MARLBORO, Mass. -- The release of computer-generated images of a woman's face, developed from a skull found buried with other human remains on a private school campus, led to 30 calls and at least one solid lead, police said.

The images of the possible murder victim were developed by a forensic anthropologist and graphic artist from the Boston Police Department. The images were released publicly Monday.

Police Chief Mark Leonard said the best tip came from someone who said the images resembled a woman the caller knew who had been missing for some time. Leonard declined to say where the caller or missing woman was from, but he told the MetroWest Daily News that he was seeking dental records in one case.

The remains of two women were found last month buried in the woods behind the Hillside School. One woman was identified as Carmen Rudy, a 29-year-old mother of two from Worcester.

The second woman is described as white, about 5 feet tall and between 20 and 35 years old.

Ballerina files lawsuit against Bolshoi Theater's administration

MOSCOW -- The next act of ballerina Anastasia Volochkova's battle with the Bolshoi will take place in court.

Volochkova, who was fired from the Bolshoi Theater amid allegations that she was too heavy for male dancers to lift, filed a lawsuit in a Moscow court seeking back pay and other damages, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Wednesday.

The Tverskoi district court scheduled the initial hearing for Monday into Volochkova's suit against the Bolshoi administration.

The Bolshoi fired the 27-year-old dancer last month over a contract dispute. It came amid allegations that her weight made it difficult for the Bolshoi to find roles for the star ballerina.

Russia's Labor Ministry said her firing violated Russian labor laws and called on the Bolshoi to reinstate her. But the ministry acknowledged that the final decision rested with the theater, and the Bolshoi has refused to budge.

"Unfortunately, I have to do it because I am seeking justice and want to assert my rights as well as the rights of other artists," Volochkova was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying. "Being on the Bolshoi staff means so much to me, and I believe that my dismissal was illegal."

ITAR-Tass, citing Volochkova's lawyer Lev Zubovsky, said the ballerina was seeking damages in "merely a symbolic sum."

The Bolshoi Theater said it had no immediate comment.

Volochkova, who is 5-feet-6 and weighs about 110, has called talk of her weight "humiliating and absurd for Russian ballet.

Huge search mounted for girl believed abducted from Toronto home

TORONTO -- Police scoured a suburban Toronto neighborhood Wednesday for any trace of Cecilia Zhang, a 9-year-old girl reported missing from her home two days earlier.

The girl was missing from her room Monday morning when her mother went to wake her, setting off an investigation involving hundreds of police officers and volunteers in the North York neighborhood where Cecilia's extended family lives.

Police have refused to comment on any evidence so far, but consider it an abduction. Media reports focus on a broken window at the home that could have been the access point for an intruder.

Sgt. Jim Muscat of the Toronto police said Wednesday that police have received numerous tips in the case and urged people to report any possible information on the case. But he said the girl's family had not received a ransom note or other similar kind of communication.

Search teams have checked vehicles and gone house-to-house in the area, and the girl's family made a public plea for whoever is holding Cecilia to her go.

Jack Jia, a family friend, issued a statement on behalf of the family Wednesday that urged the girl's abductor to call a lawyer or Jia if there was a fear of contacting police.

"You made a mistake already. We don't want you to make another mistake," Jia said. He also asked whoever has the girl to provide books for her because "she loves to read."

On Tuesday, forensic investigators removed several bags of evidence from the family home, and Muscat read a message from the girl's parents.

"To whoever has Cecilia, please return her home safely. Please drop her off at a safe location so the police can bring her home," said the parents' message read by Muscat. He described the couple as devastated.

"They are extremely distraught; they are holding up as well as they can under the circumstances," Muscat said.

The case has drawn widespread media coverage, leading television newscasts and getting front-page play in major newspapers.

World's best domino players ready to 'crack bones' at championship in Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Brian Baylie, a mild-mannered exterminator by day, becomes a cutthroat domino player by night, clacking pieces together on bar room tables and intimidating opponents.

From the beaches of Barbados to the cafes of Cuba, dominoes long have been a favorite pastime in the Caribbean. Now, more than 500 of the world's best players are converging on Jamaica for the World Championship of Dominoes.

"Jamaicans take dominoes very seriously," said Baylie, 38, who challenges his computer when he cannot find opponents on the streets of Jamaica. "It's is an accepted part of life here."

The three-day tournament beginning Thursday at the Ocho Rios resort will have players from a dozen Caribbean countries, the United States, Britain and Mexico squaring off for more than $150,000 in cash and prizes.

According to the Internet site worlddomino.com, the oldest known domino set was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, king of ancient Egypt about 1355 B.C.

The Chinese played it as early as 1120 A.D., using tiles carved from ivory or bone with inset ebony pips. It did not reach Europe until the early 18th century, when it appeared in Italy, France and England before spreading from taverns and pubs to the far-flung British colonies in the Caribbean.

Modern leaders also have been aficionados - including President Lyndon B. Johnson, worlddomino.com says.

The game has been eulogized in poems and stories, including Puerto Rican poet Jack Agueros' "Dominoes & Other Stories" and U.S.-Dominican writer Elvys Ruiz's collection of political plays titled "Coffee and Dominoes."

"I like it because it's a brain game, a mental challenge," said Buxton Rankin, 56, one of about 50 players hunched over felt-lined tables at a Kingston nightspot, preparing for the championship.

First place is worth $25,000, second $12,500 and third $7,500.

In straight dominoes, the game most common in the Caribbean, a pair of two-player teams take turns trying to match the number of dots on their pieces with those on the table. The first team to get rid of all its pieces wins.

Like any game, dominoes also has its share of cheaters. Championship judges and surveillance cameras will watch players to guard against illegal "coding," a prearranged system of gestures - like coughing or scratching one's head - used by partners to communicate strategy or indicate which pieces they hold.

Last year, officials banned two Jamaican players for life after they were caught using sandpaper to mark pieces to see which ones remained.

Some players liken the game to poker as they try to gauge opponents' moves.

"Dominoes in Jamaica is synonymous to baseball in America," said Chris Blake, general secretary of the National Association of Domino Bodies, which regulates the game on the island of 2.6 million people. "It's second nature to us."

On Jamaican streets, the style of play is loud.

Players thump domino pieces, or "bones," on wooden tables to intimidate opponents and erupt in joy after a winning hand. Insults - and the occasional fist - fly in heated games.

Matches continue for hours at night, to the chagrin of spouses and family members.

The game, while known for cutting across class and race, traditionally has been dominated by men. However, more women are joining clubs, entering tournaments - and even winning.

"Once the guys realize you can play and aren't a pushover, then they respect you," said Ann-Marie Benjamin, 38, of Jamaica.

It's all part of efforts to bring uniformity and discipline to the game, said Ruddy Schaaffe, the Miami-based chairman of the World Championship of Dominoes.

And the ultimate goal?

"We'd like to see dominoes become an Olympic event," Schaaffe said. "It has a long way to go, but the light in the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter."

On the Net:

World Championship of Dominoes, http://www.airjamaica.com/domino/tournament.asp

Video shows Columbine gunmen laughing during target practice

GOLDEN, Colo. -- A videotape of the Columbine High School gunmen laughing and shooting at trees and bowling pins six weeks before they killed 12 classmates and a teacher was released to the public Wednesday.

