Briefs

Local and VCU

Lab results back on acid found on GRTC bus seats

Authorities are investigating the discovery of acid on seats in a GRTC Transit System bus that left a girl with leg burns.

Richmond fire Lt. Shawn L. Jones said the girl was taken to VCU Medical Center for treatment of second-degree burns on her knees after coming in contact with one or more seats in the bus late Sunday.

Jones said results of state lab testing came back this morning and showed that the chemical was a strong acid. Beyond that, the tests were unable to determine exactly what type of acid it was, he said.

“We believe it was an accidental release of product,” Jones said.

The incident occurred aboard the Route 32 bus, which serves a large portion of the city’s downtown state government complex and the Ginter Park area of North Richmond, and apparently happened near First and Marshall streets.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

3 more sue Richmond-based Massey over deadly W.Va. mine explosion

The families of two miners killed in last year’s West Virginia mine explosion and another man who barely made it out alive have filed lawsuits against Massey Energy as the one-year anniversary of the disaster approaches.

The three new lawsuits were filed Monday in Boone Circuit Court by the families of Joe Marcum and Adam Morgan and by Stanley Stewart, who escaped from the April 5 explosion that killed 29 miners. The lawsuits name Massey and subsidiaries Massey Coal Services and Performance Coal Co.

At least two other miners’ families have filed lawsuits. Richmond, Va.-based Massey said last week it had reached settlements with seven families.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Car searched in hunt for couple

The search continued Monday for a man and woman who disappeared after traveling from New Jersey to Richmond and whom authorities fear might be victims of foul play.

A search warrant filed Monday in Richmond Circuit Court shows authorities searched a 1994 Mazda sedan on Thursday to investigate the disappearance of Evande Orna, 39, of Plainfield N.J., and Troy Edwards, 40.

The Mazda was missing its Virginia license plates. Police said someone may have used the plates to replace the New Jersey tags on the rental car that Orna and Edwards were traveling in. The rental car, a silver 2011 Nissan Altima, is still missing.

The warrant indicates police seized nothing from inside the Mazda. Authorities declined to say where police found the Mazda.

Orna and Edwards were last seen Feb. 20 leaving Plainfield for Richmond. Authorities believe the pair reached the Town & Country Apartments in South Richmond, where investigators found signs of potential foul play in a search on March 1.

Inside an apartment at the complex, investigators obtained several items, including red stains, a stun gun, a rug, a roll of duct tape, a bleach bottle, clothing, an Avis business card and fingerprints, according to an inventory of the search. Also among the seized items were packaging material and an off-white rocklike substance.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National and International

21 Pa. priests named in sex report are suspended

The Philadelphia archdiocese suspended 21 Roman Catholic priests Tuesday who were named as child molestation suspects in a scathing grand jury report last month, a move that comes more than eight years after U.S. bishops pledged swift action to keep potential abusers away from young people.

The priests have been removed from ministry while their cases are reviewed, Cardinal Justin Rigali said. The names of the priests were not being released, a spokesman for the archdiocese said.

“These have been difficult weeks since the release of the grand jury report,” Rigali said in a statement. “Difficult most of all for victims of sexual abuse but also for all Catholics and for everyone in our community.”

And in an unprecedented move in the U.S., a former high-ranking church official was accused of transferring problem priests to new parishes without warning anyone of prior sex-abuse complaints.

Since 2002, when the national abuse crisis erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston, American dioceses have barred hundreds of accused clergy from public church work or removed the men permanently from the priesthood. The actions of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia stand out because they occurred years after the U.S. bishops reformed their national child protection policies.

Brief by The Associated Press

NPR exec blasts tea party in hidden-camera video

An NPR executive was captured on hidden camera calling the tea party movement racist and xenophobic and says NPR would be better off without federal funding.

The video was posted Tuesday on the website for James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas. O’Keefe is the conservative activist whose previous hidden-camera videos embarrassed the community-organizing group ACORN.

The network said Tuesday it was appalled by the comments of Ron Schiller, who announced last week he was stepping down as president of the NPR Foundation.

An NPR spokeswoman says there is no connection between the video and Schiller’s departure.

It comes at a time that some conservative members of Congress have proposed ending funding for NPR, claiming it promotes a liberal agenda.

Brief by The Associated Press

Yemeni army storms university, wounding 98

The Yemeni government escalated its efforts to stop mass protests calling for the president’s ouster on Tuesday, with soldiers firing rubber bullets and tear gas at students camped at a university in the capital in a raid that left at least 98 people wounded, officials said.

The army stormed the Sanaa University campus after thousands of inmates rioted at the central prison in the capital, taking a dozen guards hostage and calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. At least one prisoner was killed and 80 people were wounded, police said.

Yemen has been rocked by weeks of protests against Saleh, inspired by recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that drove out those nations’ leaders. Saleh, a key U.S. ally in the campaign against al-Qaida, has been in power 32 years. In a sign that the protests are gaining traction, graffiti calling for Saleh to step down surfaced Tuesday in his birthplace, village of Sanhan, for the first time since the protests began.

Students at Sanaa University have been sleeping on campus since mid-February, shortly after the start of the protests.

Medical officials said many of the 98 people wounded were in serious condition. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information. Witnesses reported seeing armored vehicles and personnel carriers headed to the area of the university.

Brief by The Associated Press