World/Nation
Court documents: Young man killed was risk-taker
MADISON, Wis. - An unarmed biracial man fatally shot by a white police officer tended to be an impulsive risk-taker and faced a choice between a middle-class lifestyle and the gang world, according to court documents.
The file connected to 19-year-old Tony Robinson's conviction last year for armed robbery shows he was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder, anxiety and depression. The documents were contained in a report by a state Department of Corrections agent.
Madison police officer Matt Kenny shot Robinson on Friday evening while investigating a call that the young man was jumping in and out of traffic and had assaulted someone. The officer heard a disturbance and forced his way into an apartment where Robinson had gone. Authorities said Kenny fired after Robinson assaulted him.
The shooting is the latest in a series of police-involved shootings to spark racially tinged demonstrations, including in Ferguson, Mo., where officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. That shooting sparked weeks of unrest.
The Associated Press had described Robinson as black based on police descriptions of him as African-American. But at a news conference Monday, family members repeatedly emphasized that he embraced a biracial identity from having a white mother and black father.
GOP tries to undercut nuclear deal with Iran
WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers warned the leaders of Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal they cut with President Barack Obama could expire the day he leaves office. The White House denounced the GOP's latest effort to undercut the international negotiations as a "rush to war."
Monday's open letter from 47 GOP senators marked an unusually public and aggressive attempt to undermine Obama and five world powers as negotiators try to strike an initial deal by the end of March to limit Iran's nuclear programs.
Republicans say a deal would be insufficient and unenforceable, and they have made a series of proposals to undercut or block it - from requiring Senate say-so on any agreement to ordering new penalty sanctions against Iran or even making a pre-emptive declaration of war.
Obama, noting that some in Iran also want no part of any deal, said: "I think it's somewhat ironic that some members of Congress want to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran. It's an unusual coalition."
University severs ties with frat after racist chant
NORMAN, Okla. - The president of the University of Oklahoma severed the school's ties with a national fraternity on Monday and ordered that its on-campus house be shuttered after several members took part in a racist chant caught on video.
President David Boren said he was sickened and couldn't eat or sleep after learning about the video Sunday afternoon. The video, which was posted online, shows several people on a bus participating in a chant that included a racial slur, referenced lynching and indicated black students would never be admitted to OU's chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
The Oklahoma football team decided to protest rather than practice on Monday. At the team's indoor practice facility, coach Bob Stoops led the way as players, joined by athletic director Joe Castiglione, walked arm-in-arm, wearing black. Meanwhile, a top high school recruit withdrew his commitment to the university after seeing the video.
Boren attended a pre-dawn rally organized by students and lambasted the fraternity members as "disgraceful" and called their behavior "reprehensible." He said the university was looking into a range of punishment, including expulsion.
Rising price of heroin treatment worries advocates
CAMDEN, N.J. - Price hikes are curtailing access to a popular form of an antidote to heroin overdoses, with costs doubling in the past year and the manufacturer's stock price rising by 70 percent since it went public.
Advocates fear the higher cost of naloxone, often sold in the U.S. under the brand name Narcan, will ultimately lead to the deaths of addicts who could have been saved if they'd had access to the drug.
Officials across the country have largely agreed it makes sense to hand out naloxone to police, drug users and families of addicts, and in some places they're now scrambling to negotiate discounts for programs that buy it in bulk for public distribution.
"If you have a fire extinguisher that costs several hundred dollars, some people are going to go without and some are going to get burned," said Daniel Wolfe, director of the international harm reduction program at the Open Society Foundations.
Irish setter dies after poisoning at top dog show
LONDON - Tasty cubes of beef would tempt any dog, let alone one sitting patiently on the stand during public viewing at Crufts, Britain's premier dog show. But instead of a treat, one owner says a deadly surprise was sewn into the meat: slug killer.
Jagger, a 3-year-old Irish Setter, collapsed and died after leaving the show with a bellyful of poisoned beef, leaving his owners distraught and triggering a canine whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie.
The dog, also known as Thendara Satisfaction, died Friday shortly after returning to his home in Belgium from the Crufts show in Birmingham, England. A post-mortem examination found the poisoned slug killer cubes in his stomach, according to Jeremy Bott, one of Jagger's co-owners.
The only time Jagger was unattended and could have been poisoned was when he was on the stand for public viewing, his owners said - but they refused to believe that another competitor could have done such a thing.
- The Associated Press