Mississippi mourns two slain officers
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The deaths of Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate stunned this small city in southern Mississippi. On Sunday morning, bloodstains still marked the street where the two were shot, and in the nearby New Hope Baptist Church, worshippers prayed for them and their families.
A routine traffic stop led to their shooting deaths Saturday night – the first Hattiesburg police officers to die in the line of duty in more than 30 years – and three suspects were in custody, including two who were charged with capital murder.
Marvin Banks, 29, and Joanie Calloway, 22, were each charged with two counts of capital murder, said Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Banks also was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and with grand theft for fleeing in the police cruiser after the shooting, Strain said.
Banks’ 26-year-old brother, Curtis Banks, was charged with two counts of accessory after the fact of capital murder.
Severe weather casts a wide net
South Dakota was the center of weather extremes Sunday, with a tornado damaging a small town on the eastern side of the state and more than a foot of snow blanketing the Black Hills to the west.
Several Great Plains and Midwest states were in the path of severe weather, including in North Texas, where the National Weather Service said a likely tornado damaged roofs and trees near Denton. At the same time, a tropical storm came ashore in the Carolinas and wintry weather also affected parts of Colorado.
Tropical Storm Ana made landfall near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Sunday morning and was downgraded to a tropical depression by Sunday afternoon. The storm’s maximum sustained winds were at 35 mph, and it was expected to move over eastern North Carolina on Sunday night.
Spanish farmers lauded for bravery
MADRID – Spanish authorities on Sunday praised the bravery of farmworkers who helped pull two survivors away from the burning wreckage of an Airbus A400M military transport plane that had crashed near Seville airport.
The plane, which was undergoing flight tests, destroyed a high-tension electricity pylon as it smashed into a field Saturday, killing four people on board. Airbus spokesman Kieran Daly said it had been carrying six crew: two pilots, three flight test engineers and a technician.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy posted a photograph of himself on Twitter talking to a farmer who had helped save the injured crewmen, calling him “a hero for us all.”
Spanish state television TVE and regional newspaper Diario de Sevilla on Sunday featured interviews with Francisco Miranda Escudero, who described how he and three other men had seen two people emerge from the broken fuselage and jump 13 to 16 feet to the ground.
Iraq bombings kill at least 14 people
BAGHDAD – Separate bombings in and around the Iraqi capital on Sunday killed at least 14 people, officials said, as authorities tightened security measures in Baghdad ahead of a major Shiite religious event that draws thousands of vulnerable pilgrims.
The deadliest attack took place in the town of Tarmiyah when a car bomber struck a police and army checkpoint, killing five security force members and wounding 10, a police officer said. The town is about 31 miles north of Baghdad.
Another car bomb killed three civilians and wounded eight at an outdoor market in Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, the officer added.
In the capital’s southern Abu Disher neighborhood, a bomb targeted Shiite pilgrims, killing two and wounding seven. Another civilian was killed and five wounded in a bomb attack in an outdoor market in the northern Baghdad district of Shaab, police added.
Associated Press
