WORLD DIGEST || 5 US troops die in helicopter crash

5 US troops die in helicopter crash

KABUL

A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has killed five American service members, officials said Tuesday.

Monday night’s crash brought the total number of U.S. troops killed that day to seven, making it the deadliest day for U.S. forces so far this year. Two U.S. special-operations forces were gunned down hours earlier in an insider attack by an Afghan policeman in eastern Afghanistan.

The NATO military coalition said in a statement that initial reports showed no enemy activity in the area at the time. The cause of the crash is under investigation, the statement said.

Panel OKs 70 mph on rural interstates

COLUMBUS

Ohio senators are speeding forward on a measure that would increase Ohio’s speed limit to 70 mph.

The higher limit on non-urban interstate highways passed a key committee vote Tuesday. Raising the limit would bring the transportation-heavy state in line with all but 16 other states that limit nontruck drivers in rural areas to 65 mph or less.

The legislation still requires a full Senate vote and a sign-off by the House.

Kasich adviser is new schools chief

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s state school board picked Republican Gov. John Kasich’s top education adviser Tuesday as the new superintendent of public instruction.

Richard Ross was chosen over acting Superintendent Michael Sawyers by a 10-6 vote of the state Board of Education, with Kasich appointees dominating Ross supporters.

Man convicted in Craigslist deaths

AKRON

A self-styled street preacher accused of teaming up with a high-school student in a deadly plot to lure men with Craigslist job offers and then rob them was found guilty Tuesday of aggravated murder and could face the death penalty.

A jury in Akron returned the verdict in the case against Richard Beasley, who was charged with killing two men from Ohio and one from Norfolk, Va. A man from South Carolina was shot but survived and testified about running for his life and hiding in the woods, scared he would bleed to death.

Senate panel OKs background checks

WASHINGTON

Democrats gave a boost Tuesday to the pillar of President Barack Obama’s plans for reducing gun violence, pushing a bill requiring nearly universal federal background checks for firearms buyers through the Senate Judiciary Committee over solid Republican opposition.

The proposal still faces a difficult path through Congress, where GOP lawmakers say it would have little impact on crime and warn that it is a precursor to a federal registry of gun owners. Such a listing is forbidden by federal law and is anathema to conservatives and the National Rifle Association.

Ahmadinejad under fire for hug

TEHRAN, Iran

Senior Iranian clerics have scolded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for consoling Hugo Chavez’s mother with a hug — a physical contact considered a sin under Iran’s strict Islamic codes.

The rebuke follows a widely published photo showing Ahmadinejad embracing Chavez’s mother at the funeral of the late Venezuelan president.

Iranian papers Tuesday cited clerics from the religious center of Qom who described the hug as “forbidden, “inappropriate behavior and “clowning around.”

Iran’s strict Islamic codes prohibit physical contact between unrelated members of the opposite sex.

Associated Press