KIRKWOOD, Mo. - Investigators who made the incredible discovery of two kidnapped boys in a tiny apartment turned Saturday from euphoria to some troubling questions.

What could have motivated the suspect? How did he treat the boys? And how was he able to keep them hidden in plain sight just an hour's drive from their hometowns - one for four days, the other for four years?

"It's hard to believe that somebody could be that brazen," said Craig Akers, whose stepson Shawn Hornbeck was abducted in 2002 at age 11. "This has been going on four years, and he's been right under our nose the whole time."

In back-to-back news conferences Saturday, parents of the now-15-year-old Hornbeck and 13-year-old Ben Ownby told of an outpouring of hugs, kisses and "I love yous" following the discovery in this St. Louis suburb Friday that they described as nothing short of a miracle.

The sons smiled often by their parents' sides but were told not to answer questions. Police said they could not discuss details of their investigation of 41-year-old Michael Devlin, who was jailed on $1 million bond on a kidnapping charge and could face more charges before an arraignment later this week.

Neighbors in the two-story, brick apartment complex said Devlin, a burly, 300-pound man with wire-rimmed glasses and a beard, hardly appeared to be keeping secrets. He had lifelong ties to this middle-class suburb of 26,000, family in the area and apparently no criminal record beyond a pair of traffic fines. He was often seen coming and going from his jobs at a pizza parlor and a funeral home, and nothing seemed odd about a teenager seen hanging around his place.

The landlord at the apartment, Bill Romer, said he was in the apartment once to fix a plumbing problem and saw the teen, apparently Hornbeck, sleeping.

"As far as I knew, that was his son living with him," Romer said. "The kid's bedroom didn't even have curtains on the windows."

Rick Butler, 43, who lives across the street, said he saw no evidence that the boy was scared or trying to get away. He even saw Devlin and the teen pitch a tent outside in the complex, which sits near railroad tracks and Interstate 44 in a working-class section of well-to-do Kirkwood.

"I didn't see or hear anything odd or unusual from the apartment," Butler said. "I just figured them for father and son."

Last fall, Butler said he found a cell phone outside, called a number on it and the teen came outside to retrieve it.

"Thanks a lot for the phone," he recalled the boy saying.

Harry Reichard, 33, who lives in the apartment directly above Devlin's basement apartment, said he would hear arguing and banging noises at all hours coming from the apartment.

Others said Devlin said little and stayed to himself - unless you took the parking spot he preferred. Last fall, when Rob Bushelle pulled into the unassigned spot, Devlin pulled next to him and became irate, threatening to call police.

Alma Rodriguez often saw the teenager riding his bike in the parking lot behind the complex. Her husband, Mario, sometimes saw him throwing a football with another boy.

At the Bopp Chapel funeral parlor, where Devlin worked a twice-a-week shift answering phones, he was described as a punctual but quiet worker who never discussed his private life.

"I can't tell you the feeling here," said funeral director Chris Roth. "Complete excitement for the boys being found to shock that it was him."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Devlin's relatives also were shocked by the case and said they had no idea the boy was with him.

At Imo's Pizzeria, where Devlin was a manager, an employee who did not want to be identified told the newspaper that a boy called the restaurant Friday afternoon looking for Devlin, who was being questioned by the FBI at the time. The worker noticed on the caller ID that the call came from Devlin's home. The boy told him, "I'm Shawn Wilcox. My father is a friend of Mike Devlin."

The case recalls the improbable survival of Elizabeth Smart, the Salt Lake City teen taken for nine months by a religious zealot. After her return, many questioned why she didn't flee her captors, despite many apparent chances at freedom.

Stephen Golding, a forensic psychologist who examined the suspect in the Smart case, said captors often establish control over their victims through fear.

"People are led to believe, through someone taking advantage of their vulnerabilities, that leaving is not an option, that things will get worse for them or will get worse for others," Golding said.

Both boys were abducted from rural areas of eastern Missouri, both about an hour from metro St. Louis. Hornbeck disappeared Oct. 6, 2002, while riding his bike in Richwoods in Washington County. Ownby was taken soon after getting off a school bus Monday afternoon in the Franklin County town of Beaufort, a beat-up white pickup seen by a schoolmate the only real clue.

On Thursday night, police in Kirkwood, an upper middle class suburban town, noticed a truck matching the description while serving an unrelated warrant at a nearby apartment.

