Immigrant boat capsizes off Italian coast, 250 missing, 48 rescued
ROME (AP) — A boat carrying as many as 300 migrants from Libya capsized in rough seas off the Italian coast early Wednesday, leaving 250 people unaccounted for. Survivors told of desperately trying to reach rescue boats as those unable to swim screamed in the darkness and pulled one another under the water.
A wave of migrants began arriving on Italian shores in January following popular revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
The Italian coast guard rescued 48 people Wednesday and a fishing boat picked up another three after the boat began taking on water shortly after 1 a.m.
Survivors told the International Organization for Migration they swam toward approaching vessels, but many drowned because they couldn’t swim or were dragged back by fellow passengers.
Coast guard official Pietro Carosia said rescue operations, conducted by Italian helicopters, patrol boats and a Maltese plane, were slowed by strong winds and rough waters.
The incident occurred about 40 miles off the coast of Lampedusa, an island closer to North Africa than mainland Italy.
 
Brazilian officials confirm size of chocolate eggs in “Operation Easter”
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Officials in Rio de Janeiro are going to make sure the Easter Bunny isn’t short-changing children with the holiday’s hallmark chocolate eggs.
Rio’s department of weights and measures launched “Operation Easter” on Wednesday to verify the size and weight of the multicolored eggs already lining store shelves.
The state-run Agencia Brasil says they will also check the safety of toys inside the eggs.
 
Shooting at Alabama community college leaves 1 dead, 3 wounded
OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — A shooting at an east Alabama community college on Wednesday killed one woman, wounded two others and injured a child who was hit by flying glass, authorities said. Police are searching for a 34-year-old male suspect and said the gunfire resulted from a domestic dispute.
Photos and video from the scene showed a Toyota minivan with three windows shot out in a parking lot outside a building at Southern Union Community College in Opelika. Student Quay Thomas said he heard nine shots.
 
Rapper “Webbie” arrested for drug possession, evidence tampering
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Highway Patrol officers arrested Louisiana rapper Webster “Webbie” Gradney Jr., for drug possession and tampering with evidence after returning from a show in Louisville, Ky.
Officials said Wednesday that 25-year-old Gradney was a passenger in a rental car stopped Monday on Interstate 65 south of Nashville in Marshall County. Gradney, of Baton Rouge, was found with $13,000 and 2 ounces of marijuana.
 
Teen faces cyberstalking charge for threatening teacher on Facebook
SHREVEPORT (AP) — A 14-year-old boy faces a cyberstalking charge for allegedly posting threatening text messages on his teacher’s Facebook page.
Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator says the Byrd High School student used another student’s name to create a fake account on the social networking web site in order to send messages to the teacher because he allegedly received a bad grade in her class.
 
Parents of female students sue school to end single sex classes
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has refused to kill a challenge to single-sex classes in a middle school in Vermilion Parish.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday instead sent the suit by a parent of two girls attending Rene Rost Middle School back to a federal judge.
In April 2010, U.S. District Judge Richard Haik of Lafayette ruled that all-boys and all-girls classes at the school could continue under court-mandated conditions addressing errors in the program’s planning and implementation for the 2009-10 school year.
 
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