NST Online Top Stories - Google News

Danvers High School teacher's death in Massachusetts leads to charge against ... - CBS News

Posted: 23 Oct 2013 09:28 AM PDT

Updated at 12:14 p.m. ET

DANVERS, Mass. A 14-year-old high school student was accused of killing a math teacher whose body was found in the woods behind the school.

The body of Colleen Ritzer, 24, of Andover, was found in a wooded area near Danvers High School early Wednesday, and the boy will be arraigned on a murder charge, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said during a Wednesday morning news conference.

"We have no reason to believe that any other suspects are involved," Blodgett told reporters.

Police started investigating after Ritzer was reported missing late Tuesday night because she had not returned home from work and was not answering her cell phone. Investigators found blood in a second-floor school bathroom and soon located the victim, he said. He did not say how Ritzer died.

"She was a very, very respected, loved teacher," Blodgett said, calling the killing a "terrible tragedy."

"I just remember seeing her in the hallway and she always had a smile, like 'hi' to everyone, and she was just an amazing person," Megan Papagelis, a Danvers High graduate, told CBS Boston station WBZ-AM.

"It's just shocking to see that this could happen," Papagelis told WBZ-AM. "Unbelievable."

The boy also was reported missing Tuesday after not coming home from school. He was spotted walking along a road in neighboring Topsfield at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

His name was not made public because of his age. He faces arraignment Wednesday in juvenile court, where proceedings are closed to the public.

Play Video

Police search for answers in Nevada middle school shooting

Ritzer had a Twitter account where she gave homework assignments, encouraged students and described herself as a "math teacher often too excited about the topics I'm teaching."

All Danvers public schools were closed Wednesday.

Ritzer is the second teacher allegedly killed by a student in the U.S. this week. A Sparks, Nev., middle school teacher was allegedly shot by a 12-year-old student on Monday.

Secret White House Tweeter Loses Anonymity, and Job - New York Times

Posted: 23 Oct 2013 08:59 AM PDT

By JACKIE CALMES

Published: October 23, 2013

WASHINGTON — A White House insider in the thick of negotiations over nuclear issues with Iran was fired after he was exposed as the voice of a Twitter feed that over more than two years knocked public figures and colleagues, a White House official confirmed late Tuesday.

Jofi Joseph, formerly the director of nuclear nonproliferation issues on the National Security Council staff at the White House, was @NatSecWonk, who took anonymous and often caustic digs at people like former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Ben Rhodes, the N.S.C. spokesman; and Representative Darrell R. Issa, Republican of California and a nemesis of the administration as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Administration officials said Mr. Joseph was fired last week after he was unmasked as the Twitter account's author. The White House official e-mailed to confirm "he no longer works at the White House. Beyond that not going to get into personnel matters."

The firing was first disclosed by the Web site Daily Beast and its reporter Josh Rogin, who was one of the subjects of Mr. Joseph's tweets.

"Just a hunch, but I have the sense lots of people would like to punch @joshrogin in the face," Mr. Joseph wrote on the social-networking site after news reports that Mr. Rogin had been hit by a comedian at a Washington club.

Mr. Joseph was generally respected and popular within the White House, so his secret life took colleagues by surprise. On @NatSecWonk, which has now disappeared, he called himself a "keen observer of the foreign policy and national security scene" who "unapologetically says what everyone else only thinks."

In that self-described spirit, Mr. Joseph made Mrs. Clinton a particular target. As secretary of state in President Obama's first term, she "had few policy goals and no wins," he wrote. And he called Mr. Issa "an ass," then added, "but he's on to something here with the @HillaryClinton whitewash of accountability for Benghazi," referring to the terrorist killings in that Libyan city of four Americans, including the ambassador, last year.

Mr. Joseph apologized in remarks to Politico, the politics Web site.

"What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and meanspirited comments," he told the site. "I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted."

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Rabu, 23 Oktober 2013