43
Nation & World Digest || Storms kill 72 across the South
AP
Photo
Willie Hyde holds his grand daughter 2-years-old Sierra Goldsmith near where their house stood in Concord Ala., after what appeared to be a tornado ripped through parts of the town late Wednesday, April 27, 2011. The damage in the area is extensive with homes and businesses destroyed and people injured. (AP Photo/Birmingham News, Jeff Roberts)
AP
Photo
The remains of Hill's Carpet Center in Concord Ala., are seen after what appeared to be a tornado ripped through parts of the town late Wednesday, April 27, 2011. The damage in the area is extensive with homes and businesses destroyed and people injured. (AP Photo/Birmingham News, Jeff Roberts)
AP
Photo
Chief Fatah negotiator for the reconciliation talks Azzam al-Ahmed, left, sits next to Hamas leaders Moussa Abu Marzoug, center, and Mahmoud Al Zahar, right, during a news conference in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, April 27, 2011. Palestinians have reached initial agreement on reuniting their rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza, officials from both sides said Wednesday, a step that would remove a main obstacle in the way of peace efforts with Israel. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
AP
Photo
Palestinians wave flags and chant slogans in support of a reconciliation between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements, in Gaza City, Wednesday, April 27, 2011. Palestinians have reached initial agreement on reuniting their rival governments in the West Bank and Gaza, officials from both sides said Wednesday, a step that would remove a main obstacle in the way of peace efforts with Israel. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Storms kill 72 across the South
TUSCALOOSA, ALA.
A wave of tornado-spawning storms strafed the South on Wednesday, splintering buildings across hard-hit Alabama and killing 72 people in four states.
At least 58 people died in Alabama alone, including 15 or more when a massive tornado devastated Tuscaloosa. The mayor said sections of the city that’s home to the University of Alabama have been destroyed, and the city’s infrastructure is devastated.
Eleven deaths were reported in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
Afghan officer kills 8 American troops
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
A veteran Afghan military pilot said to be distressed over his personal finances opened fire at Kabul airport after an argument Wednesday, killing eight U.S. troops and an American civilian contractor.
Those killed were trainers and advisers for the nascent Afghan air force. The shooting was the deadliest attack by a member of the Afghan security forces, or an insurgent impersonating them, on coalition troops or Afghan soldiers or policemen. There have been seven such attacks so far this year.
Rival Palestinian factions end rift
GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP
Rival Palestinian groups said they reached an agreement Wednesday on reuniting their governments in the West Bank and Gaza after years of bitter infighting that weakened them politically and caused the deaths of hundreds in violent clashes and crackdowns since.
Even as the tentative agreement revived hopes among Palestinians that they might be able to form a unified front, unity between the rival groups Fatah and Hamas appeared unlikely to jump-start negotiations with Israel for an independent Palestinian state.
Israel swiftly rejected the prospect of a Palestinian government including Hamas, citing the militant group’s stated goal of destroying the Jewish state. The U.S. expressed similar concerns.
Teacher arrested, is subject of essay
A former high school band teacher in North Carolina was arrested on sex charges after a young woman wrote in an essay in her college newspaper that he got her pregnant — and took her to get an abortion — when she was his student.
The essay, “I had an affair with my high school teacher,” used some fake names but identified the Winston-Salem school, and the principal there tipped off authorities. It was originally written for a composition class at North Carolina Central University and appeared in the campus paper this month as part of an annual special section.
The teacher, Terry Lamar Jones, now 28, turned himself in on Monday and was charged with 64 felony counts of sex with a student, each one punishable by 15 months in prison. He was jailed on $500,000 bail.
DNA tests link leprosy, armadillos
LOS ANGELES
With some genetic sleuthing, scientists have fingered a likely culprit in the spread of leprosy in the southern United States: the nine-banded armadillo.
DNA tests show a match in the leprosy strain between some patients and these prehistoric-looking critters — a connection scientists had suspected but until now couldn’t pin down.
Armadillos are one of the very few mammals that harbor the bacteria that cause the sometimes disfiguring disease, which first shows up as an unusual lumpy skin lesion.
Associated Press