Turkey threatens action after Syria downs jet

Turkey threatens action after Syria downs jet

ankara, turkey

Syria said Saturday it shot down a Turkish reconnaissance plane because the plane entered its airspace, insisting it was “not an attack” as both sides desperately tried to de-escalate the episode before it exploded into a regional conflagration.

Turkey threatened to retaliate but did not say what action it would take as it searched for the aircraft’s two missing pilots.

The downed plane heightened tensions between two countries that had been allies before Syria’s 15-month violent uprising, and signaled that the violence gripping Syria is increasingly bleeding outside its borders.

Tropical Storm Debby forms in the Gulf

miami

Tropical Storm Debby formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, interfering with oil and gas production and putting officials on alert for flooding and strong winds from Texas to Florida.

At least one tornado linked to the storm touched down in southwest Florida, but no injuries were reported. The storm’s outer rain bands were pounding parts of the state. The center of Debby was expected to linger over the northern Gulf during the next few days with no landfall in the immediate forecast.

It was the first time four tropical storms have been recorded before July 1 during the Atlantic hurricane season since record keeping began in 1851.

Bullying of bus monitor shows behavior change

The bullying that bus monitor Karen Klein endured on a ride home from an upstate New York school was painful and egregious, but also shows how student harassment of teachers and administrators has become more spiteful and damaging in the online era.

Much attention has been paid to students who bully students in class, after school and on the Internet. Less has been given to equally disturbing behavior by students who harass instructors, principals and other adults.

It’s something that’s long existed; think ganging up on the substitute teacher. But it has become increasingly cruel and even dangerous as students get access to advanced technology at earlier ages.

Police: Hotel shootings were murder-suicide

beverly hills, calif.

Two people have been found dead in what investigators believe was a murder-suicide at the Beverly Hilton, just hours before the Daytime Emmy Awards were taking place at the posh hotel, police said Saturday.

Police responding to a report of a shooting late Friday found a man and a woman dead from gunshot wounds in a hotel room, Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said.

Police would give no other details on the two people, their relationship, or the circumstancesSFlbof the shooting. Coroner’s officials said they were a man in his late 60s and a woman in her mid-50s.

American Crystal union workers reject contract

fargo, n.d.

Locked-out union employees at American Crystal Sugar Co. rejected the company’s contract proposal a third time Saturday in a nearly 11-month dispute that focuses on seniority and job security.

The union announced that 63 percent of voters opted against the latest offer. Union employees said Crystal was out to break the union, while the company has said it offered a good contract with substantial increases in wages and benefits.

32-pound 10-year-old found locked in closet

kansas city, mo.

A Kansas City woman was charged Saturday with abusing her 10-year-old daughter who weighed just 32 pounds when she was found locked in a closet that reeked of urine.

The 29-year-old woman faces charges of assault and child abuse and endangerment in Jackson County Circuit Court. The Associated Press is not naming the mother to protect the child’s identity. Prosecutors are requesting that bond be set at $200,000.

Officers freed the girl after responding Friday morning to a call to a child-abuse hot line. Neighbors told police that they didn’t know the malnourished child taken from the public housing complex even lived there.

The girl was transported to a Children’s Mercy Hospital, where she was diagnosed with multiple skin injuries. Hospital staff said she had gained just 6 pounds since she last was at the hospital six years earlier.

Associated Press