Man pleads guilty to killing agent

Man pleads guilty to killing agent

CLEVELAND

A Florida man pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated murder in the killing of an Ohio real-estate agent who was found dead in a vacant home that he was trying to sell.

Robert Grigelaitis, 59, was immediately sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. He was indicted earlier this week in the death of Andrew VonStein, a prominent local agent whose body was discovered Sept. 21 in a vacant home in a pleasant lakefront neighborhood near Kent State University, where he had sold homes for decades.

Fatal crashes with teen drivers fall

ATLANTA

Far fewer people are dying in car crashes with teens at the wheel, but it’s not because teenagers are driving more cautiously. Experts say laws are tougher, and cars and highways are safer.

Fatal car crashes involving teen drivers fell by about a third over five years, according to a new federal report that credits tougher restrictions on younger drivers.

The number of deaths tied to these accidents dropped from about 2,200 in 2004 to 1,400 in 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Study: Low dose of aspirin cuts cancer

LONDON

A low dose of aspirin may reduce colon-cancer cases by a quarter and deaths by a third, a new study found.

But experts say aspirin’s side effects of bleeding and stomach problems are too worrying for people who aren’t at high risk of the disease to start taking the drug for that reason alone.

At least 135 die in Haiti from illness

ST. MARC, Haiti

An outbreak of severe diarrhea in rural central Haiti has killed at least 135 people and sickened hundreds more who overwhelmed a crowded hospital Thursday seeking treatment.

Hundreds of patients lay on blankets in a parking lot outside St. Nicholas hospital in the port city of St. Marc with IVs in their arms for rehydration. As rain began to fall in the afternoon, nurses rushed to carry them inside.

Doctors were testing for cholera, typhoid and other illnesses in the Caribbean nation’s deadliest outbreak since a January earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.

Doctor: I learned of octuplets after birth

LOS ANGELES

The fertility doctor for “Octomom” Nadya Suleman said Thursday that she disappeared after he implanted her with 12 embryos, and he learned that she was having octuplets only after they were born.

Appearing overwhelmed with remorse, Dr. Michael Kamrava broke down in tears while giving testimony at his state medical-licensing hearing in Los Angeles.

The Beverly Hills fertility doctor said he thought he was doing the right thing when he gave in to Suleman’s demand that he implant 12 fresh embryos during her last appointment in July 2008. Kamrava said he suggested implanting only four embryos but obeyed her wishes.

Moon is wetter than previously thought

LOS ANGELES

The moon is much wetter and more chemically complicated than scientists had believed, according to data released Thursday by NASA.

Last year, after the space agency dropped a rocket into a frozen crater near the moon’s south pole and measured the stuff kicked up by the collision, scientists calculated that the crater contained about 25 gallons of water. But further analysis over the past 11 months indicates that the amount of water vapor and ice was closer to 41 gallons.

Combined dispatches