Minnesota

Injured mallard resists attempts to help

A mallard swimming on Silver Lake isn’t letting a dart in its head stop it from eating, swimming, socializing or paddling away from rescue attempts.

Authorities don’t know who shot the duck with a metal blowgun dart, but the bird hasn’t been able to remove the shaft from its left cheek behind its bill.

Department of Natural Resources personnel tried without success Monday to capture the mallard, an agency spokeswoman said. The wound caused by the dart isn’t infected, and the duck is swimming and eating, she said.

The Mesabi Humane Society has received several calls about the duck, said Mary Peliska, executive director, and animal control officers have been checking on the duck.

Florida

Fight doctor said to be taking photos at match

While a woman was being fatally pummeled in an amateur boxing competition, the doctor monitoring the bout was also busy taking pictures as the event’s official photographer, her family’s attorney said Wednesday.

Stacy Young, a 30-year-old mother of two, collapsed in the ring at the Sarasota County fairgrounds shortly before the end of the third and final round Saturday. She took severe blows to the head and died Tuesday.

Paramedics were on hand to treat her, but lawyer Greg Kehoe said the fight doctor, whose name was not released Wednesday, never tried to stop the match even though it was clear Young couldn’t defend herself.

Russia

Prime minister outlasts attempt at ouster

Russia’s prime minister survived an attempt by an alliance of Communists and West-minded liberals to wrest him from office Wednesday.

Mikhail Kasyanov has become a lightning rod for social ills that Russia has been unable to remedy, everything from substandard housing and low wages to bare-bones pensions. Rumors of his ouster have been swirling through Moscow for months.

An unusual coalition led by Grigory Yavlinsky of the liberal Yabloko Party and Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov mustered enough support in the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, to force a no-confidence vote on Kasyanov and his Cabinet.

However, as expected, the coalition of Communists and Yabloko liberals fell short of the 226-vote majority needed to remove Kasyanov and his Cabinet. The measure won backing from 172 parliament members.

Tokyo

Military hands over Marine on rape charge

A U.S. Marine suspected of raping a woman in Okinawa was arrested Wednesday after U.S. military authorities agreed to turn him in before his indictment.

The rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995 triggered outrage on Okinawa and led the two countries to agree that Washington would give “sympathetic consideration” to requests for the handover of suspects in serious crimes prior to indictment.

A local court issued an arrest warrant Monday for Marine Lance Cpl. Jose W. Torres, who was detained on base after the incident occurred.