Navy launches undersea drone

Navy launches undersea drone

GROTON, Conn.

In a first for the U.S. Navy, a submarine has launched and recovered an underwater drone used in a military operation.

The attack submarine USS North Dakota returned to its base in Groton on Monday after a nearly two-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea specifically to test the drone-launching capability.

The Navy sees the drones, also known as unmanned undersea vehicles, or UUVs, as a cost-effective way to extend the reach of its submarine fleet, which has been gradually shrinking in size since the end of the Cold War.

Man suspected of 6th homicide

MODESTO, Calif.

Police said Monday that a suspect in the homicides of five people whose bodies were found in a Northern California home this weekend also is responsible for the death of a toddler left in his care last year.

Martin “Marty” Martinez, 30, was arrested early Sunday as he left a San Jose movie theater with his father.

Modesto Police Chief Galen Carroll said at a news conference Monday that a pathologist concluded Thursday that 2-year-old Christopher Ripley died of “blunt force trauma” to the head Oct. 2, 2014.

Carroll said Martinez had been under investigation since the boy’s death in a local hospital and that authorities were preparing to formally charge him with homicide when five bodies were found Saturday afternoon in the Modesto home he used to share with Dr. Amanda Crews.

Crews, 38, was Ripley’s mother and one of the five homicide victims found Saturday.

Turkey suspects IS in suicide bombing

ISTANBUL

Authorities suspected the Islamic State group was behind an apparent suicide bombing Monday in southeastern Turkey that killed 31 people and wounded nearly 100 – a development that could represent a major expansion by the extremists at a time when the government is stepping up efforts against them.

Turkish officials vowed to strike back at those behind the attack in the city of Suruc targeting a group of political activists who wanted to help the shattered Syrian city of Kobani, a bombing that turned a moment of hope into a scene of horror.

Calif.: $1.5M fine for taking water

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

California regulators on Monday proposed a first-of-its-kind, $1.5 million fine for a group of Central Valley farmers accused of illegally taking water during the drought.

It would be the first such fine against an individual or district with claims to water that are more than a century old, known as senior water-rights holders. Entities with those rights have long enjoyed immunity from cutbacks.

Doctors: HIV in remission 12 years

An 18-year-old French teen born with the AIDS virus has had her infection under control and nearly undetectable despite stopping treatment 12 years ago – an unprecedented remission, doctors are reporting.

The teen might have some form of natural resistance to HIV that hasn’t yet been discovered. But her case revives hope that early, aggressive treatment can limit how strongly the virus takes hold, and perhaps in rare cases, let people control it without lifelong drugs.

A few years ago, doctors reported a similar case: a Mississippi girl who kept HIV in check for 27 months without treatment. But then her virus rebounded, dashing hopes that early treatment might have cured her.

Associated Press