NEW YORK - Three of the five policemen whose 50-bullet barrage killed an unarmed man on his wedding day were indicted Friday in a case that heightened racial tensions and renewed allegations that the city's officers are too fast on the trigger.

Attorneys for officers Marc Cooper, Gerscard Isnora and Michael Oliver said their clients had been indicted, but they did not know what offenses the officers had been charged with. Grand jurors had considered charges including murder, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.

The three officers fired the most shots - Cooper, 4, Isnora, 11, and Oliver, 31 - in the Nov. 25 confrontation that killed 23-year-old Sean Bell and wounded two of his friends as they left Bell's bachelor party at a strip club in Queens.

The shooting stirred outrage around New York City and led to accusations of racism against police. Bell was black, as are two of his friends who were wounded in the shooting. Cooper and Isnora are black. Oliver is white.

District Attorney Richard A. Brown said only that the grand jury had reached a decision and it would be announced Monday. He gave no reason for the delay, but indictments are often kept sealed until attorneys and their clients are notified and arrangements can be made for the defendants to surrender.

A person familiar with the case told the AP that the other two officers in the shooting - one black and one white - were not charged. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the grand jury's decision has not been made public.

The case also brought back painful memories of other infamous police shootings in New York City, including the 1999 killing of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who died in a hail of 41 bullets. The officers in that case were acquitted of criminal charges.

Police union officials defended the officers, arguing they were responding to reasonable suspicions the victims were armed and dangerous.

"This indictment sends a chilling message to all New York City police officers and to all law enforcement throughout the country," said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association. "You can act in good faith and there is no margin for error."

Isnora, 28, was "very upset," attorney Philip Karasyk said. "But he is confident that once he has his day in court he will be vindicated."

The grand jury's decision came after three days of deliberations.

Anticipation has been running high around New York City about the grand jury's decision. Extra police officers were put on standby, and the mayor met with black leaders in the Queens neighborhood where the shooting occurred in hopes of defusing any tensions that might arise from the decision.

"Whatever the grand jury says … I think you will see the people of this city behaving in an exemplary manner," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. "They can be disappointed, they can express themselves - that's freedom of speech, I don't have a problem with that. But nobody is going to go out and make our streets unsafe."

Peter St. George Davis, attorney for Sean Bell's parents, said his clients are devastated. "But they pray every day that somehow, out of their son's death will come a message or lasting legacy."

The Rev. Al Sharpton said the charges marked an important first step in the fight for justice in the case.

"The only way you make sure it doesn't happen again is you stop it, and you punish it and you send a signal that we live in a society where laws have to be respected," he said. "So there is no joy, no vengeance, no party here."

A 23-person grand jury heard the case, and 12 grand jurors needed to vote for an indictment for charges to be brought. The panel included eight blacks, seven whites, and a mix of Hispanics and Asians.

The five officers were among the more than 60 witnesses who testified before the grand jury. Survivors Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman also gave their version, insisting the officers fired without warning.

Associated Press Writer Samantha Gross contributed to this report.

Plane crash kills stunt pilot performing a loop at Fla. air show

TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A stunt pilot trying to perform a loop at an air show crashed his plane into nearby woods and died Friday, authorities said.

The plane crashed on the first day of this weekend's TICO Warbird Air Show at the Titusville airport, about 35 miles east of Orlando, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office said. The victim's identity was not immediately released.

Witnesses told Florida Today of Melbourne the plane was performing a loop when the crash happened just after 2:30 p.m. Tom Erikson, who was watching the show, said it seemed like the pilot was flying too low to pull out of the maneuver.

"Why was he so low to the ground?" Erikson said. "This was a disaster."

Teri McMillan said she and family members were at the show with children, who were badly shaken.

"You want to have fun. You know this is a reality but …" she told the newspaper before trailing off into tears.

Oprah Winfrey opens second school for poor South African youth, funded by her Angel Network

SHAYAMOYA, South Africa (AP) - Oprah Winfrey opened her second school for poor South African youth Friday, an innovative, environmentally friendly institution she hopes will be a model for public education.

The Seven Fountains Primary School was funded by Oprah's Angel Network, a public charity that supports organizations and projects focused on education and literacy.

"The Seven Fountains School is an example of what schools in South Africa can become," Winfrey said at the school's formal dedication outside the remote town of Kokstad in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

Dressed casually in a cream top and white pants, the talk-show host danced and sang with teachers and children who lauded her with cries of "Long live Oprah, long live!"

