NYC man pleads guilty in boy’s death

NYC man pleads guilty in boy’s death

NEW YORK

Looking dazed and speaking barely above a whisper, a Brooklyn hardware store clerk pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he abducted and dismembered an 8-year-old boy who lost his way home.

The guilty plea to second-degree murder and kidnapping guarantees Levi Aron a sentence of 40 years to life in a case that traumatized the victim’s tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community.

Aron, 36, previously had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and, if convicted, would have faced life without parole. But the family of Leiby Kletzky urged prosecutors to strike a deal to avoid the painful spectacle of a trial.

China official’s wife doesn’t deny killing

HEFEI, China

Testimony in China’s most closely watched murder case in decades wrapped up within hours Thursday as the wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai stood accused of luring a British businessman to a hotel, getting him drunk and pouring poison into his mouth.

No verdict or sentence was announced immediately for Gu Kailai, who was tried with a household aide in the death of close family associate Neil Heywood. The defendants did not contest the murder charges. A guilty verdict is all but assured and could carry a death sentence.

Tropical storm makes landfall

VERACRUZ, Mexico

Tropical Storm Ernesto made landfall Thursday near the port city of Coatzacoalcos and moved inland while drenching Mexico’s southern Gulf, an area prone to flooding.

Ernesto came ashore after spinning across the far southern Gulf of Mexico in waters dotted with oil rigs operated by the state oil company. The government closed its largest Gulf coast port, Veracruz, and the smaller ports of Alvarado and Coatzacoalcos.

Coatzacoalcos, a major oil port, already had gotten 7 inches of rain in the 24 hours before Ernesto’s center passed just a few miles away, according to Mexico’s weather service. San Pedro in the neighboring state of Tabasco had seen more than 10 inches.

More drug-related violence in Mexico

MEXICO CITY

Fourteen bodies were found in a truck Thursday in the state of San Luis Potosi, at least 17 people have been killed since Sunday in the port of Acapulco and 12 others were reported killed in 24 hours in metropolitan Mexico City.

The string of bloody reports grabbed headlines in Mexico, reminding the public that drug-related violence continues unabated as the six-year mark approaches in the federal government’s declared war on drug cartels.

Calif. sues major veterans charity

SAN DIEGO

California’s attorney general has sued a major veterans charity on allegations that its directors misused millions of dollars in private donations for hefty pensions and other perks, including more than $80,000 in golf memberships for its board members.

Help Hospitalized Veterans of Winchester ranks among the nation’s top 1 percent of charities for the amount of money it reports raising annually. Prosecutors say the group — whose primary mission is to provide homebound and hospitalized veterans with arts and crafts kits — has reported more than $436 million in revenue since 2001.

At the same time, it has ranked for more than a decade at the bottom of lists by charity watchdog groups that rate nonprofit organizations based on their sound financial management and their abilities to use most of their donations toward their causes.

Combined dispatches