1. Trial of Boston marathon bomber could be moved to 2015
BOSTON (AP) — The trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzkokhar Tsarnaev is expected to last three months, plus another six weeks if he is convicted and jurors have to decide whether he should be put to death, prosecutors said Monday.
The trial estimate was included in a joint status report filed in court Monday by federal prosecutors and Tsarnaev’s lawyers ahead of a Wednesday hearing.
In the report, defense lawyers said they want a trial date no earlier than September 2015. Prosecutors did not include a request for a trial date, but they said during a court hearing in November that they hoped to have the trial this fall.
Tsarnaev, 20, has pleaded not guilty in the attack last April that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. Authorities said he and his older brother, Tamerlan, built and planted two pressure cooker bombs near the marathon finish line. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following a shootout with police during an escape attempt four days after the marathon.
The report said Dzkokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers have not yet had an opportunity to review numerous pieces of physical evidence, including nearly 2,000 items that are still being analyzed by the FBI and items kept at additional locations.
2. Construction workers for World Cup arena plan major strike after death
SAO PAULO (AP) — Work remains underway at the World Cup stadium in the jungle city of Manaus despite a Brazilian union’s threat to strike to protest a worker’s death at the venue.
The strike did not happen Monday because leaders from several unions said they are trying to gather more workers to their movement.
Local World Cup organizers and the company in charge of the stadium’s construction said the Arena da Amazonia is nearly 97 percent completed, with only minor details keeping it from being inaugurated sometime this month.
A 55-year-old Portuguese man was killed in an accident Friday while disassembling a crane that was used to install the stadium’s roof, becoming the third worker to die at the venue in less than a year.
Union leader Cicero Custodio said workers want to protest the lack of proper security conditions at the site. He said workers also were upset that the company didn’t declare a day of mourning after their colleague’s death.
“We didn’t have time to get everybody on board for a strike [Monday],” Custodio told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “But we are making sure that it happens tomorrow [today], when all workers will refuse to get into the construction site.”
3. FEMA will pay to rebuild two schools after Texas fertilizer accident
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal agency is granting $20 million to a rural Central Texas town to help rebuild two schools destroyed in last year’s deadly fertilizer plant explosion, town and federal officials said Monday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide the West Independent School District with the money it needs to rebuild a high school and an intermediate school, Mayor Tommy Muska told The Associated Press. It will cost about $60 million to rebuild the two facilities. He said the school district’s insurance company will cover about $45 million and the FEMA money will pay for the rest.
“That’s wonderful news,” Muska said.
The schools were among dozens of homes and buildings destroyed when the chemical fertilizer ammonium nitrate blew up during a fire in April at the West Fertilizer Co. Fifteen people — 10 of them first responders rushing to fight the initial blaze — were killed, and about 200 others were injured.
The April 17 explosion was so intense it registered as a small earthquake and left a 93-foot crater where once there were homes and buildings.
Initially, FEMA had denied major disaster assistance to the town. But weeks after its initial decision, FEMA reversed course and announced it would provide financial grants to the rural community after all.
Jacqueline Chandler, a FEMA spokeswoman in the region that oversees Texas, said the overall grant to the school district is for just more than $20 million, with 75 percent of the money coming from the federal government. The local authorities will pay the remainder — around $3 million.
4. River Thames floods several towns near London
LONDON (AP) — The River Thames has burst its banks after reaching its highest level in years, flooding riverside towns upstream of London.
Residents and British troops piled up sandbags to protect properties from the latest bout of flooding, but the river overwhelmed their defenses in several places Monday, leaving areas including the center of the village of Datchet underwater.
The Environment Agency has issued 14 severe flood warnings — meaning there’s a danger to life — along the Thames east of Windsor, about 20 miles from London.
Its chief executive, Paul Leinster, said “extreme weather will continue to threaten communities this week” with more Thames flooding expected today.
There were no flood alerts for the part of the river that flows through London. That stretch is protected by the Thames Barrier, a series of giant metal gates downstream of central London that can be closed against tidal surges. By holding back the tide, the barrier also creates more space in the river for excess water from upstream to flow down to the sea.
5. Student dies after setting himself on fire in Colo. school
WESTMINSTER, Colo. (AP) — A 16-year-old student who set himself on fire at a suburban Denver high school nearly two weeks ago has died, police said.
Vincent Nett died from his injuries at around 5 p.m. Sunday, Westminster Police Department police investigator Cheri Spottke said. The boy was burned over 80 percent of his body and had been in critical condition at a local hospital.
According to police and fire reports, the boy doused himself with an accelerant before lighting himself on fire in an apparent suicide attempt in Standley Lake High School’s cafeteria Jan. 27.
Police said he did not make any threats before he lit himself ablaze. A custodian used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire before it could spread. Several other students were in the cafeteria at the time, but none were injured.
Fire officials have said a 1-gallon Coleman fuel jug was found at the scene.
Spottke said Sunday that the official cause of death will come from the coroner’s office. Counselors will be available Monday at the Westminster school, she said.
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