Winfrey first visited the school in 2002 when it was located on a farm, bringing gifts, clothing, books and teacher-training materials for its 1,000 students and staff.

The school was later forced to move from the farm and relocated to a building with no windows, little electricity and running water, and only four toilets.

During a follow-up visit in 2004, the Angel Network committed itself to building a new school.

"We thought the school you had before was not good enough, so we wanted to build the best school for you," she told the children Friday.

The $1.6 million school, which will be run by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, has 25 classrooms, three multipurpose rooms, a library, computer center, landscaped playground and two sports fields.

The supply of water to the area is irregular, so the school has an innovative system that recycles rainwater and uses seesaws and merry-go-rounds to pump water. It also uses solar power and has landscaped gardens that supply vegetables for school meals.

"It can be done within the expectations of budgets. We used our imagination and creativity to build not only a good school but a great school," Winfrey said.

Winfrey emphasized the importance of education in combating poverty and said every child had a right to succeed. "We are here today to celebrate the transformative power of education," she said.

Principal Veliswa Mnukwa praised Winfrey for responding to their plight and called her an "angel." "This is the second time you are visiting us, but now it is a very different school … Nothing compares with what you have done for us," she said.

Nduli Amahle, 11, marveled at the school's transformation.

"I want to thank Oprah for giving us this school. It is going to change my life and help me become a doctor," she said.

Parent Lindiwe Mbambo said the school is also going to have a lasting affect on the community.

"Even as a parent I am going to participate here. There is a night school, a computer center and a library that we can use. I can't express my gratitude for Oprah. The old school was so miserable," she said.

Winfrey opened her Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg to great fanfare Jan. 2, with celebrities like Tina Turner and Spike Lee in attendance, as well as former President Nelson Mandela.

The lavish $40 million school was the fulfillment of a promise she made to Mandela six years ago and aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.

But some parents have complained to local media about academy rules limiting the girls to one family visit a month and restricting their cell phone calls and consumption of junk food.

"It was a nightmare," Frances Mans told the News24 Web site. "We had only two hours to see my child. Surely this isn't a prison?"

John Samuel, chief operating officer for the academy, said parents had raised their concerns with Winfrey by telephone and had been reassured.

"They say they are satisfied that the girls are not being treated unfairly," he said, adding that the school had tried to discourage parents from bringing the girls soft drinks or sweets because they were fed a nutritious diet.

He said Winfrey had spent time at the academy meeting with staff and students ahead of Friday's event.

Samuel also dismissed complaints the school was culturally insensitive and said it was based on the African philosophy of ubuntu, which places an emphasis on the collective.

"We are very conscious of how we deal with people and have the community's interest at heart," he said.

Built on 52 acres, the 28-building campus resembles a luxury hotel, with state-of-the-art classrooms, computer and science labs, and a library, theater and wellness center. Each girl lives in a two-bedroom suite. It will eventually have 450 students.

But the school has been called elitist. ActionAid, a global development group, said Winfrey's money could have been better spent improving the quality of education for more children.

On the Net:

Oprah Winfrey:

http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml

Baltimore police arrest, handcuff 7-year-old for riding motorized dirt bike

BALTIMORE (AP) - Police arrested a 7-year-old boy, handcuffed him and hauled him down to the station house on a charge of riding a motorized dirt bike on a sidewalk.

Then, according to his mother, Gerard Mungo Jr. was handcuffed to a bench and interrogated before being released to his parents.

"They scared me," Gerard told The Baltimore Examiner before breaking down in tears.

Mayor Sheila Dixon apologized Friday for the arrest, and police commissioner Leonard Hamm said it would be investigated internally.

The arrest came after an officer saw Gerard riding his dirt bike on the sidewalk in east Baltimore on Tuesday, police spokesman Matt Jablow said. Hamm, citing the internal probe, declined to discuss how the rest of the incident unfolded.

Lakisia Dinkins said her son was sitting on the bike with the motor off on the sidewalk when an officer grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off.

"I told them to let go of my baby," Dinkins said. "Since when do you pull a 7-year-old child by his neck and drag him?"

Dinkins said she called for a police supervisor to intervene, but the confrontation continued to escalate after the supervisor arrived.

"They started yelling at him, 'Do you know what you did wrong, son?"' Dinkins said. "He was so scared he ran upstairs."

Police arrested Gerard and confiscated the bike.

Dinkins said officers fingerprinted him and took his mug shot. Hamm could not confirm that and said those actions would not have been normal procedure in a non-felony case.

