A 55-year-old Meriden woman who was hit by a car at Town Line Plaza in Rocky Hill on Wednesday is has died, according to police.

Police identified the woman as Sandra Scully, 55, of Meriden.

Pickup hit her in front of the Stop & Shop in the plaza at 80 Town Line Road and pinned her under the rear tire, police said.

Firefighters extricated Scully and she was transported to Hartford Hospital, where she later died, police said.

The driver is cooperating with police and no charges have been filed. Police said the investigation is active and ongoing.

Anyone with information should call  Rocky Hill Police Detective Peter Vanturas at 860-258-7640.

The attackers behind the Brussels bombing on March 22 initially planned to launch a second assault on France, Belgium's prosecutor said Sunday, NBC News reported.

But the perpetrators were "surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation" and decided to hasten an attack on Brussels instead, his office said in a statement. It didn't provide any details on the initial plot or its targets and the office couldn't immediately be reached for further comment.

The revelation came as the prosecutor formally charged Mohamed Abrini with "terrorist murders" and participation in a terror group with regard to the attacks at Brussels Airport and a train station that left 32 people dead.

Abrini was initially sought, arrested and charged in relation to the November 2015 terror spree in Paris, which left 130 people dead.

Waterbury Police have arrested a suspect in the murder of a man at a local bar on Saturday. 

Police said Harry Mendoza, 35, was involved in an altercation with a group of men at Bobby's D bar on Whitewood Road around 2 a.m. and was shot in his chest and thigh.

He was transported to Waterbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:30 a.m.

On Sunday, police said they obtained an arrest warrant for Luis Castro, 47, and he has been charged with murder, first-degree reckless endangerment and illegal discharge of a firearm.

In his first Sunday show interview since taking on an expanded role in Donald Trump's campaign, Paul Manafort alleged Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign is "not playing by the rules" to secure delegates.

Asked by "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd whether threatening delegates is fair game, Manafort said it wasn't Trump's style, "but it's Ted Cruz's style."

Manafort called the Cruz campaign's methods "Gestapo tactics, scorched-earth tactics."

He did not back up his accusations with specific incidents but said, "We're going to be filing several protests because reality is, you know, they are not playing by the rules."

NBC News has reached out to the Cruz campaign for a response.

Dangerous storms were expected to hit the Plains and the South Sunday, as people in parts of the Northeast dealt with record-breaking low temperatures, NBC News reported. 

Thunderstorms brought large hail to northwest Texas on Sunday and downpours and gusty winds are expected in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, according to the Weather Channel. 

Temperatures in the East will stay below normal Sunday night, with some areas seeing below-freezing temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.

A significant, long-lasting warm-up in the east isn't expected until next weekend, according to The Weather Channel.

Torrington police are investigating a serious crash involving a motorcycle and a Ford Escape.

Police say they responded around 4:05 p.m. to the intersection of Highland Avenue and Birden Street. According to police the driver of the Ford was attempting to pull out of Birden Street onto Highland Avenue and collided with the motorcycle, which was traveling west on Highland Avenue. The motorcycle struck the driver’s side rear door of the Ford. There was extensive damage to both vehicles.

The male operator of the motocycle was transported to Charlotte Hungerford Hopsital then airlifted by LifeStar helicopter to Hartford Hospital with life-threatening injuries. His condition is not known at this time. Police say it appears he was not wearing a helmet.

The driver and a passenger of the Ford were treated and released from Charlotte Hungerford Hospital.

The identities of those involved have not been released at this time.

Highland Avenue was closed for several hours while police investigated. As of 9 p.m. it has reopened.

Two people were injured Sunday evening when their small plane crashed on a residential street in a Long Island community.

The single-engine aircraft, a Piper 28, went down at about 7 p.m. in Bayport in Suffolk County shortly after taking off from a nearby airport, authorities said. 

The pilot, 34-year-old Scott Clifford, was hospitalized in serious condition with two leg fractures and a head injury, said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini.

A passenger, Michael Rome, 65, was also injured, but there was no information available about the extent of his injury.

