LILONGWE, Malawi - Madonna and her husband took custody of a motherless 1-year-old boy from Malawi on Thursday after filing adoption papers and receiving interim approval from a judge in the impoverished southern African nation.

The boy's father said he was happy for his son, named David, and pleased with the celebrity couple who wants to be his parents.

Yohame Banda, the father, said he met Madonna and her film director husband Guy Ritchie at the court as part of the formalities. While they talked, Madonna, who has two children, carried the baby boy, Banda said.

"They are a lovely couple," Banda said. "She asked me many questions. She and her husband seem happy with David. I am happy for him. Madonna promised me that as the child grows she will bring him back to visit."

Madonna has not commented publicly since her arrival in Malawi on Oct. 4, though she has made several public appearances in support of projects she supports here to care for AIDS orphans. Her publicist declined comment on Wednesday on the adoption reports.

Judge Andrew Nyirenda "has just given out an interim order" that allowing Madonna to take David, said Thomson Ligowe, a court registrar. The interim order allows the couple to take the boy home.

Penston Kilimbe, director of child welfare services in the Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services, had said earlier that Madonna and Ritchie filed adoption papers before a judge at the Lilongwe High Court.

"They have followed the normal processes. This has been going on for some time. Now this is the completion point," he said.

Madonna and Ritchie have a son, Rocco, 5, and the singer also has a daughter, Lourdes, 9.

On Tuesday, 32-year-old Banda told The Associated Press: "I am the father of David, who has been adopted. I am very very happy because as you can see there is poverty in this village and I know he will be very well looked after in America."

He said his wife Marita died a month after David's birth from medical complications and the child had been cared for at an orphanage in Mchinji, a village near the Zambian border.

Banda said his son left the orphanage on Monday and was taken to the capital, Lilongwe. Madonna has visited the orphanage at least once during her visit. Its director, the Rev. Thompson John Chipeta, has refused to speak to the media.

Madonna's charity Raising Malawi is setting up an orphanage to provide food, education and shelter for up to 4,000 children. It will have projects based on Kabbalah, Judaism's mystical sect, which counts the 48-year-old singer among its devotees.

Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world, with rampant disease and hunger, aggravated by periodic droughts and crop failure. Some 14 percent of its 12 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and an estimated 1 million children have been orphaned. In many villages, grandparents or older siblings struggle to feed orphans.

In an open letter to Madonna released Tuesday, the private Malawian child advocacy group Eye of the Child welcomed her concern for Malawian children, but questioned whether foreign adoptions were in the best interests of children.

Jackie Schoeman, executive director Cotlands, a South African organization that cares for children affected by HIV, said a local family should be the first choice for orphans. In Africa, orphans usually are taken in by extended families, but AIDS has affected many of the people who might have traditionally provided support.

"If the only other option is for them to be in a long-term institution then we would consider international adoption," Schoeman said.

On the Net:

http://www.raisingmalawi.org

Surprise pregnancy may help Vietnamese woman escape firing squad

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Police in northern Vietnam are investigating how a woman on death row for drug trafficking got pregnant, a condition that could spare her from facing the firing squad, police and lawyers said Thursday. - Nguyen Thi Oanh, 39, was sentenced to death last year for drug trafficking, and an appeals court upheld the sentence in April, said her defense attorney, Le Van Kien.

But Vietnamese law prohibits pregnant women or women with children under the age of 3 from being sentenced to death. The most severe sentence they can face is life in prison.

"This case is very rare," Kien said. "We've never heard of a case of this kind before."

Kien said his law office sent a petition last month to law enforcement agencies in Hoa Binh province, about 45 miles southwest of Hanoi, asking them to postpone Oanh's execution after her family said she was two months pregnant.

"For humanitarian reasons, her life should be spared," Kien said.

Hoa Binh police chief Bui Van Lanh said investigators are looking into how the woman got pregnant while incarcerated with several other female inmates at the provincial jail.

Oanh's husband is serving a jail sentence in northern Vinh Phuc province, Kien said.

