Royal Mint issues John Lennon coin

Royal Mint issues John Lennon coin

LONDON

Most British coins bear the likeness of Queen Elizabeth II — but now she’s been joined by John Lennon, honored Friday with a commemorative coin struck by the Royal Mint. It was a triumph for Beatles fans, who used e-mail voting and social networks to buttress support for Lennon in a public poll to determine whose face should be on the special coin.

Lennon — whose songwriting credits include “Imagine” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” — came out far ahead of author Jane Austen and several other figures in the balloting.

Arrest in revenge beating of priest

SAN JOSE, Calif.

A man who allegedly was molested three decades ago by a priest attacked the retired clergyman in the lobby of his retirement home after pretending to be there to deliver news of a family member’s death.

Santa Clara County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Rick Sung said Friday that 43-year-old William Lynch was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for the May attack on Rev. Jerold Lindner, 65.

Lynch was being freed on $25,000 bail. He will plead not guilty.

Lindner never was charged with abuse and denies the allegations.

Suicide bomber kills 21 in Iraq

BAGHDAD

A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt killed at least 21 people, mostly Shiites, on Friday in a town north of Baghdad, shattering what had been weeks of relative calm, the town’s mayor said.

The blast in the town of Balad Ruz emphasizes the delicate nature of Iraq’s security gains and comes as the country is approaching its eighth month without a new government since the March elections.

US, Russia team up in Afghan drug bust

KABUL

Russian counternarcotics agents teamed up with U.S. and Afghan forces in an unprecedented joint raid that destroyed nearly $56 million worth of heroin near the Pakistani border, officials said Friday.

The seizure of four drug labs nestled in thick vegetation along a dusty gray moonscape in Nangarhar province came less than a week after Russia’s anti- narcotics chief accused the U.S. of failing to dismantle such labs and slow down the flow of heroin into Russia.

4-year-old can be sued, judge rules

NEW YORK

She might have been too young for grade school, but a judge says a New York City girl was old enough to be sued over a bicycle accident that happened when she was 4.

A Manhattan judge refused earlier this month to toss out negligence claims against Juliet Breitman. She, her mother and others are being sued by the estate of a woman who said she was severely hurt when hit by bicycles that Juliet and a boy were racing down a sidewalk in April 2009.

The woman, Claire Menagh, died later that year.

Juliet was three months shy of 5. The judge says there’s no evidence a child of that age couldn’t appreciate “the danger of riding a bicycle into an elderly woman.”

Associated Press