HURON, S.D. - Police killed a teenager who they said used a sword to kill his mother and injure three other people, including an officer.

Investigators had not determined the motive for the attacks, Chief Doug Schmitt said Friday.

"We don't have any background or any events leading up to the assault this morning that would give any indication of a motive," he said.

Officers called to the family's home Friday found 14-year-old Rebekah Gilchrist with several cuts on her lower arms and hands. The officers then spotted her brother, 16-year-old Josh Gilchrist, swinging a long sword, Schmitt said.

Schmitt said the boy struck one of the officers several times before the others fired several shots, killing him.

Police then found the body of the boy's mother, 49-year-old mom Betty Gilchrist, and an injured foreign exchange student.

Police said the boy's father, Jon Gilchrist, was not home during the attacks in the east-central South Dakota town.

Schmitt said he believes Josh Gilchrist collected swords.

Rebekah Gilchrist was taken to a hospital in Sioux Falls. The exchange student, whose name was not released, and the officer were treated at Huron Regional Medical Center and released, authorities said.

Four officers were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, standard procedure when police fire a gun.

Neb. parents believe more than blood lost in newborn screening, fight for religious exemption

WAHOO, Neb. (AP) - Ray and Louise Spiering wanted to observe a period of silence after their daughter Melynda's birth, but what they got was an uproar.

To the Spierings, Nebraska's requirement that newborn babies undergo blood screening within 48 hours of birth is an infringement on their religious beliefs and their right to decide what's best for their four children.

The couple attend a fundamental Christian church and follow some teachings of the Church of Scientology. Louise Spiering said they wanted "that balance of our beliefs included into the births of our children."

It's taken them and another set of parents to the Nebraska Supreme Court and the Legislature in a drive to make the newborn screening law more flexible.

The mandatory test, in which a few drops of blood are drawn from a baby's heel, screens for dozens of rare congenital diseases, some of which can cause severe mental retardation or death if left undetected.

Nebraska is one of four states - along with South Dakota, Michigan and Montana - that don't let parents opt out of the testing.

The Spierings wanted to avoid loud noises after Melynda's birth, and also reduce the pain she experienced in order to protect her physical and mental health. The concept comes from the Church of Scientology - minimizing talking around someone who is in pain, said the Rev. Brian Fesler of Minneapolis, a regional representative for the church.

The church teaches that words spoken during moments of pain and unconsciousness affect physical and mental health later in life, he said. The church encourages silent birth, in which those attending avoid talking.

But the church doesn't discourage parents from having their children tested, Fesler said.

The Spierings, who apply some tenets of Scientology to their faith, took the silent birth concept a step further. They believe newborns are in pain for at least 3.5 days, and don't want blood drawn - which they believe would cause more pain - for at least that long.

They asked for seven days to complete the testing to avoid any unforeseen problems, although they would have preferred to skip the test altogether.

The state insisted, and in September a federal judge upheld the law as constitutional. The judge, however, granted the Spierings an eight-day waiting period while the case was pending, so their daughter was not tested within 48 hours.

Along with the Spierings, Mary and Josue Anaya of Omaha are also fighting the test, in their case because they believe the Bible instructs against deliberately drawing blood. According to the book of Leviticus, "the life of the flesh is in the blood," and ignoring that directive may shorten a person's life, they said.

Children's blood is "something precious in my sight and in the sight of God and not to be tampered with lightly," said Mary Anaya, who gave birth to the youngest of her nine children in Iowa to avoid the test.

In 2003, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled against the Anayas. They turned to state Sen. John Synowiecki of Omaha to introduce a measure for a religious exemption.

Armed with a petition including about 100 signatures, Mary Anaya and Louise Spiering testified Thursday before the Legislature's Health and Human Services committee.

Health officials testified that the requirement is one of the state's most cost-effective public health programs.

"Some parents may not comprehend the risks they are taking with their children's health," said Bruce Rieker of the Nebraska Hospital Association.

Many of the diseases covered in the bill are deficiencies, and one, phenylketonuria, can result in severe mental retardation without diet restrictions starting at birth.

