Around the world

JOURNALIST DIES: An American journalist was found dead Sunday in Beirut with his skull fractured and his legs broken in what police said was either an accident or suicide. The body of John Michael Hall, 48, a copy editor for the Beirut newspaper The Daily Star, was found on the Mediterranean shore of the Raouche district, police said. Police ruled out homicide, saying Hall either fell from the high waterfront walkway or committed suicide.

TEEN DETENTION: With a formal extradition request from the United States expected soon, an Israeli court on Sunday extended the detention of an American teenager wanted for a grisly murder in Maryland. In a closed hearing, the Magistrates Court ordered Samuel Sheinbein, 17, held for another 15 days. The youth, handcuffed, did not speak to reporters afterward. Sheinbein is accused of killing and dismembering Alfredo Tello, 19, in September, then fleeing to Israel. He and another teen-ager were indicted on murder and conspiracy charges in Maryland last Thursday.

DAD STABS DAUGHTER: An 18-year-old Bahraini woman was repeatedly stabbed by her father, who objected to her holding a job, newspapers reported Sunday. Samia Yousef's father stabbed her at least 10 times Thursday as she was getting on a bus to go to work, according to the English-language Gulf Daily News. She remains hospitalized in stable condition, it said. The father, who was not identified, was arrested later in East Riffa, 12 miles south of the capital, Manama, the Bahrain Tribune reported. It said Yousef's father had threatened to kill her for having taken a job. Many families in conservative Bahrain keep their women at home.

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STORE EVACUATED: Authorities on Sunday investigated the apparent release of an irritating chemical inside a Wal-Mart store in Barboursville, W. Va., that sent 32 people to hospitals. The identity of the chemical and the manner in which it was released were not immediately known. Store officials told police several suspicious people were seen in the store. The 24-hour Wal-Mart evacuated all customers and personnel after the chemical was released late Saturday and remained closed for about eight hours during the night.

GIRL STABS DAD: A 17-year-old girl was arrested Saturday and charged with fatally stabbing her father with a steak knife. The girl, who was not identified because of her age, stabbed her father early Saturday morning, police said. He died an hour later at a Roanoke, Va., hospital. Officers responding to a domestic argument call shortly after 2 a.m. found the living room of the home in disarray, and the man's wife and daughter were both in the house, according to a police report. The husband, 39, who was not identified, apparently pushed his wife during an argument, police said.

In other news . . .

RAIN AND thunderstorms rolled across the Northeast and Florida on Sunday, with at least two tornadoes hitting Florida, and snow spread across the upper Midwest. . . . TWO MODERATE earthquakes, of 5.3 and 4.3 magnitude, struck western Nevada about 20 miles from the California border early Sunday. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury. . . . POPE JOHN PAUL II will visit Nigeria early next year and is expected to beatify a Nigerian priest, government and religious officials said. . . . THICK SMOKE from fires in the Amazon rain forest is choking residents of the region's largest city, Manaus, Brazil. . . . FLOODS CAUSED by overflowing rivers in eastern Ethiopia have left 57 people dead and more than 4,000 displaced, state-run radio reported Sunday.

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