■UNITED STATES
Bodies found in hotel
Staff at a suburban Baltimore, Maryland, hotel unlocked a guest door and discovered the bodies of a man, two women and a teenage girl, authorities said, without naming the cause of death. The four were related and police were not looking for any suspects, Baltimore County Police Corporal Michael Hill said. It was unclear whether the deaths might have been the result of a murder-suicide. Hill said the victims were not from the Baltimore area and police were trying to contact the next of kin. Autopsies were planned for yesterday, and police didn’t release their identities. The hotel staff made the discovery on Monday after the room occupants didn’t check out when expected from the Sheraton Baltimore North Hotel.
■UNITED STATES
Kids lie about addiction
A study has found that almost one in 10 kids who play video games shows classic signs of addiction, lying about their habit, failing in efforts to cut back and even stealing to buy games. The study by Douglas Gentile, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, was published in the journal Psychological Science and used data from a Harris Poll of nearly 1,200 children aged eight to 18. The survey found that 88 percent of kids played video games at least occasionally and on average children played 13 hours of video games a week. Addicted gamers were far more likely to be boys. They reported having trouble paying attention in school, received poorer grades and had more health problems.
■UNITED STATES
Millions living with paralysis
Nearly 2 percent of the population, or more than 5.5 million people, have some kind of paralysis, a survey published yesterday found. The largest group, 29 percent, were paralyzed or partly paralyzed by stroke, the survey by Anthony Cahill of the University of New Mexico and colleagues found. Spinal cord injuries affected 23 percent, the telephone survey of 33,000 people found. The study was paid for by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, set up by the actor who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995 and died in 2004.
■UNITED STATES
Web spies breach jet project
Computer spies have repeatedly breached the Pentagon's costliest weapons program, the US$300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The newspaper quoted current and former government officials familiar with the matter as saying the intruders were able to copy and siphon data related to design and electronics systems. The spies could not access the most sensitive material, the paper said. The Journal quoted former US officials as saying the attacks seemed to have originated in China.
■UNITED STATES
FBI in mall spying scandal
Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a mall in West Virginia. The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and committing criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said on Monday. Gary Sutton and Charles Hommema face fines and up to a year in jail on each charge if convicted.
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