One in every 837 babies born last year tested positive for one of the 34 diseases the state tests for, said Julie Miller, manager of Nebraska's Newborn Screening Program. But the incidence is much lower for the eight most serious diseases, with one in 112,000 having biotinidase deficiency, which can cause developmental delays.

The Spierings say changing the law will give parents better options, whatever their opposition to the tests.

"We just want to lay the groundwork so that other parents have better choices than we did," Ray Spiering said. "We weren't so much against the test. We just wanted a short delay. In a sense, we kind of won" when the judge granted the eight-day delay.

But, Louise Spiering said: "There was a very steep cost in terms of the intrusion on our private lives."

11 schoolgirls killed, 14 hurt in school building collapse in western India

AHMADABAD, India (AP) - A four-story boarding school collapsed in western India, killing at least 11 girls and injuring 14, an official said Saturday.

The principal said he had told state officials the school urgently needed repairs.

Twenty-five children and six staff were in the building when it came down, local administrator Vatsala Vasudev said after the rescue work ended.

Local authorities ordered an investigation of the collapse.

The school in Tichakpura, a village in the western state of Gujarat, served tribespeople in the area.

"I had brought it to the government's notice that it needed urgent repairs," principal R.D. Choudhry said.

He said the state Department of Tribal Welfare and Education had promised to do the work soon.

Arizona grandmother with bingo habit gets 3 years for car trunkload of marijuana

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (AP) - A 62-year-old grandmother who prosecutors said ran drugs to support her bingo habit has been sentenced to three years in prison and a $150,000 fine.

Acting on a tip, state police stopped Leticia Villareal Garcia near Bisbee in southeast Arizona in February 2005 and found 214 pounds of marijuana stuffed into the trunk of her car.

Garcia has maintained her innocence, telling the judge at her sentencing Friday that she was unaware of the grass as she headed for a bingo game.

"I never, never had any knowledge of that car being loaded when I went to Tucson," the Bisbee resident told Cochise County Superior Court Judge Wallace Hoggatt.

Garcia testified at her trial in November that her son's godfather had borrowed her car the day before. Her lawyer, Robert Zohlmann, said she had been used as a "blind mule" to unknowingly haul drugs.

Garcia said she often played bingo, occasionally winning several thousand dollars at a sitting, although her only regular income was a $275 monthly welfare check she received for caring for a granddaughter.

"The underlying issue is that she's got a bingo problem, which explains why an otherwise nice person might get sucked into something like this," prosecutor Doyle Johnstun told the jury.

Garcia faced as much as 12.5 years in prison, but Johnstun asked for just four years, agreeing with her lawyer that her age and lack of a record called for the lesser sentence.

Missing Montana toddler found dead in septic tank

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) - The body of a 3-year-old boy was found in a septic tank less than 10 feet from the house where he was reported missing, Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said Saturday.

The body of Loic J.M. Rogers was found late Friday, and an autopsy showed that he drowned, Meehan said.

It was unclear how the boy got into the septic tank, and the manhole-sized lid was closed. Meehan said investigators do not believe he could have climbed into the tank and put the lid back on himself, but declined to speculate how Loic may have gotten inside. An investigation is continuing.

The boy was reported missing Wednesday night near Kalispell, about 190 miles northwest of Helena. Mark Rogers, Loic's father, told police he took Loic to his car outside a friend's home, told the boy to get in and then returned to the house for Loic's sister.

Mark Rogers "said he was inside only for a minute," Meehan said Friday. When he returned, the boy was gone.

Rogers' sister, Sara Kavanaugh, said Saturday that the family did not want to speak with the press.

Authorities said they had looked in the septic tank during the search effort, but initially did not see anything there. They found the boy's body after draining the tank, Meehan said.

Man mauled by chimps will get $32,000 from West Covina

POMONA, Calif. (AP) - A man who was viciously attacked by chimpanzees will receive $32,000 from West Covina because the city failed to make good on a deal to house his pet chimp.

The Superior Court ruling was finalized on Friday. The city also must pay St. James Davis and his wife, LaDonna, $300 a month to cover costs of housing Moe the chimp.

