Conservative sworn in as PM in Greece

Conservative sworn in as PM in Greece

athens

Greek conservative party head Antonis Samaras was sworn in as prime minister Wednesday at the helm of a three-party coalition that will uphold the country’s international bailout commitments.

The move ends a protracted political crisis that had cast grave doubt over Greece’s future in Europe’s joint currency and threatened to plunge the continent deeper into a financial crisis with global repercussions.

Attack kills 3 US soldiers, 18 Afghans

kabul

A suicide bomber killed 21 people including three U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in a packed market in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday — the third assault targeting Americans in as many days.

Wednesday’s attack took place in a marketplace in the city of Khost, near the Pakistani border and about 90 miles southeast of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The daily violence is threatening to undermine international hopes of an orderly handover to Afghan forces at the end of 2014.

People, animals flee Minnesota floods

duluth, minn.

Residents evacuated their homes, and animals escaped from pens at a zoo as floods fed by a steady torrential downpour struck northeastern Minnesota, inundating the city of Duluth, officials said Wednesday.

Police officers helped track down a polar bear that got out of its enclosure overnight at the low-lying Lake Superior Zoo, where several animals drowned.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness declared a state of emergency after the deluge of up to 9 inches of rain that he said caused extensive damage to the port city of about 86,000.

Split jury to return in Philly priest case

philadelphia

A stubbornly divided jury will have a day off to dwell on clergy-abuse charges pending against two Roman Catholic priests before returning for a 13th day of talks Friday.

Jurors deliberated for several hours Wednesday after telling a Philadelphia judge they were at an impasse on four of the case’s five charges. The panel won’t meet today because a juror has a family conflict, the judge said.

Jurors are weighing criminal charges against a priest and a church supervisor, the first U.S. church official charged over his handling of abuse complaints.

Monsignor William Lynn is charged with conspiracy and child endangerment for purportedly helping the church cover up abuse complaints within the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1992 to 2004.

The Rev. James Brennan is charged with trying to rape a 14-year-old boy.

Widow convicted in hotel heir’s killing

white plains, n.y.

A federal jury in New York has convicted a Florida woman of directing the killings of her hotel heir husband and his mother.

The jury issued its verdict Wednesday against Narcy Novack of Fort Lauderdale in the 2009 beating deaths of Ben Novack Jr. and Bernice Novack.

She was acquitted of charges that mentioned her husband’s murder, but convicted on charges of causing both deaths.

Her brother and co-defendant, Cristobal Veliz of Brooklyn, also was convicted.

Prosecutors said Novack and Veliz hired thugs to carry out the killings.

Ben Novack’s father built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach.

Associated Press