International News brief

His marriage long ago went sour, his home taken in foreclosure, his job lost to incompetence, his finances sunk in bankruptcy. Everything Jason Rodriguez sought ended in failure. Except his alleged plot to kill.

The 40-year-old man whose life seemed to just keep getting worse was charged Saturday with first-degree murder, accused of killing one and wounding five Friday at his former office. He said nothing in his brief court appearance Saturday, but his attorney portrayed him as a mentally ill man who fell victim to countless problems.

“This guy is a compilation of the front page of the entire year — unemployment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce — all of the stresses,” said the public defender, Bob Wesley. “He has been declining in mental health. There is no logic whatsoever, which points to a mental health case. It looks like a classic case of stress overload.”

Police refused to say anything more Saturday about their investigation into the shooting. But as Rodriguez remained on suicide watch at the Orange County Jail, a portrait of his crumbling life began to emerge.

He couldn’t pay the child support he owed for his 8-year-old son. He was nearly $90,000 behind on bills, his bankruptcy file showed. A once-promising, but short-lived career at an engineering firm faded into a job at a fast-food chain.

TEHRAN, Iran

Iran releases journalists

Iranian authorities have released three journalists who were among more than 100 people arrested during pro-government and opposition street demonstrations this week, the country’s official news agency reported.

One of the reporters, Farhad Pouladi, is an Iranian who works for Agence France-Presse. The other two are foreign reporters, but the report by the IRNA news agency did not identify them or say for whom they work.

Police detained 109 people during the rallies this week, IRNA said. Sixty-two of them were handed over to judicial authorities for trial on charges of disturbing public order and the rest were released after questioning, said security spokesman Azizollah Rajabzadeh, according to the news report.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.

Cops: Driver smoked pot

New York State Police investigators said in a written report that a woman who killed seven people plus herself in a crash on the Taconic State Parkway was a regular marijuana user.

The report says Diane Schuler’s husband told police his wife “smoked marijuana once in a while to relieve the stress of work and the kids.”

Schuler’s sister-in-law told police she “didn’t believe in medicine and used marijuana to relax,” usually smoking after her children went to bed.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland

More stimulus promised

Finance officials from rich and developing countries pledged Saturday to maintain emergency support for their economies until recovery is assured and committed themselves to urgent action on tackling climate change.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the “process of growth is now beginning” but warned that ending stimulus measures too early would be damaging to the economy.

He said U.S. jobs figures out Friday showing unemployment at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent “reinforced that this is still a very tough economic environment.”

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