Unanswered questions loom after alleged confession in JonBenet case

Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. -- For a moment, it seemed the decade-old mystery surrounding the slaying of a child beauty queen had been solved. But authorities Thursday cautioned against rushing to judge the schoolteacher who made a stunning confession that he killed JonBenet Ramsey.

For now, the only public evidence against John Mark Karr are his own words. And questions have already been raised about the details of his story, including whether he drugged the girl, sexually assaulted her or was even in Colorado at the time of the slaying.

Those questions led some to wonder whether Karr was the answer to the long-unsolved slaying or a disturbed wannabe trying to insert himself into a high-profile case.

"We should all heed the poignant advice of John Ramsey," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy, quoting the little girl's father. "Do not jump to conclusions, do not rush to judgment, do not speculate. Let the justice system take its course."

Paraded before a raucous crush of reporters in Bangkok, Thailand, the sullen Karr told how he loved JonBenet, was with her when she died but that her death was an accident. And while vague on the details -- "it would take several hours" -- he answered flatly when asked if he was innocent: "No."

"The bottom line is that they now have a confession and until and unless they can corroborate that confession with either physical evidence or strong circumstantial evidence, that's all they have," said Scott Robinson, a Denver attorney who has followed the case from the beginning.

Added former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman: "I have to believe they have more than this kooky confession."

Karr told investigators he drugged and sexually assaulted the little girl before accidentally killing her in her Boulder home, according to a senior Thai police officer who was briefed about the interview with U.S. authorities.

Yet JonBenet's autopsy report found no evidence of drugs, saying her death was caused by strangulation after a beating that included a fractured skull. And while it describes vaginal injuries, it makes no conclusions about whether she was raped.

Karr's ex-wife told TV reporters she cannot defend him, then insisted he was with her in Alabama during Christmas 1996, when JonBenet's battered body was found in the basement of her home. And authorities have not said whether Karr could have written the detailed ransom note found in the Ramsey home, with its demand for $118,000 (the bonus that had recently been awarded to the girl's father, John Ramsey).

Even the Colorado professor who swapped four years' worth of e-mails with Karr and brought him to the attention of prosecutors in May refused to characterize the suspect either as killer or kook.

"I don't know that he's guilty," said Michael Tracey, who teaches journalism at the University of Colorado. "Obviously, I went to the district attorney for a reason, but let him have his day in court and let JonBenet have her day in court and let's see how it plays out."

Karr himself added to the mystery, telling The Associated Press in Bangkok that JonBenet's death was "not what it seems to be."

Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: "It would take several hours to describe that. It's a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It's very painful for me to talk about it."

Any previous relationship between Karr and the Ramseys remained a mystery Thursday, though both have ties to suburban Atlanta. District Attorney Lacy refused to discuss the case during a brief news conference and suggested Karr's arrest may have been forced by concern over public safety and fears the suspect might flee.

"There are circumstances that exist in any case that mandate an arrest before an investigation is complete," Lacy said.

Karr, 41, was arrested at a Bangkok apartment Wednesday, a day after he began teaching second grade at an international school, Lacy said.

Hours later, Thai authorities sat him before a crowded room of news crews. Karr stunned reporters by admitting: "I was with JonBenet when she died. Her death was an accident."

"I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet," Karr told the AP.

Legal experts said DNA evidence will likely be key: DNA was found beneath JonBenet's fingernails and inside her underwear and authorities have never said whether it matches anyone in an FBI database. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at a news conference about whether there was DNA evidence connecting Karr to the crime.

Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The results of that test were not immediately known. Karr will be given another DNA test when he returns to the United States in the next several days, the official said.

Karr will be taken within the week to Colorado, where he will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst of the Department of Homeland Security told reporters in Bangkok.

Lin Wood, the Ramsey family's longtime attorney in Atlanta, said Karr went to great lengths to conceal his identity in e-mails to the university professor, going so far as to use a computer server in Canada.

Asked if authorities could tell whether Karr had firsthand knowledge of the murder or had just picked up information from news accounts, Wood said: "There is information about the murder that has never been publicly disclosed." He did not elaborate.

Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, was quoted by San Francisco television station KGO saying she was with her former husband in Alabama at the time of JonBenet's killing and she does not believe he was involved in the homicide.

Denver attorney Larry Pozner, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said there were "serious questions" about the case.

"I hope we have found the murderer of JonBenet, but I have not heard the evidence that compels that conclusion," he said.

Karr's description of the case as an accident also rang false to experts.

"It's hard to imagine a more intentional, deliberate murder than hitting a little girl in the head so hard that she had almost a foot-long fracture in her skull and then deliberately fashioning a garrotte to twist until it buries in her neck and slowly stops her breathing," said Silverman, the former Denver prosecutor. "This has always been a case of deliberate murder."

-- Associated Press writers Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington and Chase Squires in Boulder, Colo., contributed to this report.

Text of ransom note for JonBenet found in Ramsey family home

Text of the ransom note found in the Ramsey family home on Dec. 26, 1996, the day JonBenet's body was discovered in the basement:

Mr. Ramsey:

Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We respect your business but not the country that it serves. At this time we have your daughter in our possession. She is safe and unharmed, and if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter.

You will withdraw $118,000 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank. When you get home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 a.m. tomorrow to instruct you on delivery.

The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence an earlier pickup of your daughter.

Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them.

Speaking to anyone about your situation such as police or FBI will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. If the money is in anyway marked or tamper with, she dies. You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, she dies.

You can try to deceive us, but be warned we are familiar with law enforcement counter-measures and tactics. You stand a 99 percent chance of killing your daughter if you try to outsmart us. Follow our instructions and you stand a 100 percent chance of getting her back.

You and your family are under constant scrutiny, as well as the authorities. Don't try to grow a brain, John. You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate us, John. Use that good, southern common sense of yours. It's up to you now, John! Victory. S.B.T.C.

Suspect claims he loved 6-year-old victim JonBenet Ramsey

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- From inside his dingy hotel, the American suspect in the killing of JonBenet Ramsey told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Thursday that he loved the 6-year-old and is "very sorry for what happened" in the basement of her Colorado home nearly a decade ago.

John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old teacher arrested Wednesday, was escorted back to his hotel room Thursday to collect his belongings. Dressed in a baggy turquoise polo shirt and khaki trousers, he appeared ashen and stuttered occasionally as he spoke in a quiet voice.

"It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, and that her death was unintentional, and that it was an accident," said Karr, a clean-cut, slight man with steely blue eyes and brown hair.

Earlier in the day, Karr spoke briefly to reporters after a news conference by American and Thai authorities that was mobbed by media, some of whom had camped out since sunrise waiting for him to emerge from Bangkok's Immigration Detention Center.

"I was with JonBenet when she died," he told reporters. Asked if he was innocent, he said: "No."

He declined to disclose the nature of his supposed relationship to the Ramsey family, or how he may have known JonBenet.

