World Briefs

Obama aunt in court

BOSTON: President Barack Obama’s African aunt is going before an immigration judge for a second time to argue she should be allowed to stay in the United States. Kenya native Zeituni Onyango is scheduled to appear on Thursday in US Immigration Court in Boston. Onyango moved to the US in 2000. Her first asylum request was rejected. She was ordered deported in 2004. But she didn’t leave the country. Her status as an illegal immigrant was revealed just days before Obama was elected. Obama says he didn’t know his aunt was living in the country illegally.

Pierced kittens case

WILKES-BARRE: A US woman who marketed “gothic kittens” with ear and neck piercings over the Internet has been convicted of animal cruelty. A Pennsylvania jury on Wednesday convicted 35-year-old dog groomer Holly Crawford of one misdemeanor count and one summary count of animal cruelty, but acquitted her on two separate counts. She will be sentenced on March 31. Crawford was charged in December 2008 after animal welfare officers took several kittens and a cat from her home.