LOS ANGELES - Paris Hilton claimed former beauty queen Shanna Moakler punched her in the face at a Hollywood nightclub early Wednesday, police and Hilton's publicist said.

Moakler contended she was attacked by Hilton's ex-boyfriend Stavros Niarchos, who bent her wrists, poured a drink on her and shoved her down some stairs, Moakler publicist Susan Madore said.

Hilton, 25, and Moakler, 31, both filed police reports alleging battery, police Officer Karen Smith said.

The hotel heiress said she was struck around 1 a.m., shortly after arriving at Hyde nightclub with Niarchos, her publicist Elliot Mintz told The Associated Press.

Mintz said Hilton told him Moakler walked up to his client, "used the most vile of language" and then struck Hilton in the jaw with her fist. Hilton claimed the alleged attack was unprovoked.

Madore said Moakler, Miss USA in 1995 and a "Dancing With the Stars" contestant this season, exchanged profanities with Hilton when Niarchos stepped in and threatened to beat her.

Police took pictures of Moakler and Hilton at the station, Smith said, and will speak with witnesses at the club as part of their investigation.

Hilton and Moakler's ex-husband, Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, were recently linked romantically in tabloid reports.

Mintz said the two were "just friends."

Woman arrested after disrupting flight

WASHINGTON (AP) - A woman was charged Wednesday with sexual assault after an altercation with a flight attendant on an airplane flying from Charlotte, N.C., to London, an official said.

Conan Bruce, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service in Washington, said the woman got into an argument with a male flight attendant aboard US Airways Flight 1494.

"During the altercation, she grabbed his buttocks," Bruce said, adding that he based that information on police reports.

When the airplane landed at Gatwick Airport, Sussex police charged the woman with disrupting a flight and sexual assault, Bruce said.

On the Net:

Transportation Security Administration: http://www.tsa.gov

Amish mourn victims of school shootings, urge forgiveness of killer

NICKEL MINES, Pa. (AP) - In just about any other community, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands from civic leaders for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue.

But that's not the Amish way.

As they struggle with the slayings of five of their children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish in this Lancaster County village are turning the other cheek, urging forgiveness of the killer and quietly accepting what comes their way as God's will.

"They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent … and they know that they will join them in death," said Gertrude Huntington, a Michigan researcher and expert on children in Amish society.

"The hurt is very great," Huntington said. "But they don't balance the hurt with hate."

In the aftermath of Monday's violence, the Amish are looking inward, relying on themselves and their faith, just as they have for centuries. They hold themselves apart from the modern world, and have as little to do with civil authorities as possible.

Amish mourners have been going from home to home for two days to attend viewings for the five victims, all little girls laid out in white dresses made by their families. Such viewings occur almost immediately after the bodies arrive at the parents' homes.

Typically, they are so crowded, "if you start crying, you've got to figure out whose shoulder to cry on," said Rita Rhoads, a Mennonite midwife who delivered two of the five girls slain in the attack.

At some Amish viewings, upwards of 1,000 to 1,500 people might visit a family's home to pay respects, according to Jack Meyer, 60, a buggy operator in Bird in Hand. Such visits are important, given the lack of e-mail and phone communication, Meyer said.

The Amish have also been reaching out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, who committed suicide during the attack. Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them.

"I hope they stay around here and they'll have a lot of friends and a lot of support," Daniel Esh, a 57-year-old Amish artist and woodworker whose three grandnephews were inside the school during the attack, said of the Robertses.

Huntington, the authority on the Amish, predicted they will be will be very supportive of the killer and his wife, "because judgment is in God's hands: `Judge not, that ye be not judged."

Roberts stormed the school and shot 10 girls before turning the gun on himself. Investigators said Roberts, who brought lubricating jelly and plastic restraints with him, may have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls.

Roberts revealed to his family in notes he left behind and in a phone call from inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School that he was tormented by memories of molesting two young relatives 20 years ago.

A deputy county coroner on Wednesday described a gruesome scene at the school, with blood on every desk, every window broken and the body of a girl slumped beneath the chalkboard, below a sign that read "Visitors Brighten People's Days." Roberts' body was face-down next to the teacher's desk.

"It was horrible. I don't know how else to explain it," said Amanda Shelley, a deputy coroner in Lancaster County.

Funerals for four of the victims - Naomi Rose Ebersole, 7; Marian Fisher, 13; Mary Liz Miller, 8; and her sister Lena Miller, 7 - are scheduled for Thursday at three homes. The funeral for the fifth girl, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, is Friday.

About 300 to 500 people are expected at each funeral, said Philip W. Furman, an undertaker. The church-led services typically last about two hours before mourners travel in horse-drawn buggies to a cemetery for a short graveside service.

