A mother killed her two children and later went to the nearby college she attended and brandished a gun Thursday before handing the weapon to a health counselor, police said. The threat at the University of Louisville ended with no injuries about half an hour after it began, but police who were then asked by school officials to check on the children found them dead with gunshot wounds. Gail Lynn Coontz, 37, is charged with murder in the deaths of 14-year-old Greg Coontz and 10-year-old Nikki Coontz, said Louisville police Officer Phil Russell.
American Airlines and Delta Air Lines canceled hundreds of flights Thursday as they continue their inspections of wiring bundles on some of their planes. American, the nation’s largest airline, canceled 132 flights of its estimated 2,300 flights scheduled for Thursday, spokesman Tim Wagner said. That was about 6 percent of American’s Thursday schedule after the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline canceled 325 flights on Wednesday.
Puerto Rican Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila was charged Thursday with 19 counts in a campaign finance probe, including conspiracy to violate U.S. federal campaign laws and giving false testimony to the FBI. The indictment also charged 12 others associated with Acevedo’s Popular Democratic Party as a result of a two-year grand jury investigation, acting U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez said. Acevedo, a superdelegate for the Democratic Party who has pledged to support Sen. Barack Obama, served in Washington as the island’s nonvoting delegate to Congress and was elected governor in 2004 after campaigning on an anti-corruption platform.
With Iranian backing, Hezbollah guerrillas have dramatically increased their rocket range and can now threaten most of Israel, senior Israeli defense officials say. The Lebanese group has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of about 185 miles, the officials said Wednesday. That means the guerrillas can hit anywhere in Israel’s heavily populated center and reach as far south as Dimona, where Israel’s nuclear reactor is located.
A group of monks shouting there was no religious freedom disrupted a carefully orchestrated visit for foreign reporters to Tibet’s capital Thursday, an embarrassment for China as it tried to show Lhasa was calm following deadly anti-government riots. A Foreign Ministry spokesman later insisted that Tibetans had full rights and warned Europe not to interfere. Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama, the region’s exiled spiritual leader, said he was in touch with “friends” about pursuing a dialogue with China, adding that Chinese authorities “must accept reality.”
