News & Blues 6/16

The Party’s Over

A 49-year-old man who dropped his son off at a birthday party in
Wauconda, Ill., returned to pick him up a few hours later but went to a
house a block away. According to police Cmdr. John Thibault, when the
homeowner who answered the door insisted he didn’t have the 11-year-old
boy, the father and his 15-year-old son forced their way into the home,
prompting the homeowner to shoot them. The 15-year-old was treated for
wounds, but his father was hospitalized in critical condition. “They
must have got lost in the snow and gone to the wrong street,” Thibault
told the Chicago Sun-Times, adding, “We still have lots of questions.”

Just Can’t Get Enough

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma confirmed that he fathered the
daughter of a woman who isn’t one of his three wives. Zuma has 19 other
children. Brian Sokutu, a representative of Zuma’s African National
Congress Party, said that the president’s relationship with the woman
didn’t count as adulterous because the 67-year-old Zuma is a polygamist
and may have been intending to marry the 39-year-old woman. “There is
something called courtship,” Sokutu explained. “What that means is that
before you do officially get married there is the courting period. And
during that period anything can happen.” Sokutu wouldn’t confirm
whether Zuma was actually planning a wedding. (Britain’s Daily Telegraph)

Slightest Provocation 

Michael Louis Colquitt, 32, took out a protection order against his
father, explaining that Joe Colquitt, 60, pastor of St. John Missionary
Baptist Church in Alcoa, Tenn., pulled a handgun and threatened to kill
him, his wife and family while the two argued over the son’s lack of
church attendance. (Maryville’s The Daily Times)

First Things First

When police in New Zealand’s Counties Manukau District arrived at
the scene of a stabbing, the suspect greeted them but showed more
concern for the meat pie he was eating than for the victim, his
25-year-old stepson. Expressing regret that the stepson was still
alive, the unidentified man asked the arresting officers to let him
finish the pie as a reward for turning himself in. “My pie’s sitting on
the ground,” he said. “I just paid for that. I came back here to you
guys.” Observing that police are always on the alert for unexpected
behavior when making arrests, Detective Sgt. Len Leleni said, “You get
all kinds of interesting characters in this job.” (New Zealand’s 3 News)

War Is Hell

After U.S. and Afghan troops killed two pregnant women and three
other innocent civilians during a night raid on Gardez, Vice Admiral
William McRaven, commander of Joint Special Operations Command,
apologized to Mohammad Tahir, the father of one of the women and
brother of two men killed, by offering him two sheep. Tahir, who had
vowed to become a suicide bomber to avenge the deaths, accepted
McRaven’s apology. (ABC News)

News and Blues is compiled from the nation’s press. To contribute,
submit original clippings, citing date and source, to Roland Sweet in
care of The New Times.