One dies in swordplay
A 77-year-old woman in Indianapolis suffered a fatal stab wound while trying to break up a sword fight on Thursday between her grandson and brother-in-law, police said. An autopsy determined Franziska Stegbauer died of a wound from one of the swords, police Sergeant Matthew Mount said. Both men were hospitalized with stab wounds and one was critically hurt. “We’re unsure yet who started this fight, how the swordplay got involved,” Mount said. One of the weapons was a World War II-era Japanese officer’s sword with a thin blade, and the other had a thicker blade, Mount said.
■UNITED STATES
Springsteen accused
A New Jersey man who is divorcing his wife has accused rock star Bruce Springsteen of having an affair with her. Springsteen, who is married to singer Patti Scialfa, was accused by Arthur Kelly of Red Bank, New Jersey, of having an affair with his wife, Ann Kelly, in papers filed in Monmouth County Superior Court on March 27. A spokesman for Springsteen told local media the musician stood by a statement he posted on his Web site in 2006 following rumors of infidelity. In the statement, Springsteen wrote of his marriage that “our commitment to one another remains as strong as the day we were married.”
■CANADA
Spears: ‘Don’t smoke weed’
The new and improved Britney Spears apparently isn’t a fan of cigarette smoke — or any other kind of smoke, for that matter — while she’s performing. The 27-year-old pop star left the stage for about 30 minutes during a concert in Vancouver on Wednesday night, apparently because of smoke in the audience. The Vancouver Sun said Spears’ concert was halted about 15 minutes into her performance and an announcer told concertgoers to put out their cigarettes. Some audience members grew impatient while waiting for Spears and her troupe to return to the stage, the Sun reported. After she returned and ended the show, Spears — who has been to rehab and is on the comeback trail after a long stretch of troubles — told the crowd: “Don’t smoke weed.”
■MEXICO
Water rationing begins
Some 2 million residents of Mexico City on Thursday began 36 hours without water under an emergency plan over Easter vacation to respond to a record drop in water supply and to work on repairs. The cuts in the city of some 20 million that once sat on lakes coincide with Semana Santa, Mexico’s second-most important holiday season when many leave the city. They are part of a five-month emergency rationing plan announced in January and include repairs to stop massive leaks in the distribution network of one of the main water supply systems. The Cutzamala supply system is at 47 percent capacity, its lowest ever level, because of low rainfall last year and serious leaks, national water commission Conagua said.
■UNITED STATES
Man steals 66-year-old bike
A thief in Maine stole a 66-year-old bicycle that belonged to an 83-year-old woman. Ruth Slovenski got the blue Huffy bicycle as a gift when she was a teenager in 1943. The bike was stolen after she left it unlocked on Saturday during a visit to a nursing home in Lewiston, a southern Maine city of about 35,000 residents where Slovenski lives. Police say Slovenski had left the bike near a mailbox. When she went back to it two hours later, the bike was gone.
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