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Heavy crowds gathered along the lakefront tonight, filling between Buckingham Fountain and Lake Shore Drive in Grant Park, in anticipation for an early Fourth of July fireworks display over the lake and Navy Pier.

An estimated 1.25 million people have passed through the downtown area today for the holiday weekend festivities, said Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor's Office of Special Events. She said close to a million people are on or near the lakefront tonight to watch the fireworks display.

Crowds converge along Chicago's lakefront  for 3rd of July fireworks (Tribune / Antonio Perez)

Hundreds of police officers were scattered throughout Grant Park for the Taste of Chicago and in the vicinity of the fountain--many of them on horses, Segways and all-terrain vehicles.

Police arreste...

A death investigation was underway this evening after an unidentified person's body was found, apparently burned, at a Southwest Side residence, officials said.

Chicago police received a call about an incident at the residence in the 5000 block of South Talman Avenue in the Gage Park neighborhood.

Police and fire officials could not release further details about the incident, other than that the site of the incident was a crime scene.

A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office had no information about the body this evening.

--Staff report

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A man was in critical condition after being shot in the torso in the South Lawndale neighborhood tonight, according to Chicago Police.

Police found a man in his 20s in an alley on the 2800 block of West 25th Street.

Details were sketchy, but police said the shooting occurred about 6:25 p.m. The man was taken to Mt Sinai Hospital.

No one was in custody as of about 7:50 p.m., according spokesman at Police News Affairs.

--Caroline K. Smith

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The Independence Day holiday marked a special weekend for a New Lenox family, who welcomed Lt. Charles Loverude to his first visit home since being deployed to Iraq a year ago.

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A Chicago police officer shot and killed a 16-year-old boy Thursday night when the teen pointed a handgun at an officer during a foot chase in the Lawndale neighborhood, authorities said.

The teen was identified as Rakeem Nance, of the 1900 block of South Troy Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy found Nance received one gunshot wound in the right lower back in a homicide, a spokesman for the office said.

The shooting occurred at about 9:15 p.m. in the 1900 block of South Christiana Avenue on the West Side after the teen and two other people were involved in a home invasion nearby, according to police.

Officers from the police mobile strike team force were patrolling the area when they saw the three running across a vacant lot in the 1900 block of South Spaulding, police said. One of them was wearing a mask and holding a gun, police said. The three were carrying what was later determined to be items from a home i...

An unidentified man robbed a Lincoln Park bank late this morning, Chicago police said.

The robbery took place at a North Community Bank branch, 2335 N. Clark St., about 11:40 a.m., said Officer John Mirabelli, a police spokesman. No one was hurt.

The man entered the bank, handed a teller a note indicating a demand for money and implied he was armed with a weapon, Mirabelli said. The teller handed over an unspecified amount of money to the man, who then fled from the bank.

Police could only provide a vague description of the man, who had a goatee and was wearing dark sunglasses. No one was in custody as of early this evening.

--Staff report

Twelve alleged Serbian Muslim radicals are jailed for up to 13 years for plotting attacks.

Dutch forces in Afghanistan set a rare example...