Car bomb in Homs kills at least 16

Car bomb in Homs kills at least 16

BEIRUT

A car bomb exploded Saturday in a government-held neighborhood in the central Syrian city of Homs, killing at least 16 people and wounding dozens, state media and an opposition monitoring group said.

State news agency SANA said the blast wounded more than 100 people while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens were hurt.

The Observatory said an army colonel, a policeman and woman were among the 16 killed in Homs. Homs Governor Talal Barazzi said most of the 16 dead were women and children, adding that 15 of the wounded were treated at hospitals and released.

Official: Violent robberies tied to ‘heroin tsunami’

SALT LAKE CITY

Utah’s top law-enforcement officials are sounding the alarm about a rise in heroin-fueled violent robberies, calling on state lawmakers to approve more money for heroin recovery centers.

U.S. Attorney John Huber joined state, local and federal law officers this week in warning about a “heroin tsunami” that has resulted in a dramatic increase in arrests and seizures of the narcotic in Utah during the past three years.

Huber said he believes a spike in violent robberies along the Wasatch Front and particularly Salt Lake City is directly tied to the surge in heroin addiction, according to the Deseret News.

Cruz rises to top in Iowa GOP poll

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is the new front-runner in the campaign for the Iowa caucuses, dislodging Ben Carson and opening an impressive lead over a stalled Donald Trump, a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows.

The junior senator from Texas is backed by 31 percent of those likely to attend the Republican caucuses that start the presidential nomination season Feb. 1. Trump is second at 21 percent, up slightly from 19 percent in October but below his peak of 23 percent in August.

When first and second choices are combined, Cruz has the support of 51 percent of likely caucus-goers. His leap forward comes largely at the expense of Carson, as Iowa’s evangelicals appear to have picked the candidate they want to get behind. The retired neurosurgeon, now barely in third place, is supported by 13 percent, down from the first-place showing he posted in October, when he was at 28 percent.

NJ bill about $8M in ’13 bridge scandal

NEWARK, N.J.

The latest legal bills in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal are in.

The law firm of Gibson Dunn has billed New Jersey roughly $8 million since it was hired to defend Gov. Chris Christie and others from legal challenges stemming from the 2013 lane closures.

Christie hasn’t been charged, but his former deputy chief of staff and a top appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey face criminal charges for their involvement.

Gun shop to pay $1M to settle officers’ suit

MILWAUKEE

A Wisconsin gun shop will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit in which a jury found it negligently sold a gun used to injure two Milwaukee police officers, the store’s attorney said.

The settlement eliminates what was expected to be a yearslong appeal of an October verdict in which jurors awarded Officer Bryan Norberg and former Officer Graham Kunisch nearly $6 million.

Combined dispatches