Authorities: Police killed Hofstra student

Authorities: Police killed Hofstra student

mineola, n.y.

A New York college student being held by an armed home intruder was shot and killed by a Nassau County police officer who had responded to a report of a home invasion at an off-campus home, police said Saturday.

Andrea Rebello was shot once in the head Friday morning by an officer who opened fire after the masked intruder, Dalton Smith, pointed a gun at the officer while holding the 21-year-old junior in a headlock, Nassau County homicide squad Lt. John Azzata said.

The Nassau County police officer fired eight shots at Smith, who has what police have described as an “extensive” criminal background, Azzata said. Smith was hit by seven bullets and died. Rebello was shot once in the head, Azzata said.

FBI searches site in ricin-letter case

spokane, wash.

Authorities in hazardous materials suits searched a downtown Spokane apartment Saturday, investigating the recent discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin.

Few details have been released in the case, and no arrests have been made. Federal investigators have been searching for the person who sent the letters, which were postmarked Tuesday in Spokane.

The letters were addressed to the downtown post office and the adjacent federal building, but authorities have not released a potential motive. They also have not said whether the letters targeted anyone in particular.

Assad: Transition talks are internal

beirut

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in a newspaper interview Saturday he won’t step down before elections and that the U.S. has no right to interfere in his country’s politics, raising new doubts about a U.S-Russian effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country’s civil war.

In the capital Damascus, a car bomb killed at least three people and wounded five, according to Syrian state TV. It said bomb experts dismantled other explosives in the area.

Pope, Merkel meet

vatican city

Pope Francis lamented that investment losses by banks trigger more alarm in the economic crisis than the struggle of people to feed their families, as he led a rally Saturday to boost the church’s moral conscience, hours after he had talks at the Vatican about the economic crisis with Germany’s leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Some 200,000 people from Europe, Asia and the pope’s native South America, filled St. Peter’s Square and nearby streets to join Francis in hours of prayer, music and speeches aimed at encouraging Catholics to strengthen their faith and making morality play a greater role in everyday life.

Boston police, city to review response

lowell, mass.

Boston’s police department and mayor’s office will conduct twin reviews of the response to last month’s bombing of the Boston Marathon, police commissioner Ed Davis said Saturday.

Davis said the aim of the reviews is to learn from the experience and prepare for the future.

Davis addressed reporters after delivering the commencement address at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The event occurred a little more than a month after the April 15 bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

Associated Press