House votes to repeal ‘don’t ask’

House votes to repeal ‘don’t ask’

washington

The House has voted to repeal the 1993 law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow gays to serve openly in the military.

The House vote Thursday came several hours after the Senate Armed Services Committee took the same course and approved a measure repealing the policy that prohibits service by gays who openly acknowledge their sexual orientation.

Republicans voted overwhelmingly against lifting the ban, saying Congress should wait until the Pentagon completes a review of the impact of a repeal on military life and readiness.

WWII hero dies

SAN DIEGO

Retired Navy Lt. John Finn, the oldest Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, died Thursday at a nursing home for veterans in Southern California. He was 100.

Finn enlisted in the Navy just before his 17th birthday and went on to become the first man to receive the nation’s highest military award for heroism during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, according to a Navy statement.

He was the oldest of 97 Medal of Honor recipients still living.

At least 15 die in blast on train

CALCUTTA, India

An overnight passenger train was derailed by an explosion then hit by another train early today as it traveled through a rebel stronghold of eastern India, a railway official said. A government official said at least 15 people had been killed and 150 injured.

The railway official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said 13 passenger cars on a train out of Calcutta were derailed by the explosion, in a rural area about 90 miles south of the city. At least some of those coaches were then hit by a cargo train coming from the other direction.

Mystery man ID’d

PORTLAND, Ore.

Authorities have identified an Oregon man who refused to reveal his true name to a federal judge after he was accused of assuming the name of a dead Ohio boy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacie Beckerman filed a motion in federal court Thursday identifying the man as Doitchin Krasev.

Beckerman said she could not release any other details.

The man claimed to be Jason Robert Evers, a boy who was kidnapped and killed in Cincinnati in 1982 at age 3. Another man was convicted of the murder and sent to prison.

Krasev was arrested in Idaho in April and charged with making a false statement on a passport application.

Woman wins $8M in tobacco lawsuit

NEW HAVEN, Conn.

A Connecticut smoker who developed larynx cancer has won $8 million in a lawsuit against a tobacco company, the first such jury verdict in New England, her attorney said Thursday.

David Golub, attorney for Barbara Izzarelli of Norwich, said Thursday a federal jury in Bridgeport made the award late Wednesday against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. after a two-week trial. He said a judge will decide additional punitive damages next month, which could bring the award to $24 million.

Actor Gary Coleman in critical condition

SALT LAKE CITY

Former child television star Gary Coleman is in critical condition near his Utah home, a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday.

Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said Coleman, 42, was admitted to the Provo facility Wednesday but she couldn’t release any other details.

Associated Press