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Bells of French cathedrals ring

PARIS — Bells of cathedrals across France rang in a moving tribute Wednesday to Notre Dame as firefighters and experts continued to keep the beloved but weakened landmark under close surveillance. From Sacre Coeur in Paris to the cities of Strasbourg in the east and Rouen in the west, the architectural treasures of France solemnly marked the inferno, two days after it ravaged the gothic cathedral, widely regarded as the soul of France. “I just arrived for the first ring of the bells and immediately there was an emotion. Incredible, indescribable, I just can’t explain it,” said Nadia Pascassio-Comte, in Strasbourg. “It was beautiful and sad at the same time. I had tears in my eyes at one point, and I think that this solidarity is magical, it really unites a lot of people.” At Saint Sulpice church, the second-largest house of worship in Paris, French first lady Brigitte Macron attended a special service for the annual blessing of the oils during Holy Week, ahead of Easter Sunday. Meanwhile, restoration specialists questioned President Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious five-year reconstruction timeline for Notre Dame, with some suggesting it could take more than three times that amount of time to rebuild the 850-year-old architectural treasure.

Florida teen takes her own life

LITTLETON, Colo. — A Florida teenager who authorities say was obsessed with the Columbine school shooting and may have been planning an attack in Colorado just ahead of the 20th anniversary was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide after a nearly 24-hour manhunt. The body of 18-year-old high schooler Sol Pais was discovered in the mountains outside Denver with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound after investigators got a tip from the driver who took her there, the FBI said. During the manhunt, Denver-area schools closed as a precaution, with classes and extracurricular activities canceled for a half-million students. Police and the FBI were tipped off about Pais after the Miami Beach high school student made troubling remarks to others about her “infatuation” with the 1999 bloodbath at Columbine High and this weekend’s anniversary of the 13 killings, said Dean Phillips, FBI agent in charge in Denver. He did not elaborate on what she said. Pais purchased three one-way tickets to Denver on three consecutive days, then flew in on Monday night and went directly to a gun store, where she bought a shotgun, authorities said.

Trump cracks down on 3 countries

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — The Trump administration on Wednesday intensified its crackdown on Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, rolling back Obama administration policy and announcing new restrictions and sanctions against the three countries whose leaders national security adviser John Bolton dubbed the “three stooges of socialism.” “The troika of tyranny — Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — is beginning to crumble,” Bolton said in a hard-hitting speech near Miami on the 58th anniversary of the United States’ failed Bay of Pigs invasion of the island, an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government. The measures seem likely to hit hardest in Cuba, which is at a moment of severe economic weakness as it struggles to find cash to import basic food and other supplies following a drop in aid from Venezuela and a string of bad years in other key economic sectors. Bolton announced a new cap on the amount of money that families in the United States can send their relatives in Cuba. The Obama administration had lifted limits on remittances, but the new limit will be $1,000 per person per quarter. Remittances to Cuba from the United States amounted to $3 billion in 2016, according to the State Department. Washington also moved to restrict “non-family travel” after a broad loosening of so-called purposeful visits under Obama led to soaring numbers of American trips for cultural and educational exchanges. Details on the restrictions were not immediately clear, but tourism is a key lifeline of hard currency for Cuba. Bolton called such visits “veiled tourism.”

Ex-Peru president kills himself

LIMA, Peru — Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia shot himself in the head and died Wednesday as officers waited to arrest him in a massive graft probe that has put the country’s most prominent politicians behind bars and provoked a reckoning over corruption. Authorities broke through a door at Garcia’s mansion in a leafy, upscale neighborhood of the Peruvian capital after hearing gunfire. The 69-year-old former head of state was rushed to a hospital, where a team of doctors performed emergency surgery but could not save him. “The president, upset over this situation, knowing his absolute innocence … had this terrible accident,” said his lawyer, Erasmo Reyna. It was a shocking end for a man who twice ruled Peru — once in the 1980s and then again more than two decades later. In more recent years, he became ensnared in Latin America’s biggest corruption scandal, a sweeping investigation of politicians’ dealings with the Brazilian construction giant known as Odebrecht. No country outside Brazil has gone as far in prosecuting politicians tied to Odebrecht, which admitted in a 2016 plea agreement that it paid nearly $800 million throughout Latin America in exchange for lucrative public-works contracts.

