Enough evidence in Blackwater case?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has told a federal appeals court that there was more than enough untainted evidence to justify a trial for five Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad.
In court papers seeking to reinstate criminal charges, the department asserts that some of the evidence tainted by immunized statements in the case was harmless and did not justify scuttling the manslaughter charges against the guards.
In December, a federal judge dismissed the case against the security guards, one from Utah, who had opened fire on a crowded Baghdad street.
Search called off after Arkansas flood
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Authorities have officially called off the search for victims at a western Arkansas campground where 20 people were killed by flash flooding last week.
Gov. Mike Beebe says state agencies on Wednesday ended the search-and-recovery response to flash flooding at the Albert Pike Recreation Area in Montgomery County.
Woman in shooting charged in brother's
CANTON, Mass. (AP) — A biology professor charged with killing three of her colleagues at an Alabama university has been indicted in the 1986 shooting death of her brother in Massachusetts, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Authorities had originally ruled that the shooting of Amy Bishop's brother was an accident, but they reopened the case after Bishop was charged in February with gunning down six of her colleagues at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, killing three.
Bishop, 45, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 18-year-old brother, Seth, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said.
California man dies after 500 bee stings
ENCINITAS, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say a 55-year-old man went into cardiac arrest and died after being stung more than 500 times by bees as he cleared brush from a property in Southern California.
The man was operating a backhoe in Encinitas, in San Diego County, when he was attacked by the bees late Wednesday morning.
Encinitas Deputy Fire Chief Scott Henry says the man ran about 200 yards to an outhouse in an attempt to escape. Henry says firefighters found the man inside in full cardiac arrest.
Firefighters began CPR and took the man to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It wasn't immediately clear if the toxins from the bee stings caused the man to go into cardiac arrest.
4 family members found dead in home
WINCHESTER, Mass. (AP) — Authorities say four family members have been found dead in a "horrific" scene at their Boston-area home. They are looking for the husband of one of the victims for questioning.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone identified the dead as 64-year-old Ellen Stone, her 41-year-old daughter, Laura Stone Mortimer, and Laura's two young children.
Leone says Laura Mortimer's husband, Thomas Mortimer IV, is unaccounted for and is being sought.
He says the victims were found dead late Wednesday morning in their Winchester home after other family members said they had not been able to reach them since Monday night.
Friends of felines hiss city's leash law
BARRE, Vt. (AP) — A clause in a city law that requires cats to be on leashes has sparked a hissing match among fans of free-roaming felines.
A City Council meeting with cats on the agenda drew an unusually large crowd of about 30 people Tuesday night, including one woman who brought three large signs, one of which said, "Arrest criminals, not cats. Can Barre afford a jail for cats?"
City officials cited complaints from some residents about a roaming cat that turned a neighbor's garden into a litter box.
Barre resident Sue Higby called a leash law for cats "a bad idea ... unless you want to have the police department chasing cats around for a million dollars an hour."
Cities around the country and at least one state have enacted or considered cat restraint laws. In 1949, the Illinois Legislature passed "An Act to provide Protection to Insectivorous Birds by Restraining Cats."
It was vetoed by then-Gov. Adlai Stevenson.
Muggers punch, rob Russian ballerina
NEW YORK (AP) — Police say muggers punched a Russian ballerina in the face and took her pointe shoes while she was returning home from a performance in New York City.
Natalia Osipova was walking home on Manhattan's Upper West Side around midnight Tuesday when she was attacked by two men. They punched her in the face and stole her bag, which contained pointe shoes valued at about $100.
American Ballet Theatre officials say she suffered minor injuries and was cleared by doctors to perform.
Osipova is a star of the Bolshoi Ballet. She's a guest artist at the American Ballet Theatre and is scheduled to perform Saturday at the Ballet Theatre's performance of "Sleeping Beauty." She is to debut as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" on July 10.
Police are searching for the muggers.