Asked to recount the details of how JonBenet died, Karr told the AP: "It would take several hours to describe -- to describe that," he said haltingly.

"There's no way I could be brief about it. It's a very involved series of events," said Karr, who speaks with a thick Southern accent. "It's very painful for me to talk about."

JonBenet's body was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home the day after Christmas 1996 -- a gruesome murder that became one of the highest-profile unsolved mysteries in the United States.

Karr will be taken within the week to Colorado, where he will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, said Ann Hurst of the Department of Homeland Security, one of several officials who accompanied the suspect to his hotel.

No evidence against Karr has been made public beyond his own admission. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at the news conference about whether there was DNA evidence linking him to the crime.

Karr said he had written letters to JonBenet's mother, Patsy, before she died of cancer in June to express his remorse and it was his understanding that she had read them.

One of the officers who cleaned out Karr's room said he appeared to be an avid writer, and had several CDs on which he had saved his writings that were done on a computer.

The Blooms hotel, in a neighborhood filled with seedy massage parlors, rents rooms for as short as three hours -- for $8 -- and offers longer-term stays starting at $170 a month. Karr was staying on the top floor of the nine-story hotel in a small single room.

U.S. and Thai police moved into rooms down the hall from Karr about 10 days before the arrest to survey Karr's movements and await the arrival of a U.S. arrest warrant, said Thai police official Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul.

As Karr was bundled into a police vehicle, he said that JonBenet's death was "not what it seems to be," though he declined to elaborate.

"In every way," he added. "It's not at all what it seems to be."

Mel Gibson pleads no contest in DUI case, gets probation

MALIBU (AP) -- Mel Gibson moved suddenly Thursday to end the legal hangover of his drunken driving arrest, pleading no contest to a single misdemeanor in a deal that calls for alcohol rehabilitation, fines and probation, leaving him to cope with fallout from the anti-Semitic tirade he unleashed on a sheriff's deputy. - The actor's arraignment had been scheduled for next month but his attorney requested that it be moved up, and a judge agreed, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

Gibson did not have to appear in the misdemeanor case and he did not, allowing attorney Blair Berk to handle the plea before Malibu Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira.

The abrupt advancement of the proceeding was announced to the news media by the district attorney's office with no time for most reporters to reach the distant courthouse before the plea was over.

"Media requests (for photo access) received after proceedings already completed," the case file noted.

Court documents showed that Gibson signed the plea agreement and waived his right to a jury trial on Monday but the paperwork was filed just before Thursday's proceeding.

Gibson was stopped around 2:30 a.m. on July 28 while driving on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and made anti-Semitic remarks to the arresting deputy, plunging Gibson into a scandal that led him to later apologize for what he called "belligerent behavior" and "despicable" remarks.

Gibson pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor of driving while having a 0.08 percent or higher blood-alcohol level. A second misdemeanor count, driving under the influence of alcohol, and the infraction of driving with an open container of alcohol, were dismissed.

A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is equivalent to a guilty plea for determining sentencing.

"This was an appropriate outcome which addresses all the public safety concerns of drinking and driving," Deputy District Attorney Gina Satriano said in a statement.

Authorities continued to refuse to release video and audio tapes of Gibson's arrest despite the disposition of the case. Media organizations including The Associated Press have asked Sheriff Lee Baca for the tapes but have been denied on grounds they are part of an "investigatory file" and exempt from the California Public Records Act.

The celebrity news Web site TMZ has argued that the tapes should be heard and seen by the public to assess whether the Sheriff's Department gave Gibson preferential treatment. The issue arose because a sheriff's spokesman initially said the arrest occurred "without incident" and made no mention of the anti-Semitic remarks.

Court documents said Gibson has already voluntarily begun rehabilitation.

The documents show the judge placed Gibson on three years' probation and ordered him to attend "self-help meetings" five times a week for 4.5 months and three meetings per week for another 7.5 months. Satriano said these would be Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, according to Jane Robison, a district attorney's spokeswoman.

In addition, Gibson was ordered to enroll in and complete a "three-month, licensed first-offender alcohol and other drug education and counseling program."

The judge also levied fines and fees totaling $1,608. Gibson's driver license was restricted by the state Department of Motor Vehicles for 90 days, the district attorney's office said. Robison did not know the terms of the restriction.

Gibson volunteered to make a public-service announcement about the hazards of drinking and driving, but the judge did not make that a condition of his sentencing.

"The court acknowledges that defendant has volunteered to make a public service announcement. This will not be a term of probation, however," the court documents stated.

Gibson was ordered to appear Jan. 17 in court for a progress report.

Gibson's spokesman, Alan Nierob, would not elaborate about the plea arrangement or offer any hints about when to expect Gibson's public-service announcement.

The case file also showed that the original judge assigned to hear the case, Terry Adamson, recused herself because Gibson is one of her neighbors.

Phoenix serial killer often talks to victims before he attacks, police reports show

PHOENIX -- A serial killer who is haunting the Phoenix area often speaks with his victims before attacking, sometimes asking for a ride or money, according to police reports.

But victims of the so-called Baseline Killer -- who has been linked to deaths, sexual assaults and robberies beginning last summer -- gave varying accounts of his appearance and demeanor.

Some victims said he appeared smart, other victims said the opposite was true. One woman said the man smelled of old beer. One said he appeared handsome at first. And another told police he was wearing a mask, pushing a shopping cart and appeared to be a "crazy transient" asking for money.

The reports, released by police Wednesday, offered the first glimpse into how the killer operates.

The "Baseline Killer" has been forensically linked to eight killings and several robberies. Police also believe he is responsible for 11 sexual assaults of women and young girls.

The reports show the sexual assaults have ranged from fondling to rape. In many cases, victims had conversations with the man before they were attacked. He appears to always have a gun, and often threatens to shoot and kill victims.

The varying descriptions of the attacker and his mannerism show that he is "apparently clever with disguises," said Sgt. Andy Hill said.

"He doesn't want people to know what he is really like," Hill said.

A 21-year-old victim who was sexually assaulted last November told police she first saw the man as she was tossing a bag of clothes into a donation bin in central Phoenix.

"I thought he was just asking for a ride," the woman told police. "He started saying that he needed me to take him down the corner, and I was just like in shock."

He said he had just a robbed a place. The man was wearing a fisherman's hat, a wig and big round plastic glasses without lenses.

"He was telling me just to drive (the) speed limit so not to cause attention," the woman said. He told her to calm down, that he'd kill her if she tried anything stupid. Then he told her to stop and turn off her car.

"Put your seat down," he told her. "You don't make the seat go down, I'll shoot you."

He told her to take off her clothes. He said it was so he'd have more time to get away.

But then he started touching her. She asked him to stop. He didn't.

When it was over, he took money from her wallet and left.