"Imagine that in someone's (expletive) brain," Eric Harris says.

The tape of Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed suicide after the rampage on April 20, 1999, shows at least four weapons, including automatic rifles, shotguns and a pistol.

Clad in a trenchcoat, Klebold at one point holds a sawed-off shotgun and shoots from the hip at a bowling pin wedged between two tree limbs. He and Harris then look at a bullet-shredded tree trunk.

Harris also blows across the muzzle of a shotgun like a gunslinger.

The homemade tape was released at the urging of the Jefferson County sheriff's office and a task force established by the attorney general's office, both of which want to make evidence in the case public.

The sheriff's office earlier released surveillance video showing the teenagers as they entered the high school cafeteria during their rampage.

Randy Brown, a member of the task force, said he and his wife warned sheriff's deputies more than a year before the shootings that Harris had threatened to kill one of their sons.

"The videotape is important," Brown said. "What's really important is did the sheriff see it, did the school see it, or did the parents see it? How many opportunities were missed to stop these two killers?"

Also on the tape were Philip Duran and Marc Manes, both of whom were charged with providing the teens with guns. The men were in their 20s at the time of the shootings.

Duran was sentenced in June 2000 to 4.5 years in prison; Manes was sentenced in 1999 to six years in prison.

Explosion and fire rock Minnesota ethanol plant; one man killed

BENSON, Minn. -- An explosion and fire rocked a plant where corn is turned into ethanol Wednesday, killing one worker and injuring another man, officials said.

Robert Olson, 20, was working near a storage tank filled with 40,000 gallons of corn mash when it exploded at Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co., authorities said.

The tank was thrown about 75 feet and landed on a tanker truck filled with ethanol, causing the fire.

Firefighters from 11 surrounding towns fought the blaze and pumped water on rail cars to keep them cool, Sheriff Kenneth Hanson said.

Troy Leonard was taken to a hospital with acid burns, according to a hospital spokesman. He was reported in fair condition.

Authorities did not know what caused the storage tank to explode. The blast occurred in the part of the plant where corn is turned into mash, which is later processed into ethanol.

About 40 people work at the plant, which also produces alcohol used for vodka and products such as hair spray and mouthwash. Olson was a contractor with Lundin Construction of Hanley Falls.

Gary Klemm, who works at a nearby plant, said he saw the explosion demolish the storage tank.

"I was coming down the road and I saw the top blow right off," Klemm said.

Benson is about 120 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

On the Net:

Chippewa Valley Ethanol: http://www.cvec.com/

Staten Island ferry captain refuses again to meet with investigators

NEW YORK -- The city Wednesday moved to fire the Staten Island Ferry captain involved in last week's fatal crash after he refused for a second day to meet with federal investigators.

"We are drawing up charges as we speak based on his refusal to cooperate," said Iris Weinshall, city transportation commissioner.

Michael Gansas, who supervised the pilot operating the ferry when the crash occurred, had refused to meet with National Transportation Safety Board investigators on Tuesday, prompting federal officials to issue a subpoena. On Wednesday, Gansas' attorney, Stephen Sheinbaum, said his client remained too traumatized to speak with investigators and was under medical care.

Gansas failed to show up at the Staten Island hotel where he was supposed to meet with NTSB officials.

"Mr. Gansas remains with his family as they try to deal with the tragic consequences of last week's events," Sheinbaum said. "Mr. Gansas is being unfairly vilified by those who should know better."

Sheinbaum added that Gansas plans to cooperate when he is "legally and medically free to do so."

Hours before the scheduled meeting, Weinshall said she notified Gansas that he was suspended effective immediately over his refusal to cooperate.

The captain's whereabouts at the time of the crash last week are considered a vital element of the probe because he could have provided backup if, as investigators suspect, the pilot, Richard Smith, blacked out at the throttle before the ferry plowed into a pier, killing 10 people and injuring dozens.

Smith, the assistant captain, remained in critical condition and unable to talk after attempting suicide, his attorney said.

NTSB spokesman Terry Williams said he was unaware that Gansas had refused to be interviewed and did not immediately comment on the consequences.

State Rep. Vito Fossella, who represents Staten Island, suggested that the borough's district attorney empanel a special grand jury to question the captain if he refuses to speak to federal authorities. The DA's office is also investigating the crash.

Fossella said that federal investigators told him that "all indications are there was another crew member in the wheelhouse prior to the impact," but it wasn't the captain.

"I think the crux of this investigation is going to hinge upon the information provided by the two captains," Fossella said, "and that has yet to take place."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said earlier that it was "an outrage that somebody who can give us information to perhaps find out how we can improve service refuses to talk. A person like that has no business working for the city, and we will take every legal action we can to get his testimony."

Bloomberg also said that the city will institute reforms including requiring an extra person to be in the pilot's cabin while the ferry is crossing New York Harbor. Current rules require a second person to be in the wheelhouse only during docking.

The ferries will also be outfitted with new radios and global positioning satellite technology, he said.

Some investigators have speculated that Smith's blood pressure medication may have caused him to lose consciousness.

Gansas told police immediately after the accident that he was in the pilot house and that he tried to pull Smith off the controls after he lost consciousness, an official familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.

At least one deckhand has told investigators that Gansas was not in the pilot house, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The deckhand's account was questioned by Gansas, who said the crew member was not in a position to see anyone in the pilot house, the official said.

Sheinbaum said Gansas has earned commendations for saving lives, including "once leaping into the water and putting his own life at risk." The city Department of Transportation, which maintains the ferry fleet, confirmed that Gansas received a commendation in 1991.

Former Visalia police officer acquitted on sex charges

VISALIA -- A former Visalia police officer was found innocent Wednesday of charges that he had sex with a 16-year-old boy.

The teenager said he had sex with Brian Pinto, 26, on two separate occasions.

Pinto denied the allegations and said he was acting as a mentor to the boy.

Pinto was placed on paid administrative leave after his arrest and was terminated from his position in April. He was charged with two counts of committing sodomy and one count of committing oral copulation with a minor.

Another defendant in the case, Justin Helt, 20, pleaded no contest to five counts of having sex with a minor and was sentenced to six months in jail in March. He has since served his sentence and been released.

Hasbro Inc. sues creator of Ghettopoly, saying 'racist' board game damages Monopoly trademark

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The company that makes the Monopoly board game has sued the man who created "Ghettopoly" -- a knockoff featuring "playas" who build crack houses on Cheap Trick Avenue instead of hotels on Boardwalk.

The lawsuit by Hasbro Inc. seeks unspecified damages from David Chang, alleging he violated Hasbro's trademarks and copyrights and created "irreparable injury" to Hasbro's reputation. It also wants the court to order Chang to stop producing and selling Ghettopoly.

"While the genuine Monopoly game has become a wholesome and respected American icon … the Ghettopoly knockoff has generated a firestorm of controversy for its highly offensive, racist content," said the filing Tuesday in Providence federal court.

Ghettopoly mimics Monopoly, except game pieces include a gun and marijuana leaf. In place of the "Mr. Monopoly" logo of a man with his arms outstretched, Ghettopoly uses a caricature of a black man holding a submachine gun and bottle of malt liquor.