In keeping with custom, the Amish use simple wooden caskets - narrow at the head and feet and wider in the middle. An Amish girl is typically laid to rest in a white dress, a cape, and a white prayer-covering on her head, Furman said.

Five other girls remained hospitalized - three in critical condition and two in serious condition. They ranged in age from 6 to 13.

Enos Miller, the grandfather of the two Miller sisters, was with both of the girls when they died. He was out walking near the schoolhouse before dawn Wednesday - he said he couldn't sleep - when he was asked by a reporter for WGAL-TV whether he had forgiven the gunman.

"In my heart, yes," he said, explaining it was "through God's help."

Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo, Adam Geller and Martha Raffaele contributed to this story.

'Star Wars' creator George Lucas readies 'Clone Wars' for TV

LOS ANGELES (AP) - "Star Wars" creator George Lucas could be back - only this time on the small screen. - Lucas said Wednesday he is making an animated TV series called "Clone Wars" that could air next year, although he hasn't sold the show to a network yet.

The series is set during the time when the Republic is fighting a civil war against separatists led by the infamous Count Dooku.

The mythic period hasn't been dealt with too much in the popular "Star Wars" movies, so "it's a fun place to go," Lucas said.

"It basically has all the main characters" such as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Lucas said, but the stars who played them in the movies won't voice them for the TV show.

"There's nobody famous," Lucas told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The show is planned as a continuation of the Emmy-winning "Clone Wars" that aired in 25 episodes on the Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005. That series used limited animation. The new version will use 3-D computer graphics.

It's one of many projects being pursued by Lucas, who has also been looking into reworking the original "Star Wars" into a 3-D movie format but has concerns about the technology.

Lucas also is working on a fourth "Indiana Jones" movie. He won't discuss the plot.

"We're working on it. We haven't agreed on a script yet," Lucas said. "We're basically still writing the script."

Harrison Ford will be back as Indy but don't look for any significant character changes in the snide whip-wielder.

"He's Indiana Jones," Lucas said. "He's just basically older."

Sean Connery will ilkely return as Indy's father, he added.

Around the country, thieves use hot-wired forklifts to steal ATMS

PHOENIX (AP) - Leave the gun. Bank robbers have found an easier way to make off with other people's money: Around the country, thieves have hot-wired forklifts at construction sites, chugged up to banks and scooped up their ATMs, with all the cash inside.

ATM manufacturers have been working on ways to stop the heists, and sometimes the money involved is so small it hardly seems worth the risk. But that hasn't discouraged thieves this summer in such states as Arizona, California and Georgia.

They have pulled off or attempted such thefts at least 21 times this year in the Phoenix area alone.

"It's called the smash-and-dash," said Rob Evans, director of industry marketing for Dayton, Ohio-based NCR Corp., the world's largest maker of automated teller machines. Evans is the company expert on ATM thefts.

Since the 1990s, thieves have used forklifts to steal ATMs in Indonesia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland and Estonia, as well as the U.S. Four years ago, criminals plowed through the front doors of a movie theater in Lethbridge, Canada, with a forklift, drove into the lobby, hoisted the bulky machine and carried it to a waiting pickup truck.

The payoff for those who succeed in breaking into the machines varies widely, from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

"The vast majority of those attacks are unsuccessful," Evans said. "A lot of times you just get a lot of damage."

Some attempts end in almost comic failure. Often, ATM thieves are spotted by security guards and surveillance cameras as soon as they come rumbling up, and they are eventually caught. (Some at least are smart enough to wear ski masks.) Others flee after failing to pry the ATM loose. Some get away with the machines, only to find the concrete-and-steel vault tough to crack.

In the Phoenix area - a booming region with plenty of construction projects and lots of drive-through banks with open-air ATMs bolted to the ground, instead of embedded in a brick wall - police will not say how much has been stolen.

One of the most recent cases took place Monday at a bank in Mesa. Sheriff's deputies found the ATM later that night burned in the desert. The cash was gone.

Law enforcement agencies in the metropolitan area have formed a task force with banking industry officials to investigate the thefts. So far, authorities have made at least two arrests in one case and are looking into whether the crimes are connected.

"It could be some organized syndicate that's just decided to hit," said Sgt. Mike Angstead, who supervises the property crimes unit with Gilbert police.

Banks won't talk about how much money their machines typically contain.

"Those with the highest concentrations of cash are in casinos and other venues with high security," Evans said. "The little tabletop machine in your quickie mart, that literally has a couple hundred bucks in it."

The smaller machines with the least security tend to be the ones that get stolen, Evans said. "It's hardly worth the trouble."

