World IN BRIEF : CANADA : Police Admit Sob Story Was a Hoax

Toronto police admitted that they fell hard for a woman’s false tale of tragedy, helping to drum up about $83,000 in donations. Donna Glenda Mercier, 27, was charged with public mischief--her second such charge--for allegedly making up a story of being a fatally ill victim of a purse-snatching in Canada’s largest city. Her lawyer says she will plead innocent. Authorities said an investigation will be conducted on how she persuaded officers and detectives that she had lost all her money, medication and a plane ticket to be used to send her 7-year-old son to a relative after she died of her illness.