Moe was taken from the Davis home in 1999 after he bit a woman. The couple sued and in 2002, the city agreed to pay the couple $100,000 for removing Moe but waited three years to make the payment.

The city also agreed to buy property in neighboring Baldwin Park where Moe could live.

However, Baldwin Park officials balked at permitting the 130-pound animal to live there and eventually he went to a Kern County facility instead.

In addition to interest on the $100,000, West Covina was ordered to pay the Davis' travel costs to see Moe. During one visit in 2005, two other chimps got out of their cages and mauled St. James Davis.

He underwent more than a dozen surgeries and spent weeks in a medical induced coma. His wife lost a thumb in the attack.

Grayson mom accused of buying beer for teens, sex with minor

GRAYSON, Calif. (AP) - A 35-year-old woman was arrested in front of her police officer husband and three children Friday on allegations that she bought beer for a teenage party and had sex with at least one minor.

Anna J. Walker-Vogt of Grayson was charged with two counts of unlawful sex with a minor and 12 counts of child endangerment, all felonies, as well as six misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Stanislaus County authorities would not immediately say where or when the acts allegedly occurred, or whether the sex charges alleged two acts with one youth or if she had sex with more than one teenager.

Walker-Vogt is accused of buying alcohol for a group of Patterson teens after a high school basketball game on Jan. 19. The occasion was a party at her home to celebrate the return of her 16-year-old son, who had been in Oklahoma.

She allegedly told the teens they would have to leave before 3 a.m. because her husband, David Walker, an Atwater police officer, was due home from work.

Authorities say she paid one boy $50 to drive 11 other teens home in his sport utility vehicle. He crashed four miles away, injuring everyone in the vehicle.

The felony endangerment counts stem from Walker-Vogt's decision to let the teens drive home, while the delinquency counts allege she bought alcohol for the youths, said Sheriff's deputy Royjindar Singh.

Some of the parents are considering suing Walker-Vogt. One of the crash victims fractured his skull and a woman passenger had spinal injuries, parents said, while the others were hurt less seriously.

Robert Garcia, the 18-year-old who crashed while ferrying the other teens, is charged with felony drunken driving.

Man wanted in abduction and assault of Ariz. girl arrested in nearby town

MARICOPA, Ariz. (AP) - A registered sex offender suspected of abducting a 6-year-old girl was arrested Saturday in a nearby town, sheriff's deputies said.

An investigator found George Richard Horner, 26, in a vehicle near the town of Coolidge, sheriff's spokesman Mike Minter said.

Horner was taken into custody without incident and was being questioned by detectives, Minter said.

The girl was reported missing from her mother's home in Maricopa and found about three hours later walking down a rural road in the town of Casa Grande, about 20 miles away, officials said. Sheriff Christopher Vasquez said there was evidence that she had been sexually molested.

Maricopa, Casa Grande and Coolidge are about 30 miles south and southeast of Phoenix.

The Associated Press is not identifying the girl or her mother because she is believed to be a sexual assault victim.

Horner had been staying at the girl's home since being introduced to her girl's mother by a mutual friend, Lt. Scott Elliott said Friday.

The mother described Horner as a friend of a friend, and said she would not have let him within a "hundred million miles" of her house if she had known he was a registered sex offender.

The mother said Horner was supposed to take her daughter to school Friday, but she got a "strange gut feeling," called the school and was told her daughter never arrived.

Escapee suspected of stealing singer's tour bus arrested in Florida

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - An escaped prisoner who evaded a manhunt across the Southeast by stealing three vehicles, including singer Crystal Gayle's tour bus, has been arrested, authorities said.

Christopher Daniel Gay, 32, was arrested around 11 p.m. Friday at the Daytona International Speedway where he had been watching a race, said Lt. Patrick Myers, spokesman for Daytona Beach Police.

Gay escaped from a prisoner transport van on Jan. 21 Sunday near Hardeeville, S.C., police said. Authorities have said his motive for fleeing was to see his terminally ill mother; it was unclear whether he ever made it there.

