Arrest made in mass of synthetic pot ODs

Arrest made in mass of synthetic pot ODs

NEW HAVEN, Conn.

A 53-year-old man has been arrested in connection with more than 100 synthetic-marijuana overdoses, many of them in the same New Haven park, after authorities say they caught him with 32 bags of the drug, police said Friday.

Some of the victims identified John Parker, of New Haven, as one of the people who was dealing K2 on the New Haven Green, where most of the overdoses occurred Wednesday and Thursday, Police Chief Anthony Campbell said. No deaths were reported, and officials said most people recovered quickly.

No overdoses were reported Friday.

Church president: Use ‘Latter-day Saints’ not ‘Mormon’

SALT LAKE CITY

The faith has the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir, recently made a documentary about its members called “Meet the Mormons” and uses “Mormon” in its official website addresses.

But on Thursday, Mormon church President Russell M. Nelson said he wants people to stop using “Mormon,” or “LDS” as substitutes for the full name of the religion: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Nelson said the “Lord has impressed upon my mind the importance of the name he has revealed for his church.”

The full name was given by revelation from God to founder Joseph Smith in 1838, according to the faith’s beliefs.

Officials: Al-Qaida bomb master killed

CAIRO

Al-Qaida’s chief bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, who was behind the 2009 Christmas Day plot to down an airliner over Detroit and other foiled aviation-related terror attacks, was killed in a U.S. drone strike, Yemeni officials and a tribal leader said Friday.

The killing of al-Asiri deals a heavy blow to the group’s capabilities in striking western targets and piles pressure on the group that already lost some of its top cadres over the past years in similar drone strikes.

A Yemeni security official said that al-Asiri is dead; a tribal leader and an al-Qaida-linked source also said that he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the eastern Yemeni governorate of Marib.

Indian floods kill at least 324 people

NEW DELHI

Rescuers used helicopters and boats Friday to evacuate thousands of people stranded on their rooftops after unprecedented flooding in the southern Indian state of Kerala that killed more than 320 people, officials said.

“Kerala state is facing its worst flood in 100 years,” the top state elected official, Pinarayi Vijayan’s office tweeted.

With heavy rains stopping after a week, rescuers moved quickly to take those marooned by floods to 1,500 state-run camps. They used more than a dozen helicopters and about 400 boats across the state, relief officials said.

Vijayan told reporters that at least 324 people had died and more than 220,000 had taken refuge in the camps.

Families begin to bury bridge victims

GENOA, Italy

With anger and grief, Italians began burying some of their dead Friday from the Genoa highway bridge collapse, holding funerals in the victims’ hometowns. Several angry families rebuffed the offer of a state funeral and the cardinal of Naples was merciless in his condemnation of negligence by Italian officials.

Today has been declared a national day of mourning in Italy and will include a state funeral at the industrial port city’s fair grounds for those who plunged to their deaths as the 150-foot tall Morandi Bridge gave way Tuesday.

Associated Press