Ohio man accused of threatening Boehner

Ohio man accused of threatening Boehner

WASHINGTON

An Ohio bartender with a history of psychiatric illness was indicted last week on a charge of threatening to murder House Speaker John Boehner, possibly by poisoning his drink, according to records made available Tuesday.

A grand jury indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio on Jan. 7 identified the accused man as Michael R. Hoyt, a resident of Cincinnati.

A separate criminal complaint said Hoyt was fired last fall from his job at a country club in West Chester, Ohio, where he served drinks to Boehner, who is a member.

In a subsequent conversation with a police officer, Hoyt said that before leaving, he “did not have time to put something in John Boehner’s drink,” according to the complaint.

The court paper also said, “Hoyt told the officer he was Jesus Christ and that he was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and because Boehner is responsible for Ebola.”

Bus attack kills 12

DONETSK, Ukraine

An attack on a passenger bus in eastern Ukraine killed 12 people Tuesday, likely dealing the final blow to hopes that a short-lived and shaky cease-fire could take hold.

In the single largest loss of life so far this year, civilians traveling on a commuter bus from Donetsk were killed Tuesday afternoon by what Ukrainians say were rockets fired from a Grad launcher in rebel territory. Regional authorities loyal to Kiev said the bus was passing a Ukrainian army checkpoint at the time, putting it in the line of fire.

Court overturns Mubarak conviction

CAIRO

An appeals court Tuesday overturned the last remaining conviction against Egypt’s deposed leader Hosni Mubarak and ordered his retrial on corruption charges, opening the door for his possible release.

The ruling, just days before the fourth anniversary of the start of the 2011 anti-Mubarak uprising, pointed to how far Egypt has moved away from its revolutionary fervor to “bring down the regime.”

Another court cleared Mubarak, who will turn 87 in May, in the biggest case against him, dismissing in the end of November charges of responsibility for the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising.

Pope: Pursue truth

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka

Pope Francis brought calls for reconciliation and justice to Sri Lanka on Tuesday as he began a weeklong Asian tour, saying the island nation can’t fully heal from a quarter-century of brutal civil war without pursuing the truth about abuses that were committed.

Francis, 78, is the first pope to visit Sri Lanka since the government crushed a 25-year civil war by ethnic Tamil rebels demanding an independent Tamil nation because of perceived discrimination by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. U.N. estimates say 80,000 to 100,000 people were killed during the war, which ended in 2009.

Georgia executes man who killed a deputy

JACKSON, Ga.

A man who fatally shot a deputy sheriff who stopped him for speeding on a Georgia interstate was put to death Tuesday for the 1998 killing, which was captured on the patrol car’s video camera.

Andrew Howard Brannan, 66, was pronounced dead at 8:33 p.m. Tuesday after a single-drug injection at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted of the January 1998 shooting death of Kyle Dinkheller, a 22-year-old deputy sheriff in Laurens County, central Georgia.

Associated Press