INTERNATIONAL
Two earthquakes hit near eastern Indonesia, tsunami warning issued
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Two powerful earthquakes hit waters off eastern Indonesia in rapid succession Thursday, prompting officials to briefly trigger a tsunami warning.
 
The U.S. Geological Survey said a 7.2 magnitude quake off Papua province, centered just 7 miles beneath the ocean floor, struck less than a minute after a 6.6 temblor in the same location.
 
Search resumes for 11 missing people in Oaxaca, Mexico mudslide
 
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) — Rescue efforts resumed Wednesday for 11 people missing after a hillside collapsed on a town in Mexico’s rain-soaked southern state of Oaxaca
 
The government delivered blankets and other supplies to survivors and other who fled their unstable homes for fear of more mudslides in Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec. Many sheltered under makeshift tents on the hills.
 
NATIONAL
 
Woman accused of making 14 flights to transport marijuana
 
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A woman has been indicted on charges that she made 14 airplane trips to transport marijuana from California to Ohio between November and her arrest in June, when authorities say she flew to Columbus with hundreds of pounds of the drug in her suitcases.
 
Federal authorities say Los Angeles resident Lisette Lee is charged with one count of conspiracy and 14 counts alleging she had marijuana with intent to distribute. She’s accused of taking the drug to Columbus, Toledo, Dayton and Hamilton.
 
New Jersey student who was secretly taped having sex kills himself
 
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. (AP) — A college student jumped to his death off a bridge a day after authorities say two classmates surreptitiously recorded him having sex with a man in his dorm room and broadcast it over the Internet.
 
Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge last week, said his family’s attorney, Paul Mainardi. Police recovered a man’s body Wednesday afternoon in the Hudson River just north of the bridge, and authorities were trying to determine if it was Clementi’s.
 
 
Texans debate allowing concealed weapons on campus after shooting
 
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas already lets lawmakers bring guns into the Capitol. And the governor sometimes jogs with a loaded pistol. But should people be allowed to carry concealed weapons onto college campuses?
 
Gun advocates argue that doing so could help put a quick end to threats like the one posed by a University of Texas student who fired several rounds from an assault rifle Tuesday before killing himself.
 
Under current law, college buildings in Texas are gun-free zones.
 
STATE/LOCAL
 
Summer Essence Festival stays in New Orleans through 2014
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Essence Music Festival will call New Orleans home through 2014, organizers and city officials announced Wednesday, in a deal they said would continue the boom in visitors and spending the city sees each summer.
 
Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications, and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu on Wednesday announced a four-year deal that keeps the festival where it began 16 years ago.
 
“We are just overjoyed,” Ebanks said at a news conference. “The city of New Orleans is the natural home for the Essence Music Festival, which has grown into an experience that is of a size and scope that was never foreseen.”
 
Staged over Fourth of July weekend, it regularly draws hundreds of thousands of fans.
 
 
Marshals arrest man in 10-year-old Austin, Texas, slaying
 
(AP) — Federal marshals have arrested a man in Louisiana accused of beating a woman to death with a piece of wood 10 years ago in Austin, Texas.
 
The U.S. Marshals Service says Juan Reza Ortiz was tracked Wednesday from a home in St. Gabriel to a job in Baton Rouge, then stopped and arrested.
 
Louisiana Democrats’ ad seeks to revive 2007 Vitter scandals
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Democratic challenger in Louisiana’s Senate race is airing a documentary-style television ad detailing the prostitution scandal that sent GOP Sen. David Vitter scurrying from public view in 2007.
 
Rep. Charlie Melancon’s campaign would not say how much it spent on the two-minute ad, which it said started airing Wednesday on cable systems across the state.
 
 
 
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