Ala. police kill suspects after separate shootings

Ala. police kill suspects after separate shootings

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

Police in Alabama have fatally shot two suspects after separate shooting sprees 75 miles apart that left several others, including two officers, wounded.

Authorities said 38-year-old Jason Letts of Jemison opened fire early Saturday at a hospital in Birmingham, wounding a police officer and two employees before being shot and killed by another officer.

In a separate incident, gunfire erupted in eastern Alabama between police and a suspect armed with an assault rifle.

Oxford police Lt. L.G. Owens told The Anniston Star that authorities chased the suspect after a shooting in Cleburne County on Saturday. The chase ended at a busy interchange near Interstate 20.

Police said SWAT team members shot and killed the suspect.

Castro visits Chavez daily after surgery

CARACAS, Venezuela

A Venezuelan government official says President Hugo Chavez has been receiving daily visits from former Cuban leader Fidel Castro while recovering from cancer surgery in Cuba.

Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Venezuelan television in a phone call from Havana that Castro has seen Chavez every day since Tuesday’s surgery.

Throughout his presidency, Chavez has had a close friendship with Castro, describing him as being like a father and mentor.

Arreaza says Chavez has been making “favorable” improvements since the surgery. He calls it a “process of stabilization.”

Arreaza is Chavez’s son-in-law and he says the president also has been with his children since the operation.

Monkey’s owner will go to court

TORONTO

The owner of a monkey who was found wandering in a Toronto Ikea parking lot last weekend is going to court to get him back.

Yasmin Nakhuda filed a motion with the Ontario Superior Court to have the Japanese macaque monkey named Darwin returned to her.

In a sworn affidavit, Nakhuda argues the tiny primate was illegally taken from her and moved to a primate sanctuary in Sunderland, Ontario, where he now lives. Her motion will be heard Thursday.

She says Darwin considers her his mother and had been living with her family.

Last weekend, the monkey captured attention by letting himself out of a parked car and ambling around the Ikea parking lot dressed in a fitted shearling coat.

He was captured by animal control officers, who fined Nakhuda for breaking a prohibited-animal regulation.

Elderly Mennonites attacked in home

LANCASTER, Pa.

Authorities in central Pennsylvania say three elderly Mennonite women were tied up and assaulted with a stun gun by a home invader who raged against their faith.

The Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era reports that the women, who are between 84 and 90 years old, remained hospitalized Saturday.

Police say the intruder posed as an insurance salesman Friday and was let into the Clay Township house.

They say the assailant ransacked the house, poured household chemicals on floors and furniture and read passages from a Bible the women had, then vandalized it.

Police say the suspect indicated he was once a Mennonite. WPMT-TV reports the man fled with cash and valuables.

The women were found several hours later by a relative who called the Northern Lancaster County Regional Police Department.

Associated Press