WORLD & NATION || US rebukes Israel over settlement plan

US rebukes Israel over settlement plan

JERUSALEM

Israeli plans to advance settlement construction in the West Bank drew sharp rebukes Friday from the United States and Palestinian Authority, adding to already strained relations.

The Israel Land Authority on Thursday invited bids to build 450 apartments earmarked for four settlements.

Judge: Return Oswald’s coffin

FORT WORTH, Texas

A judge says a funeral home that sold Lee Harvey Oswald’s pine coffin for $87,468 must return it to the accused presidential assassin’s brother.

Robert Oswald bought the pine bluff coffin for his brother. It was exhumed in 1981 amid conspiracy theories that it didn’t contain Lee Harvey Oswald’s body. After a Dallas hospital confirmed the body through dental records, it was reburied, but not in the original coffin, which was too water-damaged.

Oswald’s family says it thought the original coffin had been thrown away, but the funeral home actually kept it in storage before selling it at auction.

A judge Friday also ordered the funeral home to pay Robert Oswald $87,468 in damages.

Father of 1st US surviving quints dies

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.

Andrew Fischer was a stock clerk earning less than $100 a week in 1963 when a doctor explained why his pregnant wife’s belly had grown so large: She was about to give birth to five babies, who would become the first known surviving quintuplets born in the U.S.

Fischer, whose family eventually grew to 11 children, died in a nursing home Thursday in South Dakota, according to Schriver’s Memorial Mortuary and Crematory in Aberdeen. He was 89.

Lottery tickets come with bacon scent

HOOKSETT, N.H.

New Hampshire’s new scratch-and-sniff lottery ticket is off to a sizzling start.

The $1 bacon-scented tickets with a top prize of $1,000 hit the market in early January. Lottery officials went with a conservative print run just in case they were a bust but now expect the tickets to sell out within three months. Sales are far outpacing other $1 scratch tickets, some of which have been for sale for as long as eight months.

Paper mocked for obit of author

SYDNEY

Australia’s largest newspaper is facing sharp criticism over its obituary of the nation’s most-famous author, whom it described as plain and overweight.

The Australian newspaper’s obituary of Colleen McCullough, whose novel “The Thorn Birds” sold 30 million copies worldwide and who died Thursday at age 77 after a long illness, opened not with a list of her myriad accomplishments, but with a description of her appearance.

Soon, the hashtag #myozobituary was trending on Twitter, as people across the world mocked the publication for what many viewed as a blatantly sexist treatment of a lauded literary figure.

The Australian declined to comment today.

Two protesters at Cosby show in Ohio

SANDUSKY

Bill Cosby’s stand-up tour stopped in northern Ohio, where it drew just two protesters before the show.

The 77-year-old comedian is facing sexual-assault accusations from at least 15 women, with some of the claims dating back decades. He’s denied the allegations through his attorney and never has been charged with a crime.

Cosby is scheduled to appear at Packard Music Hall in Warren on March 13.

Combined dispatches