Ukrainian pastry chef fashions wedding gown for his bride out of cream puffs

UZHHOROD, Ukraine (AP) - Valentyn Shtefano's pastries were known for attracting stares and giggles as well as lip-smacking murmurs. But even his fiancee was surprised when Shtefano told her he was making her wedding dress - out of flour, eggs, sugar and caramel. - The dress - made of 1,500 cream puffs and weighing 20 pounds - took the 28-year-old baker two months to make, and by the end of the wedding reception, bride Viktoriya said she didn't want to take it off.

Shtefano is a rising star in the field of baking as visual art, earning him a following in this city near the border with Slovakia. His creations have generated a buzz in a place where cake is often layers of heavy cream, wafers and nuts or poppy seeds - more something to eat than to look at.

"At first glance, it's really a surprise. I didn't even believe it was a cake," said Olha Nemyataya, who sampled some of Shtefano's new deserts. "Nowhere in Uzhhorod have I seen things like this."

Shtefano, whose fingernails are stained with food coloring, is eager to introduce new sweets to this city of 125,000, which has a center full of new businesses and cafes but is otherwise dominated by gray Soviet-era apartment buildings.

He got his first job as a baker six years ago. Last year, he took a three-month baking course in Paris and entered an international baking competition with his sister. They made a 2-foot-long 1920s-era Cadillac from cream puffs and caramel, and took third place.

Some of Shtefano's cakes are strictly for mature audiences, like a pair of breasts on display at a pizzeria where his goods are sold. But he also created an elaborate Easter cake that drew hundreds to a cathedral. It was a black and gold globe hatching from an Easter egg, with pieces of eggshell on top of the globe and falling off to the side. It was too pretty to eat.

His biggest challenge was the wedding dress cake. At first, he sewed empty cream puffs together, but the dress collapsed. Then, he carefully attached the puffs to a wedding dress frame, and Viktoriya spent a couple hours each night before the wedding modeling the dress as Shtefano added more puffs. Her crown, bouquet and necklace were made from caramelized sugar.

"At first, it was even a little embarrassing," Viktoriya Shtefano said of the dress she wore to the couple's reception in August at Uzhhorod's 1,200-year-old castle. "Cameras, interviews, but after a couple of hours, I didn't even want to take it off."

The baker hopes to someday open a business with his sister in Ukraine, believing there's more room for skillful bakers here than in Paris. "Here you can buy jobs," he said. "You want to be president, governor, (parliament) deputy, OK.

"But my job you can't buy - you have to do it."

Florida judge considers appropriateness of upcoming "Bully" video game

A circuit court judge in Florida said he would review the unreleased video game "Bully" on Thursday to determine if it should be sold to consumers under age 18.

The review was ordered after a complaint filed in the 11th Judicial Circuit Court by attorney Jack Thompson, long an outspoken critic of the video game industry, which accused "Bully" of being a "Columbine simulator" and inappropriate for children.

"Bully," scheduled to be released across the nation on Tuesday for the PlayStation 2 console, lets players act out the life of a 15-year-old student and decide how to deal with teachers and various social cliques at a boarding school.

"Bully" was created by Rockstar Games, known for its popular "Grand Theft Auto" crime sagas where players can choose to live by the rules or hijack cars and run down pedestrians.

A company spokesman had no immediate comment on the review.

In his complaint, Thompson said he is seeking to have the game's rating changed from "T," for teenagers age 13 and older. It also seeks to preemptively block the sale of the game in Florida by Rockstar's publisher, Take Two Interactive Software Inc., as well as retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and GameStop Corp.

"How to plan your revenge and rehearse your bullying back strategies, that dynamic is something we don't need to be teaching," said Thompson, who hasn't seen or played the game.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Ronald Friedman planned to review the game in his chambers with the help of a representative from Take Two, said Vera Weisbrod, the judge's legal assistant.

She didn't know how long the process would take, but the game's creators have said completing it could take upward of 30 to 40 hours.

Rockstar was embroiled in a ratings controversy last year with its game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" after a hacker uncovered a hidden sex scene.

The game, originally rated mature for players 17 and older, was changed to an adults-only rating by an industry ratings group after the scene was disclosed. An updated version with the sex scene deleted was eventually distributed to retailers with a mature rating.

