Gwinnett Daily Post

More charges filed against man in slayings

GALESBURG, Ill. - More first-degree murder charges have been filed against a man suspected in a June killing spree that left eight people dead in Illinois and Missouri.

The Illinois attorney general's office announced Thursday that a grand jury has indicted Nicholas Sheley in the deaths of four people found in an apartment in the northwestern Illinois community of Rock Falls.

Sheley had already been charged in the other four killings - two in Illinois and two in Missouri.

Family says NY teen killed in Yemen attack

LACKAWANNA, N.Y. - The only American killed in an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen was an 18-year-old high school senior who had gone overseas for an arranged marriage to a Yemeni man, her family and the State Department said.

The teen, Susan Elbaneh, went abroad last month and the couple were planning on returning to New York to live, her brother Ahmed Elbaneh said Wednesday.

Trial begins in NYC for mother of abused girl

NEW YORK - The mother of a 7-year-old girl beaten to death by her stepfather provoked the man to abuse the child and did nothing to help as her daughter - cold, naked and battered - lay dying on their apartment floor, prosecutors told jurors Thursday.

In an abuse case that cast a spotlight on New York's troubled child welfare agency, Nixzaliz Santiago went on trial in Brooklyn state court on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the death of her daughter, Nixzmary Brown. She has pleaded not guilty.

Calif. regulatorsban cell use by train operators

LOS ANGELES - California regulators reacting to the deadly wreck of a commuter train issued an emergency order Thursday banning train operators from using cell phones on duty.

The Public Utilities Commission's unanimous decision to pass the temporary order came a day after investigators confirmed that the engineer of the Metrolink commuter train was text-messaging while on duty on the day the train ran a red light and collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train.

- From wire reports