EX-BOYFRIEND OF BLAST VICTIM GETS ARRESTED

CALIF.» Spa owner SANTA ANA,

Ildiko Krajnyak was opening a package that had piled up with mail during her recent trip to her native Hungary when it exploded, shaking the building.

Parts of Krajnyak were blown out the windows into a parking lot Tuesday afternoon.

News reports quickly reached Stephen Beal, her ex-boyfriend and a partner in the Southern California business.

At the urging of his new girlfriend, Beal phoned police and let them search his house. They found more than 100 pounds of explosive material and charged him Thursday with possessing an unregistered destructive device.

While not charged with the fatal explosion, the arrest puts Beal in custody as authorities investigate what they believe was a targeted bombing.

NIH halts controversial study of moderate drinking.

The National Institutes of Health has ordered a halt to a $100 million, 10-year study of moderate drinking that’s being funded in large part by the alcoholic-beverage industry. Thursday morning’s announcement by NIH Director Francis Collins reflects the seriousness of allegations that surfaced in news reports in recent months, including a story in March in The New York Times that described two scientists and a federal health official pitching the idea for the study to liquor company executives at a 2014 gathering in Palm Beach, Fla.

The alcohol industry agreed to fund the research via a private foundation that supports NIH. The goal of the study, which involves 7,000 individuals, is to assess whether moderate drinking — a single drink a day — has a health benefit.

Teen who ignited massive fire may have to repay $37 million.

ORE.» A teenager who HOOD RIVER, started a huge wildfire in the scenic Columbia River Gorge in Oregon could owe more in restitution that he will earn in a lifetime. Eleven requests for restitution totaling almost $37 million have been submitted to a court. That covers the costs of firefighting, repair and restoration to the gorge and damage to homes.

At a hearing Thursday, the lawyer for the 15-year-old defendant urged Hood River County Judge John Olson to impose a “reasonable and rational” amount of restitution. The attorney, Jack Morris, said ordering a boy who is indigent to pay $37 million is “absurd.”

Archaeologists find street of balconies in Italy’s Pompeii.

ROME» Archaeologists excavating an unexplored part of Italy’s volcanic ash-covered city of Pompeii have discovered a street of houses with intact balconies that were buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

Some of the balconies even had amphorae — the conicalshaped terra cotta vases that were used to hold wine and oil in ancient Roman times.

The culture ministry’s Pompeii authority announced the discovery Thursday. It said the balconies were a “complete novelty” for this part of the buried city, which hasn’t been fully excavated. A statement said the balconies will be restored and the area included in a tour open to the public.

Glacier park says rebuilding chalet won't permanently harm wildlife.

Rebuilding a Glacier National Park backcountry dormitory that burned in a fire last year may temporarily scatter mountain goats, grizzly bears and other wildlife that frequent the area, but it won't cause them permanent harm, officials said Thursday. But critics of the National Park Service's environmental analysis of the plan to rebuild the Sperry Chalet cast doubts on the study, saying the project is being rushed through by U.S. Interior Department leaders.

The plan approved by the park service calls for using horses, mules and helicopters to haul materials up a mountainside to the site of the Sperry Chalet, which is 6 miles from the nearest roadway.