The plane clipped a tree and a utility pole and crashed at the intersection of Second Street and Third Avenue, Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter told news reporters.

The plane experienced engine failure and was attempting to return to the Bayport Aerodrome, she said.

Approximately 250 houses and businesses briefly lost electric power after the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board will determine the cause of the crash.

The body of a woman, whose 2-year-old daughter is missing, was found in a San Francisco park, sources say.

Nicole Fitts was last seen April 1 and reported missing four days later, police said. She was found slain Friday in John McLaren Park, the city’s second-largest park, sources close to the investigation told NBC Bay Area.

San Francisco police have enlisted the public’s help in finding the homicide victim’s child, Arianna. They have also expanded their search to the Los Angeles area. 

Speaking at a news conference Saturday, police spokeswoman Grace Gatpandan said Arianna was last seen in late February by someone other than her mother. It was not immediately clear who that person is. 

The child is “considered 'at risk' due to her young age, and because police suspect foul play in her disappearance,” Gatpandan said.

On Sunday, Nicole's sister, Contessa Fitts, said she is hopeful her niece will be found. 

Contessa Fitts said San Francisco police haven't told her much about what happened to her sister, but added that she knows they are doing everything they can to locate Arianna.

"It's rough,'' she told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The thing that is keeping me going is that we're going to find Arianna. I have to keep finding information.''

The two sisters kept in touch and despite living in different cities, would get together about once a month, Contessa Fitts said. She described Nicole as a cheerful and pleasant person.

Nicole Fitts, who went by Nikki, most recently lived in San Francisco and worked at a Best Buy store, her sister said. The SoMa store on Harrison Street is less than five miles north of McLaren Park. 

"None of this makes sense,'' Michael Jacobo, Nicole's friend and co-worker, told the newspaper. "She was one of the kindest people you would ever meet. She always had a smile on her face. It always stuck with me how kind and shy she was.'' 

The manager said employees close to Fitts were sent home today.

Some co-workers wrote on Facebook that they are “devastated,” “broke down crying,” and “yesterday was Nicole’s one-year anniversary” at the store.

To them, Fitts was like family.

Best Buy officials also released a statement, which said in part, “We are saddened by the news and our thoughts go out to Nicole’s loved ones and pray her daughter is found safely.”

The mother-daughter duo were known to frequently visit San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Oakland, Emeryville and other California cities, according to Gatpandan.

"The more people that are aware of her, the better,” she stressed.

Due to the sensitive nature of this investigation, police said they can't disclose any other details about the killing or any other circumstances of the case.

Anyone who sees Arianna is asked to immediately call 911.

Check back for updates.

The CIA will not engage in harsh "enhanced interrogation" practices, including waterboarding — even if ordered by a future president, the agency’s director John Brennan told NBC News in an exclusive interview.

"I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure," Brennan said.

Two of the remaining Republican candidates for president have said they are open to using the technique, which critics have called torture. Donald Trump said he would bring it back to extract information from potential terrorists, while Ted Cruz said he doesn’t consider the technique to be torture under the strict definition of the law.

The CIA used waterboarding and other techniques on terrorist suspects after 9/11, but President Obama banned the practices in 2009 with an executive order.

A tight-knit community in California's San Fernando Valley was angry after officers found a dead horse tied to a pole in a Sylmar road Saturday morning.

The area is filled with riding trails, stables and equestrian centers, and many who are a part of this community were shocked after the horse was found beaten, bloody and shot in the 11700 block of Kagel Canyon Road.

"They tied the rope to the tail and tied that rope to the telephone pole and drove off with the truck or the trailer," said LAPD Detective Eric Bixler.

The horse was found either shot and beaten or both, police said. It was unknown whether the incident occurred elsewhere and then the animal was left for dead in the Sylmar street.

"It's appalling that something like that would happen, and that somebody would be that demented," said horse trainer Tommy Lowe.

Lowe said he found it unimaginable anyone would intentionally harm a horse and has never heard of a case like this.

