Coast Guard sinks Japanese ghost ship

Coast Guard sinks Japanese ghost ship

OVER THE GULF OF ALASKA

The U.S. Coast Guard says a Japanese vessel set adrift by last year’s tsunami has sunk in the Gulf of Alaska, ending its long, lonely voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow in Juneau said the ship sank about four hours after a Coast Guard cutter unleashed cannon fire at the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru on Thursday. It burst into flames and took on water, and after a few hours, the cutter fired larger ammunition to finish the job.

The Japanese ship was dislodged by last year’s tsunami. It was destined for scrapping when the Japan earthquake struck.

Bennett could take over Ohio GOP

COLUMBUS

One of the most successful and longest- serving Republican Party chairmen in Ohio could return to the job, now that the current state chairman has announced he’s stepping down next week amid bitter party infighting with Republican Gov. John Kasich.

Bob Bennett has indicated a willingness to take over for Ohio Republican Party chairman Kevin DeWine, said Doug Preisse, a Kasich ally and chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party.

Sales of painkillers soar; experts worry

NEW YORK

Sales of the nation’s two most popular prescription painkillers have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve patients’ suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic.

From New York’s Staten Island to Santa Fe, N.M., Drug Enforcement Administration figures show dramatic rises between 2000 and 2010 in the distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan. Some places saw sales increase sixteenfold.

Meanwhile, the distribution of hydrocodone, the key ingredient in Vicodin, Norco and Lortab, is rising in Appalachia, the original epicenter of the painkiller epidemic, as well as in the Midwest.

The increases have coincided with a wave of overdose deaths, pharmacy robberies and other problems in New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Florida and other states.

UN chief: Syria crisis getting worse

UNITED NATIONS

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday the crisis in Syria is getting worse and claiming more lives every day even though President Bashar Assad’s government insists it is withdrawing troops ahead of a U.N. deadline to end the violence.

The U.N. chief appealed to Assad “to show vision and leadership” and keep his pledge to pull troops and heavy weapons out of cities and towns by Tuesday, and he urged the opposition to be ready to stop all violence if the Syrian government meets the deadline.

Report: Ohio man confesses killing

MECHANICSBURG, Ohio

A man accused of stabbing his on-again, off-again girlfriend, suffocating her and dismembering her body told a newspaper that she begged him to kill her after he confronted her about text messages she’d sent saying she wanted him dead.

In the jailhouse interview with the Dayton Daily News, a choked-up Matthew Puccio also said Jessica Sacco told him she still loves him, said she’s sorry and asked for a last kiss before allowing him to suffocate her in the duplex apartment they shared in Urbana, in western Ohio. He told the newspaper he plans to plead guilty and deserves the death penalty.

Remains of Sacco, 21, were found in their bathtub March 30, eight days after authorities believe she died.

Associated Press