Mourners pay respects to Biden

Mourners pay respects to Biden

DOVER, Del.

Delaware residents gathered at the state Capitol on Thursday to pay their respects to former Attorney General Beau Biden.

Biden, elder son of Vice President Joe Biden, died of brain cancer Saturday at age 46.

Beau Biden lay in honor in the state Senate chamber after a procession from Wilmington to Dover. Behind his flag-draped coffin was a Senate dais draped with black bunting and decorated with white flowers. The coffin was flanked by a black-and-white photo of Biden with his wife and children and a Conspicuous Service Cross, presented to him posthumously Thursday for his service in the Delaware National Guard.

Transplant of skull, scalp is world’s first

houston

Opening a new frontier in transplant surgery, Texas doctors have done the world’s first partial skull and scalp transplant to help a man who suffered a large head wound from cancer treatment.

Doctors from Houston Methodist Hospital and MD Anderson Cancer Center did the operation two weeks ago.

The recipient – Jim Boysen, a 55-year-old software developer from Austin, Texas – expected to leave the hospital Thursday with a new kidney and pancreas along with the scalp and skull grafts. He said he was stunned at how well doctors matched him to a donor with similar skin and hair coloring.

Cruise ship righted

JIANLI, China

Top-deck cabins poked out of the water from a capsized river cruise ship on the Yangtze today after disaster teams righted the vessel to quicken the search for more than 360 victims still missing.

A total of 77 bodies have been found since Monday night’s sudden capsizing in a severe storm. The operation to right the Eastern Star started late Thursday and shifted the focus from finding survivors to retrieving bodies.

Former official accused in theft of copper from sirens

OKLAHOMA CITY

A former town councilman in the heart of Tornado Alley is accused of using work-release prison inmates to steal copper wire from emergency sirens intended to help protect people from tornadoes in his small Oklahoma town, the local sheriff said Thursday.

James Smith, a member of the Luther Town Council at the time of the purported thefts, was arrested Wednesday on multiple charges, according to court documents. Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel said the thefts left the small town – a northeast suburb of Oklahoma City, which has been hit by more tornadoes than any other U.S. city – without warning sirens.

Judge lifts Guam’s ban on gay marriage

HAGATNA, Guam

Guam has become the first U.S. territory to recognize gay marriage after a federal judge struck down the prohibition.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood issued the decision after a hearing this morning local time. It goes into effect at 8 a.m. Monday, when gay couples can begin applying for marriage licenses, the Pacific Daily News reported.

Attorneys representing the government of Guam said in a May 18 court document that “should a court strike current Guam law, they would respect and follow such a decision.”

Loretta M. Pangelinan and Kathleen M. Aguero filed the lawsuit in April after the 28-year-old women were denied a marriage license.

Associated Press