BISMARCK, N.D. — A veterans home in North Dakota is being evacuating as a precaution due to expected flooding at the Sheyenne River. Officials at the North Dakota Veterans Home in Lisbon say 38 residents from the skilled nursing unit are being taken to a Wahpeton nursing home on Saturday. The remaining 120 patients will remain until Tuesday when they are picked up by family or taken to a Valley City facility about 46 miles northwest of Lisbon. An administrator said the home is protected by sandbags and a dike but there’s still a flood threat.
Texas: Asian-name apology
A Texas lawmaker under fire for saying that Asian-American voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans” has apologized for her remarks. State Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, issued an apology Thursday for the comments made during a House Elections Committee hearing on April 7. Brown said the remark came during a conversation on the difficulty of translating names and that she was referring to transliteration issues when she asked a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans whether Asian-Americans could adopt names that “we could deal with more readily here.”
Louisiana: Three are slain
Gunmen in dark clothes kicked down an apartment door in a troubled New Orleans-area neighborhood and opened fire, killing two children and a woman, authorities said. An 11-year-old girl was in stable condition Saturday evening after the early morning shooting, and investigators were searching for suspects, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s spokesman said. The girl had been shot more than once. Investigators found marijuana and crack cocaine in the Terrytown apartment, the spokesman said.
Michigan: Child support woes
Authorities said a man fathered 14 children with 13 different women and owes more than $530,000 in unpaid child support. The Flint Journal reports 42-year-old Thomas Frazier was jailed Thursday. Court records said he hasn’t made a support payment in six years. The newspaper said the unemployed man could be held for 90 days if he doesn’t pay $27,900. Frazier said he thinks he fathered only three of the children and that it’s unrealistic for authorities to expect him to pay child support that was $3,000 a month.
Iraq: Suicide bomber kills 9
A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt Saturday among U.S.-allied Sunni paramilitaries collecting their salaries at an army base, killing nine and wounding about 30, Iraqi officials said. The attack in the town of Jbala, about 35 miles south of Baghdad, follows a bloody week of bombings that killed more than 50 people in the capital.
Britain: Fiery riot at prison
Parts of a British prison caught fire after inmates went on a riot there Saturday, and it took police hours to regain control of the lockup, an official said. The blazes were lit inside the overcrowded Ashwell prison near Oakham, 100 miles north of London, after hundreds of inmates ran amok there, breaking into its shop area and raiding its pharmacy, police said. The leader of the Prisoner Officers’ Association, said the riot ended Saturday evening. Despite emergency measures such as early release programs, the U.K. is struggling to find space for the nearly 83,000 people it has in custody, 11 percent more than its national capacity.
Saudi Arabia: Rapist beheaded
A Saudi man convicted of rape and robbery has been beheaded, becoming the 22nd prisoner to be executed by sword this year in the kingdom. An Interior Ministry statement said the man committed the crimes after drinking alcohol. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery can be executed — usually with a sword. In 2008, 102 people were beheaded.
Australia: Croc kills swimmer
Police found the remains of a 20-year-old man who was taken by a 14-foot crocodile when he went for a nighttime swim in a river, an officer said Saturday. The crocodile believed responsible has been killed, police said. A police superintendent said the man was attacked about 2 a.m. Friday when he and his brother, who had been drinking with the victim’s wife on the bank, decided to swim across the Daly River, about 140 miles south of Darwin. He said the trio were local residents and should have known that large saltwater crocodiles live in the river.
From Herald news services
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