When FBI agents walked into a suburban St. Louis apartment a day later, 13-year-old Ben Ownby asked them, "Are you going to take me home?", and another teenager in the modest dwelling identified himself as Shawn Hornbeck - reported missing 4.5 years ago.

"Obviously it was quite euphoric," FBI Special Agent Roland Corvington said Saturday.

Hornbeck's parents dealt with their grief over the years by devoting themselves to bringing missing people home. Having their son back, they said at a news conference, was evidence for parents of other missing children to never give up hope.

"I still feel like I'm in a dream, only this time it's a good dream, not the nightmare I've had four-and-a-half years," said his mother, Pam Akers.

Hornbeck's stepfather, Craig Akers, said he and his wife were in disbelief when they were reunited with the boy.

"There was that split second of shock," he said. "Once I saw the face, I said, 'Oh my God, that's my son."'

At the news conference in an elementary school adorned with balloons and welcome-home signs, the shaggy-haired Hornbeck smiled sheepishly, his mother's arm draped around him.

At the other news conference, Ben Ownby grinned broadly as his mother recalled that soon after his return home, Ownby immediately went to the computer to play video games.

"We're just ecstatic," Doris Ownby said. "Don't want to let him go out of our sight."

Associated Press writers Cheryl Wittenauer, Christopher Leonard and Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.

Two W.Va. miners die as tunnel collapses; bodies recovered

CUCUMBER, W.Va. (AP) - Two members of a coal mining crew removing pillars in a mine died Saturday when a portion of the tunnel collapsed and the men were buried in debris deep underground, authorities said.

None of the other miners in the 35-member crew was injured, said Ted Pile, a spokesman for Alpha Natural Resources, whose subsidiary, Brooks Run Mining, operates the mine.

Pile said the crew was working on a process called retreat mining in which the miners work back toward the entrance extracting coal from the pillars that support the ceiling, Pile said.

Dispatchers said the accident scene was up to 1.5 miles beyond the entrance to the mine, about 90 miles west of Roanoke, Va.

The state mine safety director, Ron Wooten, said it was unclear whether a pillar or portion of the ceiling collapsed. He had earlier said the miners apparently were caught when a pillar fell.

"There's no need for rescue teams, the individuals have been recovered," said Wooten, director of the state Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.

Wooten said the bodies were taken to a hospital about 11 miles away in Welch. Their identities were not released.

The mine was closed following the fatal incident and would remain closed until regulators allow it to reopen, Pile said.

Additional details weren't immediately available. Wooten expected to learn more once a team of investigators returned from underground. Federal mine safety investigators were also on the scene.

The federal Mine Safety & Health Administration was "saddened by the tragic accident" and would work closely with the state to find out the cause, said agency director Richard Stickler.

The Brooks Run mine began operating in 2004. The fatalities were among the first at the mine. In October, a miner was killed in a wall collapse at Alpha's Whitetail Kittanning Mine in Newburg.

Alpha, based in Abingdon, Va., operates 66 mines in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Nationwide, it employs about 3,500 people, including 118 at the Brooks Run mine.

Federal inspectors cited the Brooks Run mine 65 times last year and proposed penalties totaling $5,000, according to the MSHA's Web site.

The deaths are the first in West Virginia's coal mines this year and the second and third in the nation. A miner was killed Jan. 6 at a Colorado mine, according to MSHA.

Last year, 47 miners - 24 of them from West Virginia - died in the nation's coal mines. The toll was the highest since 1995. The deaths included 12 men killed in an explosion at the Sago Mine in Upshur County. Also last January, two miners died in a fire at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County.

In China, an underground gas explosion in a coal mine killed 13 people and injured nine, a news report said Saturday. The cause of the blast was under investigation. China has the world's deadliest coal mines, with more than 5,000 fatalities a year in fires, floods and other disasters.

Passenger bus flips over in southern Mexico, killing 11, injuring 39

OAXACA, Mexico - A passenger bus traveling at an excessive speed flipped over in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca early Saturday, killing 11 passengers and injuring 39, including the driver.

The bus, with 50 people on board, was on its way to Mexico City from the community of Jalapa de Diaz, near the border with the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, when it veered out of control and rolled over near the town of Ojitlan, 350 kilometers (220 miles) from the state capital, Oaxaca City, said regional state police commander Lazaro Rendon.

The driver was taken into custody and was being questioned, but had not been charged with a crime pending further investigation, Rendon said.

