JERUSALEM

Israel names two Palestinians in kidnapping of Jewish teens

Israel on Thursday named two Palestinians it said had kidnapped three Jewish teenagers who disappeared while hitchhiking home from their religious schools in the West Bank two weeks ago.

The Shin Bet security agency identified the Palestinians as Marwan Kawasmeh and Amer Abu Eisha, saying they were operatives of the militant Islamist group Hamas in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Both have been missing since the night the teenagers vanished, and information on their disappearance was reportedly relayed to the Israelis by the Palestinian security services.

WASHINGTON

Overconsumption of alcohol tied to premature mortality

It’s no secret that America’s favorite legal drug has vast impacts on public health. But just how closely binge drinking and overconsumption of alcohol are linked to deaths may come as a surprise.

One in 10 deaths of working-age adults every year is attributable to “excessive alcohol consumption,” according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a finding that keeps booze as “a leading cause of premature mortality nationwide.”

PHOENIX

Agency will investigate rape of teacher at state prison class

Arizona’s workplace safety agency confirmed Thursday that it has launched a review of the rape of a teacher inside a state prison classroom.

The teacher was alone in a classroom with no guard nearby when a convicted rapist assaulted her.

The Arizona Department of Occupational Safety review came a week after a report by The Associated Press highlighted concerns about how the Jan. 30 assault occurred.

The agency said the review was launched as a result of those reports about the rape at the Eyman state prison southeast of Phoenix.

Officials previously said there were no security issue at the prison but they are now adding cameras in classrooms. Non-guards statewide were issued pepper spray in the weeks following the assault, but a spokesman said that had already been planned.

The teacher was giving a high school equivalency test to about a half-dozen inmates in a classroom with no guard nearby. A former deputy warden at the prison, Carl Toers Bijns, said the assault highlights chronic understaffing.

BUFORD, Ga.

Couple charged with cruelty after locking up son for a year

A suburban Atlanta couple accused of locking their son in the basement of their home for more than a year were charged with child cruelty and false imprisonment, police said Thursday.

The Buford couple is accused of confining the 13-year-old boy to a small room with a mattress and a makeshift toilet.

– From news service reports

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