Dinkins said the arrest scarred her son. "This has changed his life," she said. "He'll never be the same."

The Police Department's zero-tolerance arrest policy - begun under former Mayor Martin O'Malley, who is now Maryland's governor - has drawn complaints that such arrests occur most often in poor, black neighborhoods. Gerard is black.

Hamm said the officer had the option of talking with a parent or confiscating the bike. He said that although the city is concerned about nuisance dirt bikes, the arrest "was not consistent with my philosophy of trying to solve problems in the neighborhoods."

The mayor, who appeared Friday with Hamm, said she also planned to look into the case.

"It is clear to me that the arrest was wrong, that the officers on the scene should not have arrested the child, and on behalf of the City of Baltimore I apologize to the boy and his parents," Dixon said.

Mexican officials seize $206 million in suspected methamphetamine money

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Federal agents seized $206 million believed to be tied to the methamphetamine trade and detained seven people at a luxury home in one of Mexico City's most upscale neighborhoods, officials said Friday.

The Attorney General's office said it was Mexico's largest seizure of drug money.

The agents also seized eight luxury vehicles, seven weapons and a machine to make pills Thursday from the home in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood, a collection of walled compounds that is home to ambassadors and Mexican business magnates.

The U.S. dollars were hidden inside walls, suitcases and closets.

President Felipe Calderon praised the seizure as part of his crackdown against drug trafficking. Since taking office Dec. 1, Calderon has sent some 20,000 police and soldiers into drug strongholds a to battle trafficking gangs.

"We have no alternative," Calderon said Friday. "We must act in a decisive manner now or the costs in terms of money and human lives will be much more, and worse still, unrecoverable. We must act now or lose Mexico."

Federal investigators said the search of the home was part of an investigation into the company Unimed Pharm Chem de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., which allegedly imported from India large quantities of the ingredients needed to make methamphetamines.

The investigation began in December after officials seized 19.5 tons of pseudoephedrine in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas.

Since the U.S. cracked down on the mass sale of cold medicines used to make methamphetamines, Mexico has become one of the world's largest producers of the synthetic drug.

Cruise ship passenger rescued 8 hours after reportedly jumping overboard near Florida

MIAMI (AP) - A man who jumped from a cruise ship off Florida's coast early Friday was rescued about eight hours later by the Coast Guard, officials said.

Michael Mankamyer, 35, waved his arms at crews when he was found at about 8:45 a.m., Coast Guard Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson said. He was airlifted to a hospital and the Coast Guard reported that he suffered from mild hypothermia but was otherwise in good condition.

The ship reported that Mankamyer had jumped from the balcony in his room and into the water around 12:45 a.m., a Coast Guard statement said.

A witness said Mankamyer was intoxicated, Coast Guard Petty Officer Dana Warr said.

Mankamyer was aboard the Carnival Glory, which operates out of Port Canaveral east of Orlando, according to the cruise company's Web site.

After the cruise ship alerted authorities, it stayed in the area to assist with the search, Warr said.

"The time that they did spend was appreciated," Warr said.

Warr said that ship and another cruise that assisted in the search left the area before Mankamyer was found.

Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher said no additional details were immediately available.

Award-winning Utah teacher accused of sexually abusing students in classroom

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A first-grade teacher honored last year as among the best in Utah was charged with sexually abusing three students in his suburban classroom, authorities said Friday.

Frank L. Hall, 36, is accused of putting his hand inside the pants of three girls between June and this month at Rosamond Elementary School in Riverton, according to court documents.

Sheriff's Chief Deputy Shane Hudson said authorities were notified after a student who witnessed the touching told his parents.

Hall was arrested Thursday on three counts of aggravated sexual abuse and was being held on $500,000 bail, Hudson said. It was not known when he would appear in court, and authorities didn't know Friday whether he had a lawyer.

Hall was one of 10 Utah teachers who received a Huntsman Award for Excellence in Education last year. The privately bestowed honor comes with a $10,000 grant.

A Web site that describes the winners says Hall helped first-graders reach a sixth-grade reading level.

Jordan School District barred Hall from the classroom before the week began, spokesman Michael Kelley said.

The Utah Division of Child and Family Services will be interviewing families and other children, spokeswoman Carol Sisco said.

Ariz. prosecutor intends to seek death penalty in serial killing case

PHOENIX (AP) - A prosecutor said Friday he will seek the death penalty against a man accused of being the Baseline Killer, a serial predator who terrorized residents here for more than a year.

