5 die in crash of copter in Hawaii

5 die in crash of copter in Hawaii

HONOLULU

A helicopter taking four tourists on an excursion over West Maui and the neighboring island of Molokai crashed into a mountainside near an elementary school Thursday, killing all of the tourists and the pilot, authorities said.

Maui County spokesman Rod Antone said firefighters recovered four bodies and believe they found a fifth at the crash site on the eastern part of Molokai, but they were having trouble retrieving it under the wreckage.

Blue Hawaiian Helicopters owner David Chevalier confirmed that five people were dead. He said the passengers were two men and two women from the mainland U.S. They were taking a 45-minute tour that departed from Kahului, on Maui.

Soldier guilty in Afghan thrill-killings

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash.

A U.S. Army soldier accused of exhorting his bored underlings to slaughter three civilians for sport was convicted of murder, conspiracy and other charges Thursday in one of the most gruesome cases to emerge from the Afghan war.

Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, of Billings, Mont., was the highest-ranking of five soldiers charged in the deaths of the unarmed men during patrols in Kandahar province early last year. At his seven-day court martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, the 26-year-old acknowledged cutting fingers off corpses and yanking out a victim’s tooth to keep as war trophies, “like keeping the antlers off a deer you’d shoot.”

New advice on kids’ cholesterol testing

More children should be screened for high cholesterol before puberty, beyond those with a family history of problems, according to wide-ranging new guidelines expected from government-appointed experts who are trying to prevent heart disease later in life.

The new advice will be presented Sunday at an American Heart Association conference by some members of a panel for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Any call for wider screening is likely to raise concern about overdiagnosing a condition that may not cause problems for decades, if ever. Yet studies suggest that half of children with high cholesterol also will have it as adults, and it’s one of the best-known causes of clogged arteries that can lead to heart attacks.

Students text to say bus driver is drunk

PHILADELPHIA

A New Jersey bus driver has been charged with drunken driving after a middle school student texted home with “Mommy I think our bus driver is drunk she’s not driving right.”

Westampton police Sgt. Stephen Ent says Carole Crockett had a blood-alcohol level of 0.25 percent, five times the legal limit for operating a commercial vehicle.

Some of the 25 students on the bus called and texted their parents Tuesday afternoon to alert them.

The 46-year-old Crockett didn’t return a voice mail message Thursday. She was released on $85,000 bail.

21 killed across Syria, activists say

BEIRUT

Syrian security forces raided homes, and clashes erupted between soldiers and army defectors Thursday, killing at least 21 people across the country, including an 8-year-old girl and six soldiers, activists said.

In some of the attacks, security forces opened fire as they conducted raids in search of dissidents in areas including the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, Deir el-Zour, Hama and Homs, which has emerged as the epicenter of the uprising.

Associated Press