Figure in Illinois corruption case gets 4-month prison term after prosecutor praises her help

CHICAGO - (AP) A participant in a bid-rigging scheme was sentenced to four months in prison Thursday and was praised for helping secure the conviction of former Gov. George Ryan. - "I'm ready to put this behind me," Andrea Coutretsis said as she left the courthouse. She pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 2004 and could have received a one-year sentence.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Collins strongly argued for leniency, noting that Coutretsis had persuaded her fiancee, former Ryan aide Scott Fawell, to testify and to cool hostility he initially showed to prosecutors.

Fawell became the leadoff witness at Ryan's trial.

Ryan was convicted in April of racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud and other offenses involving corruption when he was secretary of state in the 1990s and later governor.

Collins said Coutretsis didn't benefit financially when she and Fawell gave inside information to a bidder on a $11.5 million contract. At the time, Fawell headed the Chicago Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and Coutretsis was its director of operations.

Coutretsis will serve her sentence together with a four-month term she received in July for lying to a grand jury. She is scheduled to report to prison Nov. 2.

Fawell is serving a 6.5-year racketeering sentence.

Iowa bishop resigning 2 days after diocese files for bankruptcy amid clergy abuse lawsuits

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) - The Vatican announced the bishop of Davenport's retirement Thursday, two days after the Roman Catholic diocese filed for bankruptcy amid dozens of lawsuits alleging priest sex abuse.

Bishop William Franklin had offered his resignation when he turned 75 in May 2005, as the church requires.

The Vatican said Thursday that his resignation had been approved and that he would be succeeded by Monsignor Martin J. Amos, an auxiliary bishop in Cleveland.

The Diocese of Davenport on Tuesday became the fourth Catholic diocese in the United States to file for bankruptcy amid the national clergy abuse scandal, following the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., and the dioceses of Tucson, Ariz. and Spokane, Wash.

Diocese spokesman Deacon David Montgomery said resignation's timing was unrelated to the bankruptcy filing Tuesday.

"There were two different things driving each event," Montgomery said. "For the bankruptcy, the timing depended on an upcoming court case. For the naming of the bishop, that was entirely by Rome. We have no control at all over who they name and when."

Since 2004, the Diocese of Davenport has paid more than $10.5 million to resolve dozens of claims filed against priests, including a $9 million settlement reached with 37 victims. The lawsuits accused 11 priests of sexually assaulting children since the 1950s and blamed church leaders for covering it up.

The Diocese of Davenport includes 85 parishes and more than 102,000 members.

The cost of the Catholic sex abuse cases nationwide has risen to about $1.5 billion since 1950, according to figures compiled from various studies by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Ex-N.C. lottery chief convicted; failed to disclose work with ticket supplier

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A former state lottery commissioner, accused of failing to disclose his work for a leading supplier of scratch-off lottery tickets, was convicted of federal mail fraud charges Thursday.

Prosecutors said Kevin Geddings, who served on the newly formed commission for just over a month last year, defrauded the state of honest services because he never reported that his public relations company was paid more than $250,000 by Scientific Games Corp., one of the companies vying for the state's business.

Defense attorneys argued Geddings was innocent because he stopped working for Scientific Games before his appointment to the commission and did not believe he needed to report past dealings with the company to the state Board of Ethics.

The jury, which deliberated for more than six hours, found Geddings guilty of five counts of mail fraud but acquitted him of wire fraud.

He faces as many as 20 years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines for each count. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Feb. 5, and Geddings will remain free until then. Geddings and his lawyer left the courthouse without commenting to reporters and did not immediately return telephone calls.

Named to the lottery commission on Sept. 22, 2005, Geddings resigned Nov. 1, 2005, hours before Scientific Games disclosed it had paid him $24,500 that year for communications work.

Geddings, a former chief of staff for South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, testified in his own defense, telling jurors that he "was not as precise" as he should have been when filing the state ethics disclosure form.

The verdicts came after a three-week trial that included testimony from Gov. Mike Easley, House Speaker Jim Black and other powerful state lawmakers who each said they didn't know about Geddings' past work.