Mark Goudeau, 42, is charged with 94 crimes in all, including nine counts of first-degree murder, 15 counts of sexual assault and 11 counts of kidnapping. Goudeau has pleaded not guilty.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said he concluded the death penalty was an appropriate sentence and cited aggravating circumstances, including multiple killings and crimes carried out in a cruel manner.

"Based on the facts of this case and the legal principles that govern capital cases, I have concluded it is appropriate to seek a capital sentence for this defendant," Thomas said at a news conference.

A call to Goudeau's lawyer was not immediately returned.

Goudeau, a former construction worker, is suspected of starting to prey on people at random after he was released from prison in 2004 on armed robbery, kidnapping and aggravated assault convictions.

Police say the killer usually struck at night and wore disguises, including a wig of dreadlocks. The name Baseline Killer came from the Phoenix street where some of the earliest crimes were committed.

Police arrested Goudeau in September on suspicion of two sexual assaults in 2005 and indicted him this month on the other charges.

The Baseline Killer was one of two serial killer cases in the Phoenix area recently.

In August, police arrested two men in the Serial Shooter case who are accused of driving around the area at night, firing at people randomly. Seven people were killed. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Judge urges feds to consider dropping charges against ganja guru

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge told prosecutors Friday to consider dropping pot-growing charges against self-proclaimed marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer granted the Department of Justice's motion for a delay in Rosenthal's retrial, which was scheduled to begin Monday. Earlier in the week, the judge dismissed money laundering and tax charges against Rosenthal, saying they resulted from a "vindictive prosecution."

Prosecutor George Bevan requested the postponement to review a last-minute flurry of defense motions. But Breyer said he also wants the government to assess "whether it makes sense to go forward with the marijuana prosecution" in light of his ruling.

Rosenthal, 62, was convicted on three marijuana-growing felonies in 2003. Breyer sentenced him to just one day in prison, which Rosenthal served, saying the "Guru of Ganja" reasonably believed he was growing the plants on behalf of Oakland officials for a city medical marijuana program.

A federal appeals court overturned his conviction last year because of misconduct by a juror who consulted an attorney on how to decide the case. Federal prosecutors indicted Rosenthal again in October over the same marijuana operation, adding four counts of hiding money and five counts of filing false tax returns.

In his pointed instructions to Bevan Friday, Breyer said he should estimate "if the government's resources and the court's resources are well spent" by trying Rosenthal a second time.

Breyer also said he expected the lawyer to be prepared to answer when the case returns to court on April 13 whether the government had ever retried someone who had already served his sentence.

Rosenthal, a longtime pro-marijuana activist, has written books on how to grow marijuana and how to avoid getting caught.

100 sheep die in truck fire

PARAGONAH, Utah (AP) - Fire trapped 300 sheep in a semitrailer on Interstate 15 in southern Utah, killing approximately 100, authorities said Friday.

The semi picked up a piece of road debris that locked a tire and caused a fire Wednesday night, said Trooper Preston Raban of the Utah Highway Patrol.

"The whole 18-wheeler was aflame," he said. "The sheep were on three tiers. The top tier got hammered because the fire just moved right up."

Many sheep that survived were burned or had eye injuries.

"They can bounce back from the burns on their hides, but their eyes are damaged forever," Raban said.

Chris Evans, who stopped to save the sheep, said he later threw his clothes away because the smell was so bad. The fire occurred in Iron County, about 230 miles south of Salt Lake City.

"The top of the truck was made out of fiberglass and it poured down like snow. … I've been on five different wrecks involving livestock, and I've never seen it like that," Evans said.

The sheep that survived were taken to Cedar Livestock Market to recover.

"It's sad to watch sheep burned black," Parowan Fire Chief Albert Orton said.

Raban said he didn't know who owned the sheep.

First gay couple unite in Mexico City, inaugurating new civil union law

MEXICO CITY (AP) - An economist and a journalist became the first couple united under Mexico City's new gay civil union law Friday, kissing while an orchestra played "Besame Mucho" and police guarded their white wedding tent filled with guests.

The new law, which took effect on Friday and grants same-sex couples similar social benefits as legally married heterosexual couples, reflects a growing acceptance of homosexual culture in what has traditionally been a macho society, as well as Mexico City's willingness to join the international debate on gay marriage rights.

The capital city is the second municipality in the country to officially accept gay civil unions, and the first couple to take advantage of the new law was journalist Antonio Medina, 38, and economist Jorge Cerpa, 31.

