US-backed Syrian force captures key IS stronghold

US-backed Syrian force captures key IS stronghold

BEIRUT

On the streets of Manbij, men chanted slogans against the Islamic State group or clipped their beards, and women walked with their faces uncovered for the first time in more than 21/2 years, hours after the militant group was pushed out of the northern Syrian city.

U.S.-backed fighters seized the key Islamic State stronghold late Friday after two months of heavy fighting that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced thousands. The fighters also freed hundreds of civilians the extremists had used as human shields, Syrian Kurdish officials and an opposition activist group said.

Family camping in Idaho saves girl from mountain lion

REXBURG, Idaho

A family camping in eastern Idaho scared off a mountain lion that tried to snatch their 4-year-old daughter away from a campfire.

Idaho Fish and Game said Saturday that the cougar dropped the girl and left Friday evening after family members yelled at the animal. The child had a few scratches but no other injuries.

The family was camping near Green Canyon Hot Springs east of Rexburg and had spotted the mountain lion in the area earlier that day.

Fish and Game regional conservation educator Gregg Losinski said such sightings and attacks are unusual.

Ruling delayed on man’s plea in beheading case

NORMAN, Okla.

An Oklahoma judge has delayed a ruling on whether to accept the guilty plea of a man who has admitted beheading a co-worker and says he wants the death penalty.

Cleveland County District Judge Lori Walkley said that she’ll rule Wednesday on whether she’ll accept the plea from Alton Nolen, 31, of the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.

Nolen pleaded guilty in May to first-degree murder for beheading Colleen Hufford, 54, inside the Vaughan Foods plant in Moore on Sept. 25, 2014, shortly after he was suspended for making racial remarks. He has said he wants to die by lethal injection.

5 wounded in Joplin shooting

JOPLIN, Mo.

A random shooting injured five people Saturday, including three members of a Joplin church who were starting a trip to St. Louis, police said.

A 26-year-old suspect was taken into custody and was being held but has not been formally charged, The Joplin Globe reported.

“This came out of the blue, and all of a sudden people were shot and going to the hospital,” said Jason Glaskey, director of Christian education at Immanuel Lutheran Church, where three of the injured people take part in the church’s Comfort Dog ministry. Glaskey said two dogs were in the van and injured, but that no one else in the van was injured.

Thai police hoping to quickly identify bombing suspects

BANGKOK

Police in Thailand said Saturday that they were hoping to identify suspects over the next couple of days in a series of bombing and arson attacks that struck several tourist towns, killing four people and wounding dozens, including 11 foreigners.

Associated Press