The last time the Baseline Killer struck was June 29, when he killed 37-year-old Carmen Miranda after abducting her from a car wash. Since February, only one victim has survived an attack by the suspect, and police credit her with "heroic actions."

She had just walked out of a check-cashing business when she saw a man in a mask pushing a shopping cart. She was opening her car door when he ran up to her, pointed a gun and told her to give him a ride, police reports say.

Once in the car, he told the woman to drive. Soon after, he had her pull over in a secluded area and ordered her to make the seat lie flat. He told her to take off her clothes, saying, "I am going away for a long time, and you are the last woman I am going to be able to touch."

The woman refused to perform oral sex, even after the man threatened to kill her. "Would you rather die?" he asked.

"Yes, kill me," she said. "You're not going to violate me."

She took the keys and ran away.

Police say they have had hundreds of leads to follow, and the reports indicate that several suspects were questioned about various attacks.

The Baseline Killer is one of two serial predator cases in the Phoenix area. In another, dubbed the "Serial Shooter" investigation, police arrested Dale S. Hausner, 33, and Samuel John Dieteman, 30. Police believe the men took turns shooting random victims late at night and early in the morning.

Seven killings and 17 nonfatal shootings have been linked to the Serial Shooter case. Hausner and Dieteman are scheduled to be arraigned on 46 felony counts Monday.

Mexican fishermen rescued after nine-month sea odyssey says two other men died, were thrown overboard

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- One of three Mexican fishermen who claim they spent nine months adrift before being rescued off the Marshall Islands said their boat originally carried five men, but two of them died and were thrown overboard, officials said Thursday. - Fisherman Jesus Eduardo Vidana, who was rescued along with his shipmates by an Asian fishing boat last week, told Mexico's ambassador to New Zealand of the two other passengers during a conversation late Wednesday, said Miguel Gutierrez, director of Consular Affairs for Mexico's Foreign Relations Department.

The announcement came at a morning news conference held by Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, who said the Mexican government could not collaborate or discount the fishermen's claims that they spent nine months at sea surviving on rain water, raw fish and faith, because they were never officially reported as missing.

Two of the men, whose complete identities were not available, died after not eating for three months, Gutierrez said, relaying the story Vidana told Mexican Ambassador to New Zealand Maria Angelica Arce.

"There was little food, and they themselves refused to try the food" the fishermen captured, Gutierrez said.

One of the fishermen died in January and the other in February, Vidana said. The survivors threw each of the deceased into the ocean immediately following their deaths, he said.

Derbez said it was also difficult to corroborate Vidana's story of the two additional fishermen because he is the only one to have given the testimony thus far.

"It's natural for people who have been nine months on the high seas ... not to have a complete story immediately, so we have to wait for their recuperation to be able to continue asking questions and conduct a dialogue that will give us the full story," the foreign secretary said.

The surviving fishermen, who are still aboard the Asian fishing boat that found them, are expected to arrive on the Marshall Islands early next week, Gutierrez said. Mexican officials will then assess their health, interview them further and provide them with the necessary documents to return to Mexico. He said the date of the men's return home would depend on their health and other factors.

On Wednesday, Derbez told reporters that he was surprised by reports of the fishermen's Aug. 9 rescue.

"It was a surprise for everybody, because there hadn't been any report that they were missing," Derbez said. "They are physically well, obviously thin and surely hungry, but fortunately, well."

In telephone interviews with the Mexican news media, Vidana said he and companions Lucio Rendon and Salvador Ordonez, set off on Oct. 28, 2005, from San Blas, a Pacific coast town about 660 kilometers (410 miles) northwest of Mexico City, to fish for sharks.

However, mechanical problems and adverse winds quickly pushed their boat out to sea. The Marshall Islands are located 8,800 kilometers (5,500 miles) from Mexico's Pacific coast.

An employee of the captain's office in San Blas confirmed that the men had not been reported missing.

One explanation for the lack of a missing persons' report is that the men apparently set out in their 8-meter (27-foot) boat on a short fishing expedition with little equipment -- just flashlights and a compass -- and may not have formally advised port authorities of their departure.

The men's relatives could not be reached for comment. However, the government news agency Notimex has quoted relatives of the men in San Blas as saying they had only been missing for three months.

The men said they read the Bible, prayed and drank rain water and ate raw fish during their ordeal.

They have become instant folk heroes in Mexico and the Mexican Council of Bishops called them an example of faith.

"We should follow the example of these three fishermen, making prayer the source of our strength," the Roman Catholic bishop's council said in a statement Wednesday.

Report: Russian expedition finds wreckage of legendary U.S. WWII sub

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian divers have spotted the wreckage of a legendary U.S. submarine that was lost in the Pacific in 1943, a Russian news agency reported Thursday.

The ITAR-Tass news agency said that a diving team from the Far Eastern State Technological University in Vladivostok found the USS Wahoo in the La Perouse Strait and took pictures of it during a recent expedition. It didn't give further details.

Under the command of Dudley "Mush" Morton, the Wahoo became one of the most famous U.S. submarines of World War II. With 19 Japanese ships sunk, Morton was ranked as one of the war's top three sub skippers.

The Wahoo was sunk by the Japanese navy as it returned from its seventh patrol on Oct. 11, 1943. All 79 crewmen died.

One killed, 60 others missing in Ecuador following volcano eruption

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- A volcanic eruption in Ecuador's Andes mountains destroyed three villages, killed at least one man and left more than 60 others missing, the mayor of a village on the volcano's slope said Thursday.

One body was recovered after the overnight eruption of lava from Tungurahua, in the country's high Andes, and four others were believed to be under the rubble, Penipe Mayor Juan Salazar said.

Salazar told Channel 4 television that the villages of Chilibu, Choglontuz and Palitagua "no longer exist. Everything is wiped out."

"This is an indescribable catastrophe," Salazar said. "The houses have collapsed. The rocks that fell caused injuries and burns in the city of Riobamba and in Penipe."

Salazar said there were 60 other people on the high flanks of the volcano whom officials could not get to Thursday morning.

Choglontuz, Penipe and another village were ordered evacuated on Wednesday hours before the 16,575-foot volcano unleashed gas and ash some 5 miles into the sky, according to a report by Ecuador's Geophysics Institute.

Salazar said 3,200 people were evacuated Wednesday from the three communities. He did not say how many remained in the villages.

Dr. Hernan Ayala told Channel 4 TV that about 50 people from Penipe were treated at a medical center in Riobamba for burns caused by "lava flows and incandescent rocks that burned them as they tried to flee."

"They were also burned by vapor and the elevated heat in the zone. It was a scene of chaos, a Dantesque situation," he said. "There are six whom we consider the most grave, one of them with burns over 85 percent of the body."

The death reported Thursday was the first reported from a Tungurahua eruption since the volcano rumbled back to life in 1999 after staying dormant for eight decades.

