Rallies across US decry deportation

Rallies across US decry deportation

PHOENIX

Immigration advocates and supporters rallied Saturday in cities across the country in a renewed effort to push President Barack Obama to put a freeze on deportations.

Organizers of the more than 50 planned “Day of Action” demonstrations said Obama has the executive power to stop deportations that separate immigrants living in the country illegally from their loved ones.

In Eloy, Ariz., more than 100 supporters converged in front of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center after journeying more than 60 miles from Phoenix.

Natally Cruz, an organizer with the grass-roots group Puente Arizona, said many of the people in attendance have relatives who have been inside the facility for more than a year.

23 killed in feud in southern Egypt

LUXOR, Egypt

A bloody feud in southern Egypt between an Arab clan and a Nubian family killed at least 23 people in two days of fighting, leaving bodies strewn on hospital floors and homes torched in its wake, government officials and witnesses said Saturday.

An Interior Ministry statement said the fighting in Aswan province erupted over the harassment of a girl, and students from the two sides later spray offensive graffiti at a local school. Vendetta killings are common in southern Egypt, where perceived violations of honor often spark violence, but this violence apparently raged while security forces did nothing to stop it.

Writer Matthiessen dies at age 86

NEW YORK

Peter Matthiessen, a rich man’s son who spurned a life of ease in favor of physical and spiritual challenges and produced such acclaimed works as “The Snow Leopard” and “At Play in the Fields of the Lord,” died Saturday. He was 86.

His publisher Geoff Kloske of Riverhead Books said Matthiessen, who had been diagnosed with leukemia, was ill “for some months.” He died at a hospital near his home on Long Island.

Matthiessen helped found The Paris Review, one of the most influential literary magazines, and won National Book Awards for “The Snow Leopard,” his spiritual account of the Himalayas, and for “Shadow Country.” His new novel, “In Paradise,” is scheduled for publication Tuesday.

Dahmer home for sale near Akron

BATH, Ohio

The house where serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer grew up and committed his first murder is for sale again.

Situated on a private wooded lot in a wealthy neighborhood near Akron, the three-bedroom home is priced at $295,000.

The home first was listed two years ago before being pulled off the market. Realtor Rich Lubinski said it failed to sell then because of the depressed housing market and its notorious past.

2 arrested in attack

DETROIT

Two Detroit teenagers were arrested Saturday in an attack on a suburban man who was brutally beaten by a mob after accidentally striking a boy with his pickup truck.

Investigators believe the 17-year-old and 16-year-old males had a direct role in the beating of Steve Utash, said Sgt. Mike Woody, a Detroit police spokesman.

Utash remained in critical condition Saturday, three days after the attack on the city’s east side.

The case has outraged the public, clergy and elected officials. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called the attack “senseless.”

Utash, 54, of Clinton Township accidentally struck a 10-year-old boy with his pickup Wednesday. A mob swarmed him as he checked the boy, whose injuries were not life-threatening.

Associated Press