Akhavein's Eagle Eye

The Pioneer Press reported that a man shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself in broad daylight Saturday in front of a Columbia Heights restaurant, where nearby construction crews heard gunshots shortly after 10 a.m., and police received the first call of shots fired at 10:23 a.m.

When officers arrived, they found two people dead of apparent gunshot wounds, and Anoka County dispatchers described it as a domestic incident, and authorities at the scene said the shooting involved a husband and wife, they reported.

The Star Tribune reported that a St. Cloud woman is expected to be charged Monday in the death last week of her 22-month-old son, police said.

Arrested the child's mother Friday afternoon at her apartment on the 1500 block of 6th Avenue S. in St. Cloud after results from an autopsy by the Ramsey County medical examiner's office revealed that the child had died from blunt-force trauma, they reported.

Authorities responded to a call Monday afternoon of a medical emergency involving a young child. They found the 22-month-old boy unresponsive. He was declared dead at a hospital, the Pioneer Press reported.

The Associated Press reported that Russian investigators suggested human error may have been to blame in the plane crash that killed the Polish president and 95 others, saying Monday were no technical problems with the Soviet-made plane.

The Tu-154 went down Saturday while trying to land in dense fog near Smolensk airport in western Russia, and all aboard were killed, including President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of Polish political, military and religious leaders, they reported.

Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said that more than 130 relatives of the victims arrived in Moscow from Poland to help identify the deceased, CNN reported.

"We expect the procedure to take two or three days. We will do our utmost to organize this work thoroughly and quickly," Golikova said, according to her press office.

Speculation over what caused the crash has mounted in the wake of the weekend disaster, while questions have been raised over why so many of Poland's military, economic and civic leaders were aboard the same flight, CNN reported.

The Associated Press reported that an annual Holocaust memorial event at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Monday was honoring Kaczynski and the other victims, where organizers of the March of the Living -- with some 10,000 Jewish youth marching over a mile (1.6 kilometers) between the two parts of the former Nazi death camp -- said those marching would also remember those killed in Saturday's crash.

The Associated Press reported a man was arrested in the stabbing of a pregnant woman and her husband at their beachfront house in Southern California while their two young children were home, police said Monday.

Joshua Packer, 20, was taken into custody Sunday and booked for investigation of three counts of murder and two counts of robbery, capping a nearly yearlong investigation into the crime that shocked their upscale waterfront community in Ventura County, they reported.

Until the couple's slaying, the gated, seaside community of luxury homes had not recorded a homicide in 15 years, police said, and according to investigators, the Husteds were home with their two young children on the night of the slaying--their daughter was asleep in her bed and their son was watching American Idol in the living room, CNN reported.

"It's horrible for the children," sheriff's Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said, and the Associated Press reported.

DNA evidence played a role in the arrest, but Bonfiglio declined to release details. Investigators previously said they believed the Husteds were targeted before the stabbings, but no motive has been provided, the Associated Press reported.

The Star Tribune reported that the Eden Prairie High School website was shut down Sunday after hackers attacked, posting a video, a picture of the Turkish flag and a handgun.

School district administrators disabled the site after learning about the viral attack, they reported.

The site was one of more than 100 across the world that was hacked Sunday, the district said, and that an individual or group created a Web page that covered up the home pages of the hacked sites, and the hackers did not obtain access to data, the Pioneer Press reported.

The school district said the Eden Prairie High School website will be down until the problem has been resolved, the Star Tribune reported.

The Star Tribune reported that a Roman Catholic priest from India accused of raping a 15-year-old girl while serving in Minnesota reversed his stance Tuesday and said that he won't challenge an extradition order that has been issued in Roseau County.

The Rev. Joseph Jeyapaul, who served in the Diocese of Crookston in 2004 and 2005, faces charges of first-degree sexual conduct, and if convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, they reported.

