Deaths | featured news

Selvin Chajon Rodriguez asked the mother of his young children to marry him. But if she said no, the couple and their son and daughter would "all be laid to rest." The alleged threats, detailed in court papers filed last week in Riverside County Superior Court, were enough for Laura Reveriano to request a restraining against her ex-boyfriend.

A powerful, magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook Costa Rica and a wide swath of Central America on Wednesday, collapsing some houses, blocking highways and causing panic and at least one death from a heart attack.

A 6-year-old boy whose throat was slashed by an intruder high on PCP-laced marijuana was killed trying to save his sister, coming to her aid as she was being assaulted on the floor, prosecutors said Tuesday....

...His presence was formidable, even intimidating: The former bodyguard had a muscular, 6-foot-4 frame, but it was topped by the brightest of megawatt smiles... Duncan died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancée, reality TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a statement released by publicist Joy Fehily.

The withdrawal of murder charges against 270 South African miners for the killings of 34 co-workers by police followed intense public pressure - including a report that the victims were shot execution-style or crushed by police vehicles.

North Korea says a typhoon that hit the peninsula last week killed 48 people and left 21,000 homeless. The update from the official Korean Central News Agency said Monday that Typhoon Bolaven also left more than 50 people injured or missing, damaged 50,000 hectares (123,550 acres) of farmland and destroyed or inundated 6,700 houses.

A 16-year-old New Jersey boy was killed after sticking his head out of a party bus and hitting an overpass just after crossing the George Washington Bridge Friday, authorities said.

Somali pirates who have been holding a hijacked ship for nearly two years killed a Syrian hostage crew member and wounded another to protest delayed ransom payment, a pirate leader said....

A 7.6-magnitude quake struck off the eastern coast of the Philippines late Friday, killing at least one person in a house collapse and triggering tsunami warnings in the region that sent coastal residents fleeing to high ground.

An employee at a suburban New Jersey supermarket opened fire in the store in the pre-dawn hours on Friday, killing two co-workers and then taking his own life, a prosecutor said.