Officer saves transplant:

DENVER, Pa. — A police officer responding to a crash wound up driving a surgeon, an assistant and a donated liver to a Philadelphia hospital for an emergency transplant. East Cocalico Township police Sgt. Darrick Keppley says he came upon a disabled vehicle Saturday afternoon that had skidded off the icy road. The team was transporting a liver from York to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where a patient already was in the operating room. Keppley says he offered to help. The doctor and assistant piled into his vehicle, he switched on his lights and sirens and navigated the snowy 60 miles east to Philadelphia. The surgeon told the York Daily Record the transplant went “very, very well.”

Texas carries out execution:

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Texas on Wednesday put to death an inmate convicted of killing two men over a drug deal, the first U.S. execution of 2017. Christopher Wilkins, 48, was declared dead at 6:29 p.m., 13 minutes after a lethal injection of pentobarbital. Before the drug was administered, he twice mouthed “I’m sorry,” to two relatives of one of the murder victims as they watched through a window. He gave no final statement. Wilkins had explained to jurors at his capital murder trial in 2008 how and why he killed his friends in Fort Worth three years earlier, saying he didn’t care if they sentenced him to death.

Park settles with boys family:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The family of a Kansas lawmaker’s 10-year-old son killed last summer on what was billed as the world’s tallest water slide reached a settlement Wednesday with the park’s owner and the raft’s manufacturer. Terms of the deal filed in Kansas’ Johnson County District Court involving Caleb Schwab’s family were not released. Messages left by The Associated Press with one of the family’s attorneys, Michael Rader, and with Caleb’s father, Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab, were not immediately returned. “The Schwab family remains determined to hold all those responsible for this tragedy accountable, while doing all they can to ensure this never happens again to another family,” the family’s attorneys said in an emailed statement later Wednesday, adding that “in the near future we will be allowed to disclose further specifics regarding the settlement.” A spokeswoman for Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, Winter Prosapio, confirmed the settlement, which was first reported by The Kansas City Star. But she declined to elaborate, other than to say the park’s owners plan to follow through on permanently removing the slide from its 168-foot tower as announced in November.

Iceland may renew EU bid:

LONDON — Iceland got a new, Pirate Party-free government on Wednesday, almost three months after an election that produced no outright winner. The center-right Independence Party, which won the largest share of seats, formed a coalition with the smaller Reform and Bright Future parties. Together the three parties hold the slimmest of majorities — 32 of the 63 seats in parliament. Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson has been named prime minister in the new administration. Benediktsson has said the government would give parliament a vote on whether to restart EU entry talks. Iceland applied for membership in 2009, as it reeled from the collapse of its banks and the economy, but withdrew its bid in 2015.

Italian premier hospitalized:

ROME — Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni was in good condition Wednesday after he was hospitalized with a heart problem upon his return from a bilateral meeting in Paris. The 62-year-old underwent surgery Tuesday evening to insert a stent into a heart vessel to treat a blockage, Rome’s Gemelli hospital said in a bulletin. It said the procedure was a success. Gentiloni, formerly Italy’s foreign minister, took over as premier last month after the previous government resigned.

Keep killer in isolation?

SKIEN, Norway — Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a 2011 rampage, is in touch with fellow right-wing extremists from behind bars, a government attorney said Wednesday, arguing that Breivik must be held in solitary confinement. Attorney General Fredrik Sejersted spoke during the Norwegian government’s appeal of a court ruling that Breivik’s isolation in prison violated his human rights.