Authorities suspect Gay of stealing a pickup truck in South Carolina, and then the cab of a tractor-trailer in Georgia. He allegedly drove to Manchester, Tenn., where on Monday he hooked the cab to a Wal-Mart trailer filled with $300,000 in merchandise and took off again, police said. He abandoned the rig within 50 yards of his mother's house north of Nashville and fled into a wooded area after Tennessee authorities spotted the truck Tuesday, police said.

He was spotted Thursday night driving a tour bus at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, but drove off after speedway officials became suspicious and asked him for identification, police said.

A license plate check showed the bus belong to Crystal Gayle, whose hits include "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." Gayle didn't know the bus was missing from a Nashville garage until speedway officials called, police said.

Gay was being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach. He was charged with grand theft auto, and he also had three outstanding warrants from Tennessee and three from Alabama, police said.

At the time of his escape, he was being sent to Pell City., Ala., on warrants charging him to appear on escape and felony charges.

There was no immediate indication Saturday if Gay was represented by an attorney.

Original Freedom Riders retrace 1961 journey through Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Back in 1961, when a group of college students defied segregation on interstate buses across the South, they were met with threats, intimidation and violence.

Six of those same Freedom Riders got back on the bus Saturday to retrace their journey from Montgomery to Birmingham, joined by about 100 college students on a trip organized by Vanderbilt University.

The Freedom Riders started as a small group of 15 volunteers in 1961, but they swelled to a movement of more than 400 during their protests in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia over that year. The black and white volunteers sat together on buses, trains and planes, and staged sit-ins at segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels.

John Lewis, 66, was on the bus in Montgomery when it was swarmed by an angry mob in the most violent encounter of the Freedom Ride.

"It was so quiet before the mob came, almost eerie," recalled Lewis, now a congressman from Georgia. "Then all of a sudden they attacked, and left us lying there, bloody and unconscious."

That day, Lewis was sitting next to Jim Zwerg, a white college student who was knocked unconscious and suffered three broken vertebrae in the attack. Zwerg, 67, said on Saturday the riders were warned of the dangers before the trip began.

"Before we embarked, it was stressed that we would encounter one of three things, if not all: jail, severe beating or death," he said.

The Freedom Riders signed wills, anticipating possible death when they faced the mobs wielding hammers, bats, pipes and knives. They also received training in nonviolent protest techniques.

Gbemende Johnson, a 23-year-old graduate student at Vanderbilt, was one of the college students who got a chance to hear stories from the original Freedom Riders on Saturday.

"I can't imagine it," Johnson said. "It was just incredible bravery."

Also present Saturday was John Seigenthaler, who was then-U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy's administrative assistant. Kennedy sent Seigenthaler to negotiate safe passage for the riders.

Instead, Seigenthaler became a victim when he tried helping two young women in trouble in the Montgomery attack and was knocked unconscious by a blow to the head from a pipe.

Seigenthaler, who went on to become a newspaper editor, downplayed his role in the original rides.

"I'm a footnote to the history of the Freedom Riders," he said.

Shevaun Evans, a 23-year-old graduate student from Vanderbilt, said the story of the Freedom Riders should inspire people today to continue the fight against discrimination and hatred.

"Even when they did it close to 50 years ago, it was about education and awareness. We're the people who can educate the future," Evans said.

Man operating front-end loader accidentally runs over own father

WEST BABYLON, N.Y. (AP) - A man operating a payloader at a Long Island recycling yard accidentally killed his own father.

Luis Marquez, 25, was unaware that he had hit Miguel Marquez, 58, until he saw him lying on the ground early Friday, police said.

The 6-foot wheels of the payloader, or front-end loader, were taller than Miguel Marquez, Suffolk County Police Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said.

"If you get in the wrong spot, you are not going to be visible," he said.

A transfer stations such as the Omni Recycling plant, where the accident happened, is "loud and it's dirty, and it's a tough place to work," Mike Hellstrom, business manager of Laborers Local 108, a union representing the recycling and waste industries.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was investigating.

A man who answered the telephone at the Omni plant had no comment.

