The robbers demanded money and the victim handed over $200 from his pockets, police said. The bandits then demanded that he open his safe, but he denied owning one until one robber cocked the gun and pointed it at the victim, police said.
The victim then led the robbers to the safe and opened it, police said. With loot in hand, the pair fled.
PENNSYLVANIA
2 cited for chalking
Two teens have been cited for doodling on the street with chalk, Doylestown police said Friday.
Connor Logan, 18, and a 17-year-old friend drew a whale and sea turtles in a local parking lot. Doylestown police Chief James Donnelly says although chalk washes off, the drawings are "an attempt at vandalism."
He also says the doodles might link the teens to chalk graffiti on buildings and businesses in town.
The teens face summary citations, which come with a fine to be determined by a district judge.
Visine-attack charges
A central Pennsylvania woman is facing charges after admitting to repeatedly poisoning a man with eye drops for more than three years, authorities say.
Vickie Jo Mills, of McConnellsburg, told investigators that she placed Visine eye drops into Thurman Nesbitt's drinking water 10 to 12 times beginning in June 2009, State Police said.
Mills told police she did it so Nesbitt would be more attentive to her. She faces charges including assault and reckless endangerment.
NEW JERSEY
Ex-Sen. Bryant gets off
Former New Jersey Sen. Wayne Bryant was found not guilty Friday of corruption charges by a federal judge who rejected prosecutors' arguments that the once-powerful Camden County Democrat took bribes disguised as legal fees to do the bidding of a North Carolina developer.
Bryant, who is serving a four-year sentence for an earlier corruption conviction, was accused of using his influence in the state legislature to benefit billion-dollar development projects in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, in Pennsauken and in North Jersey that had been proposed by Cherokee Investment Partners.
Legal fees totaling $192,000 were used to sway Bryant, an indictment alleged. Prosecutors contended that neither Bryant nor any member of his law firm did any work for the $8,000-a-month retainer that was paid over a 24-month period beginning in 2004.
NATIONAL
Air Force sex scandal
A widening sex scandal at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas has led to the dismissal of the top commander who oversees basic training for every new American airman, officials said Friday.
Col. Glenn Palmer was commander of basic training for the 737th training group at the Texas base, where more than a dozen military instructors in the past year have been investigated or charged with sexually assaulting recruits.
INTERNATIONAL
Obama sees terror link
The Obama administration charged Friday that Lebanon-based Hezbollah is directly assisting Syria's brutal domestic military crackdown and announced new sanctions against the group and the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The announcements were timed to precede Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's meetings on Saturday with Syrian opposition leaders in Turkey. She also plans to pledge an additional $5.5 million in U.S. humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees.
The new measures are unlikely to placate Syrian rebel forces, who have asked for U.S. military equipment and aerial protection in their increasingly bloody fight against Assad. The measures also are unlikely to please critics at home who charge that President Obama is sitting on the sidelines of a humanitarian crisis and a battle that threatens U.S. security interests in the region, current and former U.S. officials said.
3 U.S. soldiers killed
A man wearing an Afghan police uniform shot and killed three U.S. Special Forces troops Thursday night as they met with tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S. officials said. It was the 25th incident this year in which Afghan soldiers or police officers turned their weapons on NATO troops with fatal consequences.
- Staff and wire reports
