The U.S. State Department says an American pastor who has been jailed in Iran since September has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Spokesman Darby Holladay said Sunday that the department is calling on Iran to respect Saeed Abedini’s human rights and release him.

Earlier this month Iran’s semi-official news agency, ISNA, quoted Abedini’s attorney as saying his client stood trial in the Revolutionary Court on charges of attempting to undermine state security by creating a network of Christian churches in private homes.

The pastor, who is of Iranian origin but lives in Boise, Idaho, has rejected the charges.

Holladay says the State Department is in close contact with Abedini’s family and actively engaged in the case.

The agency says it condemns Iran’s continued violation of the universal right of freedom of religion.

Authorities have released the names of a woman who was killed and a man who was injured in a northeast Omaha crash.

Omaha police identified the dead woman as 32-year-old Jessica Stanley. The injured man was identified as 33-year-old Harry Stanley. Both were from Omaha.

Police say a witness reported that Stanley was driving west and fast on Hamilton Street around 4:30 a.m. Sunday when the car went into a slide. It crossed the eastbound lane, left the roadway and struck two trees.

Police say Jessica Stanley died at the scene. Harry Stanley suffered a fractured neck, an arm fracture and has a brain bleed.

Police didn’t immediately say how or whether the Stanleys were related.

Authorities are investigating the shooting deaths of five people in a single day of bloodshed in Chicago.

Police Officer Daniel O’Brien says Saturday’s first killing occurred at around 2:15 a.m. on the city’s west side when a gunman opened fire on two men who were sitting in a parked car, killing one and wounding the other.

Investigators say a few hours later, someone opened fire on three men near a South Side eatery, killing two of them and wounding the third.

Detectives were called to the scene of another shooting Saturday afternoon in which a man in his 30s and a teenager were shot to death. There had been no arrests.

Chicago’s homicide count eclipsed 500 last year for the first time since 2008.

This will make your skin crawl!

Pest control firm Orkin says Omaha is one of the places where it did the most bedbug treatments last year.

Omaha ranks 17th on Orkin’s latest bedbug list. Nebraska’s largest city moved up from 28 in the previous list.

Chicago was ranked number one.

Orkin says its bedbug rankings are based on the number of bedbug treatments the company’s technicians performed in each city during 2012.

As bedbugs have made their resurgence, Orkin says the number of treatments it did for the pest surged nearly 33 percent in 2012 over the previous year.

Police have cited a Lincoln man on suspicion of practicing law without a law license.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that police cited Clinton Brooks Jr. with the misdemeanor on Thursday. Brooks, who is not a licensed attorney in Nebraska, is accused of accepting money to file a divorce and child custody case, then failing to do so.

Lincoln Police Capt. Danny Reitan says the client demanded the money back, but Brooks refused to refund it.

The client then took his legal issues to a licensed attorney, who notified the Nebraska State Bar Association.

An Omaha man has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in a fatal botched robbery.

Omaha media that 23-year-old Marqus Patton, one of five people charged in the July 2011 shooting death of Kris Winters, was sentenced Friday in Douglas County District Court.

Winters was killed during the robbery attempt at his home. Patton was one of four men involved in the robbery in which a teen girl was sent to pose as a marijuana customer before the robbery.

Nicholas Ely and Ryan Elseman also have received a life sentences for their roles.

Two others, Drake Northrop and Emily Gusman, testified for prosecutors and will face lesser sentences.

A 28-year-old Columbus man accused of kicking his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son when the boy opened some gifts before Christmas will stand trial as a habitual criminal.

The Associated Press reports that Nathan Brokaw is set to stand trial on April 1 on charges of felony child abuse and being a habitual criminal for previous drug, theft and burglary convictions.

Last month, a day care operator contacted police when the boy showed up with injuries to the left side of his face and to his neck. An affidavit says the boy told a Columbus Police officer that he’d been kicked by Brokaw when his mother wasn’t in the room.