Four players suspended for bomb outside team member's apartment

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) - Four players on the Colorado State University women's basketball team have been suspended indefinitely for setting off a chemical bomb outside the apartment of a teammate Kelly Rae Finley, athletic department spokesman Gary Ozello said Saturday. There were no injuries and no structural damage.

"There's nothing we can do about it right now. This will be a great experience for the rest of the players. It means that we will have to play a lot harder. Sarah Hunter, the only remaining starter, has to play nearly 40 minutes and have an MVP performance," coach Jen Warden told The Associated Press.

Police detective David Grant identified the suspended players as starting guards Emily Neal, 19, and Kelly Jo Mullaney, 18, both of Minneapolis, and reserve forward Raysha Ritter, 18, of Grand Junction, Colo.., and reserve Brittney Stirling, 19, of Tucson, Ariz., all freshmen.

Warden said the suspended players will not be allowed to practice or sit on the bench when the Rams host New Mexico on Saturday.

"This is a case where four teammates were trying to play a prank on a teammate, and it went bad," Grant said. "They thought the device would just make a loud bang, and that it would not be a big deal. It was not meant in a malicious way by any means. I know that Mullaney and Finley are very good friends."

He added, "No one was hurt, and there was no property damage; but if someone had opened the door at the time the device exploded there could have been serious injuries." The bomb was made of chemicals that create an explosive acid.

Police spokeswoman Rita Davis said the four players all knew that two other team members were staying at the victim's apartment and thought it would be funny to scare them. She said they would be charged with one count of reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan said Mullaney, Neal and Finley, 21, all played at the same Minnesota high school and have been friends for several years. The four suspended players apparently drove to Finley's apartment in Mullaney's car.

A witness reported their car after the Monday night incident.

"Once confronted, all four players confessed," Grant said.

Warden refused to say how long the suspensions would last. They leave the Rams with just eight available players. Mullaney was the team's leading scorer.

"This is an internal matter related to the team," Warden said. "This is a challenge that will help everyone involved grow."

The suspensions came on the day following the Rams' 73-57 loss Thursday night to Utah.

"Obviously, any time a student-athlete is involved in anything like this, our Office of Student Affairs will work closely with athletic department to determine the next step, if any, that will be taken," said Ozzello.

37 used Christmas trees dropped off in woman's backyard

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) - When Carol Lopez let her Labrador retriever out for the morning the dog had an unusual number of tree trunks to attend to. Surrounding her aboveground backyard pool Lopez found 37 used Christmas trees.

"I had just woke up and boom, they're there and that's it," Lopez said Thursday.

Whoever put the trees there apparently took their time, neatly organizing and standing the trees upright.

Lopez said she called Allentown police, and an officer told her to call the city to have the trees removed. A city employee told her husband to drag the trees out of the backyard and they would be picked up free of charge, she said.

Lopez said she didn't know how someone climbed a tall wooden fence surrounding the yard, or got all the trees over it.

"People just don't have anything better to do," Lopez said. "That's someone who had time on their hands."

District attorney in Duke lacrosse sexual assault case hands it over to state prosecutors

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The state attorney general's office agreed Saturday to take over the sexual assault case against three Duke University lacrosse players at the request of the embattled district attorney.

Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, hamstrung by a flip-flopping witness and dogged by allegations that he made inflammatory statements to the media, asked Attorney General Roy Cooper's office Friday to appoint a special prosecutor.

"I wish I could tell you this case would be resolved quickly," Cooper said at a news conference Saturday. "Since we have not been involved in the investigation and prosecution, all of the information will be new to our office. Any case with such serious criminal charges will require careful review."

Cooper pledged that his office would not comment on details of the case as officials review the investigation and the charges of sexual assault and kidnapping against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans.

Last month, Nifong dropped rape charges against the men after the accuser changed a key detail of her description of the alleged attack.

Nifong has led the investigation into allegations a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University - hired to perform as a stripper - was gang-raped and beaten at a March 13 party thrown by Duke's highly ranked lacrosse team.

Nifong's comments to reporters in the early days of the case, including calling the lacrosse team "a bunch of hooligans," led the North Carolina State Bar to charge him last month with several ethics violations.

He faces penalties ranging from admonishment to removal from the bar; a hearing in that case is scheduled for May 11.

Nifong's attorney said Friday the conflict of interest those charges created led the veteran prosecutor to ask the state to take over.

Attorney David Freedman said Nifong is disappointed that he has to get out of the case and that his decision to seek a special prosecutor has "nothing to do with how he feels about the merit of the case."