Gail Ellis' daughter owns Haley Farms, a 5-acre horse training facility in Lake View Terrace. She said whoever owned the horse should have reached out for help if they couldn't care for it any longer. She said there are other options, such as the nonprofit Forgotten Horses Rescue in Menifee.

LAPD Animal Cruelty Task Force was investigating the case. Police said there is evidence they think will lead to an arrest but did not provide any details.

The horse was not being housed in the area.

The horse was taken to San Bernardino for a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

As she turns 100, the feisty and witty author Beverly Cleary remembers the Oregon childhood that inspired the likes of characters Ramona and Beezus Quimby and Henry Huggins in the children's books that sold millions and enthralled generations of youngsters.

"I was a well-behaved little girl, not that I wanted to be," she said. "At the age of Ramona, in those days, children played outside. We played hopscotch and jump rope and I loved them and always had scraped knees."

Ramona, perhaps her best-known character, made her debut in "Henry Huggins" with only a brief mention. But that changed soon.

"All the children appeared to be only children so I tossed in a little sister and she didn't go away. She kept appearing in every book," she said in a telephone interview from her Carmel, California home. Cleary herself was an only child.

Her birthday on Tuesday will be marked with a slice of carrot cake at her retirement home, where they'll show the movie "Discovering Beverly Cleary: An Oregon Art Beat." The documentary not only marks her 100th birthday but it also examines her Oregon roots, and the impact of her work.

She hasn't seen the film yet, but is quick to point out, "I think I'm much better looking in my photograph."

She's also been known to joke that she doesn't look a day over 80.

Cleary, who started writing in her 30s, doesn't write anymore because she feels "it's important for writers to know when to quit."

"I even got rid of my typewriter. It was a nice one but I hate to type. When I started writing I found that I was thinking more about my typing than what I was going to say, so I wrote it long hand."

Although she hung up her pen, Cleary re-released three of her most cherished books with three famous fans writing forewords for the new editions.

Actress Amy Poehler penned the front section of "Ramona Quimby, Age 8;" Kate DiCamillo wrote the opening for "The Mouse and the Motorcycle;" and fellow author, Judy Blume, wrote the foreword for "Henry Huggins."

Trained as a librarian, Clearly first wrote "Henry Huggins," published in 1950. Millions came to love the adventures of Huggins and neighbors Ellen Tebbits, Otis Spofford, Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby and her younger sister, Ramona. They inhabit a down-home, wholesome setting on Klickitat Street — a real street in Portland, Oregon, the city where Cleary spent much of her youth.

The Ramona character developed over time as Cleary thought of new stories for the young characters. In all, there were eight books on Ramona between "Beezus and Ramona" in 1955 and "Ramona's World," Cleary's last book, in 1999. Others included "Ramona the Pest" and "Ramona and Her Father."

In 2003, she was chosen as one of the winners of the National Medal of Arts and met President George W. Bush. She is lauded in literary circles far and wide.

"A career that spans two centuries. A voice that children adore, listen to, and are comforted by. An imagination that has been alive and well for 100 years. Bev Cleary is clearly an icon -- not just to kids but to writers like me who love seeing the smiles on the faces of youngsters who read our books instead of burying those faces in digital dumpsters," said children's author Howard Eisenberg, 89.

At the New York Public Library, Anna Taylor, coordinator of Children's Educational Programming, is collecting 100 stories from patrons and librarians about why they love Cleary.

Taylor has her own reason, too.

"One thing that is great about her books is they are a joy to read aloud. Every time I've read a Beverly Cleary aloud, (the youngsters) just don't want me to stop. I think it's because Ramona and her friends feel like your sister, or yourself or your friends. You can kind of see yourself in the story really easily," Taylor said.

Cleary was born on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon, and lived on a farm in Yamhill until her family moved to Portland when she was school-age. She was a slow reader, which she blamed on illness and a mean-spirited first-grade teacher who disciplined her by snapping a steel-tipped pointer across the back of her hands.

But by sixth or seventh grade, "I decided that I was going to write children's stories," she said.

Cleary graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where she met her husband, Clarence. They married in 1940; He died in 2004. They were the parents of twins, a boy and a girl born in 1955 who inspired her book "Mitch and Amy."

