1 suspect killed, hostages unharmed in Fla. standoff
Kissimmee, Fla. – A 10-hour standoff with two armed bank robbers ended Tuesday when police fatally shot one suspect and arrested the other, authorities said. Four hostages were unharmed.
The suspects had escaped from the bank near Walt Disney World with one hostage Tuesday evening, but authorities cornered them in their getaway car.
The male suspect then “used the hostage again as a shield to get into another vehicle,” the sheriff said. “He tried to leave again, and at that point he was taken down by one of our snipers.”
Deputies had been using cellphones to negotiate with the suspects, a man and a woman wearing masks, wigs and coats.
The standoff at the Mercantile Bank, a mile west of Disney World, forced police to shut down the area, leaving some tourists confined to their hotels for much of the day.
The suspects held four hostages at one point but released all but one by the time police blasted through the rear door of the bank using an explosive device.
The suspects then escaped with the hostage and drove away in a bank employee’s car, but they traveled less than a mile before street barricades stopped them.
PIKEVILLE, Ky.
Rockfall collapses roof of mine, killing 1
Part of the roof collapsed Tuesday at a coal mine in eastern Kentucky, killing one miner.
A rockfall occurred about 900 feet inside the Maverick Mining Co. LLC mine in Pikeville, near the Virginia line, said Chuck Wolfe, spokesman for the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing.
Wolfe said Tuesday night the miner who was killed was the only person harmed. The miner was identified as Cornelius Yates, 44.
TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va.
Mine survivor shows signs of brain activity
The sole survivor of the Sago Mine disaster remained in a partial coma but showed signs of brain activity, doctors said Tuesday, as mourners said farewell to the last two victims of the Jan. 2 explosion that was West Virginia’s worst coal-mining accident in more than 35 years.
The funeral for 59-year-old Fred Ware was held at Sago Baptist Church in Tallmansville, followed by a service for Terry Helms, 50, in Masontown. Funerals for the other 10 men killed were held Sunday and Monday.
There was no significant change Tuesday morning in the condition of Randal McCloy Jr., 26.
LIMA, Peru
Electoral board nixes Fujimori’s candidacy
Days after former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori officially tried to enter the race for April’s presidential campaign, the country’s electoral board on Tuesday rejected his candidacy.
Fujimori’s daughter on Friday had registered his name as a candidate for Peru’s election, even though he has been detained in Chile since November.
He was arrested for defying an international arrest warrant by secretly trying to return to Peru, which accuses him of corruption and human-rights violations during his presidency, which ran from 1990 to 2000.
Fujimori had spent the five years prior to his arrest in Japan, which offered him asylum.
PANAMA CITY, Panama
Agricultural minister assails U.S., resigns
Panama’s agricultural minister resigned Tuesday, accusing the United States of pressuring the Central American country to accept lower agricultural inspection standards.
Laurentino Cortizo’s departure comes as the United States and Panama negotiate in Washington on a bilateral free-trade accord that would remove tariffs and agricultural subsidies.
Cortizo accused the United States of pressuring Panama to allow U.S. imports despite inadequate U.S. inspections that could expose Panama to the “catastrophic consequences of plagues and diseases.”
PARIS
Sensation growing in woman’s face
The French woman who received the world’s first partial face transplant is steadily gaining sensation in her new nose, chin and lips and is “very happy,” her psychiatrist said Tuesday.
The woman, Isabelle, has gained some sensation in her new features and can tell where she is being touched, Dr. Daniele Bachmann said. The woman is identified in France only by her first name because of privacy laws.
