Man arrested in synthetic pot overdose case
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A 53-year-old man has been arrested in connection with more than 100 synthetic-marijuana overdoses, many of them in the same New Haven park, after authorities say they caught him with 32 bags of the drug, police said Friday.
Some of the victims identified John Parker, of New Haven, as one of the people who was dealing K2 on the New Haven Green, where most of the overdoses occurred Wednesday and Thursday, Police Chief Anthony Campbell said. Two others were arrested, but investigators were trying to determine whether they were connected to the overdoses.
Aretha’s funeral Aug. 31 in Detroit
Aretha Franklin’s funeral will be held Aug. 31 in her hometown of Detroit.
The late singer’s publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, said Friday that the funeral, to be held at Greater Grace Temple, is limited to the Queen of Soul’s family and friends. Public viewings will take place Aug. 28-29 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Franklin died Thursday at her home in Detroit from pancreatic cancer. She was 76.
Officials: Al-Qaida bomb master killed
Al-Qaida’s chief bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, who was behind the 2009 Christmas Day plot to down an airliner over Detroit and other foiled aviation-related terror attacks, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the eastern Yemeni governorate of Marib, Yemeni officials and a tribal leader said Friday. Al-Asiri is believed to have built the underwear bomb that a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to detonate on a passenger jet over Detroit in December 2009. He is also behind bombs hidden in printer cartridges placed on U.S.bound cargo jets in 2010.
Floods in India kill more than 300
NEW DELHI — Rescuers used helicopters and boats on Friday to evacuate thousands of people stranded on their rooftops following unprecedented flooding in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Officials said at least 324 people had died and more than 220,000 had taken refuge in state-run rescue camps.