Prince Charles, Camilla begin weekend U.S. trip in Philadelphia, will see New York

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Prince Charles and his wife Camilla shook hands with well-wishers outside Independence Hall Saturday to kick off their first trip to the city where Americans declared their independence from British rule.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall greeted long lines of gushing fans, mingling with them, accepting flowers and charming many in the crowd. The royal couple are on a two-day visit to the United States that focuses on youth development, urban renewal and environmental stewardship.

"She actually offered her hand to me," said Debbie Lefevre, 49, who gave the duchess flowers. "I was shocked."

Prince Charles and Camilla met with the mayor, governor and other officials, then toured west Philadelphia, an area of some of the city's poorer and more violent neighborhoods.

As a park service ranger talked about the Liberty Bell, Camilla reached out and touched it, running her finger along the bell's storied crack.

Camilla wore a periwinkle dress and a brown tweed overcoat and a broach, along with pearls and pearl drop earrings. Prince Charles sported a navy suit with a red, blue and gold striped tie, and a dark overcoat.

After Independence Hall, the couple attended a reception with community leaders at the National Constitution Center.

"I'm enormously proud to be walking in my great-great-grandfather's footsteps," Prince Charles said, referring to the 1860 visit to Philadelphia by the future King Edward VII. His ancestor, at age 18, graced the same box at the Academy of Music where Charles and Camilla were to sit at a white-tie gala Saturday night.

The prince also noted his parents' 1976 bicentennial visit to Philadelphia, and said he will remember the city for its "famously warm hospitality and famously cold weather."

Gov. Ed Rendell congratulated Prince Charles on his fundraising, praising him for overseeing 17 foundations that raised 200 million British pounds per year. The prince thanked him but said the praise was overly generous, saying the figure was actually for U.S. dollars, not pounds.

"I'm not sure what the exchange rate was this morning," Prince Charles said.

Among those who line up to glimpse the visiting royals outside Independence Hall was Sharon Thaler, 52, of Philadelphia, said she had waited hours. When she met the prince, she said, he was quite surprised at how long she had been waiting in the cold.

"In that case, I hope you have a stiff drink waiting at the end of the day," she said he told her.

Later in the day, the couple also stopped at International House, a nonprofit organization housing nearly 400 students, scholars and interns from more than 65 nations. The duchess had tea with a few young women.

"She seemed genuinely interested in what we had to say," said Victoria Frings, 21, who attends the University of Pennsylvania.

On Sunday, the prince and duchess plan to attend services at Arch Street Presbyterian Church, spiritual home of the Welsh community in Philadelphia.

They are then scheduled to take a private train about 90 miles to New York City, where they plan to visit a social services agency in Harlem and Prince Charles is to receive an award from Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment.

The prince and duchess last came to the United States in November 2005, when they visited the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and saw the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Pa. man who stopped to help crash victim arrested on rape warrant; told police he was wanted

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) - A good Samaritan who stopped to help a crash victim was arrested on a rape charge after telling police there was a warrant out for him.

Orian Paul Stadel, 30, said a car in front of him collided with a car pulling out from a side street Friday.

"If I had been hit and someone saw the whole thing, clear, I'd want them to stay around," Stadel said. Neither woman in the crash was seriously hurt.

When police arrived, Stadel asked if they needed a statement from him, Scott Township Police Chief Ray Klingler said.

Stadel seemed nervous, and asked if the accident would be in the newspaper, Klingler said.

When told that it might be, the chief said, Stadel replied, "I think I have a warrant out for me."

Klingler ran a check, found the warrant and put Stadel in handcuffs. "He didn't give us any trouble," Klingler said.

The rape charge dates to August when a woman said she went to bed with Stadel, but told him she did not want to have sex because she was tired, according to court records.

Stadel, of Bloomsburg, acknowledged having sex with the woman while she slept, according to police. The case was dismissed after the woman failed to appear at his preliminary hearing, but was recently refiled, authorities said.

Stadel said he didn't know a new warrant had been issued until someone told him it was reported in a newspaper Wednesday. He said he tried calling police Friday to schedule an appointment for his arraignment, but the investigating officer wasn't in.

Stadel said he isn't guilty of rape but declined to discuss the case further. His court date is set for Feb. 5.