NATION/ WORLD BRIEFING

3 teen girls dead after driving into pond

St. Petersburg, Fla. — Authorities say three teenage girls were found dead inside a stolen car after driving into a pond while fleeing sheriff’s deputies in Florida.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the driver apparently missed a sharp turn near a cemetery and went into the water near St. Petersburg early Thursday. Investigators have identified the girls as 15-year-old Laniya Miller, 15-year-old Ashaunti Butler and 16-year-old Dominique Battle. It wasn’t clear who was driving.

Gualtieri said a deputy spotted the car driving without headlights and tried to stop it. The driver fled, eventually running a red light.

The sheriff said the pond’s water was so murky that police could not find the car. He said the vehicle was like a “death chamber,” with its windows rolled up and doors closed. Divers later found it in 15 feet of water.

Palestinian president reaches out to Israel

Jerusalem — The Palestinian president has reached out to Israel, saying he opposes near-daily Palestinian attacks on Israelis and suggesting the violence would stop if the defunct peace process resumes again.

Mahmoud Abbas made the remarks in an interview Thursday with Israeli Channel 2 TV’s “Uvda” program. Israel has accused him of failing to condemn the wave of attacks that erupted in mid-September.

The Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings but also shootings and car-ramming assaults, have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans.

Ferguson selects new police chief

Ferguson, Mo. — Maj. Delrish Moss, a former homicide detective who serves as spokesman for the Miami Police Department, has been named the new chief of police for Ferguson, the city announced Thursday.

Moss was one of four finalists announced about a month ago to replace Thomas Jackson, who resigned after a Justice Department report strongly criticized the city’s police and municipal court practices. That report was triggered by the controversial shooting of Michael Brown Jr. by a Ferguson officer, setting off riots, in 2014.

The city said that from more than 54 applicants nationwide, 16 were selected to fill out a 15-page questionnaire. Six of them were interviewed by several panels of residents, officials, police executives and criminal justice experts.

Court orders president to repay money

Johannesburg — South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that President Jacob Zuma violated the constitution when he ignored a recommendation to pay back part of $14.6 million spent on renovating his private home.

Zuma, 73, had argued that the money was spent on security measures for his rural homestead in the town of Nkandla in South Africa’s east.

However, the expenses also included a swimming pool, a cattle enclosure, a chicken coop, a visitor center and an amphitheater.

In February, the president finally yielded to months of public pressure, agreeing to return part of the money.

California minimum wage increase advances

Sacramento, Calif. — The California Assembly on Thursday greenlighted a plan that would create the highest statewide minimum wage in the nation of $15 an hour by 2022.

The proposal now moves on to the state Senate for consideration. The state of New York is considering a similar measure.

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrats who control both legislative chambers hailed the increase as a boon to more than 2 million of California’s poorest workers and an example to the nation as it struggles with a growing gap between rich and poor.

Republicans echoed fears from business owners and economists that the annual increases would compound California’s image as hostile to business.

Guantanamo Bay: A parole board has upheld the detention of a Yemeni “forever prisoner” profiled as a former Osama bin Laden bodyguard despite pledges by former President Jimmy Carter’s Atlanta-based Carter Center to help the man succeed in his transition to life after 15 years in U.S. custody. The board wrote in a short decision released Thursday by the Pentagon that it could not recommend release of Muhammed alAnsi, who is 40 or 41, given “the significant derogatory information regarding the detainee’s past activities in Afghanistan.”

From Journal Sentinel wire reports