Under North Carolina law, only a district attorney can formally request a special prosecutor. The request can be made when there are potential conflicts of interest, when a case is particularly complex or when there are other unusual circumstances.

Cooper said Jim Coman, a former director of the State Bureau of Investigation and head of the attorney general's Special Prosecution Section; and Mary D. Winstead, a prosecutor in that division, would now oversee the case.

"Agreeing to accept the prosecution of these cases doesn't guarantee a trial, nor does it guarantee a dismissal," Cooper said.

He said his office would take possession of the case files and documents next week, but declined to comment on how quickly their review would progress.

Woman unknowingly gives bank robber a lift

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. (AP) - An elderly woman unknowingly gave a bank robber a lift, according to the woman and police.

Juanita Bland, 75, was stopped near a post office in Coraopolis shortly before noon Monday when the electric sliding door of her minivan became stuck. The van is equipped with a motorized door and ramp for her wheelchair.

"I couldn't get out of the van, so I waited a few moments hoping somebody would walk by who might be able to help," said Bland. "Then I saw this fellow walking my way, so I beckoned him over and asked if he could please help with the door."

The man, according to police, had just robbed a PNC Bank branch.

The man slid the door closed, and then got into the passenger seat and asked for a ride, Bland said.

"He didn't seem threatening or anything, so I said 'OK' and drove off," she said. He exited a few blocks later, got into a white sedan and drove off.

Bland said a friend called her concerned that she had been abducted because another acquaintance heard on a police scanner that the suspect had gotten into her van.

"When I think back now of what could have happened, I feel blessed that I'm OK," Bland said.

Hollywood studios race to make film about poisoned Russian spy

LONDON (AP) - Columbia Pictures and director Michael Mann are racing against Warner Bros. and actor Johnny Depp to make a film about a former Russian spy who was poisoned in London with a rare radioactive isotope, the trade paper Variety reported.

Columbia Pictures agreed to pay $1.5 million for the film rights to a book about Alexander Litvinenko being co-written by the former spy's widow, Marina Litvinenko, and Alex Goldfarb, a close friend, according to Los Angeles-based Variety's Web site. The book is expected to be published in May by Simon & Schuster's Free Press imprint, the report said.

Warner Bros. has bought the rights to a different book about the ex-spy for Johnny Depp's production company, Infinitum Nihil, the paper reported earlier on Friday. Depp will produce the film and could star in it, the paper said.

Warner Bros. had tried to buy the rights to the book by Litvinenko's widow, but was outbid, the report said. The studio has acquired the rights to a book by New York Times journalist Alan Cowell, which is expected to be published next year by Doubleday, the report said.

Studio officials were not immediately available for comment.

Mann is known for his often violent crime sagas such as "Collateral," "Heat" and "Miami Vice," while Depp often takes on eccentric character roles in films such as "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Finding Neverland" and "Edward Scissorhands."

The report said Columbia envisions an espionage thriller "exploring the collision between the deep rooted Russian power structure enforced by the KGB … and the new wave of wild west capitalism" that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Variety said.

Litvinenko died in November, several weeks after falling ill with what was later determined to be poisoning by the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210.

Litvinenko was a one-time agent in the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB - an agency that replaced the KGB - who broke with the agency and went to Britain, where he was granted asylum. In exile, he became a fierce Kremlin critic and wrote a book claiming that the FSB had bombed Russian apartment buildings in 1999 to blame the blasts on Chechen separatists and create a pretext for resuming the war in Chechnya.

Litvinenko said he fell ill after meeting in London with an Italian security expert to discuss possible suspects in the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya a month earlier. Politkovskaya was noted for her coverage of Chechnya, in which she was highly critical of alleged human rights violations by Russian forces and by Kremlin-backed Chechen officials.

In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko blamed the Kremlin for his poisoning. Russian officials have denied that allegation. British and Russian authorities continue to investigate his death.

Hunt for lost Leonardo Da Vinci painting to resume in Florence

ROME (AP) - A real-life Da Vinci mystery, complete with tantalizing clues and sharp art sleuths, may soon be solved, as researchers resume the search for a lost Leonardo masterpiece believed to be hidden within a wall in a Florence palace.

Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli and officials in the Tuscan city announced this week they had given approval for renewed exploration in the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of power for various Florence rulers, including the Medici family in the 16th century. There, some researchers believe, a cavity in a wall may have preserved Leonardo's unfinished painted mural of the "Battle of Anghiari" for more than four centuries.

