I-5 bridge collapses in northwest Wash.

I-5 bridge collapses in northwest Wash.

MOUNT VERNON, Wash.

An Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the water, the Washington State Patrol said.

The four-lane bridge over the Skagit River collapsed about 7 p.m., Trooper Mark Francis said. There was no immediate estimate of how many people were in the water or whether there were any injuries or deaths, he said.

It also was not known what caused the collapse of the bridge about 60 miles north of Seattle in Skagit County, which stretches from North Cascades National Park to a cluster of islands off the coast.

Teen arrested in deaths of 2 brothers

west point, utah

A teenager was arrested Thursday in the deaths of his two younger brothers, age 4 and 10, at the family home in a Utah subdivision of new houses and tidy lawns, police said.

Authorities believe the boys died from knife wounds and that the 15-year-old boy acted alone in what appeared to be an unplanned attack, Davis County Sheriff Todd Richardson said.

The Associated Press withheld the name of the boy because of his age. He was being held at a juvenile detention center on suspicion of homicide. Formal charges have not been filed.

Suicide bombers kill at least 26 in Niger

niamey, niger

Suicide bombers in Niger detonated two car bombs simultaneously, one inside a military camp in the city of Agadez and another in the remote town of Arlit at a French-operated uranium mine, killing 26 people and injuring 30, according to officials in Niger and France.

A surviving attacker took a group of soldiers hostage Thursday, and authorities were attempting to negotiate their release.

Both attacks were claimed by a spinoff of al-Qaida, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa.

IRS replaces official

washington

Moving quickly to stem a raging controversy, the new acting head of the Internal Revenue Service started cleaning house Thursday by replacing the supervisor who oversaw agents involved in targeting tea-party groups.

A day after she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, Lois Lerner was placed on administrative leave, according to congressional sources.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said Lerner was asked to resign but refused, so she was placed on leave. Ken Corbin, a 27-year IRS veteran, will be the acting director of the agency’s exempt-organizations division.

Boston suspect under scrutiny in cases

waltham, mass.

A year and a half before the Boston Marathon bombing, the man Tamerlan Tsarnaev called his best friend died in a grisly crime: He was one of three men found nearly decapitated in an apartment, their throats slashed ear to ear, marijuana sprinkled over their bodies.

Now, in an offshoot of the marathon investigation, authorities are trying to determine whether the now-dead Tsarnaev had a hand in the unsolved triple slaying in this Boston suburb.

The direction of the investigation came into sharper focus Wednesday, when another friend of Tsarnaev’s, Ibragim Todashev, was shot to death in Orlando, Fla., after allegedly trying to attack an FBI agent while he was being interrogated.

Associated Press