Passengers evacuated from plane in Australia after reported threat

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A flight arriving from Fiji was stopped away from the terminal at Sydney's international airport and its passengers evacuated on Thursday because of a security threat, officials said.

Police bomb squad dogs searched the Pacific Blue plane after the passengers were taken off the flight, Australian Federal Police said. Police found nothing suspicious, the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The source of the alleged threat against the plane was unclear. The Seven television network reported it had been made by telephone from the Philippines.

Osment charged with DUI

GLENDALE - Actor Haley Joel Osment was charged today with misdemeanor driving under the influence stemming from a single car crash in which he flipped his 1995 Saturn in the La Canada area as he drove home last month. - The 18-year-old Osment, who suffered a broken rib and a shoulder injury in the 1 a.m. July 20 single-car crash, was not immediately arrested because he had to receive medical treatment for his injuries, said Jane Robison, of the District Attorney's Office.

Osment is scheduled to surrender at a later date to be booked.

The actor, who apparently lost control of his car on his way home, is charged with driving under the influence, driving while having a .08 percent or higher blood alcohol content, and possession of marijuana while driving, all misdemeanors, said Deputy DIstrict Attorney Ed Green.

The charges include the special allegation that Osment's blood alcohol content was .15 percent or higher.

Osment is also charged with being under the age of 21 and driving with a .05 percent blood alcohol content, an infraction of the vehicle code.

Prosecutors requested $15,000 bail.

Osment -- who was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for "The Sixth Sense" -- is to be arraigned Sept. 19 in Glendale Superior Court.

Because the charges are misdemeanors he does not have to appear in court, Robison said.

If convicted, he faces up to six months in county jail, but could also get probation.

-- North County Times wire services

Female band teacher sentenced to prison for sexual contact with middle-school boys in Michigan

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) -- A former middle school band teacher who admitted that she had sexual contact with six male students was sentenced Thursday to seven to 25 years in prison.

Laura L. Findlay, 32, pleaded guilty last month under an agreement with prosecutors to 22 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person younger than 16.

Judge William A. Crane also ordered Findlay to register as a sex offender and to pay $1,380 in fees and fines.

Prosecutors say Findlay had sexual contact with male students from Ricker Middle School in Buena Vista Township from November 2004 to March 2005. She had taught at the school for seven years.

Federal judge orders review of federal auction of JFK's sailboat in drug case

BOSTON (AP) -- The government auction last year of a sailboat once owned by John F. Kennedy should be revisited to see whether enough was done to find its co-owner, a federal appeals judge ruled.

The 22-foot boat, a Star Class sloop known as "Flash II" raced by the teenage Kennedy off Cape Cod, was seized from a drug dealer in 2004 and sold on consignment for the U.S. Marshals Service last year.

Before the auction, a federal judge had granted two-thirds of the proceeds to the government. The rest would go to Harry Crosby, of Clewiston, Fla., who, his attorney said, had invested $10,000 to buy the boat not knowing the owner was a drug dealer.

But a lawyer for a Florida doctor claims his client had invested about $70,000 in the craft in the late 1990s as co-owner of the boat and his stake was not considered when the government sold it at auction. Dr. Kerry Scott Lane, an anesthesiologist, asked the Appeals Court in Boston to order a district court judge to reconsider his stake in the boat.

Prosecutors had argued that Lane's appeal lacked merit because a judge had twice ruled that Lane knew about the seizure in October 2004 but staked his claim only after the forfeiture.

Appeals Court Judge Bruce Selya ordered the lower court to determine whether Lane was properly notified of the forfeiture proceedings.

If the lower court finds that Lane's complaint is valid, the forfeiture judgment would have to be set aside, Selya said.

Man convicted of grisly murders of Richmond couple, daughters

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A man was convicted Thursday of the random mutilation killings of a musician and his family, a verdict that took just 30 minutes to reach and could bring the death penalty.

Lawyers for Ricky Jovan Gray, 29, presented no witnesses and acknowledged he confessed to the New Year's Day slayings of musician Bryan Harvey, 49, his wife, Kathryn, 39, and daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4.

Seeing photographs and hearing details of how they died -- bound, beaten and stabbed, with their throats cut, in basement of their burning home -- left one juror in tears and others looking shaken.

Opening the sentencing phase of the trial, the prosecution told jurors that in addition to the Harvey killings, Gray confessed to killing his wife and a second Richmond family less than a week later.

"Now you know why we want the death penalty," Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Learned Barry.

The penalty phase was to continue Friday.

Harvey family supporters blinked back tears of relief and nodded in affirmation of the guilty verdict. Gray stood stoically, his hands behind his back.

The Harveys were well known in Richmond: Bryan was a guitarist and singer for the rock duo House of Freaks, which released five albums between 1987 and 1995, and Kathryn co-owned a quirky toy and novelty store called World of Mirth.

According to his confession to Philadelphia police after his Jan. 7 arrest, Gray and two accomplices were looking for a house to rob on New Year's Day when they noticed the Harveys' front door was open. They would flee with a computer, a wedding ring and a basket of cookies.

"It was an open door -- a front door -- that brought Ricky Gray into their home," prosecutor Michael Herring told jurors. "He came into that house and he invaded what was clearly a household of love and peace. ... What Mr. Gray brought was nothing but sadness, despair and destruction."

Medical examiner Dr. Darin Trelka said Bryan Harvey was struck six times in head with a hammer, and that his neck was cut in a sawing motion eight times. His body also had "very severe" burns in several places.

Kathryn Harvey also was stabbed and had saw-motion wounds to her neck and burns, he said.

Ruby was also burned and had stab wounds to the throat and back and skull fractures.

Stella, who also was stabbed in the neck multiple times, was alive when the fire was set, Trelka testified. She died from smoke inhalation and blunt force trauma to the head.

Kathryn Harvey's half-brother, actor Steven Culp, who played Rex Van De Kamp on "Desperate Housewives," wept as Trelka described injuries to Kathryn's body.

In a brief cross-examination, defense attorney Jeffrey Everhart asked Trelka if the blows to the head would have left the Harveys unconscious.

"Likely," he replied.

Gray pleaded not guilty to the slayings, but his attorneys acknowledged his confession, called no witnesses and contested none of the facts of the commonwealth's case during closing arguments.

"I can't tell you why he did what the commonwealth alleges he did," Everhart said.

Gray and his nephew and suspected accomplice, Ray Joseph Dandridge, are accused of a bloody crime spree that began in November, including the killing of another Richmond family just days after the Harveys were slain. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for both men, but only Gray has been charged in the Harvey slayings.

Dandridge, 29, is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 18 on capital murder charges in the Jan. 6 killings of a couple and their daughter. A victim in Jan. 3 home robbery in which Gray and Dandridge also are accused has said the daughter killed had been an accomplice in the attack against him.