Her days are quiet now, reading, doing crossword puzzles and visiting with family. "I don't encourage visitors, my family is enough," she said.

She said her health is good. "I'm hanging in there, a few aches and pains."

Asked her secret to living to be 100, the dry wit is evident again.

"I didn't do it on purpose," she said.

Three people have been sent to the hospital after a shooting outside a Meriden sports bar early Sunday morning.

Police responded to the "Noiise" sports bar, at the corner of Lewis and Springdale avenues, at 1:55 a.m. after receiving several 911 calls about gunshots and found two men and a woman had been shot.

An ambulance brought one man to a trauma hospital, while Lifestar transported the other man.

Police said the female victim had been shot in the leg and was also taken to a hospital.

Police also found another woman at the scene and initially thought she'd been shot, but determined she had injured her foot.

The shooter was gone by the time police arrived and investigators do not believe this was a random act. They said there is no danger to the public.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call detective John Wagner at (203) 630-6334.

Thousands of UConn Huskies fans turned out in Hartford on Sunday afternoon to celebrate the UConn women’s basketball team, which made history by winning a fourth consecutive national title and the 11th national title overall.

Police estimate around 20,000 fans attended.

People dressed in UConn gear and holding signs lined Trinity, Jewell, Asylum and Trumbull streets and gathered for a rally after the parade, where the confetti filled the air and the seniors on the team thanked the crowd for being there and sending them off in a celebratory way.

"It's been an amazing four years here for me. I could never imagine that I would come to Connecticut and actually win four in a row. It's always been a goal, but to accomplish it with you guys has been amazing," Moriah Jefferson said.

The drew applause from the crowd.

Breanna Stewart, who won the John R. Wooden Award as one of the national college basketball players of the year on Friday night, thanked everyone for making the trip to celebrate with the team, especially on a day that was a bit cool for April.

 "Once a Husky, always a Husky," she said, which prompted a UConn cheer. 

Head Coach Geno Auriemma was not able to attend the event because he is sick, so associate head coach Chris Dailey spoke on his behalf and thanked everyone who supported the team and the parade.

 "We're just really appreciative of the fans and the support," she said.

In a bid to introduce its people to the world, Sweden's Tourist Association set up "The Swedish Number." The idea is that anyone can call up and they'll be put through to "a random Swede," or at least one who has downloaded The Swedish Number app, NBC News reported. 

The project was set up to celebrate 250 years since Sweden became the first country to constitutionally abolish censorship. More than 11,000 people have called since it was launched Wednesday, some 35 percent of them from the United States.

In a bid to find out more about this Scandinavian country, NBC News called five people on Friday and — bearing in mind the small and completely random sample size — chatted about Swedish life and the country's links with the U.S.

During their conversations, NBC News talked with Swedes about topics ranging from ABBA, the Kardashians and Donald Trump. 

Jury selection has began Monday in the case of a Georgia man who was charged in June 2014 with murdering his toddler son, NBC News reported.

Justin Harris' son, Cooper, was left buckled into the backseat of the family's SUV for seven hours on a day when temperatures soared to nearly 90 degrees. An autopsy found that the boy died of hyperthermia.

Soon after Harris was charged, conflicting depictions of him arose — including that he supposedly lived a double life.

Authorities said Harris, who owed $4,000 in credit card debt, had asked relatives how to cash in two life insurance policies — one for $2,000, the other for $25,000 — that he and his wife had taken out on Cooper. 

At the same time, a petition supporting Harris appeared on Change.org, saying the toddler's death was "a horrible accident."

A 20-year-old Oakdale woman is in critical condition after she hit a stone wall and a tree in Ledyard on Sunday night.

Ledyard police responded to 961 Colonel Ledyard Highway – or Route 117 -- just before 9:45 p.m. and found 20-year-old Elizabeth Davis, of Oakdale, had been thrown from her car.

Investigators determined that she lost control of her car while heading northbound on Route 117, went through the southbound lane and hit a stone wall and a tree.

