Coroner: Body of autistic boy is found

Coroner: Body of autistic boy is found

ALLENTOWN, PA.

The body of a 5-year-old Pennsylvania boy with autism was found in a canal about a quarter-mile from a relative’s home where the boy wandered away, barefoot and without a coat, during a New Year’s Eve party, authorities said Saturday.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said an autopsy Monday will help determine when Jayliel Vega Batista entered the water at Canal Park in Allentown.

“Preliminarily, this is being considered a tragic accident,” Allentown police Chief Keith Morris said at the same Saturday evening news conference.

The boy went missing about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, after family members told police he was playing with a tablet computer with other children before he simply wandered away without being immediately noticed.

Former US senator Bumpers dies at 90

Dale Bumpers, a former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator who earned the nickname “giant killer” for taking down incumbents, and who gave a passionate speech defending Bill Clinton during the president’s impeachment trial, has died. He was 90.

Bumpers died Friday night in Little Rock, according to his son, Brent Bumpers. Bumpers was under hospice care and died due to natural causes and complications from a broken hip suffered in a recent fall, his son said.

Bumpers’ signature moment on the national stage came in 1999, just weeks after leaving the Senate, when he defended Clinton — who had worked for a 1974 campaign against Bumpers — before the U.S. Senate during his impeachment trial.

Twin girl born in ’15, her brother in 2016

san diego

Twins in San Diego are getting some attention because, though born just minutes apart, one has a birthday in 2015 and one in 2016.

Jaelyn Valenica was born New Year’s Eve at 11:59 p.m. Her twin brother, Luis Valencia Jr., arrived at 12:01 a.m. on New Year’s Day.

KGTV-TV reported that the babies were due at the end of January, but doctors at San Diego Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center called the mother in because one was in a breech position.

Funerals take place for Palestinians

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK

Tens of thousands of people attended funerals in the West Bank on Saturday for Palestinians killed in violence over the past few months during a period of near-daily Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

The burials came a day after Israel transferred 23 bodies to the West Bank of Palestinians it says were involved in the current wave of attacks.

Many of the attackers came from the West Bank City of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint for violence. Thousands of people attended funerals there on Saturday, some waving Palestinian flags as well as flags of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Rhino poaching drops

JOHANNESBURG

The number of rhinos poached in South Africa in 2015 was slightly lower than in the previous year, representing modest progress by law enforcement in countering poachers who have killed rhinos in record numbers, according to a conservation group.

Citing unidentified sources, Elise Daffue, founder of StopRhinoPoaching.com, said there were about 1,160 reported cases of rhino poaching last year, down from 1,215 in 2014. If the statistic is confirmed, it would be the first annual drop in numbers since rhino poaching surged around 2008 in South Africa, home to most of the world’s rhinos.

Associated Press