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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A massive celebration in Rio de Janeiro marking the start of the 50-day countdown to Brazil's world famous Carnival has been marred by tear gas, tossed bottles and clashes between police and revelers in the city's Copacabana district. As night fell Sunday on the party that drew several hundred thousand people, police and municipal guards sought to disperse crowds with people fleeing along the beach and waterfront. Guards chased a man, tackling and hitting him before handcuffing him. It was unclear how the disorder began. Authorities said security forces dispersed crowds after being attacked with glass bottles, stones and other objects.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Media reports say a passenger who sprinted at a plane's cockpit during a flight, pounding on the door before attacking a flight attendant and fighting with officers at the Newark airport, has been charged with aggravated assault and other crimes. Twenty-eight-year-old Matthew Dingley was arrested Thursday for injuring the flight attendant and six officers, including one who was hospitalized with four broken ribs. A passenger on the United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Newark told NBC that it started when Dingley sprinted at the cockpit and began to pound on the door. The passenger says Dingley then attacked a flight attendant and officers who arrested him when the plane landed in Newark.
BODALLA, Australia (AP) — Crews battling Australia's wildfires say they have been able to turn from defense to offense for the first time in weeks thanks to a break in the weather. The weather is expected to remain benign for the next week, although any deterioration in conditions after that could see the wildfires flare up again. A firefighter was killed by a falling tree, bringing the death toll to at least 27 in a crisis that has destroyed more than 2,000 homes and scorched an area larger than the U.S. state of Indiana since September. Among those who died were four firefighters.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Retired Pope Benedict XVI has broken his silence to reaffirm the value of priestly celibacy. Benedict has co-authored a bombshell book at the precise moment that Pope Francis is weighing whether to allow married men to be ordained to address the Catholic priest shortage.Benedict wrote the book, “From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church," along with his fellow conservative, Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah. The French daily Le Figaro published excerpts of the book late Sunday; The Associated Press obtained galleys of the English edition, which is being published by Ignatius Press.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Pentagon says the two soldiers killed Saturday in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb were from Virginia and Illinois. On Sunday, military officials identified the casualties as 29-year-old Staff Sgt. Ian P. McLaughlin of Newport News, Virginia; and 21-year-old Pfc. Miguel A. Villalon of Joliet, Illinois. Both soldiers were assigned to 307th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Pentagon says their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. Two other soldiers were injured.
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