The game drew outrage from minority leaders this month after it began selling at Urban Outfitters stores. The retail chain stopped its sales of the game, and Yahoo! and eBay notified Chang they would halt online sales.

"I just can't believe they are doing that," Chang, 28, told The Associated Press. He said he intends to fight the lawsuit.

Chang, who said he is Asian, said he got the idea for the game while watching "MTV Cribs," a television show that often features the homes of rap artists.

"I came up with something that has an urban edge," he said. "I didn't make the game to offend anybody."

Chang said he did not know how much money he has made off of Ghettopoly so far.

Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, is the parent company of Parker Brothers, which began producing Monopoly in 1935.

On the Net:

http://www.hasbro.com

http://www.ghettopoly.com

Photographer Helmut Newton donates 1,000 pictures to Berlin, which he fled during Nazi era

BERLIN -- Acclaimed fashion photographer Helmut Newton donated more than 1,000 pictures Wednesday to a new gallery in Berlin, the birthplace he fled during the Nazi era.

Wearing pink sunglasses at a news conference, he said he was "very proud" to have his work on display in his hometown.

While Newton has also photographed celebrities and nature scenes, he is best known for his black-and-white images of nearly nude models in poses suggesting sadomasochism. Over the years his work has appeared magazines such as Playboy, Elle and Vogue.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called Newton's donation a "sign of reconciliation."

"You can chase a man out of his home but you can't rip his home out of his soul," Schroeder said in a letter.

Still spirited at 82, Newton took photos of his wife, June, and Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit during the news conference. "I'm very proud that my photos have landed in my hometown, and not just the nudes but also the fashion and landscape snapshots," Newton said in German.

Newton's work - along with photography by his wife, who works under the name Alice Springs - will appear in a new photo gallery near Berlin's main train station downtown next June.

The two are financing the building's renovation and the display of their photos; a state-supported foundation will fund and administer the rest of the gallery, which will exhibit photos now in storage in city museums.

Newton, who is Jewish, fled Hitler's Germany for Singapore in December 1938. He settled in Australia, where he became a citizen. He now lives in Monte Carlo.

While he made clear he was not ready to donate his entire archive, he suggested it would eventually go to the city.

"We don't have any children, so when we kick the bucket of course we'll leave them to Berlin," he said.

74-year-old hunter safe after weekend lost in rugged area, encounter with mountain lion

SALT LAKE CITY -- A 74-year-old deer hunter was found safe after spending nearly four days lost in a rugged area of southwestern Utah, where he spent part of one day being stalked by a mountain lion.

Rudy Lopez Sr. was found by Forest Service workers Tuesday after the crew of a search plane spotted the orange hunting vest he had hung in a tree as a signal, the Beaver County sheriff's office said.

Lopez was taken to Beaver Valley Hospital, where he was dehydrated and disoriented but in good spirits, the sheriff's office said.

"He's a survivor," said his wife, Mona Lopez.

Lopez was part of a family hunting group from Victorville and Chino Hills, who had camped in Jimmy Reed Creek Canyon, near Beaver about 100 miles north of Zion National Park.

He became lost and disoriented Saturday morning, he said in a hospital interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.

On Sunday, while hiking down a canyon looking for water, he spotted a mountain lion, then hid in heavy timber while the big cat stalked him.

"After 10 hours I finally just had to shoot the mountain lion because it wouldn't leave me alone," Lopez said. "I emptied my gun into his chest."

A search helicopter flew directly over him that afternoon, Beaver County Sheriff's Sgt. Dave Mott said.

"It was so thick in dense cover, we just couldn't see him," he said.

His orange vest was spotted in a tree Tuesday, and a few minutes later members of a Forest Service brush clearing crew saw him waving his arms.

"He was very chipper. He was very dehydrated but very glad to be found," Mott said. "He looked a lot better than I expected him to."

Lopez had a down-filled jacket and a sweat shirt, but told rescuers the nights were mild.

At the hospital, Lopez's first priority Tuesday evening was a shower, said his daughter, Kathy Lening.

"Other than a couple cuts and scrapes, he seems to be fine. It's a miracle," she said.

Pacific hurricane weakens off of Mexico.

MEXICO CITY -- Hurricane Patricia slipped to just barely hurricane force on Wednesday while advancing northwestward well off the Mexican coast.

Patricia grew to hurricane force on Tuesday and soon had winds of about 80 mph.

By Wednesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm's winds appeared to have slipped to about 75 mph. It was about 500 miles south-southwest of the port of Manzanillo and it was heading to the west-northwest at about 9 mph.

Early forecasts showed the storm's possible track heading toward the Los Cabos resort area and the Baja California Sur state capital of La Paz, but forecasters had shifted the likely track a bit to the west by Wednesday.

Street vendor leader arrested

MEXICO CITY -- Street vendors protested in the streets outside Mexico City's local legislature on Wednesday to protest the arrest of their leader, Alejandra Barrios, who is accused of involvement in the slaying of a rival's husband.

Dozens of members of her Legitimate Civic Commercial Association were held back by city police as city Attorney General Bernardo Batiz appeared for an appointment with city assembly members.

Barrios arrested on Tuesday in Tlalnepantla, a suburb of Mexico City.

Police had been seeking her since August, when Jorge Ramirez, husband of rival group leader Maria Rossete, was shot to death during a confrontation between the two organizations.

Barrios' attorney, Francisco Castaneda, told the government's Notimex news agency on Wednesday that his client was not involved in the shooting and had not been at the scene.

City officials have been trying to sharply restrict the thousands of unlicensed vendors who often clog streets in central Mexico City.

Niagara Falls survivor says leap was a death wish, but made him want to live

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario -- The man who walked away virtually unharmed from a plunge over Niagara Falls said he had been suicidal, but the experience made him want to live.

The comments contradict statements from authorities suggesting Kirk Jones was simply a daredevil - the latest in a long line who have sought to conquer Niagara Falls over the last century.

Jones, 40, was released from the hospital into police custody Wednesday evening, but authorities did not immediately release information on where he was taken.

In a note to a fellow patient who was released from the hospital, Jones said life has much to offer.

"When you are feeling down, just remember the power of the Niagara," said the handwritten note, which Brandon Steward said was given to him by Jones.

In a telephone interview with ABC News, Jones said he did not want to go on living when he climbed over a guardrail and into the churning Niagara River on Monday. "But I can tell you now after hitting the falls I feel that life is worth living," he said.

His father, Raymond Jones of Keizer, Ore., told The Associated Press that his son sounded cheerful Wednesday in a phone call from the psychiatric unit at Greater Niagara General Hospital.

"He feels peppy," the 80-year-old father said. "He fully expected to die. He was near death. He knew it. He thinks he was saved for a reason."

The Canton, Mich., native is the only person known to have survived a plunge over the falls without a safety device. Others have ridden in barrels or other protection; a 7-year-old boy wearing a life preserver survived in 1960.

Inspector Paul Forcier said the incident was not being treated as a suicide, but Jones was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.

Forcier said police were reviewing a videotape shot by a friend who accompanied Jones to the park. Jones will be charged with mischief and unlawfully performing a stunt and could be fined the U.S. equivalent of about $7,600, Forcier said.

