Mother accused of trying to kill 3 kids is free on bail

3,500 migrants on boats rescued in Mediterranean

Italian-navy patrol ships rescued more than 3,500 migrants, including hundreds of women and children, from boats coming from northern Africa over two days, authorities said yesterday, while Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called for help from the European Union.

The rescues, which the coast guard said have been going on since Friday evening, are the latest in a seemingly endless succession as the chronic migrant crisis in the southern Mediterranean Sea has intensified this year.

A total of 3,612 migrants from Syria and northern Africa were picked up from 11 boats and taken to ports in Sicily and the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a coast guard spokesman told Reuters.

About 43,000 people have crossed from North Africa to Italy this year, the same number as in all of 2013, the coast guard said.

A Florida woman charged with the attempted murder of her three children for driving her minivan into the sea with them inside has been released on bail.

Ebony Wilkerson, 33, was charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of child abuse over the incident on Daytona Beach in March. On Thursday, her bail was reduced from $1.2 million to $90,000.

Yesterday, the Volusia County Corrections website listed her as “no longer in custody.”

Wilkerson, who was pregnant at the time of the incident, spent most of her incarceration time in a hospital for mentalhealth and pre-natal treatment. She gave birth about 10 days ago, and the infant was turned over to the father.

Wilkerson told investigators she took her children to Florida from South Carolina to get away from an abusive marriage.

Man arrested over stolen signs for Sandy Hook kids

A Virginia man who claims that the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut never took place has been arrested after stolen memorial signs for two 7-year-old victims were found in his home, police said.

A sign honoring victim Chase Kowalski had been removed from a playground in Mantoloking, N.J., and another, in memory of Grace McDonnell, was taken from a playground in Mystic, Conn.

Both signs were found on Friday at the Herndon, Va., residence of Andrew David

Restrictions on smoking include restaurants, bars

Russia risks igniting the ire of its 44 million smokers when it extends bans on cigarettes to restaurants and bars today as part of a battle to break the habit in one of heaviestsmoking countries in the world.

The ban is the latest measure under President Vladimir Putin to promote healthy lifestyles — which goes hand in hand with his support for what he calls traditional values — and stem a population decline that began after the Soviet Union breakup.

Putin’s government hopes to reduce the share of the adult population that smokes from 39 percent, one of the highest rates in the world, to 25 percent by 2020.