Canoeist drowns after capsizing

A man in his early 20s drowned yesterday after his canoe capsized in the Nissitissit River in Pepperell, police said. "The strong current caused the canoe to shift and it just capsized," said Sergeant Armando Herrera of the Pepperell Police Department. One of the two men in the canoe swam to shore, Herrera said. The victim's body was located near where the vessel capsized, but recovery efforts were hampered by the strong current and debris, Herrera said. Dive teams from Lowell and Fitchburg helped extract the victim's body. The two boaters, whose names were withheld by request of the victims' families, are from the Pepperell area.

A suspect is in custody, accused of assaulting an unidentified woman on Columbus Avenue at the Back Bay subway station Friday night, police said. The woman reported the assault about 8:30 p.m. after escaping the assailant, police said. She was taken to Tufts Medical Center with neck injuries. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said the transit police apprehended a suspect based on the woman's description. No information on the suspect was available. The district attorney's office said that the assault suspect will be arraigned today in Boston Municipal Court.

Police are investigating the death of a Mansfield woman who was struck by a commuter rail train Saturday evening in Mansfield. The accident occurred about 7:30 p.m., south of West Street, after the train left Mansfield Station enroute to Providence. The woman, described as Caucasian and with brown hair, was wearing a gray Red Sox sweatshirt and jeans, and was not carrying identification. The train conductor reported the accident to authorities. "She was trespassing and was struck by the train and was immediately dead," said Lydia Rivera, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. "It is under investigation as to how it occurred." Police told the Associated Press that the Mansfield woman was probably using railway tracks as a shortcut when she was struck and killed by the train near her home. There have been at least five deaths this year involving people struck by commuter rail trains.

A 27-year-old security guard at Mercy Hospital was fatally shot early yesterday while outdoors on his break, police said. After hearing gunshots, hospital employees found James Angelo wounded in a fenced-in hospital parking lot. He was treated in Mercy's emergency room before being transferred to Maine Medical Center, where he died, police said. Witnesses told police that two people walking along Winter Street "had some kind of engagement with the victim" and fled in opposite directions after shots were fired about 4 a.m., Chief Joseph Loughlin said. Angelo and his family had arrived in Portland from Sudan in 1995. Loughlin vowed that whoever is responsible will be brought to justice. The hospital's security guards wear uniforms but are unarmed, he said. (AP)

The manslaughter trial of a Massachusetts man charged in a fatal boating crash last summer on Long Lake in Harrison is scheduled to begin today in Cumberland County Superior Court. The prosecution contends that Robert LaPointe, 39, of Medway was legally drunk and driving too fast when his 32-foot boat equipped with twin 435-horsepower engines ran over a 14-foot craft, killing Terry Raye Trott, 55, of Naples and Suzanne Groetzinger, 44, of Berwick. LaPointe and his passenger, family friend Nicole Randall, 19, of Bridgton, were thrown into the water but swam safely to shore. Justice Robert Crowley is expected to rule today on a defense motion to delay the trial or move it elsewhere. (AP)

State officials have scrapped the results of Maine's eighth-grade writing test after 78 percent of students failed to meet state standards. The one-question test for 2007-08 was administered in March to nearly 15,000 students, who were required to write a persuasive essay. Susan Gendron, education commissioner, said the test was somehow flawed and triggered false results, although officials say they were unable to pinpoint exactly why so many students failed to meet the mark. The Department of Education withheld the test results when it released the latest Maine Educational Assessment scores in July. The Maine Sunday Telegram yesterday obtained the writing results after filing a request under the state's Freedom of Access Act. (AP)