REPORT: PREMIUMS UNDER HEALTH CARE LAW WILL GO UP
washington Many people covered under President Barack Obama’s health care law will face higher premiums next year, the administration acknowledged Thursday.
Premiums for the most popular type of plan are going up an average of 5 percent in 35 states where the federal government is running the health insurance exchanges this year and will do so again in 2015, said a report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Officials stressed that millions of current healthcare.gov customers can mitigate the financial hit if they’re willing to shop around for another plan in a more competitive online marketplace. Subsidies will also help cushion the impact.
At least 37 die in car bomb attacks
baghdad » A string of car bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 37 people Thursday, Iraqi officials said. Three of the attacks targeted Shiite districts in the capital, Baghdad, while the fourth targeted a Kurdish neighborhood in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.
Home of Sandy Hook shooter transferred to townB
hartford, conn. » Newtown has taken possession of the Colonial-style home where school shooter Adam Lanza lived with his mother in a deal with a bank that prepared the house by removing and incinerating all personal effects. The Newtown Legislative Council voted unanimouslyWednesday night to accept the house at no cost. The appraised value of the 3,162square-foot home was $523,620.
Crocodile kills golfer
johannesburg » A crocodile killed a man while he was retrieving golf balls from a dam called Lake Panic at South Africa’s flagship wildlife reserve, officials said Thursday.
The crocodile grabbed 29-year-old Jacques van der Sandt in its jaws on Wednesday night and disappeared under the water at a golf course next to a staff residential area within the park boundaries, according to Kruger National Park officials.
Cosby seeks to have lawsuit dismissed B »
los angeles A woman suing Bill Cosby for sexual battery attempted to sell a story about the comedian to a tabloid a decade ago and tried to extort money in exchange for her silence, Cosby’s attorney said in a court filing Thursday.
AttorneyMartin Singer wrote in the filing that the lawsuit by Judy Huth and her attorney followed a failed attempt to extort $250,000 from Cosby. In the filing, Cosby seeks more than $33,000 from Huth and her attorney.
Protest leaders consider retreat
hong kong » Hong Kong student leaders said Thursday they’re considering retreating from protest sites on city streets after more than two months in the latest sign that momentum is fading in their movement for greater democracy.
Court rules chimps don’t have same rights as humans
albany, n.y. » A chimpanzee is not entitled to the rights of a human and does not have to be freed by its owner, a New York appeals court ruled Thursday.
The three-judge Appellate Division panelwas unanimous in denying “legal personhood” to Tommy, who lives alone in a cage in upstate Fulton County. A trial-level court had denied the Nonhuman Rights Project’s effort to have Tommy released.
Pulitzer-winning poet Emerson dies at 57 B »
richmond, va. Claudia Emerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, died Thursday at age 57 after a long battle with cancer, the university said.
Emerson won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book “Late Wife,” a collection of handwritten letters reflecting on her failed marriage of 19 years and her blossoming relationship with her second husband, Kent Ippolito.
Man gets 110 years in boy’s death, girl’s rape
camden, n. j. » ANew Jersey man was sentenced Thursday to 110 years in prison in the rape of a girl and the stabbing death of her 6-year-old brother, who had come to her defense.
Authorities say Osvaldo Rivera, 35, broke into the family’s home early morning Sept. 2, 2012, and attacked the girl, who was asleep on the sofa. Family members have said that 6-year-old Dominick Andujar was stabbed when he came to his sister’s defense.