"We took this decision to verify conclusively if the cavity exists and if there are traces of the fresco," Rutelli said during a visit in Florence.

The search for the Renaissance masterpiece began about 30 years ago, when the art researcher Maurizio Seracini noticed a cryptic message painted on one of the frescoes decorating the "Hall of the 500."

"Cerca, trova" - "seek and you shall find" - said the words on a tiny green flag in the "Battle of Marciano in the Chiana Valley," one of the military scenes painted by the 16th-century artist Giorgio Vasari.

Between 2002 and 2003, radar and X-ray scans allowed Seracini and his team to find a cavity behind the fresco that is the right size to cocoon Leonardo's work, which was long thought to have been destroyed when Vasari renovated the hall in the mid-16th century.

Shortly after the initial discovery, Seracini's decades-long quest came to a standstill when authorities refused to renew his survey permit.

"We are not talking about a search like any other," Seracini told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We are searching for Leonardo's greatest masterpiece, considered as such also by his contemporaries."

Leonardo began working on the "Battle of Anghiari" in 1505, when he was 53. He worked alongside fellow artist and rival Michelangelo, who had been commissioned to decorate the opposite wall of the council hall, which was to have scenes of the Florentine republic's military triumphs.

The pairing of two great artists created ripples of excitement in art-loving Florence, but both men soon left for other cities.

Michelangelo never went beyond the preparatory work for his "Battle of Cascina," but Leonardo did eventually paint his battle's centerpiece - a violent clash of horses and men called the "Fight for the Flag," which is known today through Leonardo's preparatory studies and copies made by other artists.

Some chroniclers of the time said Da Vinci had experimented with unstable paints that had rapidly degraded, leaving the painting irreparably damaged.

But Seracini said documents show that at least the centerpiece was admired and copied for decades, until Vasari began his work at Palazzo Vecchio. Vasari himself, who wrote biographies of several artists including Leonardo, would have been loath to destroy Leonardo's work. He is known to have salvaged other art by leaving works cocooned between walls when he made renovations, the researcher said.

Seracini, whose research on another Leonardo painting is quoted in Dan Brown's best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code," is an engineer who has spent the last three decades conducting scientific investigations on art treasures.

Florence city officials said no date has been set for the new investigation because details still needed approval.

While the new research will be supervised by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, one of Italy's top restoration institutes, Seracini will be on the team, said Alessandra Garzanti, a city spokeswoman.

"He brought this forward until now, it would be stupid to leave him out," she said.

Once the work starts, researchers would need a year and a half to give a definitive answer on whether Leonardo's masterpiece is there, Seracini said.

The work would include documentary research to determine which chemicals Leonardo used to paint the fresco, and subsequent scans to see if those pigments are present behind the wall, he said.

Seracini declined to reveal how the scans would work, saying the method was still experimental. However, he said the analysis would not involve probes or other instruments that would damage the overlying Vasari fresco.

Marshals in Washington arrest N.C. man suspected of decapitating his 4-year-old daughter

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A mother found her 4-year-old daughter decapitated in her home, and the child's father was arrested early Saturday in Washington.

Amber Violette called 911 on Friday evening, saying she had found her daughter, Katlin, with her head severed from her body, Clayton Police Chief Glen Allen said.

"It's the most horrific thing I've seen in 13 years of police work," Clayton Sgt. S. P. Lapsley said.

Deputy U.S. marshals arrested the girl's father, John Patrick Violette, in Washington at a hotel near Capitol Hill, Lapsley said. Investigators found Violette's vehicle at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, learned he had taken a flight to Washington, and tracked his credit card to the hotel, Lapsley said.

Police said Violette, 37, would be held in Washington pending an extradition on a murder charge expected to be filed in Clayton, about 15 miles southeast of Raleigh. The U.S. Marshals Service said an extradition hearing is expected to be held Tuesday.

Man awarded damages after his cell phone number was used in a TV show

BEIJING (AP) - A court has ordered a Chinese television production company to pay damages to a man who received more than 3,000 nuisance messages after his mobile phone number was used in a police TV drama.

The court said the Runshi Rongguang Film Production Co. should have made sure the number was not in use before having a villain say it aloud on-screen, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The company was ordered to pay $256 to the mobile phone customer, Chen Bing.

Chen, 39, says he started receiving a stream of text messages in July 2004.