Family and friends have said Jones had been considering the jump for years. Eric Fronek, 21, told ABC that his friend had discussed it in the past, but was driven to act by depression.

"I think he just reached the point where whatever happened was the best plan for him," Fronek said. "If he made it, he might benefit with money. If he died, so be it."

Jones recently lost his sales job when his parents shut down the family business, which made measuring tools for auto parts manufacturers. His father said he closed the business because of the slow auto economy.

"He was a good salesman," the elder Jones said. He said surviving the fall has given his son an impetus to look for work after first visiting his parents in Oregon.

If Jones was suicidal, he would not be the first survivor to experience a change of heart, a suicide expert said.

"A lot of times people, when they've been spared, get this feeling that somehow it's been intended, that they have a mission or something," Dr. Richard Seiden said.

Jones said his change of heart occurred when he jumped into the water. "At that point I wished I had not done it. But I guess I knew it was way too late for that," he said.

Going over the falls was like "being in a giant tunnel, going straight down, surrounded by water," Jones told ABC. He said he "hit hard," was turned upside down in the water below, then pushed out far enough by the current to climb onto a rock.

Jones was expected to appear in court for a bail hearing Thursday.

Rivers slowly drop below flood stage in western Washington

HAMILTON, Wash. -- Residents returned home as rain-swollen rivers started to drop below flood stage Wednesday, but were told to boil water and wear gloves to protect themselves from contaminated floodwaters.

Only two of the 10 flooded rivers in western Washington were still over flood stage by midday Wednesday. The Skagit and Skokomish rivers were expected to recede late Thursday or early Friday.

Determined sandbagging helped limit damage in Mount Vernon as the Skagit River crested at 36.2 feet, more than 8 feet above flood stage.

"It was like a carnival" Tuesday as townspeople erected sandbag walls along the river, said Leon Torrey, whose restaurant was sheltered by sandbags at the back door. "There were thousands of people out here."

Upriver at Concrete, about 40 miles east of Mount Vernon, the waters of the Skagit reached a record 42.2 feet.

A distraught Wendy Haggin was waiting for help getting across the flooded access road to Hamilton, which is between Mount Vernon and Concrete and was inundated by the Skagit.

She said she'd heard her two-story house was flooded to the attic, where she and her husband had moved their belongings before leaving. "It's all gone, everything we had is gone," she said.

Gov. Gary Locke added four counties to the previous three where states of emergency had been declared. Damage assessment was just beginning.

Many of the 3,000 Skagit County residents forced out of their homes were expected to return quickly, said Ric Boge, a public works spokesman.

Flooding during heavy rains this week - Seattle-Tacoma International Airport logged a one-day rainfall record Monday at 5.2 inches - was compounded by a storm late last week that flooded several area rivers and left soil saturated.

Actor Fred 'Rerun' Berry of 'What's Happening!' fame dies at 52

LOS ANGELES -- Fred Berry, the bulb-shaped, squeaky-voiced actor famous for playing red-beret-wearing Rerun on the 1970s TV sitcom "What's Happening!" has died at age 52, police said Wednesday.

Berry died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles of apparent natural causes, police Officer Jason Lee said. The county coroner was investigating the exact nature of the death, but friends said Berry had been in ill health due to a recent stroke.

He wore his red beret and suspenders in real life, and it was unclear whether he originally brought his own style to the character of Rerun or whether he was forever mimicking the character that made him famous.

Rerun was a 1970s version of latter-day goofball TV characters like Steve Urkel from "Family Matters": loud, a little whiny, a little dim and definitely geeky. "What's Happening!", which ran from 1976-1979, focused on three teenage friends - Rerun, Raj and Dwayne - who learn about life, women and trouble while growing up in Los Angeles.

Among the more famous episodes was one in which Rerun joined a bizarre cult and another in which he got busted for making bootlegged tapes of a Doobie Brothers concert.

The name Rerun, according to Berry, referred to the character's brainlessness: In the summer, he had to rerun all the classes he failed during the school year.

Berry's success on the show was clouded by his heavy use of marijuana and cocaine. "There were dealers right there in the studio, people that worked there," he said in 1996. "In the '70s, it was like that on a lot of TV shows. It was the Hollywood lifestyle then. Everybody was doing it."

By the time "What's Happening!" ended, Berry said he had blown more than a million dollars on drugs, cars, homes and an airplane. With no acting jobs heading his way, Berry tried to live off his fame by charging to appear at shopping malls.

Even later in life, he was still cashing in: lately, he earned money by calling fans on the telephone with the service www.HollywoodIsCalling.com. About $30 would earn a fan a 30 second call.

Berry's love life was another complication. He married a dancer while in his 20s, and the two divorced, remarried and divorced again. Berry repeated that performance with his second wife, whom he married and divorced twice (most recently in 1991). He also married and divorced two other women.

Rerun brought Berry another brief moment of success in 1985, when "What's Happening!" was revived as the syndicated "What's Happening Now!" Berry quit in a contract dispute after the first season and the show ended in 1987.

By 1986, Berry says, he abandoned drugs and started to speak at churches, schools and other groups, finally working as a minister in Madison, Ala., at the New Shiloh Church Ministry.

He was still dabbling in show business. Berry recently appeared on the TV shows "Star Dates" on the E! Entertainment Network, MTV's "Doggy Fizzle Televizzle" with Snoop Dogg and in a cameo role in the David Spade comedy film "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star."

Funeral services were unclear late Wednesday.

Elliott Smith, Academy Award-nominated songwriter, dies at 34

LOS ANGELES -- Elliott Smith's biggest moment in the spotlight was his surreal performance at the 1998 Academy Awards, when he looked small and uncomfortable with a white suit and acoustic guitar as he strummed a song from "Good Will Hunting."

The song, "Miss Misery," later lost to Celine Dion's "Titanic" power ballad.

Smith, 34, who had become reclusive in recent years, was found in his Los Angeles apartment on Tuesday with a single stab wound to the chest that appeared to be self-inflicted, coroner's records supervisor Marsha Grigsby said Wednesday. He was pronounced dead at County-USC Medical Center.

"He sort of shut everyone out for the last three or four years, he just became really reclusive," said Mary Lou Lord, a singer-songwriter who toured with Smith and has covered his songs. "Maybe he was in a downward spiral and he didn't want to take everyone else with him."

Smith said he never sought fame, but his evocative lyrics, persistent melodies and unexpected chord changes made him a respected and admired songwriter. His songs told stories of lost love, loneliness and addiction.

Smith had recently spoken in interviews about his struggles with alcoholism.

"When I lived in New York I was really a bad alcoholic for a few years," he told Under the Radar magazine in an interview published in June 2003.

To quit drinking, Smith told the magazine, he had undergone treatment at the Neurotransmitter Restoration Center in Beverly Hills, which administers an intravenous solution meant to clear the bloodstream of toxins.

Smith released five solo albums that were hailed by rock critics but garnered only modest commercial success.

His songs were often compared with those of the Beatles, his favorite band. He said his first exposure to the intrinsic style of finger-picking that would become his hallmark came with the Beatles' "Blackbird."

He addressed dark subject matter lyrically but tried to distance himself from the label of confessional songwriter.