In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Duffy called Geddings a "very crafty individual" who used his experience as a media consultant to try to manipulate opinion about the case.

Geddings was originally charged with nine fraud counts. One was dismissed before the trial started, and U.S. District Judge James Dever threw out two wire fraud charges on Tuesday, ruling they concerned actions that occurred before Geddings was appointed to the lottery commission and therefore were not subject to the state's ethics rules.

Following his indictment this summer, Geddings moved to Florida, where he worked at a St. Augustine radio station owned by his wife.

Police release video images of man called 'significant focus' of missing student probe

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - As the investigation into the disappearance of a University of Vermont senior entered its sixth day, police on Thursday released still video images of the woman and the man she was last seen walking with, saying he is a "significant focus" of the investigation.

Michelle Gardner-Quinn, 21, of Arlington, Va., was last seen Saturday shortly after 2:30 a.m. walking back to campus after a night out at downtown bars with friends. Police said she was walking with a man whose cell phone she had borrowed.

Police Chief Thomas Tremblay said investigators had questioned the man and searched a home near Richmond. He declined to identify him and would not say whether he was a suspect.

"He still is a significant focus because we are not satisfied," Tremblay said. "We have no evidence at this time that suggests a criminal offense. We're not close to an arrest."

Police on Thursday requested information from anyone who may have seen them together. The images were from a camera on the building of a nearby jewelry store.

Gardner-Quinn was reported missing Saturday night when she didn't show up for dinner with her parents, who were visiting.

Police searched elsewhere but would not disclose the locations.

On the Net:

Burlington Police Department: http://www.bpdvt.org/

The University of Vermont: http://www.uvm.edu/

Nearly 3 dozen Katrina victims remain unidentified; 65 bodies in all still unclaimed

NEW ORLEANS - The bodies of 65 Hurricane Katrina victims, of which just half have been identified, remain unclaimed more than a year after the storm, the Orleans Parish coroner said Thursday.

In all, more than 1,300 bodies were collected in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the region last year. Of those, 33 remain unidentified as investigators exhaust DNA and other tests, said coroner Frank Minyard.

"It's getting tougher," he said. The number of unidentified bodies continues to fall slowly; in August, there were 49.

Minyard and other local officials have said it's likely that some bodies will never be identified because the victims were estranged from genetic relatives or didn't have enough relatives to make matches.

State and federal officials had turned over about 200 bodies to Minyard in April.

The unclaimed bodies are being stored in refrigerated trailers and a warehouse near the Louisiana Superdome.

Minyard said there are no plans to bury the unclaimed remains for at least another year. He said he hopes that a Katrina memorial will eventually be built to remember the tragedy and provide a final resting place for the bodies that haven't been identified or claimed.

Mugger convicted of murdering aspiring NYC actress who talked back

NEW YORK (AP) - A mugger was convicted of murder Thursday in the slaying of an aspiring actress who was shot after she shoved him and talked back during a holdup.

Rudy Fleming, 21, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole in the killing last year of Nicole duFresne.

Witnesses said duFresne pushed Fleming and said to him, "What are you going to do, shoot us?" after Fleming and some of his companions robbed her and her three friends on the street around 3 a.m.

Both sides agreed that Fleming then shot duFresne in the chest. But the defense argued that the gun went off accidentally during the shoving match, while prosecutors said he shot her deliberately to "show that he was the man that night."

DuFresne, 28, a native of Wayzata, Minn., who lived in Brooklyn, had acted in several productions and co-wrote a play. She was working as a bartender when she was killed.

Fleming was not present for the verdict; he refused to come to court for the entire trial.

Some of the people accused of being Fleming's accomplices have been charged separately, and are awaiting trial.

Prosecutor Robert Hettleman attacked the claim that Fleming's .357 Magnum went off accidentally. Hanging a 10-pound barbell weight from his index finger, Hettleman cited the testimony of a police gun expert who said the trigger required 10 pounds of pull and was very unlikely to go off accidentally.

Youth coach sentenced to prison in autistic player's beaning

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A youth baseball coach accused of offering an 8-year-old money to bean an autistic teammate so he couldn't play was sentenced Thursday to one to six years in prison.