"It was so annoying, and for a long time I wondered why I was getting all these text messages," he said.

Chen discovered that his number had been used in a TV series called "Chinese Police - September Storm," broadcast between 2004-06 and later released on DVD. A villain spoke the number slowly, to allow another character to write it down.

The company said it made up the number from a staff member's birthday and did not mean to cause trouble, according to Xinhua.

Made for Hollywood, but only in New York: Worlds of pimp, prosecutor and prostitute collide

NEW YORK (AP) - It's a tabloid writer's dream. There's a boastful pimp, a federal prosecutor turned tough-talking defense lawyer and a drop-dead gorgeous woman once touted as New York City's top prostitute. Their lives converge at a spacious Manhattan loft that housed a high-priced escort service a mere three blocks from City Hall.

"Crime. Sex. Unforgettable people doing unforgettable things," said Barry Agulnick, lawyer for Jason Itzler, the pimp. "This case probably has more of the Hollywood element than any other I've had. It's got a show biz aura to it."

The case took an intriguing turn this week when Itzler's previous lawyer on the pimping charges, Paul Bergrin, was accused of taking over the escort service and sleeping with the prostitutes after police jailed Itzler in 2005.

Bergrin was a former county and federal prosecutor in New Jersey before becoming a hard-charging defense lawyer, representing clients including a soldier in the Abu Ghraib scandal. He was charged Wednesday with operating a brothel and laundering its profits through fake companies.

A phone number for Bergrin's lawyer was disconnected, but the attorney told The New York Times the charges might stem from prosecutors retaliating against Bergrin's aggressive courtroom tactics.

Bergrin and Itzler crossed paths in January 2005 when authorities shut down NY Confidential escort service. Few would have imagined that Bergrin would eventually be accused of emulating his client, a man who considered himself the king of New York pimps.

Itzler, 39, had run NY Confidential like a showman, promoting its women and charging as much as $2,000 an hour for one of the prostitutes, his girlfriend Natalie McLennan. His business card called his service "Rocket Fuel for Winners."

Itzler made a lot money and spent it freely on such expensive toys, including a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz and a $25,000 Cartier watch. After he bragged to a tabloid in December 2004 that he was untouchable, police arrested him.

He turned to Bergrin, 51, who had developed a reputation for aggressive tactics and bluster. Bergrin didn't represent Itzler long on the brothel charges - Agulnick took over the case more than a year ago.

But authorities say the pimp and Bergrin still had dealings.

Authorities say Bergrin and two other men took over NY Confidential's operations and kept the brothel running after Itzler's arrest, employing Itzler's escorts and taking in more than $1.2 million in prostitution proceeds in one stretch in 2005. They laundered the proceeds through two shell companies, prosecutors said.

The business started to falter when they began having sex with the escorts, and Bergrin paid the women with money out of the till, authorities said.

The day after Bergrin was charged, Itzler, who pleaded guilty in June to money laundering and attempted promotion of prostitution, was sentenced to 18 months to three years in prison. Itzler told the judge he'll "never run an escort agency again."

McLennan, who once graced the cover of New York magazine, was not around. Their relationship appears over, Agulnick said. She's scheduled to face trial next month on money laundering charges.

Agulnick believes Itzler will rebound and perhaps make a lot of money one day - in "any legitimate business."

"Jason is a great entrepreneur," Agulnick said.

Man rides toward world record on stationary bike

BURR RIDGE, Ill. (AP) - George Hood was working to spin his way into the Guinness Book of World records by Saturday night.

The 49-year-old Aurora resident and Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor began riding a stationary bike at the Five Seasons Sports Club in Burr Ridge on Wednesday morning and still was pedaling as of 9:30 p.m. Friday, a club employee said.

Hood hoped to continue to ride until about 9 p.m. Saturday and break the current world record of 82 hours set last year by Brian Overkaer of Denmark.

Hood, a 23-year federal law enforcement veteran, also hoped the feat would help raise thousands of dollars for the Illinois chapter of COPS, an organization that helps the families of slain police officers. Illinois COPS president Jennifer Morales has said Hood could be the largest single fundraiser the local group has had.

"I'm feeling pretty good," Hood told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald on Friday. "I'm a little stiff when I get up. I need my calves stretched. … But we're going to make it all the way to the record."

Hood has taken a few brief power naps and has been on a mainly liquid protein diet. Guinness Book rules allow a five-minute break for every completed hour of cycling. Hood has banked much of the time, which also is permitted.