World/Nation

New England digs out after latest snowstorm

BOSTON - A relentless storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow on some parts of New England was finally expected to wind down today but not before bringing the Boston-area public transit system to its knees and forcing some communities to consider dumping piles of snow into the ocean to help relieve clogged streets.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker gave non-emergency state workers who live in the hardest-hit areas of the state another day off and the mayor of Boston said schools would remain closed for another day. The storm, on top of two others that hit recently, has shattered snowfall records for a 30-day period in the city.

To make matters worse, forecasters said more snow was possible on Thursday.

Still, some residents were taking it all in stride.

"Honestly, I'm OK with it," said Helen Ferullo, 70, of Weymouth, which had received 26.5 inches of snow as of late Monday. "You can't change it. The snow is there. You can't do anything about it."

Obama, Merkel push diplomatic effort in Ukraine

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel rallied behind efforts to reach a long-shot diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine Monday, but they offered no clear path for how the West would proceed if talks this week fail.

During a joint White House news conference, Obama dangled the prospect that the U.S. could for the first time send anti-tank weapons and other defensive arms to Ukraine. While no decision has been made, the president said he had ordered his team to consider "whether there are additional things we can do to help Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of Russian aggression."

Merkel staunchly opposes arming Ukraine's beleaguered military. The German chancellor, who has perhaps the most productive relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, made clear she had not quit on the possibility that diplomatic negotiations could produce an elusive peace plan.

"It has always proved to be right to try again and again to sort such a conflict," Merkel said through a translator.

Later Monday, during a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa, Merkel reiterated, "I hope that we shall be able to solve this conflict by diplomatic means because I think by military means it cannot be solved."

Convicted cop may have tried to kill prosecutor

CHICAGO - Drew Peterson, the former suburban Chicago police officer convicted of killing his third wife and suspected in the disappearance of his fourth, has been charged with trying to hire someone to kill the prosecutor who helped put him in state prison, authorities announced Monday.

Peterson appeared in court on charges that between September 2013 and December 2014, while behind bars, he solicited a person to find someone he could pay to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow. Peterson did not enter a plea.

Peterson, 61, has been in prison since he was convicted in 2012 of first-degree murder in the 2004 bathtub drowning of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Savio's death initially was ruled an accident, but after Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007, Savio's body was exhumed and her death was ruled a homicide.

Glasgow's office charged Drew Peterson with murder and in 2012 the former Bolingbrook police sergeant was convicted and sentenced to 38 years in state prison.

Girl, 11, charged with murder in baby's death

CLEVELAND - An 11-year-old suburban girl has been charged with murder in the beating death of a 2-month-old who was staying overnight with her and her mother to give the baby's mom a break.

The 11-year-old, her mother and the baby girl, Zuri Whitehead, were on a couch downstairs when the mother fell asleep about 3 a.m. Friday, Wickliffe police Chief Randy Ice said at a news conference Monday. The mother was awakened less than an hour later by her daughter, who was holding the badly injured infant. Ice said the 11-year-old took the infant upstairs. When she returned downstairs, the infant was bleeding and her head was badly swollen, he said.

The 11-year-old's mother immediately called 911, Ice said. Zuri was flown to a children's trauma center in Cleveland, where she died.

The mother of the 11-year-old and Zuri's mother, Trina Whitehead, have known each other for five or six years but aren't related, Ice said. Trina Whitehead has three other children and had the girl's mother keep Zuri, of Cleveland, overnight to give her a breather.

Museum has souvenirs from Apollo 11 mission

NEW YORK - More than four decades after the Apollo 11 moon landing, a cloth bag full of souvenirs brought back by astronaut Neil Armstrong has come to light.

Among the trove: a 16 mm movie camera from inside the lunar module that filmed its descent to the moon and Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface in 1969.

That camera "took one of the most significant sets of images in the 20th century," said Allan Needell, a curator in space history at the National Air and Space Museum.

In an interview Monday, Needell said the museum had been told about the bag in June 2013 by Armstrong's widow, who had found it while cleaning out a closet in their suburban Cincinnati home. Armstrong died in 2012.

The long process of documenting the find concluded only recently, and that's when the museum decided to go public, he said.

- The Associated Press