Bloody newborn baby found in a Manila airport garbage bag
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Authorities at Manila’s airport found a newborn baby in a garbage bag that was apparently unloaded from an airplane that landed Sunday, officials said.
 
Security officials brought the baby boy, who was covered in blood and wrapped in tissue paper, to an airport clinic, where doctors and nurses cleaned him up, wrapped him in cloth and gave him a bottle of milk, airport officials said.
 
“After he was cleaned, he let off a soft cry,” airport nurse Kate Calvo said. “He was healthy. His vital signs were OK according to our doctors.”
 
Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said she was angered by what happened, adding that police have been ordered to search for the infant’s mother, who could be criminally charged.
 
“I was simply outraged. No infant should be treated that way,” Soliman said.
 
 
 
 
Discharged lesbian flight nurse challenges “don’t ask don’t tell”
SEATTLE (AP) — Opponents of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against gays serving in the military hope for another legal victory as a federal trial begins Monday over whether to reinstate a lesbian flight nurse discharged from the Air Force Reserve.
 
The trial comes just days after a federal judge in California declared “don’t ask, don’t tell” an unconstitutional violation of the due process and free speech rights of gays and lesbians.
 
 
 
 
Double-decker bus crashes into a bridge in central New York, 4 killed
SALINA, N.Y. (AP) — A double-decker bus that may have made a wrong turn off the highway slammed into a low railroad bridge in the pre-dawn darkness Saturday in a wreck that killed four passengers and critically injured others, authorities said.
 
The Megabus was carrying 29 people, including the driver, when it rammed the bridge around 2:30 a.m. on the Onondaga Lake Parkway in Salina, a suburb of Syracuse in central New York.
 
The bus lay on its side after the crash. Four passengers and the driver, identified as John Tomaszewski, 59, of Yardville, N.J., remained hospitalized Saturday night.
 
 
 
 
Environmental school site of toxic cleanup and soil contamination
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Unified district officials have spent $4 million to clean up the site of the new Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Studies, which is set to open Monday. Named for conservationists Rachel Carson and Al Gore, the $75 million campus was laden with toxic soil.
 
The site, located in a low-income neighborhood, was contaminated by 17 leaking storage tanks. A neighboring oil well has been assessed and doesn’t pose a threat.
 
 
 
 
Failed oil well blowout preventer sent to a NASA facility for analysis
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Coast Guard official says the 300-ton device that failed to stop the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill after a rig exploded has arrived at a NASA facility in Louisiana for analysis.
Lt. Suzanne Kerver told The Associated Press that the barge carrying the blowout preventer reached the New Orleans facility around 3:30 p.m. CDT on Saturday.
 
A week ago, the device was lifted from a mile beneath the sea. It was later transferred to a barge.
 
Government investigators plan to analyze it to determine why it failed. It is considered a key piece of evidence in ongoing oil spill investigations.
 
 
 
 
West Monroe teen may be tried as an adult in slaying of his parents
WEST MONROE (AP) — The Ouachita Parish district attorney says a grand jury will consider the case of a 15-year-old boy charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of his parents.
 
Sheriff’s Maj. Jason Pleasant says 41-year-old Tammy Fletcher and 51-year-old Johnny Fletcher were found dead in their home early Friday. Deputy Meghan Russell says both were killed by a shotgun.
 
 
 
 
Prison inmate earns 2 additional years on life sentence for escape
ST. FRANCISVILLE (AP) — An inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who escaped and stayed on the run for four days last year has added two years on his life sentence.
 
The Advocate reported that 46-year-old Henry Smith pleaded guilty Thursday in St. Francisville to simple escape. Smith walked off the prison grounds on Sept. 10, 2009. He was captured four days later.
 
Smith had been assigned to pick up trash along prison roads. He has spent his entire adult life in prison for killing a man in Jefferson Parish during an attempted robbery.