SC woman accused of putting 4-day-old son in refrigerator for hours

Minnesota Man Charged in 5-Year-Old Girl's Abduction, Death

A  25-year-old man who was considered a family friend was charged Tuesday with kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing a 5-year-old girl from central Minnesota — leaving her body submerged in a swamp and covered with debris.

Authorities say Zachary Todd Anderson abducted Alayna Ertl early Saturday from her home in Watkins, about 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Alayna's body was found later that day.

A preliminary autopsy found Alayna was strangled. There was also evidence of blunt force trauma to her head and sexual assault.

Anderson, of Coon Rapids, was charged in a Minnesota courtroom with multiple counts including murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and theft of a motor vehicle.

His bail was set at $2 million, or $1 million with conditions. The Star Tribune reported that he requested a public defender. A woman who answered the phone at the public defender's office said she had no information to release.

According to the criminal complaint, Anderson was a friend of Alayna's father. The two men played softball Friday night and went out with friends before heading to the Ertl home.

The girl's mother told authorities she last saw Alayna at 2:30 a.m., when she carried her daughter to her room after she fell asleep on the couch.

The family discovered Alayna was missing at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Anderson was also gone, along with the family's truck. Authorities were called at about 10 a.m., and a statewideAmber Alert was issued.

Anderson's father called authorities about four hours later, saying he believed his son was the suspect, and that Anderson had called earlier that day and asked to use the family's cabin near Motley, about 80 miles to the north.

Authorities went to the cabin and found the truck. No one was inside the cabin, but a 20-gauge shotgun was on the kitchen table with ammunition, along with an apparent suicide note that seemed to have blood on it.

Officers sent K-9 units into the woods and found Anderson in knee-deep water in a swampy area, with cuts on his left wrist.

When asked about the girl, he initially responded "What girl?"

Anderson eventually told investigators that Alayna was hidden in the swamp under debris. Officers searched the area and found her naked body submerged in the water and hidden under brush and other debris.

Alyana's online obituary says she had finished pre-school at Eden Valley-Watkins Elementary School. It also says she gave joy to others by always smiling.

"She was an animal lover, a princess, a singer, a great friend to everyone she met, and was our peanut," the obituary said. "She loved learning from her brother, and always gave the best hugs."

UN: 4.5 million need food assistance in northern Nigeria

UNITED NATIONS –  The United Nations' World Food Program is warning that the number of people in need of food assistance in northeast Nigeria has risen to 4.5 million — nearly twice as many as in March.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that a worsening economy could cause this figure to rise by another 1 million as early as next month. The WFP is scaling up its response, aiming to reach 700,000 people with food and cash in the coming months.

Dujarric says the agency still needs $52 million to providing life-saving assistance until the end of the year in the region.

Dujarric also says the World Health Organization is ramping up its response in the same region because more than half of the health facilities in Borno State, the area most severely affected, are not functioning

Germans told to stockpile food and water for civil defence

For the first time since the Cold War the German government is advising citizens to stockpile food and water for use in a national emergency.

Some opposition MPs said the new civil defence concept, to go before ministers on Wednesday, was scaremongering.

Citizens are advised to store enough food to last them 10 days, because initially a disaster might put national emergency services beyond reach.

Five days' water - two litres (half a gallon) per person daily - is advised.

The German news website Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) said the new concept was set out in a 69-page German Interior Ministry document.

The document said "an attack on German territory, requiring conventional defence of the nation, is unlikely". But, it said, a major security threat to the nation in future could not be ruled out, so civil defence measures were necessary.

Soon, Germans began tweeting ironically under the hashtag "Hamsterkaeufe" (panic-buying).

Phoenix - Maryvale shooting might be the work of ( serial killer ?)

August 18

PHOENIX -- A man has been killed in a Phoenix neighborhood that’s been hit by a string of fatal shootings that authorities say appear to be the work of serial killer,reports CBS Phoenix affiliate KPHO-TV.

Police told the station a man was shot at about 10 p.m. Wednesday, then walked to a house in the Maryvale neighborhood, and collapsed and died outside.

Maryvale is one of two predominantly Latino neighborhoods in which a total of seven people have beenkilled and two others wounded in shootings from mid-March until mid-July.

Police haven’t tied this killing to the investigation of the other shootings in Maryvale.

According to KPHO, police say they don’t know where the man was shot or the identity of the attacker. A police officer told the station investigators found shell casings.

Police haven’t released the name of the victim.

At Least 30 Die in Turkey Wedding Hall Bombing

ISTANBUL – A terrorist attack on a wedding hall on Saturday has left at least 30 dead and dozens wounded in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the NTV network reported.

As the press was told by provincial Gov. Ali Yerlikaya, who defined the bombing as a “terrorist attack” without indicating who might be the perpetrators, the bomb was detonated at a wedding party in the downtown area just before midnight.

A legislator of the CHP opposition party, Mehmet Gokdag, told the network that according to local authorities, at least 13 people were killed.

For his part, a lawmaker of the ruling AKP party, Mehmet Erdogan, said on the same TV channel that this was probably a suicide bombing.

The wedding party was being held on a downtown street of Gaziantep, a hub of southern Turkey, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the Syrian border and the scene of rearguard activities by numbers Syrian armed groups.

A great many ambulances have rushed to the scene and it is feared that the number of dead and wounded could increase.

FBI Probing Possible U.S. Ties to Corruption Involving Former Ukrainian Government

WASHINGTON – The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible U.S. links to an alleged corruption scheme involving deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, CNN reported, citing sources from those agencies.

Among those under investigation by U.S. authorities are Paul Manafort, a political consultant who recently resigned as chairman of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign; and prominent lobbyist Tony Podesta, the brother of the chairman of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Last weekend, The New York Times reported that Manafort appeared on a handwritten ledger maintained by the party of Yanukovych, whose government – deposed in a popular uprising in February 2014 – was closely allied with Russia.

Entries showing $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Manafort were made between 2007-2012, the Times reported last Sunday, citing Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau.

But law-enforcement officials cited by CNN said that neither Manafort nor his firm were the focus of the investigation, which also is examining possible irregularities at the Podesta Group, a Washington-based lobbying firm led by Tony Podesta, and other consulting firms.

After the Times’ report surfaced, Manafort issued a statement Monday vehemently denying any wrongdoing, saying he had worked on overseas campaigns but had “never received a single ‘off-the-books cash payment’ as falsely ‘reported’ by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia.”

“Further, all of the political payments directed to me were for my entire political team: campaign staff (local and international), polling and research, election integrity and television advertising. The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly, and nonsensical,” the statement added.

The Podesta Group, for its part, said on Friday that it had hired a law firm to study whether it conducted any improper lobbying on behalf of pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

The FBI’s investigation stems from a probe by Ukraine’s current pro-European administration into the finances of Yanukovych’s deposed government, which they say ran a vast corruption network.

Trump’s opponents have seized on the reports about the undisclosed cash payments to Manafort to bolster their claims about possible Russian interference in the U.S. elections.

Those suspicions have been partly fueled by Trump’s frequent expressions of sympathy and admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.