Police: DNA leads to arrest in jogger’s death

Police: DNA leads to arrest in jogger’s death

NEW YORK

DNA evidence, some of it matching what was found beneath the victim’s fingernails, led investigators to make an arrest in last summer’s strangling of a woman who encountered her killer while on an evening run, police said Sunday.

Chanel Lewis, 20, of Brooklyn, was held without bail after his arraignment on murder charges in the Aug. 2 slaying of 30-year-old Karina Vetrano, whose body was found amid the weeds in a marshy park not far from her Queens home.

“This defendant admitted to attacking the victim, admitted to beating her, to strangling her and dragging her body in the weeds,” Queens assistant district attorney Michael Curtis said.

Efforts to contact the Legal Aid attorneys for Lewis were not immediately successful. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

Activists: Charities must move galas from Mar-a-Lago

palm beach, fla.

Protesters are demanding that charities move their upcoming galas from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Petitions are circulating that the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic move or cancel galas scheduled for the Florida club’s ballroom this month. A protest march took place Saturday near Mar-a-Lago to coincide with Trump’s appearance at an American Red Cross event there.

The protests target Trump’s moratorium on refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries and his dismantling of the Affordable Care Act.

The charities say it is unrealistic to move or cancel the events at this late date. The events raise about a million dollars.

Girl, 5, is killed in accidental shooting

JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

A 5-year-old girl was fatally shot and her 4-year-old neighbor wounded in an accidental shooting in north Florida by the girl’s brother, authorities said Sunday.

The children were alone in a Jacksonville apartment when the shooting occurred Saturday, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Chief Chris Butler said.

Butler said the girl’s 8-year-old brother fired a single shot from a gun, fatally wounding his younger sister and wounding the 4-year-old boy with a nonlife-threatening injury. Emergency personnel tried to save the girl but were unsuccessful.

Police said 34-year-old Maurice Antonio Mobley, the mother’s boyfriend, was arrested after he turned himself in and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

US: Oceanic whitetip shark warrants ‘threatened’ listing

PORTLAND, MAINE

The oceanic whitetip shark’s declining status in the wild warrants listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, an arm of the federal government has determined.

The shark is found around the world, mostly in open water, and the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife called on the government to list the species. The listing would be the most widespread shark listing in the U.S. to date.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said in a document published in the Federal Register in December that the sharks are indeed likely to become endangered in all or at least a significant portion of their range “within the foreseeable future.”

Threats to the sharks include fishing pressure all over the world, as their fins are prized in Asian markets for use in soup. The sharks have declined by 80 to 90 percent in the Pacific Ocean since the 1990s, and 50 percent to 85 percent in the Atlantic Ocean since the 1950s, said Chelsey Young, a natural resource management specialist for the fisheries service.

Associated Press