3 children drown in Iowa River
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa, July 5 (UPI) -- Three children drowned Wednesday while swimming in the Iowa River near Marshalltown, Iowa, police said.
The children, two girls and a boy ranging in age from 7 to 9, disappeared Wednesday evening in a stretch of river north of town, The Des Moines Register reported. The three children are believed to be related.
Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper said the Iowa River is not a safe place to swim.
"The river looks relatively calm down on the location where this occurred, and in many areas down there, it's very shallow. But there are also areas that can drop off to 12 or 14 feet, and the undercurrent can be very dangerous in any river," he said.
A 10-year-old Marshalltown boy drowned in the Iowa River June 18.
3 children die from lake electrocutions
OSAGE BEACH, Mo., July 5 (UPI) -- Three children were killed Wednesday by accidental electrocutions at lakes in Missouri and Tennessee, authorities said.
In Missouri, a brother and sister died after receiving a shock while they were swimming in Lake of the Ozarks, the Columbia Missourian reported. Alexandra Anderson, 13, and her brother, Brayden, 8, were pronounced dead at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach.
The siblings were both from Ashland, Mo., about 60 miles away.
Yacht capsizes near Long Island, killing 3
OYSTER BAY, N.Y., July 5 (UPI) -- A yacht carrying more than two dozen people capsized off the north shore of Long Island, N.Y., killing three people, police said.
Police investigating the incident said the accident could have been caused by the wake of another boat or severe weather passing through Oyster Bay Wednesday, WABC-TV, New York, reported.
Nassau County police inspector Kenneth Lack said the 34-foot yacht made an emergency call around 10 p.m. and most people were quickly taken onto other crafts.
Three people, whose names and ages were not released, were found dead, WABC said.
"The first person was found shortly after the distress call came in," he said. "The two others were located in the vessel. It took some time for the Mari Bureau divers to pull them out of the vessel."
Obama campaign bus tour focuses on economy
MAUMEE, Ohio, July 5 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama's first bus tour of the campaign will focus on the economy, stopping first in the battleground state of Ohio Thursday, his campaign said.
The two-day "Betting on America" tour, which is to take the president to Pennsylvania Friday, follows the Ohio and Pennsylvania release this week of an Obama campaign ad casting presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney as an "outsourcing pioneer."
"Mitt Romney's companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries," the TV ad says. "He supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. President Obama believes in insourcing."
Obama is expected to use his stops in manufacturing towns to underscore his support for bailing out the U.S. auto industry and to remind voters that Romney -- whose Republican-politician father was an automotive company chairman in the 1950s and '60s -- was against the bailout, his campaign said.
Romney reverses, calls mandate a tax
WOLFEBORO, N.H., July 5 (UPI) -- Likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney reversed his depiction of the U.S. healthcare mandate, aligning with conservative voices who called it a tax.
"The majority of the court said it's a tax and therefore it's a tax," Romney said in a hastily arranged interview with CBS News on the Fourth of July. "They have spoken. There's no way around that."
He later repeated his assertion to CNN after an Independence Day parade in the resort town of Wolfeboro, N.H., beside Lake Winnipesaukee, where Romney has an estate.
"Supreme Court is the final word, right? The highest court in the land? They said it's a tax didn't they?" he said. "So it's a tax, of course, if that's what they say it is."
Pakistani mob burns alleged blasphemer
BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan, July 5 (UPI) -- A violent mob of more than 1,000 people beat and burnt alive a man who allegedly threw pages from the Koran into the street, police said.
Bahawalpur police described the man, whose name was not reported, as "deranged," and arrested him Tuesday, The Express Tribune reported Wednesday.
Shortly after the incident, the crowd of 1,500 to 2,000 people gathered outside the Chanighot police station, burning police vehicles and demanding officers hand over the alleged blasphemer, the newspaper reported.
Officer Ghulam Mohiuddin Gujjar said nine police officers were injured in the incident, during which they tried to fend off the mob using tear gas.
Once the mob took custody of the man, they doused him in gasoline and set him afire, The Express Tribune reported.
Police said they are investigating the incident and reinforcement was sent to Bahawalpur to bring the area under control.
Van der Sloot blames lawyers for sentence
LIMA, July 5 (UPI) -- Joran van der Sloot blamed his lawyers for his nearly 30-year prison sentence in Peru in two letters made public by the attorneys.
In the letters he asked forgiveness from the parents of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old business student he was found guilty of murdering in May 2010, ABC News reported Wednesday.
"I ask God every day that Stephany's parents can find it in their heart to forgive me," he wrote.
Van der Sloot blamed poor legal representation for the 27-year prison sentence he received for the conviction.
"My rights have been constantly abused," van der Sloot wrote. "After bad legal advice in which my lawyer promised me I would receive 15 years if I plead guilty, I did … I have a history of psychological problems which were never taken into consideration."
The Dutchman also wrote in the letters he had nothing to do with the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teen who disappeared during a class trip to Aruba.
