Briefly... CITY/REGION

Cops, feds seek bank robber

The FBI and Philadelphia police are looking for a man in a blue hoodie who held up the Beneficial Bank at 826 E. Allegheny Ave. yesterday afternoon.

Authorities said the man, described as white, about 5 feet 7, with scruffy facial hair, handed a teller a threatening demand note shortly after 4 p.m. and fled with an undisclosed sum of cash.

Anyone with information about his identity should call the FBI at 215-418-4000, or 9-1-1.

Alleged shooter ID'd

The man accused of shooting a woman for sitting on his car Sunday afternoon in Spring Garden has been identified as Neoma Mayes, 59, of Marshall Street near Green. He has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and related offenses. The shooting happened about 1 p.m. on Green Street near 7th. The 22-year-old woman was in stable condition at Hahnemann University Hospital, police said yesterday.

Accused ear-cropper arrested

Pennsylvania SPCA law-enforcement officers raided a house on Judson Street near Clearfield, Kensington, following an investigation of illegal ear cropping. Officers went to the property and, once inside the home, found four dogs, all with recently clipped ears. The owner of the property was arrested on the first-degree-misdemeanor charge of mutilation and disfigurement of an animal.

New U.S. attorney sworn in

Zane Memeger, the new U.S. attorney for southeastern Pennsylvania, was sworn in yesterday and immediately got down to work. Memeger, 45, of Swarthmore - who served as an assistant U.S. attorney from May 1995 to September 2006 - named his top deputies: Louis Lappen, as first assistant, and Virginia Gibson, as executive assistant.

Driver dies in Chester crash

An 18-year-old motorist was killed Sunday night and four others in her car were injured when she lost control of her vehicle in Chester, police said. Police said Lanita Droz was driving on 2nd Street near Ulrich about 10 p.m., when her car struck a pole, then a parked tractor-trailer. Droz was pronounced dead at the scene. Her four passengers were taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

Iran permits visits with 'spies'

Iran will allow the mothers of three Americans arrested along the Iraqi border in July to visit them in a Tehran prison, the foreign minister announced yesterday. Josh Fattal, of Elkins Park, is among those charged with illegal border-crossing, spying and having links to U.S. intelligence

- Staff and wire reports