Student freed by N. Korea has brain damage

WYOMING, Ohio - An American college student who emerged from prison in North Korea in a coma has severe brain damage, but doctors do not know what caused it, a medical team treating him in Ohio said Thursday.

The doctors described Otto Warmbier, 22, as being in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” but declined to discuss his outlook for improvement, saying such information would be kept confidential. The University of Virginia student spent 17 months in North Korean captivity after being accused of anti-state activities.

Two escaped inmates captured in Tennessee: Authorities say the two escaped inmates wanted in the slayings of two Georgia prison guards were captured after a car crash and foot chase in Tennessee. Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Nelly Miles said police in Shelbyville, Tenn., got a call about a home invasion Thursday. She said Donnie Russell Rowe and Ricky Dubose held an elderly couple captive and then fled in the couple’s vehicle. Police responded and started chasing the pair. Miles said the inmates got in a wreck, left the vehicle and then led police on a foot chase.

Polygamous sect leader captured: Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs was captured in South Dakota following nearly a year on the run after he pawned two pairs of pliers and provided a real identification card, authorities said. Authorities had been hunting for Jeffs since he escaped home confinement in Utah on June 18, 2016, ahead of his trial in an alleged multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud scheme.