AP – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hotly rejected calls to lift a blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Wednesday, insisting the ban prevents missile attacks on Israel and labeling worldwide criticism of his navy’s bloody raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla as “hypocrisy.”
Israeli PM: Gaza blockade prevents rocket attacks (AP)
Holloway suspect sought in Peru murder (AP)
AP – A young Dutchman previously arrested in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway is the prime suspect in the weekend murder of a Peruvian woman, police said Wednesday. Joran van der Sloot is being sought for Sunday’s killing of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in a Lima hotel, police chief Gen. Cesar Guardia told a news conference. He said the suspect crossed into Chile the next day by bus.
AP Sources: Admin talked jobs with Romanoff (AP)
AP – The Obama administration dangled the possibility of a government job for former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff last year in hopes he would forgo a challenge to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, officials said Wednesday, just days after the White House admitted orchestrating a job offer in the Pennsylvania Senate race.
UK taxi driver kills 12, wounds 25 in rampage (AP)
AP – A taxi driver drove his vehicle on a shooting spree across a tranquil stretch of northwest England on Wednesday, methodically killing 12 people and wounding 25 others before turning the gun on himself, officials said. The rampage in the county of Cumbria was Britain’s deadliest mass shooting since 1996 and it jolted a country where handguns are banned and multiple shootings rare.
Ex-JonBenet suspect sought after alleged threats (AP)
AP – Police are seeking the whereabouts of the man who once falsely claimed to have murdered JonBenet Ramsey after a former acquaintance told authorities that he threatened to kill her if she revealed his attempts to form cult of little girls to have sex with him.
Porn actor sought in fatal attack at LA studio (AP)
AP – Police searched Wednesday for a porn actor suspected of killing one colleague and injuring two others with a sword that was used as a movie prop at a production studio where the suspect had been living.
Ted Haggard to start new church in Colo. Springs (AP)
AP – Former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard said Wednesday that he will launch a new church from his Colorado Springs home, 3 1/2 years after he resigned from his ministry amid an embarrassing and devastating sex scandal.
Attorney says Gary Coleman, wife divorced in 2008 (AP)
AP – An attorney for former child TV star Gary Coleman says he and his wife were divorced in 2008.
