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Articles written by Verena Dobnik


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  • Van plunges off NY road into zoo grounds; 7 killed

    VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press

    NEW YORK — An out-of-control van careered across several lanes of traffic on a highway overpass Sunday, then plunged more than 50 feet off the side of the road and landed in a ravine on the grounds of the nation's largest city zoo, killing all seven people aboard, including three children, authorities said. The van apparently flipped over a 4-foot-high iron fence before landing upside-down on the Bronx Zoo property. The cause of the crash was unclear, and a city official said the guardrail's height would be one of the s...

  • Freed hikers: Iran held us because we're American

    VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Declaring that they were detained because of their nationality, not their actions, two American hikers held for more than two years in an Iranian prison came home Sunday, ending a diplomatic and personal ordeal with a sharp rebuke of the country that accused them of crossing the border from Iraq. Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, both 29, were freed last week under a $1 million bail deal and arrived Wednesday in Oman, greeted by relatives and fellow hiker Sarah Shourd, who was released last year. AP Photo/Craig R...

  • Montana copper mining heiress dies in NY at 104

    VERENA DOBNIK, The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Huguette Clark, a 104-year-old heiress to a Montana copper fortune who once lived in the largest apartment on New York City's Fifth Avenue, died Tuesday at a Manhattan hospital, but prosecutors are still pursuing a legal battle over her money and care. The reclusive Clark spent the last two decades of her life in New York City hospitals. "Miss Clark's passing is a sad event for all those who have loved and respected her over the years," her attorney, Wallace Bock, said in a statement. "She died as she wanted, w...

  • NYPD clears park of Occupy Wall St. protesters

    COLLEEN LONG, VERENA DOBNIK - Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Hundreds of police officers in riot gear raided Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicting dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters from what has become the epicenter of the worldwide movement protesting corporate greed and economic inequality. About 70 people were arrested, including some who chained themselves together, while officers cleared the park so that sanitation crews could clean it. AP Photo/John Minchillo An Occupy Wall Street protestor is arrested during a march on Broadway, Tuesday in New York, after p...

  • Dueling demonstrations begin after 9/11 memorial

    BETH FOUHY, VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press Writers

    Dueling demonstrations begin after 9/11 memorial BETH FOUHY,Associated Press Writers VERENA DOBNIK,Associated Press Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of family members of Sept. 11 victims recited loved ones' names through tears on the ninth anniversary of the attacks Saturday, avoiding direct mention of the political furor over plans for a mosque that later drew thousands of protesters on both sides. After the ceremony, around 1,000 activists rallied about five blocks from the site of the 2001 attacks to support the p...