Beirut bomb kills 18

Beirut bomb kills 18

BEIRUT

A powerful car bomb tore through a bustling south Beirut neighborhood that is a stronghold of Hezbollah on Thursday, killing at least 18 and trapping dozens of others in an inferno of burning cars and buildings in the bloodiest attack yet on Lebanese civilians linked to Syria’s civil war.

The blast is the second in just over a month to hit one of the Shiite militant group’s bastions of support, and the deadliest in decades. It raises the specter of a sharply divided Lebanon being pulled further into the conflict next door, which is being fought on increasingly sectarian lines pitting Sunnis against Shiites.

Boy dies; swallowed detergent packet

MIAMI

A 7-month-old Florida boy has died after swallowing a candy-colored liquid laundry packet, raising concerns about the access that young children have to the increasingly popular products.

The Florida Poison Information Center says the boy’s death may be the first in the U.S. involving young children who were exposed to chemicals in concentrated laundry packets since May 2012, when the center first received an exposure report. The center says it has received almost 300 exposure reports so far this year.

NTSB: No engine failure in UPS crash

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

Federal investigators found no initial evidence that a UPS cargo jet suffered engine failure or was burning before it clipped trees at the end of a runway and slammed into a hillside, killing the two crew members onboard, officials said Thursday.

UPS on Thursday night identified the victims as Capt. Cerea Beal, Jr., 58, of Matthews, N.C., and First Officer Shanda Fanning, 37, of Lynchburg, Tenn. In an email, the company said the Jefferson County, Ala., medical examiner had confirmed their identities

Carter ally Lance dies in Ga. at 82

CALHOUN, Ga.

Bert Lance, a Georgia banker and close ally of former President Jimmy Carter who served as his first budget director before departing amid an investigation of his bank’s lending practices, has died. He was 82.

Gordon County, Ga., deputy coroner Heath Derryberry said Lance died Thursday night in northwest Georgia. He said Lance had struggled recently with unspecified health problems, though authorities were unsure of his cause of death.

Romanian princess in cockfighting case

GRANTS PASS, Ore.

A Romanian princess and her husband, a former deputy sheriff, apparently are among several people federal agents arrested in Eastern Oregon on Thursday in connection with a purported cockfighting ring.

Indictments unsealed in U.S. District Court in Portland charge Irina Walker, 60, and her husband John Wesley Walker, 67, with hosting cockfighting derbies and illegal gambling at their ranch outside the small Morrow County town of Irrigon.

Federal prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the ranch, listed in state incorporation records as Stokes Landing Sport Horses. There was no answer to phone calls to the Walker home and the business, and it’s unclear if it is still in operation.

The Oregonian newspaper identified Irina Walker, also known as Irina Kreuger, as a daughter of the last king of Romania. Personnel records show John Wesley Walker was a Coos County deputy sheriff from 1998 to 2003.

Associated Press