The defendants, both ex-convicts from Arlington, also have been charged in the slashing assault and robbery of an Arlington man on New Year's Eve, and are suspects in the Nov. 5 killing of Gray's wife, Treva, who was found asphyxiated near woods about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh.

Drive-by shooting in Chicago wounds 11, 1 critically

CHICAGO (AP) -- Shots were fired from a van and a sedan Thursday as they sped down a residential street on the city's South Side, wounding 11 people, police said.

Several of the wounded were believed to be members of the Gangster Disciples street gang, said police Superintendent Philip Cline.

The shots were fired before dawn, and the street was deserted when officers arrived, said Officer Marcel Bright, a police spokesman. Most of the victims -- 10 men and one woman -- managed to drive to a hospital about four blocks away, he said.

A 22-year-old man, whose name was not released, was in critical condition at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital with a gunshot wound in the back, authorities said. Another victim at the same hospital had been shot in the stomach, and a third had an arm wound.

Judge rules that Rwandan rebels were tortured before confessing to tourist murders

WASHINGTON -- Three Rwandan rebels charged with murdering two American tourists in Uganda were tortured and coerced into confessing, a federal judge ruled Thursday, barring U.S. prosecutors from using the confessions in court.

The ruling dealt federal authorities a major setback in a case stemming from the 1999 deaths of eight sightseers, including two Americans, who had traveled to a remote rain forest hoping to see rare mountain gorillas. The victims were hacked and bludgeoned to death.

The three rebels, who could face the death penalty if convicted, said Rwandan officials bound and beat them with rocks and sticks until they confessed to the U.S. investigators. Medical experts said scars supported those claims.

"The court is painfully aware that two innocent American tourists were brutally killed at Bwindi on March 1, 1999. But that sentiment may not, under the law, dictate the result here," U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle wrote.

Rob Haubner and his wife, Susan Miller, of Portland, Ore., were killed along with tourists from Britain and New Zealand. Rebels later said they had targeted English-speaking tourists in a bid to weaken U.S. and British support for the Rwandan government.

A Ugandan judge sentenced one of the rebels, Jean-Paul Bizimana, to 15 years in prison in January for killing the tourists and their guide. Three other rebels -- Leonidas Bimenyimana, Francois Karake and Gregoire Nyaminani -- are being tried in a Washington federal court for the American deaths.

In her 150-page ruling Wednesday, Huvelle said the men offered the FBI inconsistent confessions only after being subjected to torturous conditions. One of the men said he was subjected to "kwasa kwasa," in which he spent two weeks with one arm over his shoulder, the other behind his back and his wrists bound with rope.

They testified to being beaten with bricks and sticks, having their ears boxed and sitting naked in an empty concrete room flooded with water.

Defense attorneys said the coerced confessions were the government's key evidence. Justice Department spokesman Brian Sierra said the agency was reviewing the decision and had not decided how to proceed.

"We're all sitting around saying, 'If this was our call, it'd be all over here,"' said defense attorney Jeffrey O'Toole, who represents Bimenyimana.

Huvelle said the Rwandan military captain responsible for the abuses believed his job was to elicit confessions to help solve the case for his superiors, who wanted to curry favor with U.S. officials. The abuses did not happen in front of U.S. authorities, and the judge did not say whether they should have known about them.

The defendants are former members of the Liberation Army of Rwanda, or ALIR. It was formed in 1996 in refugee camps in neighboring Zaire (now Congo) by members of the former Rwandan Armed Forces and civilian militia known as Interahamwe, which carried out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

W.Va. terminal evacuated after suspicious liquid found in luggage

CEREDO, W.Va. -- A West Virginia airport terminal was evacuated Thursday after two bottles of liquid found in a woman's carry-on luggage twice tested positive for explosives, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman said.

"The bomb squad is on site and the woman is being interviewed by the FBI," Amy von Walter said.

A machine security checkpoint screeners use to test for explosives registered positive, and a canine team also got a positive hit, von Walter said.

Airport manager Larry Salyers said the bottles would be moved by robot to a remote area of the airport where officials would attempt to detonate them. National Guard and State Police explosive experts will conduct chemical field tests to determine what's inside them, he said.

Salyers said he was told the woman was 28-year-old native of Pakistan who had moved to Huntington from Jackson, Mich. He did not know how long she had lived in Huntington.

The woman was still at the airport late Thursday afternoon, but was not under arrest, said FBI spokesman Jeff Killeen.

Commercial airline service was suspended at least until 5 p.m., and about 100 passengers and airport employees were ordered to leave the terminal, Tri-State Airport Authority President Jim Booton. A US Airways spokeswoman said one of its flights was diverted to Charleston's Yeager Airport about 60 miles away.

A screener noticed a bottle in a woman's carry-on bag as she prepared to board a flight to Charlotte, N.C., Booton said. Salyers said she was eventually headed to Detroit.

U.S. authorities banned the carrying of liquids onto flights last week after British officials made arrests in an alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound planes using explosives disguised as drinks and other common products.

Some travelers were more surprised than fearful about the discovery.

"This is such a small airport. I never imagined something like this happening here," said Shannon Bloss, who was traveling to Orlando, Fla., for a wedding.

Joy and John Cloutre of Ulysses, Ky., were waiting to begin the first leg of their trip to the southeast Asian country of Brunei when the evacuation order came.

"My family didn't want me to leave because of the terrorism in Brunei," Joy Cloutre told the Herald Dispatch of Huntington. "And then we don't even get out of Huntington without something like this happening."

Crews work on containing Wyo. wildfire that has burned 4 cabins, threatens hundreds of houses

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Crews were making progress Thursday toward containing a wildfire that has burned four mountaintop cabins and was threatening hundreds of other houses near Casper.

"If the weather holds today, I think we'll be getting quite a bit more progress," said Vince Mazzier, spokesman for the federal management team that's directing the firefighting efforts.

The blaze was 30 percent contained, although it grew overnight to well over 10,000 acres -- more than 15 square miles.

People in hundreds of homes on Casper Mountain and surrounding areas have been told to evacuate since the lightning-sparked fire was reported Monday. There were no reports of injuries.

"We have lots of displaced people," Mazzier said. "And of course, they're always concerned about what's going on with their homes."

Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who toured the fire with State Forester Bill Crapser, said Thursday would likely be a critical day, citing how quickly winds can whip up on the mountain this time of year.

"It reflects how unpredictable the circumstances are here," Freudenthal said.

Crapser said the fire burned around some homes but officials were concerned that if it gets into canyons, it would be able to hook around and start new runs in developed areas.

"The wind is just howling up here," Crapser said. "We've got red flag warnings up here today."

As the fire threatened her home, Heather Carter packed a tea cup from her great uncle, her chef's knife, a cookbook and a "lot of shoes."

Then she realized she was missing the ashes of her dog, Zoe, who recently died.

"I didn't want her to burn twice," Carter told the Casper Star-Tribune.

Dennis Polk grabbed photographs and important documents before heading to a hotel.

