ISRAEL TO BUY 50 F-16 FIGHTERS FROM PENTAGON FOR $2 BILLION
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon said Friday it intends to sell 50 F-16 fighters to Israel for $2 billion.The deal includes radars and navigation-targeting systems, associated support equipment and contractor services.
A Defense Department statement said Israel needs the aircraft, built by Lockheed Martin Corp. of Orlando, Fla., to supplement its present inventory of fighter planes and to improve its defense against air threats.
POLICE ARREST 2 EX-CONVICTS IN DISAPPEARANCE OF ATHEIST
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A second ex-convict has been ordered held in Michigan on a federal weapons count as investigators try to determine whether he and a former prison mate had any role in the 1995 disappearance of atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
Gary P. Karr, 50, of Novi, Mich., was arrested after FBI agents and police searched his suburban Detroit apartment Wednesday and found two loaded handguns, court papers allege.
Also on Wednesday, authorities searched David Waters' apartment in Austin and arrested him after reportedly finding 119 rounds of ammunition.
Waters once was O'Hair's office manager in Austin and was convicted in 1995 of theft in his stealing $54,000 from the O'Hair organizations.
Both men, who for eight months in the mid-1980s were inmates at the same minimum-security prison in Vienna, Ill., were charged this week with weapons counts under a federal statute barring felons from possessing ammunition or firearms.
Both remained jailed Saturday.
Karr served more than 20 years in Illinois prisons after a 1974 crime spree that included rape, kidnapping and armed robbery.
He left prison in May 1995, four months before the disappearance from San Antonio of O'Hair -- the founder of American Atheists Inc. -- as well as her son, Jon Garth Murray, and granddaughter, Robin Murray O'Hair. The three vanished along with $500,000 in gold.
The San Antonio Express-News reported Saturday that evidence puts Karr and Waters in San Antonio about the same time in 1995.
Waters and Karr have not been charged in connection with the O'Hair case.
MAN FOUND GUILTY OF KILLING DRIVER WHILE TEST-FIRING A GUN
BUCKINGHAM, Va. (AP) -- A man who shot and killed a passing driver while test-firing a pistol has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
David Lee Connell, 29, was convicted Friday. He will be sentenced in May.
In what both defense lawyers and prosecutors called a tragic accident, Connell shot John M. Sollecito while Sollecito was driving down a rural county road on Oct. 11.
Police said Sollecito, 49, was chatting with his wife when his side window shattered and he slumped forward, dead. His wife and a companion were able to stop the car without crashing.
At the time, Connell was test-firing a Colt .45 pistol in a friend's yard. He testified he was aiming downhill at a tin can, thinking the bullet could never make it to the road.
The bullet careened off a log beneath Connell's target and then hit Sollecito's rear-view mirror before striking him in the eye.
"From the direction I was shooting, I wasn't shooting at the road," Connell said.
DEER DARTS ONTO A HIGHWAY, LEAVING 2 MOTORISTS DEAD
GERMANTOWN, Wis. (AP) -- A deer darted onto a six-lane highway, causing a series of accidents that left a husband and wife dead and six other motorists injured.
The accidents began about 10:30 p.m. Friday on U.S. 41 north of Milwaukee when the couple flipped their sport utility vehicle after either hitting the deer or trying to avoid it, police said.
The southbound SUV flipped onto the highway median, throwing a 24-year-old woman into northbound lanes, where she was run over. Her 23-year-old husband was struck and killed after going to her aid.
"She got hit once, and then he may have been hit at least one more time, possibly three," said Germantown police Lt. Peter Hoell. The couple was not immediately identified.
Three vehicles crashed while trying to avoid their bodies, injuring six others, Hoell said. All six were hospitalized but their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, he said.
U.S. 41 was closed in both directions for nearly six hours and reopened about 4 a.m. Saturday.
PHYLLIS MCGUIRE CHARGED IN LAS VEGAS POLICE INCIDENT
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Phyllis McGuire is facing charges of battery and obstructing a police officer following a confrontation near her home in a posh Las Vegas neighborhood.
Police claim the 68-year-old singer verbally and physically abused officers who asked her to get out of her car during an incident late Wednesday.
Las Vegas metropolitan police officer Shannon McHale said in an arrest report that McGuire, a member of the famous musical trio the McGuire Sisters, became so unruly that detectives made an audiotape of the episode as it unfolded.
McGuire did not immediately return a phone call.
BORDER PATROL ACCIDENT KILLS OFFICER, 3 OTHERS IN CALIFORNIA
SAN YSIDRO, Calif. (AP) -- A Border Patrol sport-utility vehicle rolled off a treacherous dirt road near the Mexican border Saturday, killing an agent and three unidentified people.
Four other passengers were injured and taken to nearby hospitals.
Authorities learned of the accident about 7 a.m. Saturday when three of the injured men approached an agent driving nearby and told him a Border Patrol vehicle had rolled down an embankment in the remote area about a half mile north of the border.
The officer called for help and was able to find the accident site after hiking down the steep hillside, said Robert Smith, a Border Patrol agent. Rescuers took the three men, who were passengers in the vehicle, and a fourth victim to local hospitals, and their condition was not immediately known, he said.
The driver, who was the only Border Patrol agent in the vehicle, and three other men were already dead, Smith said.
It was unclear what caused the accident or who passengers in the vehicle were, Smith said.
"We assume them to be illegal immigrants," he said. "The only person that would have known that was the driver of the vehicle, and he was killed in the accident."
BATTERED-WOMAN DEFENSE BEATS DRUNK-DRIVING CHARGE
WRENTHAM, Mass. (AP) -- A woman was acquitted of drunken driving after claiming she failed four sobriety tests because she feared she would be beaten by her husband.
The battered woman's syndrome defense is often used in murder cases, but Kathleen Barrett is one of the first defendants to use the strategy against a drunken-driving charge, said her attorney, Victor Sloan.
A jury found Barrett, 35, innocent of driving while under the influence. Instead, she was fined $35 for failing to stay in her lane. The jury deliberated less than two hours earlier this month.
Sloan said Barrett and her husband, who were married nine years, had a physically and emotionally abusive relationship.
"Yes, her driving was impaired, but it was not because of alcohol," Sloan said. "It was because of . . . the abusive relationship."
She told police she drank three beers Jan. 23 over a four-hour period, but claimed she was not intoxicated. Barrett refused to take a Breathalyzer test and failed parts of four sobriety tests.
She had been looking for her husband who had stormed off after an argument. Sloan said Barrett feared she'd be beaten if she didn't find him.
UNION DISPUTE KILLS PLANS TO FILM 'BAYWATCH' IN HAWAII
HONOLULU (Reuters) -- "Baywatch," the popular U.S. soap opera about a bunch of athletic lifeguards, is off to Australia after the Teamsters labor union refused to take a pay cut to allow filming in Hawaii, a producer said.
Producers for the syndicated program based in Santa Monica, Calif., have been looking for a new beach location for the series in an effort to breathe new life into its story lines and scenic shots. The choice had come down to Hawaii and Australia.
Producer Greg Bonann said on Friday that the union in Hawaii had been asked to take an 11 percent cut but that it rejected the proposal.
"I am shocked, rocked and outraged by the misinformed leadership of the Teamsters," Bonann said.
Teamster union officials could not be reached for comment. But earlier, they had expressed deep opposition to the proposed reduction in pay.