Midday Roundup: Officer staged suicide to look like a hero's death

Elaborate cover-up. The death of a police officer whose shooting set off a massive manhunt in the Chicago area was actually a carefully planned suicide, police said today. The day of his death two months ago, Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, 52, radioed in that he was pursuing three suspects on foot. He requested backup, then stopped communicating. He was found dead with gunshot wounds to his torso. A search for the suspects Gliniewicz had been chasing turned up nothing. Police announced today Gliniewicz staged his suicide to look like he was killed in the line of duty. Gliniewicz was embezzling funds from a police department youth mentoring program and was on the verge of getting caught, police said.

Unfriendly skies. Investigators today are analyzing the black boxes from a Russian jet that crashed over Egypt on Saturday, looking for more clues into its mysterious demise. The latest speculation involves damage to the aircraft’s tail during a hard landing in Cairo in 2001. The plane was repaired, and it has passed all safety inspections since then. The widespread debris field points to the plane breaking apart high in the air, which could have been caused by a mechanical issue with the tail or another part of the aircraft. The United Kingdom suspended flights to and from the Sinai Peninsula today over concerns an onboard bomb brought down the flight. Meanwhile, investigators are probing another air disaster after an overloaded, Russian-built cargo plane crashed along the Nile River in South Sudan earlier today.

Momentous meet-up. The leaders of China and Taiwan announced Tuesday they will meet face-to-face for the first time since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. At the end of the war, Chinese ruler Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island of Taiwan to escape Mao Zedong’s communists. Since then, the Democratic Taiwan has existed in political limbo, not completely independent from or dependent on China. As Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou plan their meeting, which will take place in Singapore this weekend, candidates in Taiwan are campaigning for an upcoming election that will serve as a referendum on China-Taiwan relations. One party favors increasing economic ties with China, while the other mistrusts the mainland and its influence.

Bad burritos. An E. coli outbreak at Chipotle restaurants in the Pacific Northwest has sickened 37 people and forced the burrito chain to close 43 restaurants. Health officials suspect fresh produce used in the stores caused the outbreak. Chipotle uses computer tracking to trace all its supplies from farms to restaurants, making it much easier for investigators to find the source of the bacteria. The restaurants can reopen once the source of the contamination has been pinpointed, officials said.

Party politics. Republicans held onto their majority in the Virginia state Senate in Tuesday’s elections, forcing Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe to keep working with a GOP-led legislature. McAuliffe predicted his party would win control of the Senate and be able to push through reforms, including gun control and highway tolls. Democrats occupy all the statewide elected offices in Virginia, but the conservative legislature has hampered the implementation of their liberal agenda.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.