IS abducts 300; fighting worsens

IS abducts 300; fighting worsens

BEIRUT

In a brazen assault near the Syrian capital, Islamic State militants abducted 300 cement workers and contractors from their workplace northeast of Damascus on Thursday, as fighting against the extremist group raged in the country’s north ahead of a new round of peace talks.

In a blow to the Islamic militants, however, rebel fighters wrested control of a northern border town, potentially undermining IS supply lines across the border with Turkey and endangering one of its most-important strongholds in Aleppo province.

Indiana sued over new abortion law

INDIANAPOLIS

The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky sued the state of Indiana on Thursday over its recently signed abortion law that bans the procedure if sought because of genetic abnormalities, calling the law unconstitutional.

The federal lawsuit, which also challenges a provision that mandates an aborted fetus be buried or cremated, seeks an injunction to keep the law taking effect July 1.

Report: 4 ‘credible’ allegations against Dennis Hastert

CHICAGO

At least four people have made “credible allegations of sexual abuse” against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday, citing unidentified law- enforcement sources.

The newspaper said all of the accusers are men whose allegations stem from when they were teenagers and Hastert was their high-school coach in Yorkville, southwest of Chicago.

One of the accusers is a relative of one of Hastert’s friends and was a student leader at the school in the 1970s, according to the paper.

Man accused in killing escapes psychiatric hospital

SEATTLE

A man accused of torturing a woman to death but found too mentally ill for trial was on the loose Thursday after crawling out a window in a locked, lower-security unit of a Washington state psychiatric hospital already facing federal scrutiny over safety problems.

Anthony Garver, 28, escaped Wednesday night with Mark Alexander Adams, 58, a patient who had been accused of domestic assault in 2014 and was captured Thursday morning, officials said.

Authorities believe Garver bought a bus ticket from Seattle across the state to Spokane.

Spokane Sheriff’s Capt. Dave Ellis told the Spokesman-Review that Garver was spotted in an area in the city’s East Valley, and authorities were searching Thursday evening with police dogs, a SWAT team and helicopters.

Suspect named in cookout ambush

PITTSBURGH

A Pittsburgh man arrested a third time on drug and weapons charges stemming from a police search three years ago is a suspect in a cookout ambush last month that killed five adults and an unborn child, a detective testified Thursday.

Allegheny County Detective Steve Hitchings testified at a bond hearing that Robert Thomas is a suspect in the March 9 cookout shootings in Wilkinsburg and has been told he’s a suspect, KDKA-TV first reported Thursday.

Associated Press