Missouri executes man for killing 3

Missouri executes man for killing 3

BONNE TERRE, Mo.

A former methamphetamine dealer was executed Wednesday for killing three people in remote northern Missouri out of fear that they would report his drug activity to police.

John Middleton, 54, died Wednesday night from an injection of pentobarbital, the sixth execution in Missouri this year.

Middleton was convicted of killing Randy “Happy” Hamilton and Stacey Hodge in early June 1995, then Alfred Pinegar several days later. He maintained to the end that someone else was responsible for the slayings.

Court: Dutch liable for Srebrenica deaths

THE HAGUE, Netherlands

A court Wednesday ordered the Netherlands to compensate the families of more than 300 Bosnian Muslims killed after Dutch troops handed them over to Bosnian Serb forces in 1995, in a ruling that could make countries more leery to contribute troops to peacekeeping missions.

The civil court in The Hague cleared the Netherlands of liability in the massacre of nearly 8,000 others, saying that although those people sought protection in the U.N. safe haven of Srebrenica, they were never directly in the custody of the Dutch troops.

The ruling could be appealed, however, meaning it’s unlikely to resolve the Dutch national trauma over the country’s role in the worst massacre on European soil since World War II.

Man starts fire, was trying to kill spider

SEATTLE

A man who used a can of spray paint and a lighter as a makeshift blowtorch to kill a spider in his laundry room started a blaze that caused $60,000 worth of damage, Seattle fire officials said Wednesday.

The man and his mother got out of the house, and no injuries were reported in the fire that broke out in the West Seattle home Tuesday night, said Kyle Moore, a spokesman for the Seattle Fire Department.

As for the spider, Moore said: “I’m pretty sure the spider did not survive this fire. The whole wall went.”

Scientists transplant gene into pigs’ hearts to create pacemaker

WASHINGTON

No batteries required: Scientists are creating a biological pacemaker by injecting a gene into the hearts of sick pigs that changed ordinary cardiac cells into a special kind that induces a steady heartbeat.

The study, published Wednesday, is one step toward developing an alternative to electronic pacemakers that are implanted into 300,000 Americans a year.

“There are people who desperately need a pacemaker but can’t get one safely,” said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the work. “This development heralds a new era of gene therapy” that one day might offer them an option.

Typhoon kills 20

MANILA, Philippines

A typhoon blew out of the northern Philippines on Wednesday after causing at least 20 deaths, knocking out power in entire provinces, damaging two parked jetliners and forcing nearly half a million people to flee from its lethal wind and rains, officials said.

The eye of Typhoon Rammasun made a late shift away from Manila, but its peak winds of 93 miles per hour and gusts up to 115 mph forced down trees and electric posts and ripped off roofs across the capital of 12 million people that largely shut down ahead of the deluge.

Associated Press