Explosion kills one outside OU stadium
Norman, Okla. One person was killed in an explosion near a packed football stadium at the University of Oklahoma on Saturday night in what authorities said appeared to be a suicide.
The blast, in a traffic circle about 100 yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, could be heard by some in the crowd of 84,000, but university President David Boren said no one inside the stadium was ever in danger.
“We are apparently dealing with an individual suicide, which is under full investigation,” Boren said in a statement. There was no information about the person who was killed, and no reports of any other injuries.
A police bomb squad detonated explosives found at the site of the blast. The area near the stadium was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs.
Law student taking on 82-year-old legislator
Columbia, S.C. The oldest member of the state House of Representatives is facing a challenge from a 21-year-old looking to become the body’s youngest member.
Bakari Sellers announced his candidacy Saturday, less than two weeks after his birthday. His opponent in the Democratic primary next June will be Rep. Thomas Rhoad, an 82-year-old lawmaker seeking his 13th term in office.
Sellers, whose father became an icon of the civil rights movement in South Carolina, wasn’t even born when Rhoad was first elected to the Statehouse in 1982.
“I have nothing against him, but I definitely think it’s time for a change,” said Sellers, a law student.
Sellers’ father, Cleveland Sellers, was the only person imprisoned in connection with the “Orangeburg Massacre,” in which state troopers killed three black students during a civil rights rally in 1968. He spent seven months in jail for inciting a riot but was pardoned 25 years after the conviction.
New planet also has a moon of its own
Los Angeles The astronomers who claim to have discovered the 10th planet in the solar system have another intriguing announcement: It has a moon.
While observing the new, so-called planet from Hawaii last month, a team of astronomers led by Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology spotted a faint object trailing next to it. Because it was moving, astronomers ruled it was a moon and not a background star, which is stationary.
The moon discovery is important because it can help scientists determine the new planet’s mass. In July, Brown announced the discovery of an icy, rocky object larger than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt, a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune. Brown labeled the object a planet and nicknamed it Xena after the lead character in the former TV series “Xena: Warrior Princess.” The moon was nicknamed Gabrielle, after Xena’s faithful traveling sidekick.
By determining the moon’s distance and orbit around Xena, scientists can calculate how heavy Xena is. For example, the faster a moon goes around a planet, the more massive a planet is.
Arrest made in case of wandering girl
New York A Queens man was charged Saturday with murdering his live-in girlfriend, a week after the woman’s 4-year-old daughter was found walking down a city street alone in the middle of the night, police said.
Cesar Ascarrunz, 32, was arrested on murder charges two days after he was picked up by investigators, police said. Authorities were still searching Saturday for 26-year-old Monica Lozada’s remains.
More than a dozen tips came in to police after child welfare officials took the unusual step of putting the child, Valerie Lozada, on television Thursday, in the hopes it would produce more information. In the appearance, Valerie described her mother as looking “like a princess.”
Lozada was last seen at the apartment she shared with Ascarrunz on Sept. 24, at 11:45 p.m., authorities said. A little more than an hour later, Valerie was found on a Queens street, shivering and barefoot. She told residents that her father dropped her off and drove away. She showed no signs of abuse, and remained in foster care Saturday.