Fayette County Judge Ralph Warman sentenced 29-year-old Mark R. Downs Jr. of Dunbar, Pa. to consecutive six-to-36-month sentences for corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit simple assault. A jury convicted Downs in September.

Warman revoked Downs' bond and sent him to prison.

Downs didn't speak at the sentencing but told reporters "I didn't do nothing" as he was led out of the courtroom.

His attorney, Thomas Shaffer, said Downs was upset and looked forward to appealing the verdict. Downs was ordered Thursday to undergo a mental health evaluation and barred from coaching any youth league sport while on parole.

Authorities said Downs offered to pay one of his players $25 to hit Harry Bowers, a mildly autistic teammate, with a ball while warming up before a June 2005 playoff game. Prosecutors said Downs wanted the 9-year-old out of the game, because the boy didn't play as well as his teammates.

Player Keith Reese Jr. said he purposely threw a ball that hit Bowers in the groin and another that hit Bowers in the ear, on Downs' instructions. Downs denied offering to pay Reese to hurt Bowers.

"These acts are extremely outrageous and extremely reprehensible since the defendant was involved in the coaching of a youth league," Warman said.

Bowers' mother, Jennifer Bowers, said Thursday that since her son was hit, she has struggled to get him to try new activities. She said the boy fears that he would get hurt again.

Downs was acquitted on a more serious charge of criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault. Jurors deadlocked on a charge of reckless endangerment. The judge declared a mistrial on the endangerment charge, and prosecutors said they wouldn't retry him.

Louisiana criminal judge suspended after setting low bonds in violent crime cases

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A judge who earlier drew a reprimand for expunging convicts' records was suspended after complaints that he set bonds too low for suspects in violent crimes, the state's high court said Thursday.

The court said it found probable violations of the state's constitution and judicial conduct code, and it faulted Judge Charles Elloie for continuing to set low bonds even after "heightened scrutiny and intense media attention."

A study commissioned by a New Orleans judicial watchdog group found last year that Elloie was responsible for 56 percent of all defendants who walked out of Orleans Parish Prison because a judge had changed their original magistrate bond.

The office of special counsel to the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana also found that Elloie wrongfully granted 4,350 paroles, including many for domestic violence cases in which he had no parole authority.

Elloie's decisions have drawn increasing attention in New Orleans in recent months as the murder rate has risen. Police attributed much of the rise to drug and turf wars and noted that many of the suspects and victims had previous arrests.

In August, Elloie released Thomas Harrison, 26, on a $30,000 bond after Harrison was booked on aggravated battery by shooting. A week later, the man Harrison was accused of shooting was shot to death, and Harrison was arrested for murder.

In March, Elloie let a suspect booked on weapons and narcotics charges go loose on a free recognizance bond. Brian Expose was a multiple offender who police said was caught with cocaine, six firearms and $189,000.

To get Expose back behind bars, federal authorities stepped in and charged him with conspiracy to sell crack cocaine. He remains in federal custody.

"We were very troubled to find that he had been released so quickly," U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said.

Elloie and his attorney were unavailable for comment Thursday.

The suspension, made Wednesday and announced Thursday, will remain in effect while the high court and state Judiciary Commission investigate.

The court had publicly reprimanded Elloie in January for expunging the records of two convicts without notifying prosecutors or recording the rulings in open courts.

On the Net:

High court: http://www.lasc.org

Demolition crew razes Pa. Amish schoolhouse where 5 girls were killed

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - Ten days after the Amish schoolhouse shootings, a demolition crew using heavy equipment tore down the bloodstained building Thursday and obliterated nearly all traces of the place where five girls were killed.

Only a bare patch of earth was left behind, and it was planted with grass seed, so that eventually even the footprint of the one-room schoolhouse will be gone, too.

Any kind of plaque or memorial is unlikely. Members of the plain-living Amish community said it would be too showy and would attract too many visitors.

"They do not want to make it a tourist attraction," said the 27-year-old brother of two of the 15 boys sent out of the schoolhouse by the gunman before the shooting.

