Baltimore

Survey: Nonprofits increased revenues

Even with a troubled economy and government budget cuts, nearly two-thirds of nonprofit organizations in a new survey said they boosted revenue last year and almost half added new programs.

Still, 86 percent of the 236 groups surveyed said they worried about finances on some level, with 51 percent describing their worries as “very severe” or “severe.”

“It’s a story of extraordinary resilience, coping and entrepreneurial thinking,” said Lester Salamon, director of Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, which conducted the survey with seven umbrella groups for nonprofit organizations.

Atlanta

Six-year-old killed; ritual abuse suspected

A 6-year-old girl was found dead in a motel room with a broken back Monday after what police said may have been an exorcism. Two adults were arrested after they and two children were spotted on the street naked in the freezing cold.

The adults, who had been staying in the motel room, were charged with cruelty to children, public indecency and obstruction of police and were taken to a psychiatric ward.

Police said the girl had been brutalized and suffered a broken back and other broken bones. An autopsy was planned.

Based on what the adults told authorities, investigators believe “they were involved possibly in a ritual of some sort,” police spokesman John Quigley said. “It may have had something to do with undemonizing the child in some manner.”