"I don't think anybody can get a fair assessment of anybody as a person from listening to their records," he told AP Radio in 2000. "That would be like saying that you can get a fair assessment of someone because they told you a dream they had last night."

Still, he made no effort to hide his depression and alcohol abuse on songs including "Miss Misery," and "St. Ides Heaven," in which he sings, "Everything is exactly right/when I walk around here drunk every night/with an open container from 7-11/in St. Ides heaven."

Smith was born Steven Paul Smith on Aug. 6, 1969, in Omaha, Neb. His mother was a singer and his father was a psychiatrist. He spent most of his childhood with his mother in the suburbs of Dallas and then moved to Portland, Ore., in high school to live with his father.

Smith started composing songs when he was 13 and began calling himself Elliott in middle school because Steve sounded too "jockish." he told a reporter,

Smith later joined a Portland punk band called Heatmiser. On the side, he recorded several solo albums - "Roman Candle" (1994), "Elliott Smith" (1995) and "Either/Or" (1997), all on independent labels - that won him a devoted underground following.

In 1997, he moved to New York City, where film director Gus Van Sant approached him with an offer to use several of Smith's songs on the soundtrack to "Good Will Hunting." The hit movie brought Smith's music to a mainstream audience.

Smith subsequently signed with Dreamworks Records and recorded two albums with bigger budgets that featured denser arrangements than his early work. "XO" (1998) and "Figure 8" (2000) took him to the middle reaches of Billboard's Top 200 albums chart.

Smith remained a favorite of film directors. His cover of The Beatles' "Because," plays over the closing credits of "American Beauty," and his song "Needle in the Hay" plays during "The Royal Tenenbaums" as one of the characters attempts suicide.

Smith said he never objected to being best known for "Good Will Hunting."

"I liked that movie. I thought it was really nice that Gus put my songs in it," he said. "There's always some sort of name tag on any band, any person, so if that's the one I have, that's great."

Odds and ends

PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia -- A 30-year-old mystery was solved when the mummified remains of a once-unruly monkey that vanished from a store were found in an old downtown store.

Bryon Hill, working on a renovation crew in this central British Columbia town, said he was "totally shocked" to find the mummified squirrel monkey above the ceilingthis week.

The monkey, about 2 feet from head to the end of the tail, died with its hands around a pipe and was so rigid that Hill could hold it straight up by balancing the end of the tail in his hand.

"I poked it to see if was alive and phoned the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to see if there could be any health risks from working with it," said Hill. "It was hanging on tight, and we had to pry it off."

The monkey "is pretty much mummified," said Jared Hansen, an SPCA animal care attendant. "All that's left is the skeleton and dried tannish brown and white hair. All the major features like eyes have disappeared."

The monkey got increasingly ill-tempered because of taunting by children and vanished from the store's pet department. Employees at the time believed it had escaped or been stolen.

Elaine Meisner, co-owner of the building with her husband Ben, said she was told the monkey was taunted by children with pea shooters, "so he spit back."

"I do think it's very sad that it died all alone, probably from starvation," Meisner said.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- It's no surprise for Bogota police to find drugs stashed aboard commercial jets bound for the United States, but they were baffled by 180 pounds of cocaine in an American Airlines plane that had just landed on a flight from Miami.

"This is really very unusual," Col. Omar Gonzalez, chief of police at Colombia's El Dorado airport said Tuesday. "Particularly given the very large quantity."

He said the drugs had a street value of $2 million in the United States.

"The cocaine was hidden in the back hold of the plane and we had to remove several metal planks to get it out," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez says traffickers likely loaded the drugs when the plane made a stopover in the Ecuadorean city of Guayaquil and hoped to remove it in Miami before it flew onto Bogota late Sunday.

"But they probably missed their chance to take it out in Miami," Gonzalez said.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Unseasonably warm weather is causing some unladylike behavior in southeast Missouri.

Millions of ladybugs have invaded the area.

By mid-afternoon Sunday, masses of the orange insects were landing on buildings, cars and skin.

"We've got too many," said Cape Girardeau County resident Schirley Huey, doing yard work with her husband when they first noticed the pesky insects flying about. A few even bit.

"Here in front of our barn, they were swarming all over the place," she said. "I do not recall them ever being this bad."

The Asian ladybird beetle was imported several times over the last century to control aphids, a tiny insect that damages crops. They come in a variety of orange colors and vary in spottage - some have no spots. The native variety of ladybug is nearly identical in appearance but does not have nearly so voracious an appetite.

"They'll only be swarming during the warm weather," said Wesley Mueller, agriculture department head at Southeast Missouri State University. "Since it cools down soon, I'd say it'll likely be a week before they're gone."

Ohio Supreme Court hears arguments whether lawyer must testify in missing girl case

WILMINGTON, Ohio -- Ohio's Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether a former public defender must reveal if a now-dead client knew anything about the disappearance of a 9-year-old girl.

Lower courts have ordered Beth Lewis to disclose whether her client had information about Erica Baker, who vanished in 1999 while walking her dog near her home in a Dayton suburb. But Lewis has repeatedly refused to provide any information, citing attorney-client confidentiality, and has been threatened with jail for contempt.

No one has been charged in the little girl's disappearance.

Investigators think Lewis' client Jan Franks may have known something about Erica's disappearance based on information from a jail informant, and they want to know if Franks told anything to her attorney. Franks died of a drug overdose in 2001.

The decision of whether Lewis should disclose the information should not be left solely up to her, said the girl's parents, Misty and Greg Baker.

"It's a difficult thing for me to sit and listen to a lawyer that has my child's interest hanging in the balance at her discretion," Greg Baker said.

The girl's mother said: "They have a lawbook that they have to go by. Well, I'm ready to rip some pages out of there so I can find out where my child is."

Lewis said she understands the Bakers' feelings. "If I were Erica Baker's family, I would be doing exactly what they're doing," she said.

Prosecutor Carley Ingram said Ohio law allows a surviving spouse or trustee of an estate to waive the client's confidentiality rights, which Franks' husband agreed to do.

But Lewis' attorney, John Feldmeier, said the law allows lawyers to exercise professional judgment to maintain confidentiality if that is consistent with a client's wishes.

Justice Paul Pfeifer asked Feldmeier whether disclosing the information would cause any harm.

"When there are compelling, competing interests at stake, should that ultimate decision be left strictly in the hands of a lawyer, whose confidence has been shared by a client?" Pfeifer asked.

Pfeifer also asked the prosecutor whether there is a strong public interest in making sure attorney-client privilege is not broken except in the rarest circumstances.

"Lawyers could write tell-all books. You can imagine the possibilities. And we really would not want to have that," Pfeifer said.

Ingram said nobody disputes the importance of attorney-client privilege, but the protections should diminish after death.

The justices are expected to rule within two months.

Museum claims fishlike fossil is oldest ever vertebrate

SYDNEY, Australia -- A tadpole-shaped fossil, believed to be the oldest vertebrate ever found, has been uncovered by a farmer in a rugged range of hills in southern Australia, a museum paleontologist said Wednesday.

The fossil, of a 26-inch fishlike animal, is believed to be at least 560 million years old -- 30 million years older than the previous record.

