Sri Lanka
No hope given for mudslide victims
Hundreds of desperate Sri Lankan villagers dug with bare hands through the broken red earth of a deadly landslide Thursday, defying police orders after a top disaster official said there was no chance of finding more survivors at the high-elevation tea plantation. There were conflicting reports of how many people were missing in the slide, which struck Wednesday morning in the island nation's central hills after heavy monsoon rains. Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the number of dead at the Koslanda tea plantation would be fewer than 100. But Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Center — which Amaraweera oversees — reported 190 people missing. Villagers, meanwhile, said the death toll could easily exceed 200.
Hawaii
National Guard sent to lava flow
The Hawaii National Guard is deploying troops to a rural Hawaii town as lava makes a slow crawl toward a major road and threatens to further isolate the community that got its start during the lumber and sugar-plantation heyday. Hawaii County Civil Defense director Darryl Oliveira said the National Guard deployed 83 troops to Pahoa on Thursday to help provide security. The troops will help with a roadblock and with other safety issues. Lava from a vent at Kilauea volcano has been sliding northeast toward the ocean since June.
Jerusalem
Malala to help rebuild school
The U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees says Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has donated $50,000 to rebuild a U.N. school in Gaza damaged during this summer's Israel-Hamas war. UNRWA says Malala is donating all of the proceeds of the $50,000 World Children's Prize, which she collected in Stockholm on Wednesday. The agency quoted Malala as saying Palestinian children deserve a quality education, and that "without education, there will never be peace." The 17-year-old Malala won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for promoting girls' rights in her native Pakistan. She survived a shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago.
California
Pilot identified in military crash
Authorities say a civilian pilot killed in a jet crash during a military training exercise near a California Navy base was a 45-year-old Utah resident. The Ventura County medical examiner's office said Thursday that an autopsy is planned for pilot Charles Rogers. The jet crashed Wednesday in a coastal agricultural field 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Rogers was the only person aboard the single-seat MK-58 Hawker Hunter. He died at the scene. The plane, a civilian-owned fighter jet contracted by the Navy, had just finished playing the role of an enemy aircraft in an offshore training exercise and was preparing to land.
St. Louis
Examiner stands by Brown report
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Explore all your optionsDr. Mary Case, the St. Louis County medical examiner, said Thursday through a spokeswoman that her office is confident of an autopsy finding that material consistent with gunshot residue was on Michael Brown's right thumb. A private forensic pathologist consulting for Brown's family, Dr. Michael Baden, was quoted by USA Today as questioning that conclusion, asking for additional materials and offering to provide his analysis to a grand jury investigating the death. Case's spokeswoman said, "We stand by our report, and we are following our process. I have nothing more to say at this time." The official autopsy report, published Oct. 21 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, showed that Brown was shot several times at some distance but sustained one wound — to his thumb — at close range.
By the Numbers
16 The number of years spent on death row by Alstory Simon before he was freed Thursday in Illinois. He has maintained for years that he did not commit the slayings that put him behind bars.
Times wires