The two have been dating for four years and three months.

They were united Friday in a plaza in front of the government offices for Mexico City's Iztapalapa borough, signing documents under a banner that read "Civil Union Law: Your right to choose" as dozens of supporters yelled "Bravo!" and waved rainbow flags.

"With this law, a history of exclusion comes to an end," Medina said. "Today, the love that before did not dare say its name has now entered the public spotlight."

City officials also praised the event.

"Love now has less one obstacle," said leftist city lawmaker Victor Hugo Cirigo, one of the new law's biggest supporters.

The couple will spend the weekend celebrating at a Mexican beach, although their true honeymoon will take place in September with a trip to Canada.

The legislature of Mexico City, which is an independent district similar to Washington, D.C., passed the law in November.

The capital city was the first in the country to approve such a law, but a similar measure later approved in the northern state of Coahuila went into effect first, at the end of January. A couple of days later, a lesbian couple officially registered their union, which is being celebrated by liberal lawmakers but condemned by the ruling National Action Party.

The conservative party has filed a court challenge claiming that gay unions violate constitutional provisions protecting the family.

The Mexican Roman Catholic Church also has spoken out forcefully against the law.

But that hasn't discouraged the hundreds of lesbian and gay couples in Mexico City who gathered en masse in Mexico City's main central plaza, the Zocalo, on Valentine's Day to announce their intentions to formalize their unions.

Lending support to the cause, pop star Christian Chavez, a singer with the Mexican pop group RBD, announced earlier this month that he was gay after photographs of him kissing and exchanging rings with another man in Canada surfaced on the Internet.

"I don't want to keep on lying and lie to myself because of fear," Chavez said in a statement posted on the group's Web site. He received an outpouring of support from fans, who lauded his courage.

Dad charged in baby-stabbing near Indianapolis faces 4 felonies, including attempted murder

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A man accused of stabbing his 11-month-old son in the back with a kitchen knife faces four felony charges, including attempted murder, after police arrested him Friday at a woman's home.

Kevin Chandler, 30, was captured about 10:45 a.m. in a home in suburban Lawrence, according to police in Speedway, where the boy was injured Wednesday outside his mother's apartment.

Chandler stabbed his son, Devon Chandler, dumped the boy out the window of a parked car and onto the pavement, then drove away, police said.

The baby was in good condition Friday after surgery, police said.

The boy's mother, Angela Limbrock, 31, said Chandler had arrived at her apartment Wednesday night but she did not want to see him.

Limbrock, Chandler, Devon and their 5-year-old son were about to leave the complex when Limbrock realized the baby's car seat was still in her apartment. She handed Devon to Chandler, who was sitting in the back seat, and went to get the seat.

As she was getting out of the car, Limbrock said 5-year-old Kevon yelled that Chandler had a knife.

Limbrock said she saw Chandler plunge a kitchen knife into the boy.

"I just kind of blanked out," she said. "I just screamed, 'No!"'

Authorities had searched for a day and a half before arresting Chandler, who they said is homeless.

He offered no resistance when several officers took him into custody at the home of 27-year-old Heather Cunningham, said Lawrence police Capt. Erika Schneider. Police believe Cunningham is a girlfriend of Chandler's. She has not been charged.

Chandler faces preliminary charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and two counts of battery in the boy's stabbing. He will be held in jail on a $1 million bond, police said. It was not clear if he had a lawyer.

Ga. boy's slaying prompts outcry that molester was allowed to live close to victim

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - Neighbors of a slain 6-year-old boy are fuming over how a molester arrested in the child's abduction had been allowed to live in the same trailer park as the victim, just months after legislators passed one of the nation's toughest crackdowns on sex offenders.

A Georgia law passed last year prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop. That would have barred George David Edenfield from living so close to Christopher Michael Barrios, but a pending lawsuit prompted a federal judge last year to block that provision from taking effect.

"This is a clear indication of why it was good legislation to consider school bus stops," Sen. Eric Johnson, president pro tempore of the Georgia Senate, told reporters Friday. "It may make it difficult to find a place for a sexual predator to live, and I don't think we make any apologies about that."

The search for Christopher, who was last seen alive March 8, ended Thursday when his body was found in a black trash bag dumped near a roadside about three miles from his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, a port city in southeastern Georgia.

Edenfield, 32, one of four suspects arrested in connection with Christopher's death, had to register as a sex offender in Georgia because of a 1997 child molestation conviction. He and his parents lived across the street from Christopher's grandmother and less than 600 feet from where the kindergartner met his school bus.