"Tomorrow is another day," he said. "We're just wondering when we will be able to get back to go home or if there will actually be a something to go home to."

Attorney says woman arrested for flight disturbance 'barely lucid'; returning from Pakistan

BOSTON (AP) -- A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday.

Catherine C. Mayo, 59, of Braintree, Vt., appeared in federal court Thursday on a charge of interfering with a flight crew on United 923 as it flew from London to Washington, D.C., Wednesday.

She was dressed in a Rolling Stones T-shirt, black pants and socks without shoes for the hearing and was ordered held pending a detention and probable cause hearing next Thursday.

Her attorney, federal public defender Page Kelley, said Mayo was "just barely lucid" when they spoke. "She's got some very serious mental health problems."

U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said he hoped to learn more about Mayo's mental state before the next court appearance. "We believe it's important during that time period to have a doctor examine her," he said.

Mayo's son, Josh, 31, described his mother as a peace activist and said she had been in Pakistan since March. She traveled there often since making a pen pal prior to Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The pen pal hasn't been allowed to visit the U.S., he added.

"I guess she just had a bit of a bad time on the plane, and everybody's a little paranoid," the son said.

The scare aboard United 923 came just a week after London authorities said they foiled a terror plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights. As many as 17 people have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the London terror plot, but federal officials have said they have no indications that Mayo had any links to terrorism.

The count against Mayo carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.

Mayo's passport indicates she left Pakistan and entered the United Kingdom on Tuesday, according to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent Daniel Choldin filed in U.S. District Court in Boston.

In the affidavit, Choldin says flight attendants noticed Mayo about 90 minutes into the flight because she was pushing against the aircraft bulkhead. When the attendant told her to return to her seat, Mayo said she wanted to speak to an air marshal and made statements about knowing that people wanted to see what was in her bag.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz confirmed Thursday that authorities found a screwdriver and an unspecified number of cigarette lighters in her bag, items that are banned under new security regulations. Marcinkiewicz also confirmed that matches were found in Mayo's bag.

She also had a bottle of water, which did not appear to be supplied by the flight crew. It wasn't clear how the items made it through airport security, which has been significantly tightened since the terror plot arrests.

Later during the flight, according to the affidavit, Mayo asked a flight attendant: "Is this a training flight for United Flight 93?" The flight attendant didn't know if she made a mistake because the flight was actually Flight 923, or if she was referring to Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

She was "biting her fingers, rubbing her feet and in a constant state of movement. She appeared very agitated," the affidavit said.

She also wrote in a note and said to flight attendants that she had been in a country illegally, and later said she had photographs of Pakistan.

"She stated that the photographs would be awful, and she indicated that they related to the people that she had been with in the mountains of Pakistan," the affidavit said.

Flight attendants summoned the captain, who spoke to Mayo. During the conversation, she made reference to there being "six steps to building some unspecified thing."

"She made reference to being with people associated with two words. She stated that she could not say what the two words were because the last time that she had said the two words she had been kicked off of a flight in the United Arab Emirates," according to the affidavit.

The captain and purser both believed that she was referring to al-Qaida, Choldin wrote.

About 35 minutes later, when she tried to go to the bathroom, the flight attendants directed her to a different lavatory. Instead, she pulled down her pants and urinated on the floor, Choldin wrote in the affidavit, which was based on his interviews and those of other federal officials.

At that point, the captain ordered her restrained. Two male passengers helped a flight attendant tackle Mayo and restrain her in plastic cuffs.

The flight, with 182 passengers, landed safely at Logan Airport with the escort of two F-15 fighter jets.

Government makes it easier to kill resident Canada geese

WASHINGTON (AP) -- They tried border collies in Virginia. They tried a stuffed coyote in New Jersey. In fact, officials nationwide have tried just about everything to get rid of large flocks of Canada geese that move in, eat the grass and leave lots of unwanted poop.

Until now, geese foes have had to obtain permits from the government to kill the geese or destroy their nests and eggs, and that hasn't been easy. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a new rule making it easier for farmers, airports, landowners and public health officials to kill the geese without permits.

The new rule went into effect last week.

Animal rights activists say there's got to be a better way to deal with the birds.

But people who consider the geese a nuisance are applauding the measure. Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., who has been working to control the geese population for years, said, "This day has been a long time in coming."

"Canada geese are larger and more aggressive than native waterfowl," Saxton said. "They have upset the natural ecology of our waterways."

The new rule includes several provisions, which now allow:

--Airports, public health officials and landowners to destroy nests and eggs without federal permits.

--Private and public airports to round up the birds for destruction without federal permits.

--Local governments to round up the birds if they threaten public health by congregating at reservoirs, athletic fields, parks and public beaches.

The new rule also allows states to establish August hunting seasons for the birds. The existing hunting season is Sept. 1 to March 10.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said the rule was prompted in response to "growing impacts from overabundant populations of resident Canada geese." The agency said in the Atlantic Flyway, the resident Canada goose population has increased an average of 2 percent per year over the past four years and was estimated at 1.15 million this past spring.

"This final rule offers the essential flexibility needed for effective natural resource management," Service Director Dale Hall said in a statement.

John Hadidian, urban wildlife program director for The Humane Society of the United States, said the Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to bring down the resident Canada goose population by 1 million birds.

"That means killing that many birds every year, for the next 10 years," Hadidian said. "That's appalling."

The Human Society says the reason so many would have to be killed to reduce the population is because on average, a goose will have five eggs at a time in a nest, which take about a month to incubate. And if a nest is destroyed, a female goose often will simply lay another group of eggs.

Hadidian said communities have resorted to various measures to get rid of the birds, ranging from sterilizing eggs or destroying nests to rounding up the birds when they are molting and unable to fly and taking them to commercial poultry houses where they are killed.

He said the new rule destroys any way for his organization and others to keep track of how the geese are being eliminated. The Humane Society favors measures that would create places where the birds can migrate to without being a nuisance to humans.

"They are very smart birds and they learn right away where they are and are not tolerated," Hadidian said.

The geese are attracted to mowed and fertilized grass, which is why they tend to gather at golf courses, airports and parks. Businesses or communities inundated by geese either call companies like National Goose Control in East Hanover, N.J., to help them gain permits so eggs and nests can be destroyed, or they resort to other measures.

In Saltville, Va., two border collies named Annie and Risk, were unleashed to run off the geese. That worked. In Fair Lawn, N.J., officials put a stuffed coyote on a float in a municipal pool hoping to scare off the geese. The coyote was snatched, and the geese stayed mum.

FBI confirms missing cruise passenger's body found off Italy, says Florida woman drowned

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- A body found off the coast of Italy has been identified as a Florida woman who disappeared from a cruise ship last month, according to the FBI.

Elizabeth Galeana, 22, drowned, said Lourdes Hall, an FBI spokeswoman in Tampa. Foul play was not suspected.

"The body has been released to the family," Hall said Wednesday.

Galeana, who lived in Naples, was reported missing July 25 from Royal Caribbean International's Voyager of the Seas. She was last seen while the ship was en route to Naples, Italy, from the port of Civitavecchia, near Rome. Her sister reported her missing about seven hours later.

Michael Sheehan, a spokesman for the Miami-based cruise line, has said Galena likely fell off the ship. He said the company was working with investigators.

Trio caught fishing in sheriff's pond

DANIELSVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- Fishing in someone else's well-stocked fish pond without permission isn't a good idea -- especially if that pond belongs to the sheriff.

Three men spent the better part of four days in the Madison County, Ga., jail after being charged with fishing in a pond without the owner's permission. The pond is owned by Madison County Sheriff Clayton Lowe.

A state conservation ranger Saturday arrested Brian Keith Wallace, 35, Michael Shannon Fricks, 32, and Christopher Carldon Wallace, 37, on the misdemeanor charge. Lowe said they were released Tuesday after paying a fine.

Lowe said he stocked the pond with about $1,200 worth of catfish and bream last spring to give disabled children a fun day outside fishing. But sometime before the fishing day, someone drove a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle under a cable stretched across the road leading to the pond and began catching the fish.

The sheriff paid $360 to restock the pond before the children's fishing day.

"It all worked out. They caught plenty of fish," he said.

Police search for stolen salmon sculpture

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) -- For the second time in as many summers, police are trying to find a stolen salmon -- a larger-than-life fiberglass fish sculpture taken from a city park.

The latest theft occurred at Gateway Park sometime between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday, said Lynn Di Nino, an artist who said she tried to find clues in the city's Old Town neighborhood before reporting the loss to police Tuesday.

"I thought maybe somebody pushed it over the edge," she said. "but I scoured the landscape and couldn't find it."

Police Officer Mark W. Fulghum confirmed that the report had been received.

The 8-foot, 150-pound sculpture is one of 10 that City Council member Bill Evans bought five years ago as part of a public art effort called Soul Salmon 2001.

The Old Town Business Association later bought the fish from Evans and hired Bruce and Shannon Anderson, a local artist couple, to decorate it. They adorned the salmon with tiles of colored glass over sepia-tone photographs depicting Old Town history, and the rest of the salmon has a coat of blue-green paint, De Nino said.

In July 2005 someone took the 7-foot fiberglass coho from Puget Gardens Park. It was found within a couple of days in the laundry room of a house. A man who lived there said he got it in a trade for some old bicycle wheels.

Discarded airport items headed to homeless

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- Items discarded at an airport in the response to a terror plot have turned into balm for the city's homeless.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County has started picking up some of the things people have jettisoned for security reasons as they board flights at the Eugene Airport.

Charley Harvey, assistant executive director of the charity, dug through trash bags Tuesday and took every bottle of shampoo and shaving cream he could find. The items will be distributed at the organization's First Place Family Center.

But he didn't take the can of Easy Cheese, or the minibottle of brandy, or the tube of something called Vampire's Blood.

"Oh, the things people bring on planes," said Harvey as he considered the item in his hand, a container of lavender body butter.

After investigators said they uncovered a plot in Britain to blow up aircraft, travelers tossed the items into trash bins in compliance with new rules prohibiting most liquids, lotions and gels in carry-on luggage.

"We're always looking for shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries to help homeless families," Harvey said.

'Senior citizen bandit' pleads guilty

SANTA ANA (AP) -- A man dubbed the "senior citizen bandit" has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of armed robbery and one firearms count for sticking up banks in three Western states, authorities said.

Charles Manrow, 70, of Pennsylvania, entered the plea Aug. 10 and will be sentenced early next year.

Manrow pleaded guilty to robberies in Southern California, Fresno, Utah and Arizona, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ivy Wang said.

Manrow was arrested in January outside a motel in the Riverside County community of Thousand Palms. He had cash, fake identification and weapons stashed in a stolen Cadillac.

Manrow would enter the banks wearing a baseball cap and casual clothes. When he reached a teller, he would announce the holdup, show a weapon and hand over multiple bags, saying he had a remote device that could tell him if a silent alarm was activated.

A year ago, Manrow's crime spree sparked national interest after a Los Angeles TV station reported that investigators considered whether Manrow could be the fugitive Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who is on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list and has been on the run for years. The possibility was ultimately discounted.

Oscar freebies come at a cost: IRS, Academy Awards agree on taxes

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Movie stars who took home those lavish gift baskets handed out at this year's Oscars will get some decidedly unglamorous notices: don't forget to pay tax on the loot. - "There's no special red-carpet tax loophole for the stars," Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson said Thursday.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in an accord with the IRS, agreed to pay taxes due on gift bags handed out through last year. Neither organization would say how much tax was owed or paid.

But responsibility for paying taxes on the latest gifts, handed out in March, falls on the recipients.

They will be getting tax forms from the Academy as reminders.

The agreement marks the beginning of an IRS effort to remind the entertainment industry that award show gifts and promotional giveaways are considered taxable income.

The value of the gifts must be reported on a celebrity's tax return. They count as income because the IRS does not believe the gifts are given "solely out of affection, respect or similar impulses."

The IRS called attention to the issue just before this year's awards. In April, the Academy voted to stop thanking award presenters and performers with gift baskets, although its officials say they hope to find another way to express their gratitude.

In a statement, Academy President Sid Ganis said the baskets had traditionally been viewed as "mannerly thank-yous."

But the Academy sought an agreement with the IRS because "we didn't want any of our presenters to get hit retroactively for a gift we had given them," he said.

Celebrity gifting has become more lavish as marketers try to harness some star power to advertise their goods. The giveaways often include luxury trips, jewelry and electronics.

George Clooney donated his Oscar swag bag to United Way. It fetched $45,100 at auction, benefiting the United Way Hurricane Response and Relief Recovery Fund. Clooney may be eligible for a tax deduction.

The bag, given to presenters at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, included a BlackBerry 8700c, a Kay Unger kimono and a cultured Tahitian-pearl necklace. Clooney also took home another prize -- best supporting actor for "Syriana."

The Internal Revenue Service said it is not conducting a special audit initiative in this area, but questions about gift reporting might arise during an examination of an individual's tax return. Donors giving gifts to celebrities will be reminded to fill out special informational forms reporting the gifts to the IRS.

On the Net:

Internal Revenue Service: www.irs.gov

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: http://www.oscars.org/

Girl, 10, dies after collapsing at Illinois' Six Flags Great America amusement park

GURNEE, Ill. (AP) -- A 10-year-old girl with a history of heart trouble collapsed during a family outing at Six Flags Great America amusement park and died, police said.

Witnesses said the girl had just gotten off a ride in the Camp Cartoon Network area of the park Wednesday evening. She was running to rejoin her cousins and grandmother when she collapsed, Gurnee police said in a statement.

The girl's heart had stopped by the time paramedics arrived, and she was pronounced dead an hour later at a hospital, police said.

Police said the girl, whose name was not released, was from the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, about 20 miles south of Gurnee. An autopsy was planned to determine the cause of death.

"At this point we don't have any reason to believe this was ride-related," said Jim Taylor, a spokesman for Six Flags. "We will certainly participate and assist authorities in any way they ask us to."

Six Flags Inc. runs some 30 theme, water and zoological parks in North America.

In 2003, an 11-year-old girl from Gary, Ind., collapsed at the park and died after riding the "Raging Bull" roller coaster. A coroner's jury later ruled that a heart condition caused Erica Emmons' death.

Spokane man admits cocaine conspiracy

BILLINGS, MONT. (LEE) --A Spokane man admitted Thursday to a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy, which prosecutors allege involved 11 pounds of cocaine. - Adrien Montre Beavers, 22, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute. A plea agreement calls for the remaining 35 counts of the indictment to be dismissed at sentencing.

Beavers said he got involved through his brother, Andrew Beavers, 33, who also was indicted. Adrien Beavers said his brother came to Spokane when he got out of prison and brought him to Billings.

"I was supposed to keep him out of trouble," he said. But he started selling drugs for his brother and delivered drugs to others to sell, Adrien Beavers said.

He denied the government's contention that he taught another convicted co-defendant, Jason McCalister, how to sell cocaine or how to turn powder cocaine into crack cocaine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Seykora said the conspiracy started in 2002 and ended in late 2005. Adrien Beavers supplied other co-defendants with cocaine and made trips to Washington to pick up more of the drug from another defendant, Esak Fessahaye Abraham, he said.

Adrien Beavers faces a mandatory 10 years to life in prison and a $4 million fine. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull set sentencing for Nov. 14 and ordered Beavers into custody. Beavers is the fifth of 10 persons indicted in the case to plead guilty.

Last week, co-defendant Tracy Bernard Harper, 44, of Billings, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count. Harper faces mandatory life in prison and an $8 million fine. He is to be sentenced on Nov. 9.

Other defendants who have pleaded guilty include McCalister, Tyrone Jackson and Frank Sims.

Las Vegas death penalty jury hears child killer's chilling letter

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A jury heard more testimony Thursday in the death penalty retrial of a killer whose own chilling writing described the butcher knife attack that killed one little girl and left another paralyzed 3 1/2 years ago.

"I confessed to slaughtering those piggies," Beau Maestas wrote in a jailhouse letter that a Clark County prosecutor read aloud on Wednesday. "I flipped out and went and killed (that) lady's youngest daughter, and I paralyzed the older one."

Maestas pleaded guilty in May 2005 to charges including murder and attempted murder in the January 2003 slaying of 3-year-old Kristyanna Cowan and stabbing of her half sister, 10-year-old Brittney Bergeron. The jury is being asked whether he should be executed or be sentenced to life in prison.

Maestas is facing his second penalty trial. District Judge Donald Mosley declared a mistrial in June 2005 after a previous jury deadlocked 10-2 for the death penalty.

Defense lawyer Thomas Ericsson asked jurors to spare Maestas' life, citing Maestas' "unbelievably bad and shocking background."

Ericsson said Maestas was under the influence of methamphetamine -- having grown up the son of a twice-convicted killer, conceived during a conjugal visit at a Utah prison, and exposed to a life of drug use and abuse by his parents.

In his letter, Beau Maestas referred to Kristyanna's age, and lamented that three used to be his lucky number.

"Now, when I think of three, I see a little body hanging eye-level from a knife that's half her size that's in my bloody hand," he wrote.

Authorities say Maestas, who was 19 at the time, and his 16-year-old sister, Monique Maestas, broke into a trailer outside a Mesquite casino and attacked the girls in January 2003 after the girls' mother, Tamara Bergeron, and her then-boyfriend, Robert Schmidt, sold them salt instead of methamphetamine.

Tamara Bergeron and Schmidt, who now are married, denied the drug sale allegations. They were sentenced to prison last year for leaving the two girls alone in the trailer.

Monique Maestas, now 20, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder. She could face life in prison if convicted at trial due to begin next week in Clark County District Court.

Three jurors dabbed at tears Wednesday as University Medical Center trauma surgeon Jay Coates testified that doctors had trouble examining Brittney because she was so concerned about Kristyanna.

"She knew she couldn't move her legs," Coates said of Brittney, whose spine was severed and who remains paralyzed from the waist down. "She had wounds all over her, and yet her focus was on her little sister. We all really found it to be quite remarkable."

Judge rules against former Haitian strongman in rape lawsuit

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge has ruled in favor of a human rights organization that sued the notorious head of a Haitian paramilitary group because he never responded to a complaint alleging he sanctioned gang rapes by his forces.

In a decision issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein set an Aug. 29 hearing to determine if Emmanuel "Toto" Constant must pay unspecified damages to three women accusing his troops of rape in the lawsuit brought by the San Francisco-based human rights group Center for Justice and Accountability.

The judge said he ruled against Constant because since the unidentified women sued in December 2004 he "has not answered the complaint and the time for answering the complaint has expired."

No attorneys are listed for Constant in the federal filings, and a lawyer representing him in a separate mortgage fraud case declined to comment Thursday.

Constant emerged as the feared leader of a right-wing paramilitary group, the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, after Jean-Bertrand Aristide's presidency was toppled in 1991. FRAPH terrorized and slaughtered slum-dwellers loyal to Aristide between 1991 and 1994, human rights groups say.

The most notorious incident was a 1994 massacre of residents in the Haitian beachfront town of Raboteau, where soldiers and paramilitary personnel burst into dozens of homes to beat and arrest local residents. People who fled were killed in the so-called Raboteau Massacre, although the number of deaths is unknown.

The attack was designed to break the will of Aristide supporters.

Once Aristide returned to power in 1994, Constant fled to New York, living in exile while battling deportation.

In 2000, a Haitian court sentenced Constant to life in prison following his conviction in absentia for the slaughter.

According to court papers, Constant worked exclusively for the last five years in real estate and admitted to investigators that he was involved in numerous fraudulent transactions.

Constant was indicted in July along with five other people for a mortgage fraud linked to a four-bedroom home on Long Island. The defendants pleaded not guilty to charges they stole $750,000 from a pair of financial institutions by using phony buyers for the home.

Constant's take was $45,000, authorities said, and he faces 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Constant was arraigned on charges of grand larceny, forgery and falsifying business records in the mortgage fraud probe and was ordered held on $50,000 bail July 8.

An attorney for him, Edward Palermo, said then that Constant was granted bail because he had no criminal record since coming to the U.S. He said prosecutors, who had asked for Constant's immediate jailing, "tried to take his alleged past history and use it to prejudice the judge."

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