American Scene

ALABAMA

Police: Dad buried children in 2 states

MOBILE | A father whose missing children are thought to be dead told investigators he buried one of his young children in Mississippi in March, then buried the other in Alabama in June, police said.

The father, John DeBlase, 27, was being held Monday on $206,000 bond. He is charged with child abuse and corpse abuse.

The children’s stepmother, Heather Leavell-Keaton, was jailed in Kentucky on child abuse charges. She will soon be extradited back to Alabama.

Mobile police say Mr. DeBlase has admitted burying his two children — Natalie, 5, and Chase, 3 &8212; but claims Ms. Leavell-Keaton killed them. She is pointing the finger at him.

Mobile Police Officer Chris Levy said the children were last seen this summer.

CALIFORNIA

Aphrodite’s transfer ends dispute with Italy

LOS ANGELES | The love goddess Aphrodite is going home to Italy after the new year, stronger and more stable than she has been in 2,500 years.

The statue, being returned to Sicily as part of Italy’s decade-old campaign to retrieve antiquities it says were illegally brought to California, will be the last of 40 artifacts the J. Paul Getty Museum agreed to turn over.

Sebastiano Missineo, the minister of culture from Sicily, visited the Getty Villa in Malibu on Monday and viewed the statue.

The statue will be on display at the Getty Villa for one more week, acting Getty director David Bomford said at a tea for Mr. Missineo on Monday.

The Getty has built a seismic wave isolator for Aphrodite that will protect her in the earthquake-prone Sicilian region, he said.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

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