Neb. teen crowned Miss America

January 16, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

LAS VEGAS

A 17-year-old from Nebraska has beaten 52 opponents to win the 2011 Miss America crown on the pageant’s 90th anniversary.

Teresa Scanlan won a $50,000 scholarship and a yearlong run with the crown at the competition Saturday in Las Vegas.

Record $14 trillion debt weighs on DC

WASHINGTON

The United States just passed a dubious milestone: Government debt surged to an all-time high, topping $14 trillion — $45,300 for each and every person in the country. That means Congress soon will have to lift the legal debt limit to give the nearly maxed-out government an even higher credit limit or dramatically cut spending to stay within the current cap. Either way, a fight is ahead on Capitol Hill, inflamed by the passions of tea-party activists and deficit hawks.

Teen: Italian PM gave me $9,350

ROME

A teenager at the heart of the latest criminal probe of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday the billionaire media mogul gave her $9,350 when she came to a Valentine’s Day soiree at his villa but reiterated she didn’t have sex with him. Milan prosecutors were investigating whether Berlusconi paid for sex with an underage girl from Morocco and then abused his power in trying to cover up the encounters.

Toll of mudslides stands at 610

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil

Pointing at the cliff of crumbling red clay, Renato Motta de Lima described a landscape that now existed only in memory: here, his grandmother’s house; there, the church; below, a banana grove and the home of an aunt, uncle and the shy teenager who was his cousin. They and scores of neighbors from Cascata do Imbui lay buried underneath mud and debris at the bottom of the once-lush hillside, victims of massive mudslides that killed at least 610 people this week. Body parts were visible in the muck Saturday, with one hand jutting out from under a massive tree trunk as if reaching for help.

International envoys tour Iran nuke site

TEHRAN, Iran

Several international envoys — but crucially none from the world powers — got a look inside an Iranian nuclear site Saturday as part of a tour the Islamic Republic hopes will build support before a new round of talks on its disputed atomic activities. Iran is trying to sell the tour as a gesture of transparency ahead of the talks Thursday to Saturday in Istanbul, Turkey. In a blow to the effort, however, major powers Russia, China and the European Union refused the Iranian invitation. The EU said it should be up to inspectors from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency to verify whether Iran’s program is entirely peaceful.

Shooting victim arrested at meeting

TUCSON, Ariz

Authorities say one of the victims of the shooting rampage in Tucson has been arrested after he threatened a tea-party leader during a town- hall meeting for a television show.

James Eric Fuller, who was shot in the knee and the back, objected to something Trent Humphries said during the forum Saturday. Authorities say the 63-year-old Fuller took a picture of Humphries and yelled, “You’re dead.”

Pima County sheriff’s spokesman Jason Ogan says Fuller has been arrested on disorderly conduct and threat charges. Ogan says while Fuller was being escorted out, deputies decided he needed a mental- health evaluation, and he was taken to a hospital.

Associated Press