To protect their money, many banks use ATMs equipped with global-positioning technology that tells authorities where the machines are. Some have an alarm that goes off if someone tampers with the machine. Even if the thieves get away with the machines, they have to pound away pretty hard to get the safe open.

Over the summer in Sacramento, Calif., thieves took off with an ATM in a rented truck. Within hours, a GPS device inside the machine gave away its location. When police arrived, the smashed ATM was sitting on a back porch, covered in a blue tarp.

"They were just using a sledgehammer trying to open up the machine," Placer County, Calif., sheriff's Sgt. Brian Whigam said. "Once they got to the core, they discovered the GPS tracking device, and they knew the jig was up."

Four people were arrested.

Pellet gun wounds 6 during lunch at Md. school

PIKESVILLE, Md. (AP) - A student fired a pellet gun in a courtyard during lunch at a high school Wednesday, leaving six boys with minor injuries, police said.

The boys, ages 14 to 16, reported hearing six popping sounds and then feeling a stinging sensation where they were struck by the pellets - on their chests, arms and legs. They were treated by the school nurse, and none was seriously injured.

The incident came after a string of violent shootings at high schools in Colorado and Wisconsin and at an Amish school in Pennsylvania.

Authorities later found the pellet gun under a bush on school grounds, said Sgt. Vickie Warehime, a spokeswoman for Baltimore County police.

Police said they believe it was a student because no one was seen entering Pikesville High. Three officers were at the school on an unrelated matter before the shootings.

Police planned to check the gun for fingerprints. Detectives were interviewing the victims' friends, other students and faculty for any leads on a possible suspect.

Also Wednesday, more than a dozen schools in three Nebraska counties were locked down after someone called a local newspaper and said there would be a school shooting. There were no reports of violence, though some schools told parents to come and pick up their children.

Autopsy reveals Colorado school gunman shot 3 times by SWAT team, once by himself

DENVER (AP) - The man who took six girls hostage at a Colorado high school last week was shot four times as the standoff ended - once by his own gun and three times by SWAT officers, according to autopsy results released Wednesday by state officials.

Authorities were awaiting more information to determine whether Duane Morrison died from the self-inflicted gunshot wound or the officers' shots, said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Morrison, a 53-year-old drifter, had taken six girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School Sept. 27. He released four of them before SWAT officers blasted their way into Room 206, when authorities say he shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes before shooting himself.

Clem said autopsy results showed that Morrison killed Keyes with a single gunshot to the back of the head. She and the other five girls had been sexually assaulted, Sheriff Fred Wegener has said.

Tests show that Morrison had no drugs or alcohol in his system, Clem said.

Clem also said school surveillance tapes showed Morrison's yellow Jeep in the parking lot of the school near Bailey, about 40 miles southwest of Denver, the day before the shooting. District superintendent Jim Walpole said officials do not know what Morrison had been doing at the school then.

The shooting, one of several at schools across the country in the last several days, was similar to a slaying Monday at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, in which a man tied up 10 young girls and shot them, killing five, before killing himself.

During a fundraiser Wednesday in Denver for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez, President Bush said he has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to lead a meeting of experts to determine how the federal government can help state and local officials deal with school shootings.

"We want to make it certain around the country that the schoolhouse is a safe place for children to learn," Bush said. "May God bless Emily's family."

Students and parents were allowed to return to Platte Canyon High for the first time Wednesday to pick up belongings left behind when the building was evacuated last week. Classes were to resume Thursday.

Room 206 will be sealed off for the rest of the school year, Walpole said Tuesday. He said additional security officers have been hired and adult visitors will be required to wear name tags in the school.

Several hundred students, parents and Bailey-area residents attended a football game Tuesday, the first organized event since the shooting. The game, which was dedicated to Emily's memory, had been originally scheduled Saturday.

Delaware father pleads guilty in beating death of older man he suspected of molesting daughter

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminally negligent homicide for beating to death a 77-year-old man he believed had molested his young daughter.

Robert Fontanez Jr., 27, had faced the more serious charge of second-degree murder in the April death of Bismark Vasquez before agreeing to the plea. He faces up to five years in prison at sentencing, expected early next year.

According to police, Fontanez became enraged when his 5-year-old daughter told him that Vasquez had touched her inappropriately.

He went to Vasquez's home and punched him so hard that the older man went through the back door, police said. Investigators said Fontanez continued to beat Vasquez as he lay bleeding on the concrete outside. Vasquez died in a hospital three days later.

Police detective Scott Chaffin said there was no physical evidence to support the molestation allegation, though he said the child's comments to police were consistent with what she had told her mother.