"It's definitely a little heart-wrenching to see it go down, but it sort of finishes things off," said the Amish man, who like most members of the community did not want to be identified in any news accounts.

The Amish are known for constructing buildings by hand, without the aid of modern technology, but for this job they arranged for private contractors with heavy equipment to end a painful chapter for their community.

Construction lights glared in the mist as a large backhoe tore into the overhang of the school's porch before daybreak, then knocked down the bell tower and toppled the walls. Within 15 minutes, the building was reduced to a pile of rubble. By 7:30 a.m., the debris was gone, hauled away by dump trucks.

The schoolhouse, built in 1976, had been boarded up since the killings, with classes moved to a farm nearby.

The Amish planned to turn the spot where the schoolhouse stood into pasture. There are 10 other Amish school buildings around the community.

Herman Bontrager, a Mennonite businessman serving as a spokesman for the Amish said there was widespread feeling that the building should be removed. "Especially for the children, but not only for the children," he said.

Twenty to 30 people, many of them in Amish dress, gathered to watch as the schoolhouse was leveled.

The destruction of the West Nickel Mines Amish School came a week after the funerals of the five girls killed by gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV. Roberts wounded five other girls and killed himself as police closed in.

- Associated Press writer Mark Scolforo contributed to this story.

Ohio judge grants robber's wish to go to prison; he says he couldn't find a job

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A man who couldn't find steady work came up with a plan to make it through the next few years until he could collect Social Security: He robbed a bank, then handed the money to a guard and waited for police.

On Wednesday, Timothy J. Bowers told a judge a three-year prison sentence would suit him, and the judge obliged.

"At my age, the jobs available to me are minimum-wage jobs. There is age discrimination out there," Bowers, who turns 63 in a few weeks, told Judge Angela White.

The judge told him: "It's unfortunate you feel this is the only way to deal with the situation."

Bowers said he had been able to find only odd jobs after the drug wholesaler he made deliveries for closed in 2003. He walked to a bank and handed a teller a note demanding cash in an envelope. The teller gave him four $20 bills and pushed a silent alarm.

Bowers handed the money to a security guard standing in the lobby and told him it was his day to be a hero.

He pleaded guilty to robbery, and a court-ordered psychological exam found him competent.

"It's a pretty sad story when someone feels that's their only alternative," said defense attorney Jeremy W. Dodgion, who described Bowers as "a charming old man."

Prosecutors had considered arguing against putting Bowers in prison at taxpayer expense, but they worried he would do something more reckless to be put behind bars.

"It's not the financial plan I would choose, but it's a financial plan," prosecutor Dan Cable said.

Albuquerque schools temporarily locked down following report of man near school with knife

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Three Albuquerque schools were locked down and SWAT teams searched a middle school campus Thursday after a student reported that a man dressed in all black had approached her brandishing a knife, police said.

Two of the schools, both elementary schools within a mile of James Monroe Middle School, reopened after about 2 hours.

Police were reviewing videotape from outside the middle school, which remained under lockdown for another hour before the order was lifted, said Officer Trish Hoffman of the Albuquerque Police Department.

"We've conducted a number of searches inside the school and secondary searches outside the school, and we haven't located anybody," Hoffman said.

She said the girl reported that the man was outside the school near a portable classroom or a restroom. "We don't know if he touched her," Hoffman said.

Albuquerque Public Schools spokesman Rigo Chavez said the nearby schools were locked down as a precaution. He did not immediately know how many people were involved in the lockdowns.

An Albuquerque police SWAT team - along with officers from the school district, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department and Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety - responded to the middle school, Hoffman said.

36-day-old Panda cub born at Zoo Atlanta opens her eyes for first time

ATLANTA (AP) - Zoo Atlanta's baby panda opened it eyes for the first time on Thursday.

Zoo officials made the discovery during a physical examination of the 36-day-old unnamed female cub.

"She's probably able to see now," said zoo veterinarian Dr. Maria Crane. "We noticed she's paying more attention to her environment."

Crane said it's hard to know how much Lun Lun's cub is actually seeing. The newborn appeared slightly startled at one point during her checkup when she noticed staff intently watching her.

