infant deaths

DALLAS

A judge has approved a $110 million class-action settlement in a case involving a vitamin supplement linked to the deaths of dozens of premature infants in the 1980s.

A U.S. district judge in Texas approved the settlement Friday against the manufacturer and distributor of E-Ferol.

The intravenous vitamin E supplement was administered without federal approval as a way to prevent or reduce blindness in premature babies. Federal officials have linked it to 40 deaths.

Associated Press