■UNITED STATES
Church leader jailed
A Wisconsin church leader was sentenced to two years in jail for keeping the body of a dead elderly parishioner in a bathtub to cash in on her pension checks. The macabre money-making scheme also involved another woman and her two children, who were ordered to pray for the dead woman so that she would be resurrected, the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune reported on Thursday. The children, aged 12 and 15 when the body heist occurred, and their mother were told that if they prayed and believed enough, the woman would come back to life. The children were punished and beaten with a stick when the body began to decompose.
■UNITED STATES
Land mine donated
A land mine found in a suburban Denver Goodwill donation box forced the evacuation of a strip mall. The rectangular, olive-green box with the words “Front Toward Enemy” raised the suspicions of Goodwill workers on Tuesday. Arvada police say the Claymore land mine didn’t go off in the donation box and no one was hurt. A bomb squad disposed of the device.
■UNITED STATES
Bloody display removed
The luxury retailer Barneys New York has removed a window display that made it appear blood-spattered mannequins were fending off attackers. Creative director Simon Doonan says it was installed in a vestibule window at the Manhattan store while he was away on business. He had it removed on Tuesday after an inquiry from the Daily News. Doonan said he encourages creativity, but “this clearly crossed the line.”
■CANADA
Lottery win worth jail
For Canadian Barry Shell, 45, the C$4 million (US$3.7 million) was worth a night in jail. Shell showed up at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp delighted to claim his win earlier this week, only to be pulled aside by detective Kevin Finley and informed he was under arrest. “I hate to wreck your happy dance,” Finley told Shell, according to the Toronto Star on Thursday. Shell had several outstanding warrants from 2003 for theft of cameras, global positioning systems, memory cards and watches. “I’m still kind of in shock that I won this money, so it’s not a big deal that I have to spend the night in jail,” he said. Instead of dancing, he had a “happy cigarette,” Finley said. Shell was released on Tuesday on bail of C$1,500 and must return to court on next Thursday. When he bought his lottery ticket on Sunday, he had C$0.50 in his pocket.
■CANADA
‘Honor killing’ suspected
Authorities on Thursday charged an Afghan immigrant, his wife and their oldest son with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three sisters in the family and an older female relative. The three teenage sisters were found dead with Rona Amir Mohammed, 50, in a submerged car on June 30 in the historic Rideau Canal near Kingston, Ontario. Investigators were baffled how the car negotiated obstacles to end up in the canal tail first, without leaving any skid marks. Kingston police said the teenage girls’ father, Mohammad Shafia, mother Tooba Mohammad Yehya and brother Hamid Mohammad Shafia, 18, have each been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four counts of conspiracy to murder. An official said that investigators are looking into whether the deaths were an “honor killing.” It emerged during a press conference that Rona Amir Mohammed was actually Mohammad Shafia’s first wife, not a cousin as reported.
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