CHARLESTON, S.C. — Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, gave Sen. Barack Obama a timely endorsement Thursday, snubbing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as well as Sen. John Edwards, his former vice presidential running mate. Kerry came to South Carolina to embrace Obama, two weeks before the state’s primary and with Obama needing a boost after Clinton’s emotional victory over him in New Hampshire. The Massachusetts senator said there were other candidates he had worked with and respected but Obama was best able to bring Americans together.
Oklahoma: Televangelists resign
Two televangelists have resigned their posts as regents at Oral Roberts University, as the debt-ridden school tries to regroup following a spending scandal involving its former president. Benny Hinn and I.V. Hilliard resigned as regents, where they were involved in making major school decisions, a university spokesman said Thursday. He declined to say why the two resigned, but said both wrote the board to express their support for the school’s mission. The resignations come a month after the resignations from the board of regents of two other televangelists, Jesse Duplantis and Creflo Dollar.
New York: Craigslist cash scam
A group of teenagers, led by a 17-year-old Queens girl, has been arrested on charges that they posted online ads for cheap Porsches in order to rob cash-carrying buyers, Long Island police said this week. The group’s ringleader was high schooler Agniesika Banach, 17, who placed at least three fake ads on Craigslist selling late-model Porsches, police said. Banach then recruited six male friends to rob the buyers who responded to the ads, police said.
Puerto Rico: Dengue outbreak
Puerto Rico saw 11,000 cases of dengue last year, the fever’s worst outbreak in the U.S. Caribbean territory in nearly a decade, a health official said Thursday. Dengue, which is spread by mosquitoes, killed four adults and four children in Puerto Rico during 2007, a territory epidemiologist said. The oldest victim was 80 and the youngest 5 months old. There is no vaccine for the tropical virus, which generally causes fever, headaches and extreme joint and muscle pain, among other symptoms.
New Jersey: Cemetery vandalism
Four teenagers were arrested and charged with vandalizing a Jewish cemetery in New Brunswick where hundreds of headstones were toppled, authorities said Thursday. The damage did not appear to be a bias crime, they said. About 500 headstones at the Poile Zedek Cemetery were toppled or broken apart the evening of Jan. 4. Three nights earlier, about 20 headstones were damaged.
Venezuela: Rebel hostages freed
Helicopters sent by Venezuela’s president picked up two hostages freed by Colombian rebels in the jungle Thursday and flew the women across the border. The women, thin but apparently in good health, were flown to Caracas, where they were embraced by tearful relatives on the tarmac. Clara Rojas, an aide to a Colombian presidential candidate, was kidnapped in February 2002. Former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez had been abducted in September 2001.
Canada: Air turbulence injuries
An Air Canada jetliner made an emergency landing in Calgary, Alberta, on Thursday after 10 people were injured when the Airbus A-319 hit turbulence. None of the injuries were life-threatening, a Calgary airport official said. The jet, carrying 88 people from Victoria, B.C., to Toronto, was diverted to Calgary for the emergency landing, officials said. A female passenger who was not identified said that when the plane hit the turbulence, her friend “flew up and hit the ceiling and went back down.”
Belgium: No U.S. ‘Champagne’
Belgian authorities said Thursday they have destroyed a shipment of more than 3,000 bottles of California-made sparkling wine as part of a New Year’s crackdown on illegally labeled Champagne. The destruction of the U.S. bubbly highlights a global battle by European food and drink producers to protect their brands by enforcing laws that say only products made in their original regions can carry names such as Champagne, Parma ham or Danish blue cheese. The EU protects hundreds of products under its rules — including British ales, German sausages and nine varieties of Portuguese honey.
Australia: Body found a year late
An elderly man lay dead in his apartment in Australia’s largest city for a year before anyone noticed, officials and news reports said Thursday. The body of Jorge Chambe, 64, was found Tuesday in his single bedroom, government-owned flat in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona when police and firefighters broke in, after concerns about his welfare were finally raised. Decomposition of the body was advanced and bank records indicated Chambe died about a year earlier, officials said.
From Herald news services
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