In the news

Eric Holder, the attorney general, called the increase in heroin-related deaths an “urgent and growing public health crisis” and said in a video message posted on the Justice Department’s website that first responders should carry with them a drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose.

Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, was not only elected to the highest legislative body in the country, he won with the unanimous approval of his district, which had 100 percent turnout as Kim faced no opponents, state media reported.

The Rev. Al Sharpton led several hundred people, including the parents of slain teenager Trayvon Martin, on a march to the Florida state Capitol, where they rallied against the state’s “stand your ground” law.

David Skorton, 64, a heart doctor and president of Cornell University who also plays the saxophone and flute, was named the next leader of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

George Saunders, 55, an American writer, won the Folio Prize for literature, worth about $67,000 and meant to rival the Booker Prize as the English-speaking world’s most prestigious literary award, with his short-story collection Tenth of December.

Michael Dunn, the 47-year-old Florida man convicted of attempted murder in a confrontation over loud music, will have to wait until at least Friday to see if a judge sentences him or waits until after Dunn’s retrial on first-degree murder in the shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.

Gabriel Campos Martinez, 38, was arrested in San Antonio in the case of a severed human head and other body parts found two years ago near the Hollywood sign in California.

Victor Darnell Williams, 33, of Gulfport, Miss., pleaded guilty to a drug distribution charge involving his agreement to trade a nightclub for 12 kilos of cocaine and will be sentenced June 5.

Gregg Mellinger, 49, a North Ridgeville, Ohio, substitute teacher, and five students at a suburban Cleveland high school face charges in connection with what police said was the gym-class bullying of a 14-year-old developmentally disabled boy.

Joran van der Sloot, the Dutchman imprisoned in Peru for killing a 21-yearold student, will be extradited to the United States once he completes his Peru sentence in 2038 to face trial on charges he extorted and defrauded the mother of missing U.S. teen Natalee Holloway.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/11/2014

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