Exotic animals back on Zanesville farm

Exotic animals back on Zanesville farm

COLUMBUS

Five exotic animals are back on the eastern Ohio farm where they lived months ago before their owner released dozens of wild animals into the rural community, then killed himself.

The widow of Terry Thompson picked up two leopards, two primates and a bear from the Columbus Zoo on Friday and returned them to their former home in Zanesville where 50 animals — including black bears, mountain lions and Bengal tigers — were released Oct. 18.

US, China forge deal on activist

BEIJING

The U.S. and China forged the outlines of a deal Friday to end a diplomatic standoff over legal activist Chen Guangcheng that would let him travel to the U.S. with his family for a university fellowship.

After days of behind-the-scenes talks, reversals and emotional calls by Chen from a guarded hospital room, the U.S. and China made a series of announcements signaling a logjam had been broken.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Chen can apply for travel permits to study abroad. An American university has offered Chen a fellowship with provisions for his family, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding that the U.S. expects Beijing to quickly process their travel permits, after which U.S. visas would be granted.

23 people killed in Mexico border city

MEXICO CITY

Police found the bodies of 23 people, some hanging from a bridge and others decapitated, in an explosion of violence Friday in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, site of a brutal drug-cartel turf war.

Authorities found nine of the victims, including four women, hanging from an overpass leading to a main highway, said a Tamaulipas state official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hours later, police found 14 human heads inside coolers outside city hall along with a threatening note. The 14 bodies were found in black plastic bags inside a car abandoned near an international bridge, the official said.

‘Sexy’ lyric gets boy, 6, suspended

AURORA, Colo.

A 6-year-old boy was suspended from his suburban Denver school for three days after school officials said he told a girl, “I’m sexy and I know it,” a line from a popular song.

D’Avonte Meadows, a first-grader at Sable Elementary School in Aurora, is accused of sexual harassment and disrupting other students, according to a letter the school district sent to his mother after he was sent home Wednesday.

School officials issued a statement saying they couldn’t discuss the case, but they pointed out a school board policy that defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexual advance. There is no age limit.

Lawyer: Edwards aware of cash aid

GREENSBORO, N.C.

The lawyer for a wealthy heiress who provided secret payments intended to help John Edwards testified Friday that the former presidential candidate acknowledged the money had been given for his benefit.

Alex D. Forger said that Edwards’ then-lawyer Wade Smith told him in the fall of 2008 that the former candidate agreed that the $725,000 given by 101-year-old Rachel “Bunny” Mellon had been provided to help him. It wasn’t clear from Forger’s testimony at Edwards’ criminal trial precisely when Edwards learned about the checks given to his aide, Andrew Young.

Some of Mellon’s money was used to hide Edwards’ pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.

Associated Press