"He'd go out here in the morning watching children getting on the bus, and again in the afternoon when they would come off the bus," said Sue Rodriguez, Christopher's grandmother. "A person like that shouldn't be allowed to be here."

Her neighbor, Kimberly Maynard, said she's terrified to let her two toddler sons go outside. She said neighbors knew from the state's online sex offender registry that Edenfield had a child molestation conviction.

"Why were they allowed to move into the middle of a trailer park with all these children?" Maynard said. "That's what everybody wants to know."

Ironically, it was another sex-offender law that led Edenfield to move last year from downtown Brunswick to the mobile home park where Christopher lived.

That law keeps sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools and other places where children congregate. Police Chief Matt Doering said Edenfield's old home had been too close to a playground.

Doering said Friday he expects to charge Edenfield, his parents and a family friend, Donald Dale, with Christopher's murder.

Edenfield is currently charged with violating his probation, which prohibits him from contact with children under 18, because he told police he played a role in the boy's abduction.

His parents, David and Peggy Edenfield, and Dale have been jailed on charges they lied to police when they denied knowing anything about the boy's disappearance.

The Atlanta-based Southern Center For Human Rights sued to stop the new living restrictions from taking effect last July, arguing they would evict sex offenders from the vast majority of residential areas in Georgia.

"This crime is so sad and terribly sickening, but using the reference point that the suspect lived near a bus stop is the same as saying he lived in Georgia," said Susan Totonchi, a spokeswoman for the civil rights group. "There's nowhere in Georgia that's not near a bus stop."

U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper ruled the bus stop restriction would be unenforceable unless school boards designated official stops. After three of Georgia's 159 counties did so, Cooper blocked counties from evicting any sex offenders while the litigation was pending.

The attorney for Glynn County's school system had recommended against designating bus stops, given the court action, but school board member Ruby Robinson said she plans to renew those efforts.

Associated Press writers Shannon McCaffrey and Doug Gross in Atlanta contributed the report.

Woman scouted Lubbock, Texas hospital before baby taken, prosecutor says

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - The woman accused of snatching a days-old infant from a hospital had scouted security measures there beforehand and also went to another maternity ward the day the baby was abducted, a prosecutor said Friday.

Rayshaun Parson, 21, faces charges of kidnapping after authorities said she took Mychael Darthard-Dawodu from Covenant Lakeside Hospital in Lubbock on March 10. She was ordered to remain in jail Friday during a detention hearing where prosecutors also provided more details about the case.

Parson came to Lubbock from Clovis, N.M., on March 9 and spent time in the maternity ward at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Sucsy told a judge. But the security system at that hospital, a tag attached to newborns' umbilical clip, discouraged her, Sucsy said.

Greg Bruce, a spokesman for the medical center, said had Parson tried to remove an umbilical tag from a baby there, it could cause a baby to bleed and would be "extremely difficult to remove" and "would cause the baby extreme discomfort."

Parson instead went about to Covenant Lakeside, and spent a few hours there, Sucsy said. She purchased infant formula then "popped in and out" of Mychael's mother's room, the baby's mother told investigators.

The baby's mother told investigators that Parson took the baby, explaining she needed her for medical tests. When Parson realized the infant did not have an umbilical clip security tag, she cut off the infant's security leg bracelet and left the hospital, Sucsy said.

Gwen Stafford, a Covenant vice president, has said the hospital was alerted when the baby was separated from the security tag, but hasn't explained how the security system failed. The hospital has pledged to improve security.

Hospital surveillance footage showed a woman wearing blue and flower-print hospital scrubs walking out of the hospital around 1:20 a.m. March 10. She was carrying a purse as she walked past an unstaffed information desk near the exit.

Parson did not comment when leaving the court, but made an obscene gesture to media members. Helen Liggett, the public defender who is representing her, declined to comment after the hearing but said she will appeal the ruling.

The judge ordered Parson held without bond Friday, denying a request to allow her to stay in a psychiatric treatment facility in California near her mother and grandparents.

Affair between student and married teacher leads to fatal shooting in Knoxville, Tenn.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - In a tragic twist to a familiar story, a teenager who had sex with his married 30-year-old teacher was fatally shot outside the woman's home, and authorities have charged the woman's husband.

"You see all this stuff with teachers involved with their students. It just comes up time after time on the national news," said Norman McLean, father of suspect Eric McLean. "Well, this is the first time where one has actually died over it."

