NEW YORK – Sean Bell, the man gunned down in a spray of 50 police bullets on his wedding day, was buried Saturday as hundreds of angry demonstrators honored him with a moment of silence before going jaw-to-jaw with police in a bitter confrontation outside a Queens precinct house. The demonstrators taunted police, standing just inches away from a row of officers and daring the police to lay a hand on them. Some in the crowd held signs reading “Death to the pigs” and “Shoot back.” The unarmed victims were black; the five officers were black, Hispanic and white.
Pfizer gives up on cholesterol drug
Pfizer Inc. said Saturday it has cut off all clinical trials and development for a cholesterol drug that was supposed to be the star of its pipeline because of an unexpected number of deaths and cardiovascular problems in patients who used it. The world’s largest drugmaker said it was told Saturday that an independent board monitoring a study for torcetrapib, a drug that raises levels of HDL, or what’s commonly known as good cholesterol, recommended that the work end because of “an imbalance of mortality and cardiovascular events.”
Ohio: Key Bank embezzlement
Federal prosecutors now say a former KeyBank vice president embezzled $40.6 million, up from a previous estimate of $29 million. The new charges against David F. Verhotz, 56, were outlined in a court filing Friday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Verhotz, who has been fired as the head of the bank’s international loans unit, stole the money between 1997 and 2003, prosecutors said. He was arrested Nov. 11 at Hopkins International Airport after getting off a flight from Dallas.
Florida: Theme park tickets rise
Busch Gardens has raised its daily ticket prices by $4, though the price of annual passes and parking at the theme park will remain the same. The new daily admission at Busch Gardens in Tampa is $61.95 plus tax for adults and $51.95 plus tax for children ages 3 to 9. Also Friday, Busch Entertainment Corp. raised SeaWorld Orlando ticket prices by $3 to offset expenses from three new rides and a new Shamu show. A standard one-day adult ticket now costs $64.95 and a front-gate ticket for 3- to 9-year-olds is also up $4 to $53.95.
Police search for missing newborn
Authorities were searching Saturday for a newborn baby after he and his mother were abducted by a knife-wielding woman in a sport utility vehicle, police said. The baby, 29-day-old Brayn Dos Santos Gomes, was abducted with his mother, Maria Fatima Ramos Dos Santos, on Friday afternoon by a woman driving a black SUV, the Fort Myers police chief said. Ramos was released south of Fort Myers shortly afterward but the woman kept the baby, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesman said Saturday.
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