Suspect in custody in deaths of 3 Ohio women identified
Suspect in custody in deaths of 3 Ohio women identified
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts has publicly identified the suspect in the deaths of three women found wrapped in trash bags, and officers and volunteers have ended hours of searching without finding more bodies.
Spotts says Sunday that 35-year-old registered sex offender Michael Madison is in custody and expected to be formally charged on Monday.
Sunday’s search included scouring about 40 abandoned houses and other areas, but turned up no more bodies in the neighborhood where three were found separately on Friday and Saturday.
A medical examiner said the bodies were in advanced stages of decomposition, and it will take days to identify the women and determine how they died.
Mortar rounds fired by Syrian troops slam into town market, killing 20
AMMAN, Jordan — Government troops fired mortar rounds that slammed into a main market in a town in northern Syria on Sunday, killing at least 20 civilians, activist groups said.
The mortar shells struck the town of Ariha, which is held mostly by opposition fighters, a few hours ahead of iftar, the meal that breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, two opposition groups tracking the violence in Syria, said at least 20 people were killed including two children and two women. It was not immediately clear what triggered the shelling.
Also Sunday, state media said government forces killed nearly 50 rebels in an ambush near Damascus.
Separately, Kurdish rebels freed the local commander of an al-Qaida-linked group in a town near Syria’s northern border with Turkey in return for 300 Kurdish civilians detained by the group, as part of an agreement to end rebel infighting that erupted a day earlier in the region.
Roller coaster builder to inspect Six Flags ride where woman fell to her death in Texas
ARLINGTON, Texas — A German roller coaster maker is sending officials to a North Texas amusement park to inspect a ride after a woman fell to her death.
Tobias Lindnar, a project manager for Gerstlauer Amusement Rides in Munsterhausen, Germany, told The Dallas Morning News that the company will investigate what led to Friday’s fatal accident at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington.
Witnesses said the woman expressed concern about the Texas Giant roller coaster’s safety bar not completely engaging as the ride was starting. The coaster is touted as the tallest steel-hybrid roller coaster in the world.
“I’m sure there’s no safety bar that is broken,” Lindnar told the newspaper by phone Saturday night from Germany.
Lindnar said Gerstlauer has never had problems with car safety bars on any of the roughly 50 roller coasters it’s built around the world over the past 30 years.
Famous Georgia peach no longer king of the state’s fruit hill
ATLANTA — What is the most valuable fruit crop produced in the Peach State?
This is not a trick question, but you may want to pause a second before answering.
Ready? It’s the blueberry.
Georgia is famous as a major producer of the peach, the fuzzy succulent orange fruit whose image appears on state license plates, “welcome to Georgia” billboards and on road signs. When driving in the capital city of Atlanta, you can pass the corner of Peachtree Street and Peachtree Center Avenue, just one block from West Peachtree Street.
There’s just one problem: Blueberries are Georgia’s most lucrative fruit crop, by far.
By wire sources.