The latest fossil was discovered in sandstone in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia state, an area well known for its abundance of fossils. The exact location of the find is being kept secret.

"The fantastic thing about this specimen is that it's at least 30 million years older than anything else that could be even vaguely related to vertebrates," South Australia Museum paleontologist Jim Gehling told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"(The Flinders Ranges fossil is) at least 560 million years old, it could be even about five million years older (565 million years old) - it's very hard to tell."

Vertebrates are animals with backbones. In 1999, researchers reported fossils of what were then the oldest known vertebrates, jawless fish from about 530 million years ago in China. One researcher suggested those fossils were evolved enough that the first vertebrates must have developed much earlier, perhaps around 555 million years ago or more - close to the age of the new Australian find.

Referring to the new find, Gehling said, "While we say it has a backbone, there's no direct evidence of a backbone. It's the shape of the thing, and it's the fact that it has these inclined sets of muscles and a head end … which makes it look like a little fishy tadpole-type thing, which is evidence that it's something different to all the other fossils around it."

David Elliott, who studies fossil fish at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, said he has reservations about whether the new find is truly a vertebrate because of its large size. Other very early vertebrates described by scientists measure only about an inch or so long, he said.

Elliott said that to be sure of its status, he would want to see the specimen or read a detailed description of it written by specialists.

But if it really is a vertebrate, "it's extremely exciting," he said. "It's pushing the origin of vertebrates… so far back."

South Australian Museum spokeswoman Belinda Bocson said the farmer, Ross Fargher, originally found fossils on his remote property 10 years and Gehling began studying the find. Only recently did colleagues confirm the fossil's likely age, Bocson told The Associated Press.

Bocson did not have details of how paleontologists established the fossil's age and Gehling did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Gehling told Australian Broadcasting Corp. vertebrate fossils were particularly interesting because the vertebrate category includes humans.

"The holy grail of paleontology is always to work out where we came from," he said.

The fossil was expected to be brought back to Adelaide for further analysis by museum staff.

Celine Dion to receive prestigious ELLA Award

LAS VEGAS -- Grammy Award-winning singer Celine Dion will be presented with the Society of Singers' 13th annual ELLA Award.

The entertainer, who has a long-standing contract to perform at Caesars Palace hotel-casino, will receive the award during a June 2004 ceremony in Beverly Hills, Society of Singers president and CEO Jerry F. Sharell said Wednesday.

The award, named after its first recipient, Ella Fitzgerald, goes to singers whose contributions to the music world are equaled by their dedication to humanitarian causes and community support.

"It's a great honor to receive this award named after Ella Fitzgerald, one of my favorite singers and performers," Dion said.

A six-time Grammy winner, the Canadian singer has sold more than 160 million albums. Her recordings also have won two Academy Awards for best original song. Her show, "A New Day," has played to sold-out crowds at the Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino since opening in March.

Previous recipients of the ELLA Award include Julie Andrews, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Peggy Lee.

On the Net:

www.singers.org

Peter Fonda gets star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

LOS ANGELES - Peter Fonda has lived up to another of his famous dad's honors - a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Fonda, who is promoting the DVD release of his 1971 directorial debut "The Hired Hand," accepted the commemoration on Wednesday and paid tribute to his place in an acting dynasty.

He is the son of Henry Fonda, who died in 1982, and the brother of Jane Fonda - both Oscar winners. His daughter is actress Bridget Fonda and his son is Justin Fonda, a cameraman on films such as "Vertical Limit" and "The Last Ride."

"This is great for me to be able to join my father. I certainly hope my daughter and my son, who is a cameraman, can join me soon," Peter Fonda said at the ceremony.

His father's star is on Vine Street, while the younger Fonda's star is on Hollywood Boulevard in front of the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

The honoree also thanked his fans.

"These are the guys who buy the tickets," Fonda said, pointing at the crowd. "I want to thank you all for coming here today. This is a great location, a great piece of real estate to be in front of. I love doing what I do."

Fonda got much of his early training in TV in the 1960s in such series as "Wagon Train" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour."

He also learned what goes on behind the camera. As a result, he produced and costarred in "Easy Rider," the landmark, Academy Award-nominated biker film of 1969 that made a star of Jack Nicholson.

He had an Oscar nomination for the 1997 drama "Ulee's Gold." Fonda lives with his wife Becky on their ranch in Montana.

Minnelli files for divorce; says estranged husband's charges of abuse are false

NEW YORK -- Liza Minnelli filed for divorce from estranged husband David Gest on Wednesday, a day after he filed a $10 million lawsuit against the entertainer, accusing her of beating him during alcoholic rages.

Minnelli moved to end her 16-month marriage shortly after issuing a statement denying Gest's allegations.

"I hoped very much that the end of my marriage would be handled with mutual respect and dignity," Minnelli said. "The allegations in this lawsuit are hurtful and without merit. My lawyers will respond to the lawsuit in the proper forum.

"I will continue to focus on my work, my sobriety and my fans who have been so wonderful to me."

Gest, 50, alleged in court papers filed Tuesday that Minnelli, 57, flew into drunken rages on several occasions, insulting him and beating him all over his body.

Gest's lawyer, Raoul Felder, said his client suffered neurological damage and headaches from the attacks. Gest is being treated at a rehabilitation clinic in Honolulu, where he takes 11 medications a day, Felder said.

"Obviously these people should be divorced," Felder said Wednesday. "This marriage is dead, no doubt about it."

Minnelli and Gest wed at a celebrity-studded ceremony that featured best man Michael Jackson carrying the bride's train and Elizabeth Taylor serving as maid of honor.

The two were introduced by Jackson when Gest, a producer and promoter, produced Jackson's 30th-anniversary tribute concert for television. It was Minnelli's fourth marriage and Gest's first.

Their brief marriage provided plenty of tabloid fodder; the pair were supposed to be the subject of a VH1 reality show, but it was canceled when the network charged Gest was impossible to work with; the pair later filed a lawsuit against VH1.

And in March, Minnelli, who has battled health and substance abuse problems for years, entered a "self-help" program at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in rural central Pennsylvania.

Sharon Osbourne's breast molds up for auction

LOS ANGELES -- Sharon Osbourne is putting a little bit of herself into the fight against breast cancer.

Hand-painted molds of Osbourne's breasts were being auctioned online to benefit the Boarding for Breast Cancer Foundation, or B4BC, a nonprofit group co-founded by professional snowboarder Tina Basich.

The molds were displayed during Tuesday's taping of the syndicated talk show "The Sharon Osbourne Show" and caught guest Anthony Anderson's eye.

"I gotta have those at home," said Anderson, star of the WB sitcom "All About the Andersons." "I want to make the first opening bid at $5,000. … So match that! Somebody match that!"

Osbourne, the wife of rock star Ozzy Osbourne, was treated for colon cancer, which is now in remission. The show with Basich and Anderson airs Thursday.

Historian hired by NY Times says 1932 Pulitzer Prize should be rescinded

NEW YORK -- A 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to The New York Times should be revoked, according to a historian hired by the newspaper to review the winning work, which has been questioned for years.

A subcommittee of the Pulitzer Board has been reviewing the prize won by writer Walter Duranty for his series on Russia. The review was sparked by complaints that Duranty deliberately ignored in later coverage the forced famine in the Ukraine that killed millions of people.