Parole for Brink’s heist driver

ALBANY, N.Y. — Former left-wing revolutionary Judith Clark was granted parole Wednesday after serving more than 37 years behind bars for her role as getaway driver in a 1981 Brink’s armored truck robbery that left two police officers and a security guard dead. “You were wrong. Your behavior was criminal. Your callous disregard for the wellbeing of some, in favor of others, is a disgrace,” the parole board wrote in its letter delivered to Clark. “However, this release decision is granted in keeping with applicable factors” including her age, the length of time served, her apologies to victims, her disavowal of radical principles and her accomplishments in prison. Clark was seen by supporters as a symbol of the need for clemency if the prison system was to live up to its ideals as an institution of rehabilitation rather than retribution. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised Clark’s behavior as a model prisoner when he commuted her 75-years-to-life sentence in 2016 to make her eligible for parole. The 69-year-old inmate has earned a master’s degree, trained service dogs, founded an AIDS education program and counseled mothers behind bars during her time in prison.

Lightning hits Acropolis, 4 hurt

ATHENS, Greece — A lightning bolt struck the Acropolis in Athens during a rainstorm Wednesday, lightly injuring two visitors and two guards but causing no damage to the country’s most famous ancient site. The citadel’s lightning conductor, which is set apart from the 2,500-year-old marble buildings, was hit. The impact shattered glass windows in two nearby guard booths, and the guards inside as well as two female visitors were taken to hospital with light cuts. The hilltop is Greece’s most popular archaeological site, attracting 3.15 million visitors last year. The ministry said none of the Acropolis monuments, which include the 5th Century B.C. Parthenon and Erechtheion temples, were damaged. Much of Greece has been beset by unusually persistent rainfall over recent days, with a hailstorm carpeting central Athens in white on Monday. The Acropolis is one of the highest points in the city center and has suffered severely from lightning strikes in the past. In 1645, during the Ottoman Turkish occupation of Greece when the Acropolis served as a fortress, a bolt hit the monumental entrance to the citadel, the Propylaea, which the garrison was using as a gunpowder store. The subsequent explosion extensively damaged the 5th Century B.C. building, which until then had remained largely intact since ancient times. The Parthenon suffered a similar fate when it was hit by a shell in 1687, during a siege by Venetian forces.

6-hour standoff at Burger King

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who was wanted in a weekend shooting barricaded himself inside a Salt Lake City area fast-food restaurant and fired several times at police during an overnight standoff that ended when the man surrendered after officers fired tear gas into the restaurant. Joshua B. Williams, 36, was arrested early Wednesday after firing about 10 rounds at officers during a 6-hour standoff at a Burger King in Magna, Utah. No officers, restaurant employees or customers were injured. Officers had been searching for Williams since Saturday when he was suspected of firing several shots at a woman who was letting him stay in her house.

Swastika Acres to be renamed

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. — City counci here has voted to drop the name “Swastika Acres” from a subdivision. It will be changed to Old Cherry Hills. The neighborhood in the Denver suburb was named Swastika Acres decades before the symbol was adopted by the Nazis. Councilman Dan Sheldon spearheaded the change and says the name comes from the Denver Land Swastika Company that divided area land into plots near the turn of the 20th Century. While the name cannot be found on road signs, it still appeared on real estate closing documents. Sheldon says one woman opposed the change to preserve the historical value of the symbol, despite having lost family in the Holocaust.

Maine fighting ash borer

AUGUSTA, Maine — Officials in Maine have announced a formal quarantine to slow the spread of a beetle that has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees since its discovery in North America. The emerald ash borer was first found stateside in Michigan in 2002 and has spread to dozens of states and four Canadian provinces. Loggers are cutting down large numbers of ash trees to try to stay ahead of the pest. The quarantine includes all of York County and the northeastern corner of Aroostook County. The quarantine rules prohibit the movement of ash trees grown in nurseries from the quarantine area and regulate the movement of products such as untreated ash lumber.