The cub, whose name will be chosen in two months, has grown a little more than 16 inches in length in the past week and gained just under a pound, growing to 3.8 pounds.

"She's a very solid cub," Crane said. "Her growth is nice and steady, and that's really a testament to how well Lun Lun is taking care of her."

Wasps used in Louisiana to combat bugs that can destroy crops such as sugar cane, citrus

METAIRIE, La. (AP) - Horticulturists tie a small vial containing hundreds of gnat-sized wasps to a hibiscus plant on a well-groomed lawn, and then remove the cap.

Once airborne, the wasps are almost invisible to the naked eye. Though tiny, they are the state's biggest ally in eradicating the pink hibiscus mealybug, a pest that can destroy more than 10,000 types of plants, including important agricultural crops.

Mealybugs "can attack sugarcane. They can attack citrus crops. They can do a lot of damage," said state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom, who was at one of the wasp-release sites Wednesday.

Native to Africa and Asia, mealybugs attach themselves to plants and suck out the sap and nutrients, eventually killing them. They leave behind a lumpy white residue that resembles Christmas tree flocking.

In recent weeks, the state has tested plants in parts of Jefferson Parish reported to have signs of infestation. Almost 40 tested positive in the cities of Metairie, Kenner and Marrero.

Mealybugs have also been reported in California and Florida, where officials have managed to control the pests with parasitic wasps. A wasp will puncture the bug and lay eggs in it. Once deposited, the larvae feed on the bug internally, causing it to die.

State agriculture officials imported thousands of the wasps from facilities in California and Puerto Rico, where they are raised for the government. The wasps are the most effective and natural way to combat mealybugs, and because they don't sting, they pose no threat to humans, Odom said.

Odom and a group of state horticulturists deposited thousands of the wasps, hundreds at a time, in affected neighborhoods.

Their first stop was the Metairie home of Jan Gourgues, who looked on as a horticulturist tied two vials with about 200 wasps in each to the mealybug-infested hibiscus on her front lawn.

Gourgues said she knew something was wrong this summer when her hibiscus plants didn't bloom for the first time in years, and their leaves started to curl and fall off prematurely.

Then she noticed the lumpy white coating on the stems and branches. "I thought it was a fungus," she said.

Demolition crew razes Pa. Amish schoolhouse, site of shooting that claimed lives of 5 girls

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - Workers with heavy machinery rather than hand tools moved in before dawn Thursday and demolished the one-room Amish schoolhouse where a gunman fatally shot five girls and wounded five others.

Construction lights glared in the mist as a large backhoe tore into the overhang of the school's porch around 4:45 a.m., then knocked down the bell tower and toppled the walls. Within 15 minutes, the building was reduced to a pile of rubble. By 7:30 a.m., the debris was gone, leaving just a bare patch of earth.

The schoolhouse had been boarded up since the killings 10 days earlier, with classes moved to a nearby farm. The Amish planned to leave a quiet pasture where the schoolhouse stood.

"I think the Amish leaders made the right decision," Mike Hart, a spokesman for the Bart Fire Company, said as loaders lifted debris into dump trucks to be hauled away.

The Amish are known for constructing buildings by hand, without the aid of modern technology, but for this job they relied on an outside demolition crew to bring closure to a painful chapter for their peaceful community.

A group of 20 to 30 people, many of them in traditional Amish dress, gathered nearby to watch as the schoolhouse was leveled.

"It seems this is a type of closure for them," Hart said.

The destruction of the West Nickel Mines Amish School came a week after the solemn funerals of the five girls killed by gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV. Roberts came heavily armed and apparently prepared for a long standoff. He held the 10 girls hostage for about an hour before shooting them and killing himself as police closed in.

The five girls wounded in the Oct. 2 shooting are still believed to be hospitalized. The hospitals are no longer providing any information about the patients at the request of their families.

Hart, who has been coordinating activities with the Amish community and whose company will help provide security, said destroying the school is about trying to reach some closure.

Hart said private contractors were handling the demolition, and the debris would be hauled to a landfill.

He has said classes were expected to resume for the school this week at a makeshift schoolhouse in a garage on an Amish farm in the Nickel Mines area.