97-year-old twins freeze to death after falling outside

97-year-old twins freeze to death after falling outside

BARRINGTON, R.I.

Authorities say twin 97-year-old sisters apparently froze to death after falling down outside a Rhode Island home, one of them while coming to the rescue of the other.

Barrington police say Jean Haley, of Barrington, and Martha Williams, of East Providence, died Saturday.

Police say the twins had returned to Haley’s home with their 89-year-old sister, who is also from Barrington, Friday night after they had dinner together. Some time after the younger sister left, Williams was going to her car. Police say she fell in the driveway.

When Haley went to call for help, authorities say, she tripped on a rug in her garage. The sisters were found by a neighbor Saturday morning. They were rushed to the hospital in critical condition and later died.

Bird flu detected in Tenn. chicken breeding facility

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

A commercial chicken breeding facility in south-central Tennessee has been hit by a strain of bird flu, agriculture officials said Sunday.

The state Agriculture Department said in a news release that tests confirmed the presence of the H7 strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, at a facility in Lincoln County. The facility alerted the state veterinarian’s office on Friday about an increase in chicken deaths.

The statement did not name the facility. The facility and about 30 other poultry farms within about a six-mile radius of the site are under quarantine.

Officials said HPAI poses no risk to the food supply, and no affected chickens entered the food chain.

Great Lakes mayors warn against cut to ecological initiative

MILWAUKEE

A group representing Great Lakes region mayors in the U.S. and Canada is sounding the alarm against potentially drastic cuts to an ecological recovery initiative for the Great Lakes.

The Trump administration’s potential cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative were reported by the Detroit Free Press last week. They would slash annual funding for the $300 million program to $10 million.

The initiative combats invasive species, curbs nutrient-fueled algae blooms, cleans up toxic messes and restores sensitive fish and wildlife habitat.

Conservation groups have also criticized the potential cuts.

Seoul: North Korea fires 4 ballistic missiles into ocean

SEOUL, South Korea

North Korea today fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew about 620 miles, with three of them landing in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, South Korean and Japanese officials said, in an apparent reaction to huge military drills by Washington and Seoul that Pyongyang insists are an invasion rehearsal.

It was not immediately clear the exact type of missile fired; Pyongyang has staged a series of missile test-launches of various ranges in recent months, including a new intermediate-range missile in February. The ramped-up tests come as leader Kim Jong Un pushes for a nuclear and missile program that can deter what he calls U.S. and South Korean hostility toward the North.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today’s firing shows that North Korea has become “a new kind of threat.”

Associated Press