Police: Cafe shooter may have shot self

Police: Cafe shooter may have shot self

SEATTLE

A gunman killed four people in Seattle on Wednesday — three at a cafe and another in a carjacking — before he apparently shot himself as officers closed in after a citywide manhunt, authorities said.

He was listed in critical condition at a local hospital.

Police searching for the suspect in the first shooting near the University of Washington also had to respond to another fatal attack near the city’s downtown. They say a man killed a woman in an apparent carjacking and fled in a black SUV. Authorities later said they believe one man was responsible for both attacks.

PM’s ex-aide faces perjury charges

LONDON

The former top media adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron was arrested and charged with perjury Wednesday in the trial of a flamboyant ex-Scottish lawmaker — the latest case tied to allegations of wrongdoing by British tabloid newspapers.

Andy Coulson, 44, was detained by Scottish police at his home in London on Wednesday morning over an accusation related to testimony he gave in a high-profile case at Glasgow’s High Court in 2010, when politician Tommy Sheridan was himself convicted of offering a false account in a legal hearing.

Remnants of storm spin off tornado

CHARLESTON, S.C.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl spun off a tornado that destroyed three homes and damaged dozens of others near the North Carolina coast Wednesday as the system sped toward the Atlantic, authorities said.

Between 40 and 50 homes were damaged near Peletier in the western part of Carteret County, said county Emergency Services Director Jo Ann Smith. She said there were no reports of injuries.

FDA: No new name for corn syrup

NEW YORK

High-fructose corn syrup won’t get a wholesome new name after all.

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday rejected the Corn Refiners Association’s bid to rename its sweetening agent “corn sugar.”

Given the sweetener’s bad reputation in recent years, the association submitted an application to the agency in 2010 to have the product renamed on nutrition labels.

But the FDA said that it defines sugar as a solid, dried and crystallized food — not a syrup.

Poll: Most in Calif. oppose legalized pot

LOS ANGELES

In California, cradle of the marijuana movement, a new poll has found a majority of voters do not support legalization, even as they overwhelmingly back medicinal use for “patients with terminal and debilitating conditions.”

Eighty percent of voters support doctor- recommended use for severe illness, a University of Southern California Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found. But only 46 percent of respondents said they support legalization of “general or recreational use by adults,” while 50 percent oppose it.

Salmonella cases tied to chicks

ATLANTA

Those cute mail-order chicks that wind up in children’s Easter baskets and backyard farms have been linked to more than 300 cases of salmonella in the U.S. — mostly in youngsters — since 2004. An estimated 50 million live poultry are sold through the mail each year in the United States in a business that has been booming because of the growing popularity of backyard chicken farming as a hobby among people who like the idea of raising their own food.

Combined dispatches