Pa. Lottery deal

Pa. Lottery deal

HARRISBURG, Pa.

The Corbett administration in Pennsylvania has persuaded a British firm to keep alive its bid to run the Pennsylvania Lottery past a Saturday expiration deadline, gaining time to try to overcome a ruling by the state attorney general rejecting the privatization deal as unlawful.

The firm has agreed to keep the bid valid until next Friday, Elizabeth Brassell, spokeswoman for the state revenue department, said Saturday evening.

The change was necessary because just over a week ago state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, whose office reviews all state contracts for their legality, rejected the administration’s deal with Camelot Global Services as running afoul of the state constitution.

Bomb blast kills 65

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

A bomb blast killed at least 65 people in the southwest city of Quetta on Saturday in what appeared to be the latest episode of sectarian violence against the country’s beleaguered Shiite Muslim minority.

The explosion occurred near a market crowded with shoppers in a Shiite- dominated neighborhood, local and federal government officials said. Women and children were among the dead, police said, and at least 175 more people were injured, some critically.

Obama golf outing

PALM CITY, Fla.

Faced with a long weekend in an empty White House, President Barack Obama figured he needed a getaway, too, so he put together a golf outing with some buddies.

Not at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland or at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, two Washington-area military posts where he’s a regular on their courses.

Instead, he went south, to Florida, to spend the long Presidents Day weekend staying and playing at the Floridian, an exclusive and secluded yacht and golf club on the state’s Treasure Coast. He arrived Friday night after a speech in Chicago and wasn’t expected to be seen again in public until he returns to Washington on Monday.

Christians arrested

TRIPOLI, Libya

Four foreigners were arrested in Libya on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing, a Libyan police spokesman said Saturday.

Police spokesman Hussein bin Hamid said the suspects were from South Africa, Egypt and South Korea, and one held both Swedish and U.S. nationality. The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed that a dual national Swedish-American citizen was arrested while traveling on a U.S. passport. The U.S. Embassy in Libya declined to comment.

Spreading Christianity is a crime in the predominantly Muslim North African county.

Mom: Man slapped boy, 2, on plane

MINNEAPOLIS

A Minneapolis woman says her 2-year-old son was traumatized by a man accused of slapping the boy and calling him a racial slur during an Atlanta-bound flight.

The boy’s mother, Jessica Bennett, said in a statement Saturday that her son has become “apprehensive to strangers” since the Feb. 8 flight from Minneapolis.

Joe Rickey Hundley, of Hayden, Idaho, has been charged with simple assault. His attorney said he will plead not guilty.

Bennett, 33, told authorities her son was crying as the Delta Air Lines flight prepared for landing. Hundley, 60, was sitting next to her and slapped the boy in his face, causing a scratch under his right eye, she said.

Hundley “told her to shut that [N-word] baby up,” FBI special agent Daron Cheney said in a sworn statement.

Hundley was suspended from his job as president of Unitech Composites and Structures, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Combined dispatches