newsmakers

newsmakers

Documentary series on Latino Americans

NEW YORK

PBS will air a six-hour documentary series on the history of Latinos in the United States.

The network said Wednesday the documentary, which has been in the works since 2008, will air in the fall of 2013. English and Spanish-language versions are being produced.

The history of Mexican-Americans takes up a large part of the series, but the stories of Latinos who have come to the U.S. from several other countries also are included. Adriana Bosch, a Cuban-American who recently did a documentary for PBS on Latin music, is the supervising producer of the history series.

The Washington-based PBS station WETA and Latino Public Broadcasting also are behind the series.

UK police: 6 arrested in Chinese art thefts

LONDON

Police in Britain have made a total of six arrests in the theft of valuable Chinese artifacts from two university museums, authorities said Wednesday.

In the industrial central-England town of Walsall, police arrested two men and two women suspected of being behind the April 5 theft of a valuable jade bowl and an elaborate porcelain figurine from Durham University’s Oriental Museum.

In London, police arrested two men suspected of being behind the April 13 theft of 18 rare and mostly jade Chinese artifacts from Cambridge University’s Fitzwilliam Museum.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the thefts were related.

The London arrests occurred Wednesday, while the central-England arrests occurred Tuesday.

The arrests were announced after police appealed for help on the television program “Crimewatch” on Tuesday evening. Police still are hunting for a seventh suspect in the Durham theft.

Teen charged in theft of chef’s Lamborghini

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.

Authorities say a California teen charged in a drive-by shooting and the theft of a celebrity chef’s Lamborghini kept an arsenal that included assault rifles, phone-jamming equipment and a police uniform.

Court documents show that the items were stashed in a storage locker rented by 17-year-old Max Wade. That’s where authorities found a motorcycle linked to the April 13 shooting and the yellow Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder owned by chef Guy Fieri.

Investigators say Wade fired five shots at two teens sitting in a pickup truck in Marin County. Neither was seriously hurt.

Wade is being held on $2 million bail after being charged as an adult Tuesday with attempted murder, vehicle theft and other counts.

Investigators are still looking into how Wade obtained the weapons and whether he had accomplices.

Blaze hits backlot at Tyler Perry studios

ATLANTA

Investigators were trying Wednesday to find the cause of a fire that ripped through a simulated streetscape at Tyler Perry’s Atlanta studios, sending flames soaring into the night sky.

There were no reports of injuries from the blaze that began shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday and burned through the exterior facade of a large building, Atlanta fire Capt. Jolyon Bundrige said.

“It was all in flames,” Dorothy Ware, who lives in a high-rise apartment next door to the studio complex, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Flames shot as high as nearby trees, which are about as high as a six-story building, Ware said.

“The building started popping,” Ware said. “Whatever the fire was hitting was blowing up. There were plenty of sparks coming over here where we are.”

More than 100 firefighters responded to the four-alarm blaze.

Vindicator wire services