In an interview with Roseau County Attorney Lisa Hanson, the Star Tribune reported, that even with him dropping his challenge, Hanson said, "I'm being told by legal officials in India that this could take three to four years."

When contacted by reporters in India, Jeyapaul told the New York Times that he volunteered to cooperate with the extradition, but the Times of India reported that the country's top Roman Catholic officials ordered him to do so, they reported.

The Pionner Press reported that Jeyapaul, who has denied the accusations and claims they were an attempt to get money from the church, was one of many foreign priests brought to help fill shortages in U.S. parishes.

Last year, about one-quarter of the newly ordained priests in the United States were foreign-born, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, they reported.

The Star Tribune reported that two more Minnesota flu deaths were reported Wednesday, where one occurred in December and the other, which was influenza b and not H1N1, was in March, the Minnesota Department of Health said.

That brings the total number of flu deaths in Minnesota to 70 since the H1N1 pandemic began last April. Of those, 61 were H1N1, four could not be typed, three had no testing done, and one, the most recent, was influenza b, they reported.

No schools or long-term care sites reported outbreaks last week, normally, seasonal influenza strains would be widespread at this time of year, but the wave of H1N1 apparently has dampened the traditional flu season, the Pioneer Press reported.

The Star Tribune reported that the lag time between the deaths and confirmation that they were flu related is due to the complex investigation and testing that is required by some cases, health officials said

The Pioneer Press reported that Hastings Middle School went into emergency lockdown Monday morning after a 14-year-old suspect allegedly broke into three classrooms, smashing the glass of the locked doors to get inside.

In one classroom, as frightened students huddled together, the eighth-grade boy pointed the loaded .22-caliber handgun at a science teacher and fellow students, police and school district officials said, but the teacher talked him into leaving, the Pioneer Press reported.

The Star Tribune reported, "It was the closest thing to a school shooting without firing a gun," said Michael McMenomy, Hastings police chief. "We don't know whether he didn't want to shoot or whether the gun jammed."

The student remained in custody at the Dakota County Juvenile Detention Facility Monday night, and authorities said they expect to charge the suspect, who was identified only as a foster child in his first year at the Hastings school, with multiple felonies, the Star Tribune reported.

CNN reported that Mexican authorities dispatched engineers to check damaged houses and buildings Monday in Baja California state following a major earthquake Sunday that left two people dead.

The 7.2-magnitude quake struck at 3:40 p.m. about 19 miles southeast of Mexicali, a bustling commerce center on the Mexican side of the border where trucks carrying goods cross into California, where more than 900,000 people live, the Huffington Post reported.

It was the largest earthquake in the region in nearly 18 years and was followed by aftershocks or distant "triggered" earthquakes on both sides of the border, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones, they reported.

"We felt it for about 30 seconds. It was rolling," San Diego County sheriff's Lt. Scott Ybarrondo told CNN. "Nothing fell off the walls here, but we have reports of pictures falling off walls elsewhere in the county."

More than 140 people were treated at local hospitals, including five who were in critical condition, said Rigaberto Lasoya, medical coordinator for the state of Baja, CNN reported.

The Associated Press reported that Discovery and seven astronauts headed for a rendezvous with the International Space Station after a pre-dawn liftoff Monday on one of the last missions for NASA's shuttle program.

The launch -- the last one scheduled in darkness for NASA's fading shuttle program -- helped set a record for the most women in space at the same time, the report said.

Discovery is carrying supplies and science equipment for the international space station's laboratories, and the 13-day mission includes three planned spacewalks, replacing an ammonia tank assembly and retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station's exterior, CNN reported.

"It's time for you to rise to orbit. Good luck and godspeed," launch director Pete Nickolenko told the astronauts before liftoff, The Associated Press reported.

Discovery could be seen with the naked eye for seven minutes as it shot upward, adding to the show, and almost as an encore, the exhaust plumes fanned out in spirals across the sky, turning pale shades of rose, peach and gold in the glinting sunlight, reported the Associated Press.