Holocaust survivor Gena Turgel, consoler of Anne Frank, dies

LONDON — Gena Turgel, a Holocaust survivor who comforted Anne Frank at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp before the young diarist’s death and the camp’s liberation a month later, has died. She was 95.

Turgel died Thursday, Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said on Twitter. The news triggered tributes from some of the people the Polish native touched in the decades she shared her World War II experiences, including witnessing the horrors of the Nazi camps at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen.

After World War II, Turgel married one of Bergen-Belsen’s British liberators, Norman Turgel, earning the nickname “The Bride of Belsen.” Her wedding dress, made from parachute silk, is part of the collection of the Imperial War Museum in London.

Turgel attended Britain’s annual Holocaust remembrance two months ago in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over her knees.

“My story is the story of one survivor, but it is also the story of 6 million who perished,” she said at the event in London’s Hyde Park. “Maybe that’s why I was spared — so my testimony would serve as a memorial like that candle that I light, for the men, women and children who have no voice.”

No evidence of any foul play in Bourdain death

PARIS — There’s no evidence of foul play or violence in celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s death in a French hotel room, a French prosecutor said Saturday.

The famed cook, writer and host of the CNN series “Parts Unknown” killed himself Friday in a luxury hotel in the ancient village of Kaysersberg, Christian de Rocquigny, the prosecutor of Colmar in France’s eastern Alsace region, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Rocquigny said there did not appear to be much planning in the television personality’s suicide.

“There is no element that makes us suspect that someone came into the room at any moment,” he said, adding that a medical expert had concluded that there were no signs of violence on Bourdain’s body.

Rocquigny said toxicology tests were being carried out on Bourdain’s body, including urine tests, to see if the 61-year-old American took any medications or other drugs, in an effort to help his family understand if anything led him to kill himself.

Eritrean US detainee kills himself at Egyptian airport

CAIRO — An Eritrean national who was denied asylum in the United States and was being sent back to his homeland has died in an apparent suicide in a holding area at Cairo International Airport, airport officials said on Saturday.

Zeresenay Ermias Testfatsion was a detainee of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was being held by Egyptian authorities at the airport, awaiting his return to Asmara, Eritrea, ICE said.

Testfatsion, 34, was found dead on Wednesday in a shower area and his remains were taken to a hospital, ICE said.

Airport officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said he was found hanging.

His remains will be transported to Eritrea, ICE said in a statement, adding that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility were notified.

From wire sources

Power lines hamper search for downed helicopter in Wisconsin

OSHKOSH, Wis. — A helicopter crashed into the Fox River in eastern Wisconsin Saturday after witnesses said it struck power lines, and authorities said they won’t be able to search for those on board until high voltage power lines can be removed from the water.

The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office says the helicopter went down into the river near the Wisconsin Street Bridge in Oshkosh, 94 miles (151 kilometers) north of Milwaukee after witnesses said it hit the electrical wires.

Winnebago County Sheriff’s Capt. Lara Vendola-Messer said during a press conference that special equipment was being brought in by Wisconsin Public Service to help remove the lines. It’s unknown how many people were onboard or what happened to them.

“Other than it is a helicopter, we don’t know where it came from or anything else at this point,” Vendola-Messer said.

Gary Lemiesz, of Oshkosh, told The Oshkosh Northwestern that he watched as a dark green helicopter flew east over the Fox River before turning back and flying west. He said it struck the wires and part of the propeller broke off, after which “it hit hard and sunk.”