LifeStar responded and flew Davis to Hartford Hospital, where she is in critical condition, according to a news release from police.

Route 117 was closed between Thomas and Spicer Hill roads for around two and a half hours as police investigated.

The road reopened at 1:15 a.m.

After federal prosecutors alleged numerous sexual encounters with young men who had once wrestled on teams Dennis Hastert coached, the disgraced former House Speaker's attorney apologized on his behalf in a statement Saturday afternoon. 

"Hastert acknowledges that as a young man he committed transgressions for which he is profoundly sorry," said attorney Thomas Green in a statement. "He earnestly apologizes to his former students, family, friends, previous constituents and all others affected by the harm his actions have caused."

Federal prosecutors confirmed for the first time Friday allegations that Hastert paid hush money to cover up the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old student decades ago, and alleged that he abused at least four victims. 

"These known acts consist of the defendant’s intentional touching of minors' groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor," they wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Friday evening. "The actions at the core of this case took place not on the defendant’s national stage, but in his private one-on-one encounters in an empty locker room and a motel room with minors, that violated the special trust between those young boys and their coach."

Prosecutors said Hastert had aroused the suspicion of his banks with large cash withdrawals in early 2012. When confronted by bank officials, Hastert gave conflicting reasons, including a contention that he collected vintage cars and needed the cash for purchases. But after bank officials informed Hastert that they were going to close his accounts due to the unusual withdrawals, the matter eventually came to the attention of the FBI.

"Law enforcement was concerned that defendant’s large and unusual cash withdrawals could be indicative of other criminal activity of which [Hastert] was either a perpetrator or the victim," they wrote. "By December 2014… defendant had withdrawn a total of $1.7 million in cash in approximately four and a half years."

When they approached him that month, FBI agents said Hastert told them he was withdrawing the money because he "did not think the banks were safe." But shortly after that, defense lawyers contacted the government and said the former speaker had been the victim of an extortion plot, involving a false claim made by a former student identified as Individual A.

Hastert agreed to record conversations with Individual A. But during the course of those conversations, the FBI said the stories did not seem to add up, and that Individual A did not speak as a person who was extorting the former speaker at all.

In March 2015, agents confronted Individual A directly, and he quickly described an incident where he said it was he who had been a victim.

The incident in question occurred on a school wrestling trip, where Hastert, then the Yorkville coach, allegedly insisted that the boy stay in his hotel room.

"Defendant told Individual A to lie down on the bed and take off his underwear," prosecutors wrote. "Defendant than began massaging Individual A’s groin area. It became clear to Individual A that defendant was not touching him in a therapeutic manner to address a wrestling injury, but was touching him in a sexually inappropriate way."

The boy, now a young man, told agents that he slept in the same bed with Hastert that night, but that he refused to stay in his room the following evening.

He admitted, agents said, that when he approached Hastert in 2010, he demanded $3.5 million "for what defendant had done to him." The first payment was made at Hastert’s Yorkville office, he said, with other $50,000 payments occurring every few months in the parking lot of a Yorkville store. Later, they changed that arrangement to payments of $100,000 every three months.

The government filing speaks of other young men who were allegedly abused by Hastert. One, identified as Individual B, said Hastert performed a sex act on him in a locker room at Yorkville High School when he was just 14 years old. Another, identified as Individual D, said Hastert put a "Lazyboy"-type chair in direct view of the shower stalls where he sat while the boys showered. The boy said Hastert performed a sex act on him when he was 17.

Another, identified as Individual C, says Hastert brushed his genitals during a massage.

The document also quotes a woman named Jolene Burdge, who says her late brother, Stephen Reinboldt, told her that Hastert had sexually abused him throughout his high school years from 1967 to 1971.

"Burdge asked her brother why he never told anyone about the abuse during high school," prosecutors wrote. "Reinboldt said that he had no one to turn to, and did not think anyone would believe him."

The government noted that Hastert made a decision to run for public office in October 1979, and that his sexual abuse of boys on his team was still occurring at the time he made the decision to enter public life.

