Christa Pike is critically ill in a Nashville hospital after surviving two attempts by Tennessee to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers say. Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in the 1990s for a murder she committed as a teenager, with her lawyers saying she has a blood disorder that made it difficult to establish an intravenous line. Pike’s lawyer Randy Spivey says Tennessee has again demonstrated it is unable to carry out an execution with 'basic human dignity'

• Tennessee suspends executions as Christa Pike’s lawyer says failed lethal injection leaves her in critical condition

• Christa Pike: what we know so far about Tennessee woman’s failed execution

New York attorney general brought in by governor after recent questions raised over university’s 2024 investigation

Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, said on Thursday she is appointing Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, as special prosecutor to investigate the alleged gang-rape at Cornell University.

“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” Hochul said in a statement. “This action will ensure that the matter is fully and thoroughly investigated without conflict or bias, and handled independently with the rigor that this matter demands.”

Shoppers and vendors in Aspen surprised by unusual customer as it stretched to sample stall offerings

Farmers’ market shoppers might not usually pay much attention to the local resident devouring fresh bread and pastries at one of the stalls with extra gusto – but some certainly did last weekend when they realized it was a hungry bear.

Onlookers on Saturday reached for their phones to take photos and videos of the bear in downtown Aspen, Colorado, after it wandered through the stalls and got up on to its hind legs to dig into the baked goods.