Mark von Hagen, a Columbia University history professor, said in his report to the Times that Duranty "frequently writes in the enthusiastically propagandistic language of his sources," and that "there is a serious lack of balance in his writing."

"For the sake of The New York Times' honor, they should take the prize away," von Hagen said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. The New York Sun first reported the professor's recommendation.

The Times has reviewed von Hagen's report and forwarded it to the Pulitzer Board with a recommendation from Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who declined comment on Wednesday.

"It was between me and the Pulitzer Board," he said, adding that the next step "is a decision for the Pulitzer committee."

Von Hagen said the Times asked him in July to review Duranty's work. He submitted a report to the newspaper about a month later.

Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, also declined to comment on von Hagen's report and its effect on the review of the 1932 prize. No Pulitzer has been revoked since the prizes were first awarded in 1917.

"This is a matter under internal review," Gissler said.

Gissler could not say when the subcommittee would end its probe, which was launched in April, but said the ultimate decision would have to come from the entire board. The Pulitzer Board meets twice a year, in November and April.

Members of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America joined Ukrainians worldwide this year in urging the withdrawal of Duranty's award, a campaign that included more than 15,000 postcards and thousands more letters and e-mails sent to the Pulitzer Board.

The effort was timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the 1932-33 famine, which claimed as many as 7 million Ukrainian lives. Josef Stalin's regime created the famine to force Ukrainian peasants into surrendering their land.

This was not the first time the Pulitzer Board has reconsidered its award to Duranty, who died in 1957. A similar review in 1990 ended with a decision to let the Pulitzer stand.

Duranty covered the Soviet Union for the Times from 1922 to 1941, earning acclaim for an exclusive 1929 interview with Stalin.

But Duranty was eventually criticized for reporting the Communist line rather than the facts. According to the 1990 book "Stalin's Apologist," by Sally J. Taylor, Duranty knew of the famine but ignored the atrocities to preserve his access to Stalin. The famine came in 1933, a year after Duranty won his Pulitzer.

Von Hagen's report said Duranty, as a reporter, "fell under Stalin's spell."

"Much of the 'factual' material is dull and largely uncritical recitation of Soviet sources, whereas his efforts at 'analysis' are very effective renditions of the Stalinist leadership's self-understanding of their murderous and progressive project to defeat the backwardness of Slavic, Asiatic peasant Russia," von Hagen writes.

The Times has also distanced itself from Duranty's work. The reporter's 1932 Pulitzer is displayed with the notation: "Other writers in the Times and elsewhere have discredited this coverage."

Though never revoked, a Pulitzer was once returned. Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke surrendered her prize in 1981, after admitting she had fabricated stories.

Court orders sale of Turkish freighter detained in Delaware River

PHILADELPHIA -- A Turkish freighter tied up on the Delaware River for more than four months will be sold to pay off the owner's debt, a federal judge has ruled, allowing its crew members to finally come ashore.

The eight crew members who have watched summer turn to fall from aboard the 499-foot Ahmetbey at a Philadelphia pier will be returned to Turkey, U.S. District Judge John R. Padova ruled.

Ann-Michelle Higgins, an attorney for Odin Denizcilik A.S., the Istanbul-based company that owns the ship, said Wednesday that the company had not decided whether to appeal Padova's decision.

The judge issued an order Oct. 6 that the ship be sold by the U.S. Marshal's office to satisfy a debt calculated at $805,592 at the time, plus interest between then and the time it is paid.

The German bank HSH Nordbank AG claims the ship's owners defaulted on mortgage payments, and says the same family of companies owes the bank more than $19 million - something the owners denied.

The Ahmetbey had sailed from Egypt on May 12 with a crew of 21 and unloaded a cargo of steel at a Delaware River terminal in Bucks County, 30 miles north of Philadelphia. Instead of sailing to Montreal as planned for its next cargo, the ship was ordered detained by Padova and has been held at Philadelphia's Tioga Marine Terminal since early June. The bank had asked that Padova intervene in the case to help collect the debt.

The judge allowed 13 crew members to return to Turkey, while the eight remained to maintain the ship at the pier. U.S. visas had not been sought for the crew, and they have been confined to the ship the entire time.

Unable to go ashore, they have occupied themselves with maintaining the ship, cooking and cleaning, and with diversions provided by visitors ranging from soccer opponents to dance- and language-lesson teachers, as well as a steady supply of videos, said Jack Mudge, chief operating officer of the Seamen's Church Institute.

The sale is scheduled Nov. 5, said Higgins and Ed Cattell, an attorney for the bank.

13 Virginia high school students face criminal charges in freshman hazing incident

STAUNTON, Va. -- Thirteen high school students face assault charges for allegedly participating in a freshman initiation where students were beaten in a school hallway.

Police said the charges, filed Tuesday, stem from an Oct. 2 homecoming rally at Robert E. Lee High School. One student, who was 18 at the time, was charged as an adult.

In the past, freshman initiation at the high school has involved pranks like stuffing students in trash cans or lockers. But this year, the initiation apparently escalated.

Students said male and female freshman were attacked and punched in a school hallway, with some having visible bruises. Older students also were beaten, a school official said.

Staunton School Board Chairman Jim Harrington said he was "a little surprised" to hear that all the students had been charged with assault and battery. Already, the 13 students, including six varsity football players, had been suspended for up to three days each.

"Everything the school has done in terms of punishment so far has been by the book," Harrington said. "Now that official charges have been placed, we will go back to the handbook and see if any further action is required."

Ada Greene, the mother of a student who was allegedly assaulted, said she hopes the accused students receive stiff sentences.

"Something has to break the cycle," Greene said. "Maybe if they get the maximum sentence people will think twice before doing it again instead of just going along with what has been done before."

The maximum punishment for assault and battery is one year in jail or in a juvenile detention center, and a $2,500 fine. Staunton Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond Robertson said Wednesday that the students were unlikely to receive the maximum penalties.

Hearing dates for the students were not immediately set.

Man pleads guilty to demanding ransom in Elizabeth Smart case

SALT LAKE CITY -- A South Carolina man accused of falsely claiming to be Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper and demanding $3 million for her return has pleaded guilty to extortion.

Walter Kenneth Holloway, 19, who had nothing to do with the girl's disappearance, entered the plea Monday in federal court in Columbia, S.C.

FBI agents arrested him last November, after they subpoenaed his Internet service provider for account information.

He was accused of sending Salt Lake City police dozens of e-mails in which he claimed to be the "only real kidnapper" and threatened to hurt the girl.

The charges carry up to 25 years in prison. No sentencing date was set.

In 2002, Elizabeth, then 14, was kidnapped from her bedroom. She was found nine months later walking down the street of a Salt Lake City suburb with self-described prophet Brian Mitchell and his wife. They have been charged with kidnapping.

Sniper trial suspect quits representing himself in murder trial

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- After two days of occasional fumbling in the courtroom, sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad gave up trying to be his own lawyer Wednesday and put his fate back in the hands of his court-appointed attorneys.

"Mr. Muhammad no longer believes it is in his best interest to represent himself," Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. told the jury in the murder case.

