Police: Texas woman helped starve boy

Police: Texas woman helped starve boy

DALLAS

A woman who operated a church at her suburban Dallas home has been arrested and charged with helping starve a 2-year-old boy to rid him of a “demon,” then holding a resurrection ceremony shortly after he died to try to revive him, investigators said Tuesday.

Police believe the boy was dead during the ceremony but that his parents took his body to their native Mexico for burial without reporting the death, said Balch Springs police Lt. Mark Maret. He said an anonymous tip about the ceremony at Araceli Meza’s home, where several other church members also lived, led to the investigation. He noted that more arrests are likely.

Gravestone of Hillary Clinton’s father toppled

SCRANTON, Pa.

The gravestone of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s father has been found toppled over at a Pennsylvania cemetery.

Police say vandals may be responsible for upending the gravestone of Hugh Rodham in the Washburn Street Cemetery in Scranton.

Police Chief Carl Graziano told The Times-Tribune that someone at the cemetery reported the stone was tipped over Tuesday, two days after Clinton announced she’s running for president.

The chief said it’s unknown how it tipped over but it may have been vandals. He said he’s “not sure how else it would have fallen over.”

Police said they receive occasional reports of cemetery vandalism.

SpaceX launches cargo capsule; rocket landing fails

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

SpaceX launched a shipment of groceries to the International Space Station on Tuesday, including the first espresso maker bound for orbit. But the company’s third attempt to land the leftover booster on an ocean platform failed.

The first-stage booster rocket apparently landed too hard on the barge and tipped over.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk wants to reuse the rockets rather than discard them in the ocean to reduce launch costs. The company will try again in June on the next supply run for NASA.

“It’s not quite clear what happened,” said Hans Koenigsmann, a SpaceX vice president. “But certainly, it needs more work in the next couple missions.”

Hope of finding kidnapped girls in Nigeria dwindles

LAGOS, Nigeria

The hundreds of girls abducted by Islamic militants from their school in northeastern Nigeria have been gone a year now.

And while the cry to “Bring Back Our Girls” remains a worldwide cause, the new president Tuesday would not repeat his predecessor’s failed promise to find them — only that they won’t be forgotten.

A solemn march took place to remember the 219 girls seized from their boarding school in Chibok by gunmen from the Boko Haram extremist group. In Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, 219 girls paraded in the streets, with each carrying a placard bearing the name of a kidnap victim.

Al-Qaida branch: Top cleric killed

CAIRO

Yemen’s al-Qaida branch announced Tuesday that its top cleric, a Saudi-national who has had a $5 million bounty on his head, has been killed, reportedly in a drone attack.

Al-Qaida said in a statement posted on Twitter that Ibrahim al-Rubaish was killed by a drone late Sunday, along with other, unnamed members of the group. The statement did not specify the location of the drone attack.

Associated Press