EMT sues for wrongful firing

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A former New Jersey paramedic is suing a health care company for wrongful termination after he practiced holistic medicine on a patient who refused traditional treatment. Michael Senisch, of Bridgeton, says AtlanticCare fired him in 2016 and told him his clinical judgment was questionable. His attorney says the company’s prejudices against holistic medicine contributed to their decision. The suit says a woman refused to let Senisch perform an infusion, used instead of a traditional IV, while treating her at her home. She allowed Senisch to practice Reiki –or energy healing — on her after he offered. The complaint says a doctor later performed the infusion without her consent after she arrived at the hospital. The patient’s husband says he believes that Senisch did the right thing.

Bus carrying Germans crashes

LISBON, Portugal — A tour bus carrying German tourists crashed on Portugal’s Madeira Island on Wednesday, killing 28 people and injuring 28 others, local authorities said. The bus carrying 55 people rolled down a steep hillside after veering off the road on a bend east of the capital, Funchal, and struck at least one house, local mayor Filipe Sousa told cable news channel SIC. The victims included 17 women and 11 men. Local television showed bodies scattered over the rural hillside next to the Atlantic Ocean. Madeira, off northwest Africa, is a popular vacation destination for Europeans due to its mild climate and lush, hilly landscape.

Woman sues over salmonella

INDIANAPOLIS — A Kentucky woman is suing an Indiana-based company that issued a recall last week for melon products linked to a salmonella outbreak. Tammy France, 50, of Louisville alleges in her federal lawsuit that she spent a week hospitalized with salmonella poisoning after eating pre-cut melon made by Caito Foods. She bought the fruit in late March at a Kroger store. Her lawsuit was filed Monday against Indianapolis-based Caito Foods LLC and Cincinnati-based The Kroger Co.

Kidnapper caught in Texas

DALLAS — Authorities in Texas have apprehended a car salesman accused of kidnapping a paralyzed Tennessee man and forcing him to hand over nearly $200,000 cash. Cedar Hill police Lt. Colin Chenault said Wednesday that a federal task force took 42-year-old Daniel Clayton Bryant into custody Sunday at a hotel in Cedar Hill, southwest of Dallas. A criminal complaint alleges Bryant offered to drive the man home April 1, after he left his pickup for service at a dealership in Chattanooga, Tenn. The victim has one leg and is paralyzed down one side. Authorities say Bryant held the man for two days, threatening to kill him and his family if he didn’t withdraw the money.

Stepmom pleads guilty

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Lindsay Lohan’s stepmother has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after state police said she tried to commandeer an occupied bus and attacked its driver. Kate Major Lohan, 36, apologized while entering the third-degree misdemeanor plea Wednesday. Lehigh County prosecutors withdrew other charges including drunken driving. She was angry after missing her Hellertown stop on Christmas Day. She grabbed at and verbally abused the driver, then got behind the wheel and began pushing buttons as the engine ran. She spent Christmas night in jail. Defense attorney Greg Spang lauded prosecutors for dropping the DUI charge, saying his client wanted to put a “Christmas she won’t soon forget” behind her.

Survivor describes escape

ALTO, Texas — A survivor of a deadly Texas tornado says he managed to crawl out of a grass house at a Native American historic site before the twister hurled it into the distance with two other people still inside. Jeff Williams of Nacogdoches is president of Friends of Caddo Mounds, a historic site in Alto that was among areas across the South that was pummeled by storms over the weekend. The Oklahoma native saidhe helped build the beehive-shaped grass structure using the Caddo Nation method. Williams says the house “disintegrated” and the tornado dropped the other occupants “a couple hundred yards” away. They survived. Caddo Mounds was hosting a cultural event when the tornado struck. One person died and more than 20 were hurt.

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