LITTLE ROCK — Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has drafted a broad new policy that consolidates several general orders from U.S. commanders across Iraq and rescinds an order by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo that would permit the punishment of soldiers who become pregnant and their sexual partners.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the head of Boston’s Roman Catholic diocese, said church resources haven’t been able to keep pace with rising costs of health care and housing for ailing and elderly priests, so collections at Christmas Masses will be used to aid the 745 retired and sick priests.
Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County, Calif., sheriff’s office, said a 19-year-old Anaheim woman, whose name wasn’t released, was arrested after the body of her newborn daughter was found in a trash bin.
Richard Heene, a Colorado man who has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for reporting that his son had floated away in a large, saucer-shaped balloon in a well-publicized hoax, faces a possible $11,000 fine from the Federal Aviation Administration for operating a balloon in a hazardous manner.
Roshunda Abney, 25, and her fiance, Rafinee Dewberry, 24, have filed suit in Las Vegas federal court against two hospitals, saying they were ignored in both hospitals’ emergency rooms so long that they returned home, where Abney gave birth to a premature baby who died.
George Mirdita, an employee at Bray’s diner in Hazel Park, Mich., said a man walked into the eatery with a 5-inch knife stuck in his chest, calmly ordered coffee and sat there until an ambulance arrived.
Senior Constable Cathy Duder
in Whangamata, New Zealand, said she let a couple of nude cyclists on a nighttime ride off easy, instructing them to go home and get helmets but not charging them with offensive behavior because “it was dark and there was no one else around. They were jovial young men who had not intended to cause offense.”
Jeremy Ochoa, 28, has been arrested in Santa Cruz, Calif., on suspicion of child endangerment after police say his 15-month-old ingested methamphetamine.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/26/2009