In the news

First lady Nobuko Kan

of Japan lists her husband’s shortcomings, including his failure to do housework and his hot temper, in You are Prime Minister, So What Will Change in Japan?, her new book that Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who took office in June, says he’s too scared to read.

Vincent Smothers, 29, a Detroit hit man hired to kill people who crossed drug dealers, was handed a 52-to-100-year prison sentence after admitting to murdering eight people and other victims whose names he couldn’t remember.

Lt. Dave Parker

of the Anchorage, Alaska, Police Department, who used his Taser on a small black bear foraging in someone’s fish fryer, believes a homeowner fatally shot the same bear a day later as it tried to enter the resident’s home, adding, “I guess the electric lesson didn’t work on him.”

Bob Boehner, 61, a brother of U.S. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio who lost his job with the city of Reading, Ohio, in February, said he was fine with the congressman’s “no” vote on an extension-of-jobless-benefits bill passed this week, adding he doesn’t want his brother voting for government programs that aren’t paid for.

Monica Avila, 39, was booked into a California jail after she tried to run over her ex-boyfriend’s brother with her car, fled, then removed her urostomy bag and threw it at three arresting officers who pulled her over, Pasadena police said.

Marian Robinson, first lady Michelle Obama’s mother, told about 100 Washington-area pupils that she didn’t have a dog growing up but that she loves Bo, the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog, “almost like a person.”

Arika Felder, 23, of Plainfield, N.J., faces charges of aggravated assault on a trooper, eluding and resisting arrest after police say she blocked three lanes of highway rush-hour traffic with her car and began flashing passing drivers before injuring the state trooper who tried to stop her.

Desmond de Silva, a British former U.N. warcrimes prosecutor, along with two other international lawyers, was appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate Israel’s May 31 forcible boarding of a boat delivering aid to the Gaza Strip.

Ariel Sigler, 44, a Cuban political prisoner freed in June from his home in Matanzas province, won permission to immigrate to the United States and plans to leave Wednesday, his brother said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/24/2010

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