Nation roundup for November 5

Boy killed in fall, mauling at zoo

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A young boy visiting the Pittsburgh zoo with his mother and friends was killed Sunday when he somehow got over a railing and then fell about 14 feet into an exhibit that’s home to a pack of African painted dogs, who pounced on the boy and mauled him, officials said.

It was not clear whether the child, who was about 3 years old, died from the fall or the attack, said Barbara Baker, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. Zoo officials and police were trying to determine how the child got over the railing, which is about 4-5 feet high, then apparently fell off a mesh barrier and into the exhibit.

When the boy fell, other visitors immediately told staff members, who responded along with Pittsburgh police. Zookeepers called off the dogs, and seven of them immediately went to a back building. Three more eventually were drawn away from the boy, but the last dog wouldn’t come into the building, and police had to shoot the animal, Baker said. Officials haven’t released the boy’s exact age.

“It’s clear that the dogs did attack the child, but whether he died of the attack or the fall has yet to be determined,” Baker said.

The dogs are about as big as medium-sized domestic dogs, 2 to 2½ feet high and 37 to 80 pounds, according to the zoo. African wild dogs are also known as cape hunting dogs, spotted dogs, and painted wolves. They have large, rounded ears and dark brown circles around their eyes and are considered endangered.

Police and the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office were investigating. Baker said the zoo, plans an internal investigation, and no decision has been made yet on the future of the exhibit.

Helicopter crash kills 2 officers

ATLANTA (AP) — A low-flying police helicopter scanning a bustling neighborhood not far from downtown Atlanta for a runaway 9-year-old boy suddenly plummeted to the ground and exploded, killing both officers on board but leaving those on the ground unharmed.

Federal authorities are investigating what caused the aircraft to descend into power lines, knocking out electricity to some residents nearby in the district filled with shopping plazas, fast food restaurants and homes. The boy was found safely a couple of hours after the helicopter crashed late Saturday night. Atlanta police spokesman Officer John Chafee said Sunday that the boy ran away after being scolded by his mother and was later found wandering on a city street.

The two officers were identified Sunday afternoon as pilot Richard J. Halford, 48, of Lithia Springs, who had been with the department for 26 years, and Shawn A. Smiley, 40, of Lithonia, a tactical flight officer who joined the department two years ago.

Atlanta Police Chief George Turner praised the two officers as public servants who died honorably in the search for the missing boy. Both men were fathers. Smiley had three children under the age of 10.

“Every day, they provided air support for our officers, assisting in major events and searches for suspects and missing persons,” Turner said in a news release. “Their value to our citizens and our officers on the street is incalculable.”

The families have asked for privacy, and trust funds have been set up at Wells Fargo bank locations to help them, said Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos.

Their deaths shook not only the police force, but the entire city.

Prison factories caught in debate

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — On the outside, Unicor, with its big oaks and magnolia trees, looks like it could be part of a landscaped industrial park. Step a little closer and it’s clear the apparel shop lies in the middle of a medium-security federal prison in east Alabama.

The factory and those like it that employ convicted felons are at the heart of a simmering debate about whether prisons should be siphoning away jobs — at much lower wages — that could be filled by those who need them during the nation’s toughest period of unemployment in decades.

Congressional Republicans, a handful of Democrats and private-industry critics want to clamp down on Unicor, the trade name for Federal Prison Industries.

Almost 13,000 inmates working in federal lockups around the country for a few dollars a day make everything from military uniforms to office furniture to electrical parts that are sold exclusively to federal agencies. With annual revenues that reached $900 million last year, Unicor is the federal government’s 36th-largest vendor.

Corrections officials say the program teaches prisoners invaluable job skills and personal discipline that help cut down on their return to prison. Inmates who work in the program are 24 percent less likely to commit more crimes than other prisoners after being released, they say.

‘Wreck-It Ralph’ No. 1 in theaters

NEW YORK (AP) — The weekend box office was not only undeterred by the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, it was buoyed by it.

Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph” opened strongly with $49.1 million and Robert Zemeckis’ “Flight,” starring Denzel Washington, soared to a $25 million debut. Both opened above expectations, capitalizing on East Coast audiences looking for distraction amid the recovery from the storm.

“Wreck-It Ralph,” a 3-D animated family film about a video game villain who tries to break free of his role, is the largest box-office opening ever for Walt Disney Animation, which has produced countless cartoon classics (though doesn’t include Disney’s lucrative Pixar Animation).

Though the hurricane had forced the closure of hundreds of movie theaters in the New York, New Jersey area, most were open for business by the weekend. As many as 100 theaters were still closed on Friday, but many of those were restored during the weekend.

“We didn’t really have a playbook for this,” said Hollywood.com box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “But the numbers show that audiences across the country, and particularly in the Northeast, wanted to go to the movies and they did.”

With many East Coast children out of school on Friday, Disney saw an uptick of business for Friday matinees to the well-reviewed “Wreck-It Ralph.”

“‘Wreck-It Ralph’ became something of a distraction and an opportunity for families to do something separate of the storm,” said Dave Hollis, Disney’s head of distribution. “Schools being shut down on Friday also played a role as parents were looking for things to entertain the kids and keep them out of the cold.”

Paramount’s “Flight,” which had a smaller opening — 1,884 theaters, or about half the number of “Wreck-It Ralph” — might have been expected to be more harmed by Sandy, considering adult dramas generally depend heavily on the New York City market. But the film, which has found critical raves and Oscar buzz, proved particularly enticing to moviegoers, many of whom were surely pulled in by the star power of Washington, who plays an airline pilot of both heroic skill and debilitating alcoholism.

“When you look up his filmography — it doesn’t matter whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago — Denzel opens movies,” said Paramount distribution head Don Harris.

Harris said the studio counted only about 15 theaters lost to “Flight” due to power outages.

Aside from the draw of Washington, “Flight” is also the first live-action film in 12 years for Zemeckis. The director, whose films include the “Back to the Future” trilogy and “Cast Away,” had spent the last decade on performance-capture animated films like “The Polar Express” and “A Christmas Carol.” Harris called the return “spectacular” and said: “It’s almost like: Where have you been?”

Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage tale “Argo,” in its fourth week of release, expanded to 2,774 theaters. The Warner Bros. film added $10.2 million, bringing its cumulative gross to $75.9 million — a healthy haul for a film expected to be in the thick of the Oscar hunt.

The Universal kung fu flick “The Man With the Iron Fists,” directed by RZA of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, opened with a debut of $8.2 million.

Overseas, the James Bond film “Skyfall” continued to dominate. It took in $156 million over the weekend bringing its international total to $287 million. The film opens in North America on Friday.

The strong box-office weekend — up 21 percent from the same weekend last year — bodes well for Hollywood ahead of the arrival of “Skyfall” and the upcoming holiday movie season.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.