Muhammad, 42, whose face is badly swollen from a chronic toothache, did not spell out his reasons in open court but assured the judge that it had nothing to do with his health.

Muhammad had stunned the judge and his own attorneys when he demanded the right to act as his own lawyer just as opening arguments in the capital case were to begin Monday.

After court adjourned Wednesday, Muhammad's lawyers, Peter Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro, expressed relief that their client had changed course. They had served as standby counsel while Muhammad represented himself.

"You don't know how emotional it is for a lawyer with death on the table to be sidelined in deference to a defendant's right to represent himself," Shapiro said.

Prosecutors declined comment.

Though the judge said Muhammad represented himself competently, legal experts said he probably inflicted heavy damage on his case with a rambling opening statement that failed entirely to address the facts of the case.

During testimony, many of Muhammad's objections were overruled, and prosecutors objected to the way some of his questions to witnesses were posed, complaining that he was making gratuitous remarks or delving into irrelevant areas.

Muhammad is on trial in the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, who was cut down by a single bullet at a Virginia gas station during the spree that left 10 people dead in the Washington, D.C., area in October 2002.

On Wednesday, the most dramatic testimony of the trial yet came from liquor-store employee Muhammad Rashid, who was shot in the stomach in Brandywine, Md., in September 2002.

Rashid identified fellow sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo as the man who shot and robbed him while Rashid played dead so his attacker would not shoot again. Prosecutors then played Rashid's 911 call, in which he wailed for help for six minutes, telling the dispatcher: "I am dying. … I am all by myself."

Rashid shook on the stand and jurors rocked in their seats as they listened to the tape.

Rashid was allowed to testify only after identifying Malvo as his attacker, with the jury out of the courtroom. It was only the third time Malvo and Muhammad had been in the same courtroom; the encounter was brief, with no apparent eye contact between them.

When Rashid saw the 18-year-old Malvo in the courtroom, he said, "Yes, his face, his color, his physical structure is very similar" to his attacker.

The defense objected to Rashid's testimony on several grounds, saying the shooting was irrelevant to the murder charges against Muhammad.

Greenspun also argued that any identification of Malvo would be tainted because Rashid only briefly saw his attacker and because Malvo's face has been broadcast so frequently since the attack.

Prosecutors have said that ballistics evidence in the Rashid shooting will be linked to other shootings and that the robbery was one of several used to finance the sniper spree.

Another shooting survivor, Kellie Adams, testified Wednesday about an attack in Alabama that has been linked to the sniper suspects. Adams was wounded so seriously in the Sept. 21, 2002, shooting she still must breathe through a tube. Her liquor store co-worker, Claudine Parker, died.

Adams said she never heard the gunshot that pierced the back of her neck and exited her jaw. "The whole left side of my face was just kind of splayed open," she said.

Adams said she saw only the legs of her attacker, but James Gray of Montgomery, Ala., who helped police chase the attacker, identified Malvo as the man he chased.

Gray also picked Malvo out of a photo lineup presented to him last year, but on cross-examination he acknowledged that he initially described to police a man with a lighter complexion than Malvo.

Prosecutors had complained about Muhammad's self-representation, even asking the judge at one point to stop him from serving as his own lawyer. They said Muhammad was receiving too much help from his two defense lawyers, whose role as standby counsel was supposed to be limited.

The judge ordered Muhammad to physically distance himself from his standby counsel to minimize communication with them.

Experts said the two days of self-representation did more harm than good to Muhammad's case.

"The one thing he may have done that's positive is he revealed himself to the jury as a human being. He may have made it more difficult to recommend a death penalty," said Joseph Bowman, a veteran criminal defense attorney who has handled death penalty cases in Virginia.

Malvo is scheduled to go on trial separately next month in the slaying of an FBI analyst. He also faces the death penalty if convicted.

Malvo's lawyers gave notice this month that they plan to present an insanity defense. In response, prosecutors on Wednesday asked that his trial, set to begin Nov. 10, be postponed for a month to give their mental health expert time to examine and evaluate Malvo.

Suspended Alabama chief justice fights charges in Ten Commandments case

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's suspended chief justice has asked that five of the nine members of the Court of the Judiciary be disqualified from hearing the ethics case that could lead to his removal from office.

Roy Moore's attorneys asked that the five step down for various reasons - including that two members have served longer than their appointments and that other members discussed Moore's case with state court employees. The court did not immediately rule on the motion.

State Attorney General Bill Pryor is prosecuting Moore for refusing to obey a federal judge's order to remove Moore's Ten Commandments monument from public display in the state judicial building. The judge ruled the monument was an unconstitutional promotion of religion by government.

After a protracted legal fight, the monument was put in storage in August on orders of the state Supreme Court's eight associate justices.

Earlier Wednesday, the Court of the Judiciary rejected Moore's bid to disqualify Pryor from prosecuting him.

Among Moore's arguments was that Pryor's office defended him in court during his fight to keep the monument in the building's rotunda, and that the attorney general cannot now oppose him in a related case.

Pryor has said that removing the attorney general's office from the case would "thwart the functioning of this state's system of judicial discipline."

Former Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts, who is representing Moore, said Wednesday that he doesn't understand why Pryor won't step down.

"You would want to think he would want to take away any doubt that there is conflict," Butts said.

Tropical Storm Nicholas barely alive in Atlantic

MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Nicholas continued to weaken Wednesday in the open Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Nicholas had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph, down from 45 mph on Tuesday and barely above the 39 mph threshold for a tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm will likely weaken into a tropical depression later Wednesday or Thursday, forecasters said.

Nicholas was centered about 525 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands of the northeastern Caribbean and moving west at about 8 mph. It was expected to turn north-northwest and gain speed over the next day.

Nicholas is the 14th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Nursing home, president, nurse charged in death of 86-year-old patient who wandered outside

PITTSBURGH -- A nursing home and its president were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of an 86-year-old Alzheimer's patient who wandered outside in the cold, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

A registered nurse was charged with perjury for helping cover up the circumstances of the death at the Ronald Reagan Atrium I Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Robinson Township.

Patient Mabel Taylor wandered outside in 40-degree weather on Oct. 26, 2001, through a door that had been propped open so nursing home workers could step outside to smoke, authorities said.

She was found unconscious, and registered nurse Kathleen Galati, acting on administrator Martha Bell's instructions, moved Taylor back to her bed and helped craft a story given to her family that she had died in bed, authorities said in an affidavit.

The nursing home was charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligence toward a care-dependent person. Bell faces the same charges, plus conspiracy, while Galati is charged with perjury, false swearing and tampering with physical evidence, District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Wednesday.

Both suspects, who were freed on bond, declined comment. Both are still employed by Atrium I but have no say in its management, said Richard McGarvey, a spokesman for the state Health Department.

The negligence charge, the most serious against Bell, carries up to 40 years in prison if an action resulted in death. Galati faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

The state Department of Health fined the nursing home $12,000 and placed it on a provisional license in July after inspectors found evidence of patients falling, losing weight and wandering unsupervised.

The nursing home had been under investigation by the federal government since September 2002 for alleged neglect, abuse and fraud.

Federal authorities would not elaborate Wednesday.

The state Health Department appointed a temporary manager for the nursing home Wednesday. The order, good for 30 days, can be extended.