In a similar case in Fairfield, Conn., a man was charged with stabbing to death a 58-year-old neighbor in August whom he had suspected of molesting his 2-year-old daughter. Jonathon Edington, 29, is free on $1 million bond and due back in court next week. Police have said they do not know if the abuse claim against the neighbor was true.

Two women plead guilty in 2001 firebombing at University of Washington horticulture center

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Two women pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy, arson and bomb charges in the 2001 firebombing of the University of Washington's horticulture center, one of the Northwest's most notorious acts of ecoterrorism.

Jennifer Kolar, 33, and Lacey Phillabaum, 31, were released without bail after entering the pleas in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Authorities said the two turned themselves in and have cooperated with ongoing investigations.

Under their plea agreements, prosecutors will ask U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess to waive mandatory minimum sentences on the charges of arson, attempted arson and use of a destructive device. That bomb charge alone would otherwise carry a statutory minimum of 30 years, and a maximum term of life.

The plea deals instead will ask that Kolar serve five to seven years and Phillabaum face a recommended sentence of three to five years. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5.

Neither woman commented to reporters after leaving the courtroom.

After the hearings, U.S. Attorney John McKay said the women had "the misguided belief that they would influence public policy. They have not."

"These violent acts of destruction are not a valid form of political speech," he said, calling the arson an act of domestic terrorism.

The fire on May 21, 2001, severely damaged the building, which was rebuilt at a cost of about $7 million. The center had done work on fast-growing hybrid poplars in hopes of limiting the amount of natural forests that timber companies log.

The Earth Liberation Front, a shadowy collection of environmental activists, claimed responsibility and issued a statement saying the poplars pose "an ecological nightmare" for the diversity of native forests.

Kolar also pleaded guilty Wednesday to an attempted arson charge for a failed 1998 firebombing that damaged a Colorado gun club that organized a multistate turkey shoot.

At least three others were involved in the UW firebombing, court documents allege.

Briana Waters of Berkeley, Calif., has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in May. William Rodgers of Prescott, Ariz., committed suicide in jail after being charged with other acts of ecoterrorism.

A fifth suspect, Justin Solondz, formerly of Jefferson County, Wash., remains at large.

Ex-Marine, wife claim $200 million Powerball jackpot; they bought 3 tickets at Iowa store

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A Fort Dodge couple who bought three Powerball tickets during a pit stop for soda came forward Wednesday to claim the $200 million jackpot.

Tim and Kellie Guderian bought the winning ticket Sept. 23 at a Kum & Go store in Fort Dodge. They discovered their good fortune the following evening, as Kellie read off the winning numbers to an awe-struck Tim.

"What a stroke of luck," Tim Guderian said. "It seemed like a dream."

According to the Iowa lottery, the odds of winning were about 140 million-to-1.

Tim Guderian, 36, served in the Marines during Operation Desert Storm and works as an automotive detailer in Fort Dodge. His 44-year-old wife of nearly seven years is a sales associate at the Wal-Mart where the pair first met.

The Guderians chose to take the lump-sum payment, which amounts to $67.1 million after taxes.

The winning ticket numbers were computer-picked. They were 13-21-26-45-50 and Powerball 20.

Powerball, which began in 1985, is played in 29 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history is a $365 million Powerball prize won by eight workers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant in February.

On the Net: Powerball: http://www.powerball.com/

Multistate Lottery Association: http://www.musl.com/

Owners of Louisiana nursing home where 35 died after Hurricane Katrina plead not guilty

CHALMETTE, La. (AP) - The owners of a nursing home where 35 people died in the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of negligent homicide and cruelty to the infirm.

Salvador and Mabel Mangano had been booked with negligent homicide shortly after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm, but they were not charged until late last month because a grand jury could not convene any earlier in badly damaged St. Bernard Parish.

The Manganos, owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home, were allowed to remain free on bail following the arraignment hearing before State District Judge Jerome Winsberg.

More than 30 lawsuits have been filed against the couple by patients injured at the nursing home and the families of people who died there.

The Manganos have sued the government, saying federal, state and local officials failed to keep residents safe. The couple argue that their hurricane plan - keeping frail residents in place with food, water and generators rather than risking their lives by moving them - was responsible, and that nobody would have died had the levees held.

The judge has imposed a gag order barring attorneys, the Manganos and witnesses in the case from talking with the media. However, he did allow defense attorney James Cobb, who represents Salvador Mangano, to read a statement after the hearing saying he planned "a very aggressive defense."

"In our opinion, for more than a year, the office of attorney general of Louisiana has, without factual support, pursued the Manganos," Cobb said.

Prosecutors said they could not comment.