McClean's wife, Erin, had completed half of a one-year teaching internship at West High School, where she met the 18-year-old Sean Powell last fall.

Powell's mother, who gave him up for adoption a dozen years ago but re-established contact in 2005, said her son acknowledged having an affair with a teacher.

"He wouldn't let me answer my cell phone," Debra Flynn recalled. "I said, 'Why?' He said, 'Well, Mom, I'm going out with this girl.' I said, 'So what?' He said, 'She is a counselor at school.' I said, 'Oh, my God, Sean."'

Flynn, whose son sometimes stayed at her home in Nashville, said she later found text messages on her phone. "Come home. Baby, I love you. You are beautiful," they said. She believes Erin McLean preyed on her son.

"These teachers are feasting on our children in school and something has to be done," Flynn said.

Powell "was a great kid, full of life," Flynn said. He had taught himself to play guitar and just received his driver's license. His adoptive parents, Scarlett and Jack Powell, had just bought him a car.

But he left school on Nov. 20 and did not return. School officials refuse to explain, citing privacy laws. Flynn said her son had a substance-abuse problem and went to rehab for less than a month.

Norman McLean described his son, one of his eight children, as "an excellent person," who was not violent, but he acknowledged that his son "had a lot of burden on him for months now," referring to his wife's affair.

"Now, I am only talking about myself. But I can personally only take so much," Norman McLean said. "Everybody has a breaking point and there is only so much you can endure before you get to that place … where you lose control."

Norman McLean said his son, once a percussionist in the University of Tennessee marching band, put his own academic career on hold to support his family while his wife of 11 years pursued a graduate teaching degree from the University of Tennessee. He has worked as a pizza deliveryman while taking classes at the university.

Eric McLean is one semester short of completing a bachelor's degree in music education. A popular performer in local rock 'n' roll bands, he hoped to become a school band director.

On the evening of March 10, McLean called police to say an intruder was at the couple's home. About 7 minutes later, Erin McLean called back to say her husband had just shot Powell outside in the boy's car.

Eric McLean fled in his car, which was later found at the high school. McLean was arrested Sunday, walking along railroad tracks about 6 miles away, still carrying the suspected murder weapon, a shotgun.

Sean Powell was buried Thursday after a funeral attended by more than 150 friends and former classmates.

"I didn't color any rosy pictures," said the Rev. Lee Wallace, who officiated. "I said, Sean, like myself, is not perfect. He was a boy who had hopes and dreams and goals in life, like everybody else, and those were cut short."

Erin McLean has moved in with relatives in Nashville with the couple's two young sons, ages 11 and 7. She has not been charged with any wrongdoing. Police say she has hired a lawyer but could not provide a name.

The attorney for Eric McLean, 31, acknowledges that McLean killed Powell. "So this trial is going to be about what really did happen and why - not who," attorney Bruce Poston said.

Poston said McLean is in a "state of shock. Like watching a deer caught in the headlights. Literally wondering, 'Have I made a decision that will ruin the rest of my life as well as others?"'

Tiny Alaska town is giving away land to boost population

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Anderson, a little town in Alaska's interior, has no gas station, no grocery store and no traffic lights, but it does have plenty of woodsy land - and it's free to anyone willing to put down roots in the often-frozen ground.

In a modern twist on the homesteading movement that populated the Plains in the 1800s, the community of 300 people is offering 26 large lots on spruce-covered land in a part of Alaska that has spectacular views of the Northern lights and Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak.

And what's an occasional day of 60-below cold in a town removed from big-city ills?

"It's Mayberry," said Anderson high-school teacher Daryl Frisbie, whose social studies class explored ways to boost the town's dwindling population. Students developed a Web site and Power Point presentation, then persuaded the City Council to give it a go.

"Are you tired of the hustle and bustle of the Lower 48, crime, poor schools, and the high cost of living?" the Web site asks. "Make your new home in the Last Frontier!"

The 1.3-acre lots will be awarded to the first people who apply for them and submit $500 refundable deposits beginning at 9 a.m. Monday. Each winning applicant must build a house measuring at least 1,000 square feet within two years. Power and phone hookups are already available.

City Clerk Nancy Hollis said people who apply in person or have someone stand in for them will have the best shot, since the post office doesn't open until noon and deliveries are even later from the regional hub of Fairbanks, 75 miles away.

People seeking more information are calling from such places as California, Texas, Idaho and Florida.

