Lava on course to hit shopping center

Lava on course to hit shopping center

HONOLULU

Lava from a volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island is on course to reach a shopping center with a gas station and a supermarket in seven to 10 days, officials said Monday.

Lava is about 1 mile from the shopping center in the small town of Pahoa, said Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira. The shopping center also contains a hardware store, pharmacy and auto-repair shop.

There’s still a great deal of uncertainty about when the lava might reach the center and what it could hit. The lava could smother one structure in the complex or cover them all, he said.

Newtown victims’ kin sue rifle maker

HARTFORD, Conn.

The families of nine people killed in the Newtown school massacre filed a lawsuit against the maker and sellers of the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle used in the shooting, saying the gun should not have been sold for civilian use because of its overwhelming firepower.

The lawsuit alleging wrongful death and negligence was filed in state court and announced Monday — the day after the second anniversary of the shooting, which left 20 children and six educators dead and became a rallying point for gun-control efforts.

In addition to Bushmaster, the defendants are Camfour, a firearm distributor, and Riverview Gun Sales, the now-closed East Windsor store where the gunman’s mother purchased the Bushmaster rifle in 2010.

Navajos buy back artifacts at auction

PARIS

The largest Native American tribe in the American Southwest won its bid Monday to buy back seven sacred masks at a contested auction of tribal artifacts in Paris that netted over a million dollars.

The objects for sale at the Drouot auction house included religious masks, colored in pigment, that are believed to have been used in Navajo wintertime healing ceremonies but that generally are disassembled and returned to the earth once the nine-day ceremonies conclude.

The sale went ahead despite efforts by the U.S. government and Arizona’s congressional delegation to halt it.

The sales at the auction — which totaled $1.12 million — also included dozens of Hopi kachina dolls and several striking Pueblo masks embellished with horse hair, bone and feathers, thought to be from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

NY bans tattoos, piercings on pets

ALBANY, N.Y.

Body art is not for animals, at least not in New York.

It will soon be a crime to pierce or tattoo your companion animal anywhere in the state.

The law signed Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo takes effect in 120 days.

There’s an exception for markings done under a veterinarian’s supervision for a medical reason or identification. The law also doesn’t apply to ear tags on rabbits and guinea pigs.

Penalties for violations range up to 15 days in jail and fines up to $250, according to the governor’s office.

UN: Syria parties killing civilians

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. humanitarian chief accused the warring parties in Syria on Monday of ignoring Security Council demands to protect civilians, citing a doubling of the number of people killed from 100,000 in February to close to 200,000 today and around 1 million injured.

Valerie Amos told the Security Council on Monday that “brutality, violence and callous disregard for human life” have become hallmarks of the conflict that began in March 2011, and the international community “has become numb to its impact.”

Associated Press