Algerian to replace Annan in Syria

Algerian to replace Annan in Syria

UNITED NATIONS

Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and longtime U.N. diplomat known as a strong-willed, independent broker, has agreed to replace former Secretary-General Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria, the United Nations announced Friday.

Brahimi, who served as a U.N. envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq, formally accepted the post and will resume efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s crisis, said Eduardo del Buey, deputy spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Top school sent false ranking data

Prestigious Emory University intentionally misreported student data to rankings magazines for more than a decade, the Atlanta school disclosed Friday, adding its high-profile name to a growing list of institutions caught up in scandals over rankings pressure.

As far back as 2000, Emory’s admissions and institutional research offices overstated SAT and ACT scores by reporting the higher average tallies of admitted students, rather than those enrolled, as is required, president Jim Wagner announced in a letter to the university community. Those figures were reported to organizations including college rankers, the most prominent of which is US News & World Report.

Charges against Kan. clinic dropped

TOPEKA, Kan.

A Kansas prosecutor on Friday dropped all remaining criminal charges against a Kansas City-area Planned Parenthood clinic accused of performing illegal abortions, ending what was believed to be the first attempt in the U.S. to prosecute a facility affiliated with the group.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced that 32 misdemeanor charges against the clinic had been dismissed. Those charges were the last part of a criminal case filed in 2007 by Howe’s predecessor. Howe said his decision to end the case came after consulting Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. All three are Republicans.

Melons linked to salmonella cases

Health officials in Indiana and Kentucky say they are investigating farms, distributors and retailers after an outbreak of salmonella that has killed two and sickened at least 141 people nationwide was linked to cantaloupe grown in southwestern Indiana.

Officials Friday advised all Indiana residents to discard cantaloupes purchased since July 7.

The Kentucky Department of Public Health warned people not to eat the cantaloupes. Tests found the fruit carried the same strain of salmonella that has killed two and sickened more than 50 in Kentucky.

Man, 83, guilty of killing roommate, 94

LAGUNA WOODS, Calif.

An 83-year-old man has been convicted in the beating death of his 94-year-old roommate at a California health-care facility, an attack prosecutors say was triggered by the older man’s singing.

A district attorney’s statement says William Leo McDougall was convicted Friday in Orange County Superior Court.

McDougall and Manh Van Nguyen were both recovering from hip surgery at Palm Terrace Healthcare Center in Laguna Woods on Oct. 1, 2010.

Prosecutors say McDougall got mad because Nguyen was singing in Vietnamese, so he took a wooden rod from the closet and hit his roommate repeatedly in the head.

A nurse stopped the attack, but Nguyen later died due to blunt-force trauma.

McDougall will be sentenced Oct. 26.

Associated Press