"Defendant spent years violating banking laws of which he was fully aware in order to keep secret his sexual abuse of wrestling team members," the filing states. "Defendant’s history and characteristics are marred by stunning hypocrisy."

Prosecutors agreed with the defense, that the guideline range for Hastert’s financial offenses called for a sentence of between zero and six months. But they urged the judge to take into account the gravity of his crimes, and to send a message that a wealthy and powerful person who held high office is subject to the same penalties as an ordinary citizen.

"He made [the victims] feel alone, ashamed, guilty, and devoid of dignity," they wrote. "It is profoundly sad that one of their earliest sexual experiences was in the form of abuse by a man whom they trusted, and whom they revered as a mentor and coach."

The Boston Red Sox asked their fans to imagine a world without David Ortiz, then spent the rest of a pregame ceremony reminding the city what he has meant to the franchise.

Baltimore Orioles won 9-7 against Boston in Red Sox home opener.

Opening the festivities with John Lennon's "Imagine" accompanying highlights from Ortiz's career, the Red Sox celebrated their retiring designated hitter before Monday's home opener.

Ortiz received a standing ovation when he was introduced before the game, with the public address announcer commending his "unforgettable and unrepeatable oratory" after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that was followed by the franchise's third title in the Ortiz era.

Ortiz then stood along the first-base line while his 15-year-old daughter, Alex, sang the national anthem.

Hall of Famers Bobby Orr and Bill Russell, along with Patriots defensive back Ty Law, shared the pitcher's mound with Ortiz for the first pitch. Then former teammates Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek joined him to shout the ceremonial "Play Ball!"

"His only emotion that we've seen is a laugh, a congratulatory high-five when somebody else does well," manager John Farrell said before the ceremony. "Nothing else changes, as far as David's approach to the game."

Ortiz lined an RBI single off the left-field wall in his first at-bat and flied out to right in his second.

After finishing last for the third time in four seasons, the Red Sox returned to Fenway Park on Monday after starting the season with three wins, two losses and a rainout on a season-opening trip to Cleveland and Toronto. Because of the rain, new acquisition David Price was pushed back in the rotation to start the home opener.

Price was greeted with cheers, but 2015 free agent Pablo Sandoval was booed when he was introduced. Sandoval, who signed a $95 million, five-year contract before the 2015 season, lost his third base job this spring to Travis Shaw, who made his big league debut last May.

Fans had a better reception for Farrell, who missed the final six weeks of last season after being diagnosed with cancer. Farrell's doctors declared him cancer-free during the winter.

The team also observed a moment of silence for members of the organization who died over the offseason, including longtime third baseman and coach Frank Malzone and outfielder Dave Henderson, whose two-out, two-strike homer in the deciding game of the 1986 AL Championship Series sent the Red Sox to the World Series.

A Branford man who reported a burglary in his apartment was arrested when police found marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and what appeared to be crystal meth, according to police.

Taylor Sapiente, 22, of East Main Street in Branford, called police around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday to report a burglary at his apartment and officers who responded noticed the “overwhelming smell of marijuana” was emanating from the apartment, police said.

Police detained Sapiente because of the marijuana smell and detectives applied for a warrant to search his apartment.

They said they found marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms, hash oil, drug paraphernalia, a crystal substance believed to be methamphetamine and $3,900 in cash.

Sapiente was charged with sale or possession of narcotics with intent to sell, sale or possession of marijuana, operating a drug factory and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was held on a $50,000 bond and is due in New Haven Court today.

It’s not clear if he has an attorney.

A U.S. Navy officer faces multiple charges of espionage related to America's national security, NBC News reported. 

The Navy charge sheet redacts the suspect's identity and other details, but Reuters and the U.S. Naval Institute identified the accused as Lt. Cmdr. Edward Lin. NBC News was not immediately able to verify those reports. 

He's accused of communicating "secret information relating to the national defense [of the U.S.] to a representative of a foreign government." Officials said he was spying for China or Taiwan, NBC News' Pete Williams reported. 

According to an interview on the Navy's official website, Lin was born in Taiwan and came to the U.S. aged 14 before becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen.