Around the world
NO MOVE: Japan's Supreme Court refused Wednesday to move the trial of an American serviceman accused of raping a schoolgirl off Okinawa, the island where the rape took place. The ruling clears the way for final arguments to be heard against Pfc. Kendrick Ledet, of Waycross, Ga., and the two other U.S. servicemen accused of raping the 12-year-old Okinawan girl last September. The next hearing was scheduled for Jan. 29 in Naha District Court on Okinawa, site of a large U.S. Pacific base.UNREST: Israeli soldiers used rubber bullets Wednesday to disperse Palestinians who threw stones at a bulldozer leveling land for a road and fence around a Jewish settlement on the West Bank. Two Palestinians were wounded and two were arrested, Israel's army radio said.
EXPLOSION: A gas explosion apparently caused by the collapse of a building killed at least nine people in a suburb of Naples, Italy, authorities said Wednesday. Rescue teams working through the night unearthed the bodies and searched for other possible victims. The dead included six construction workers who were building a highway tunnel. Three others were killed when their cars fell into the gaping hole at the disaster site.
Across the nation
GUN TRAGEDY: Two young brothers who went under their landlord's bed to get a cat found a gun instead, leading to a deadly struggle. The boys grappled for the .22-caliber pistol moments before it fired, striking the 9-year-old in the chest and leaving his 7-year-old brother holding the gun. "The little boy was in shock," Osage County Undersheriff John Ferguson said Tuesday in Sand Springs, Okla. "You could tell he didn't understand the seriousness of what happened." Investigators labeled Monday's death an accident.
QUICK-DRAW PAW: Man shoots dog: not unheard of. Dog shoots man - now that's a story. It happened Monday during a hunting outing when a spaniel named Rusty stepped on the trigger of a shotgun and blasted 45-year-old Phillip Smith in both legs. He was hospitalized in satisfactory condition. "It's not funny that the guy got shot," said Martin County, Ky., Sheriff Darriel Young. "But it's kind of funny how he got shot." Young said he had no plans to arrest the dog.