Attorney who bilked $600M disappears

Attorney who bilked $600M disappears

FRANKFORT, Ky.

An eastern Kentucky disability lawyer scheduled to be sentenced next month for defrauding the government of nearly $600 million has disappeared, the FBI said.

Eric Conn pleaded guilty in March to stealing from the federal government and bribing a judge. He was scheduled to be sentenced next month and had been ordered to pay the government tens of millions of dollars.

But Saturday, the FBI said Conn removed his electronic monitoring device, violating the conditions of his bond and prompting the U.S. District Court to issue a warrant for his arrest. David Habich, general counsel for the FBI’s Louisville office, said Conn’s “whereabouts are currently unknown.”

UN: Thousands of new cholera cases daily in Yemen

AMMAN, Jordan

A suspected cholera outbreak is spreading quickly in war-ravaged Yemen, with an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 new cases every day, the U.N. children’s agency said Saturday.

Geert Cappelaere, the Middle East director of UNICEF, said in an interview with The Associated Press that 70,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported in the past month in 19 of Yemen’s 22 governorates.

He voiced his concern that cholera cases could double every two weeks – to 130,000 and then about 300,000 cases – unless more aid is delivered.

SpaceX launches recycled supply ship

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

SpaceX launched its first recycled cargo ship to the International Space Station on Saturday, yet another milestone in its bid to drive down flight costs.

After a two-day delay caused by thunderstorms, the unmanned Falcon rocket blasted off carrying a Dragon capsule that made a station delivery nearly three years ago. When this refurbished Dragon reaches the orbiting lab Monday, it will be the first returning craft since NASA’s now-retired shuttles.

The first-stage booster flown Saturday afternoon was brand new, and as is now the custom, returned to Cape Canaveral after liftoff for a successful vertical touchdown.

2 officers wounded in Texas shootout undergo surgery

LAREDO, Texas

Laredo police say two of three police officers wounded by gunfire during a shootout with a murder suspect at a Laredo convenience store underwent surgery.

Police say the two officers who had surgery Saturday in San Antonio, Agapito Perez and Arturo Vela, should recover with time. Police say 33-year-old Perez remained in critical but stable condition while 50-year-old Vela remained in serious but stable condition.

Officer Mario Casares, 49, remained in serious but stable condition at another San Antonio hospital.

Brother of man who dismembered boy found dead in home

NEW YORK

The brother of a man who kidnapped and dismembered a lost 8-year-old boy has been found dead, his body bound, wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a basement closet in the same Brooklyn home where detectives uncovered the gruesome remains of the boy nearly six years ago.

Detectives found Tzvi Aron’s body after police were called there by family, a law-enforcement official said.

Associated Press