Locals eyeing the sites include 15-year-old newcomer Brittney Warner, a student who worked on the project. The 10th-grader, her parents and three siblings moved to Anderson two months ago from Boise, Idaho, when her father got a job at nearby Clear Air Force Station.

Warner calls her new community "very nice, small, very outdoorsy" - a place that would be even better if it brought in some new businesses. Residents now have to drive at least 20 miles for gasoline or groceries.

Her family is now living in a rental home and planning to apply for one of the lots.

"We already have a house design," she said.

Cory Furrow, a 26-year-old electrician, said he will be in line, too. Anderson has everything he enjoys - good terrain for snowshoeing and skiing, fishing, and hunting for moose and grizzly bears.

"I've lived here my whole life, so when free land comes up in my hometown, I can't pass that up," said Furrow, who lives in his family home.

Folks in Anderson say there are some job opportunities within driving distance, including a coal mine, a utility, major hotels and the air station, a ballistic missile early-warning site. Locals also would like to see entrepreneurs among the newcomers.

In addition, they are hoping for families. The high school basketball team had to go coed this year because there weren't enough boys.

Among the other advantages of Anderson: no property taxes, state income taxes or sales tax, virtually no crime, and no traffic. There are magnificent summers with temperatures as high as 90 degrees and plenty of wide-open space.

"One of the resources that we have is land," said Mayor Mike Pearson, a mechanic at the air station. "If this works out well, the city's got lots more property."

On the Net:

http://web.mac.com/dbsd/iWeb/Site/City%20of%20Anderson.html

www.anderson.govoffice.com

Colorado school: Student finds dead mouse in bag of chips; Frito-Lay investigating

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - An eighth-grader said he found a dead mouse inside a bag of Frito-Lay barbecue potato chips he bought in a school lunch line, and his claim appears credible, school officials said.

The boy reported he found the mouse Wednesday at Lewis-Palmer Middle School in Monument, about 40 miles south of Denver. The principal and a vice principal interviewed his parents and other students who were sitting at the same lunch table and decided the incident didn't appear to be a prank, said Donna Wood, a spokeswoman for the Lewis-Palmer School District.

Frito-Lay spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez said Friday the Plano, Texas-based company expected to receive the bag of chips soon and will investigate to determine what action, if any, it will take.

"We take these things very seriously because we have stringent quality control in place," Gonzalez said.

Wood said the school district has temporarily pulled all chips from its vending machines and lunch lines.

Frito-Lay is a unit of PepsiCo Inc.

Iranian refugee who lived at Moscow airport for 9 months is free in Canada

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - An Iranian refugee who had been living with her two children at Moscow's international airport for nine months was free in Canada on Friday.

Zahra Kamalfar, a human rights activist who says she was jailed in Iran for demonstrating against the government, arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Thursday after a flight from Europe.

She burst out sobbing, then fainted, after being reunited with her brother, Nader Kamalfar, whom she hadn't seen in nearly 14 years.

Kamalfar, 47, and Anna, 17, and Davood, 12, had been living in the transit lounge of the Sheremetyevo International Airport since Russia denied them entry in May, said her Canadian lawyer Negar Azmudeh.

Canada agreed last week to accept Kamalfar and her two children after she was granted refugee status by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

"I don't know how to thank the Canada government. I say thank you, thank you, thank you so much," she told CBC Television in broken English on Friday.

Kamalfar's plight began in July 2004 when she and her husband participated in a demonstration against the Iranian government in Tehran, said Azmudeh. They were both jailed, and Kamalfar says she was beaten in prison.

The Iranian Embassy in Ottawa did not return a call seeking comment Friday.

Her chance for escape came when she was given a two-day pass to visit her family in April 2005. When she got home, Kamalfar was told that her husband had been executed. She then fled Iran with her two children with the intention of coming to Canada where her brother lives.

The fate of her husband is uncertain, Davood Ghavami of the Iranian Canadian Congress, told The Toronto Star.

Kamalfar declined to discuss her ordeal in Iran.

"I don't like to remember because too much for me," she said. "We need time; maybe after that I can explain for you."

In limbo at Moscow's airport, Kamalfar received food regularly from the Russian state airliner, Aeroflot and also relied on the kindness of strangers.

"That place very hard because we don't have anything," she said. "We cannot take shower. You cannot sleep."

Kamalfar intends to live in the Vancouver area, already home to about 30,000 Iranians

"I want to find a job and a new life - a start for new life," she said.