VICTOR, Colo. - Three former employees of a Colorado gold mine face charges of stealing more than $1.7 million in unprocessed gold, prosecutors said Friday. The men were accused of diverting a line carrying gold-saturated fluid from the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co. to a homemade recovery filter, sending it to California for refining and then selling it on the open market, the company said.

Daniel Blake Parsons, 37, John Hurtt, 45, and Peter Lloyd Quammen, 35, face felony theft and conspiracy charges.

Hurtt was arrested Tuesday in Casper, Wyo. Parsons was arrested Wednesday in Colorado Springs and Quammen was arrested Wednesday in Calaveras County, Calif.

Hurtt and Parsons were being held on $500,000 bail in the Teller County Jail.

District Attorney John Newsome said Quammen was being held in California and prosecutors would seek his extradition.

"I've never seen anything quite like this before, especially on this magnitude of the theft," said Larry Martin, the district attorney's chief investigator.

Martin said the alleged scheme was discovered late last year when an employee heard about it and reported it. Newsome said the theft charges covered allegations from January 2003 to February 2006, but it was not clear when the alleged scheme started.

The mine, Colorado's only commercial-grade gold operation, is about 70 miles south of Denver and 20 miles southwest of Colorado Springs. The company said the mine produced approximately 330,000 ounces of gold in 2005.

The company said it tightened security and changed procedures after the alleged scheme was discovered.

25 killed in crash of maglev train in northwestern Germany

LATHEN, Germany (AP) - A high-speed magnetic train traveling at nearly 125 mph crashed Friday in northwestern Germany, killing at least 25 people in the first fatal wreck involving the high-tech system, officials said.

The train, which runs primarily as a demonstration by its manufacturer, was carrying at least 29 people when it struck a maintenance vehicle with carrying two workers on the elevated track. Mangled wreckage hung from the 13-foot-high track, with seats and other debris strewn below.

Police spokesman Martin Ratermann put the death toll at 25 after a search of the crash site, about a half-mile from the station at the village of Melstrup. Officials also reported 10 people were injured but they did not immediately reconcile the discrepancy in the numbers.

The train runs four days a week on the 20-mile test track between Doerpen and Lathen near the Dutch border. The maintenance car was regularly used to check and clear the elevated tracks of branches and other debris.

Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to the site, saying her thoughts were with the victims and their relatives.

"I want to show that I am with them," she said.

The passengers were believed to be employees and their friends and relatives.

"The magnetic levitation train is hanging halfway off" the track, said Helge Nestler, a police official. Firefighters used ladders to reach the injured.

It was Germany's worst rail disaster since 1998, when 101 people died as an InterCityExpress derailed and smashed into a bridge near the northern town of Eschede in the country's deadliest train crash.

Rudolf Schwarz, a spokesman for IABG, which oversees the track, said the accident was the result of human error.

The train was manufactured by Transrapid International, a joint company of Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp AG. The track is operated by Munich-based IABG mostly as an exhibition aimed at showing off Germany's advanced maglev technology, which has been led by ThyssenKrupp AG and Siemens AG.

Tourists can sometimes ride the train for fun, but otherwise it is primarily used for selling Germany's maglev technology.

Kevin Coates, a technology consultant in Maryland and former spokesman for Transrapid, said there has never been a maglev crash.

Magnetic-levitation trains use powerful magnets to float the trains just above the tracks, allowing them to glide along without friction. Trains can reach 270 mph on the 20-mile test track.

The technology has been around for years but so far has not caught on as conventional train networks have expanded steadily. Concerns include the amount of electricity the trains use at high speed and the precision with which the tracks must be built.

The technology's image was not helped by a fire that broke out in an electrical storage compartment aboard Shanghai's magnetic-levitation train as it was headed toward the city's international airport Aug. 11, generating large amounts of smoke but causing no injuries.

The Shanghai system is the world's only commercially operating maglev train. Officials are studying the possibility of a line between Munich and its airport.

Japan has been experimenting for years with a high-speed maglev line that has clocked a world-record top speed of 361 mph. However, there is no target date for commercial use of the technology.

Jurors sentence convicted sex offender to death in North Dakota student's slaying

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Jurors on Friday sentenced a convicted sex offender to death for kidnapping and killing University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found in a Minnesota ravine nearly five months after she disappeared. - It was North Dakota's first death penalty case in more than a century. The state does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases.

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 53, of Crookston, Minn., looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was announced.

"We hope the need does not arise for another 100 years," U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said. "The defendant's acts of the last three decades have brought us to this place at this time," he said, referring to Rodriguez's earlier convictions for assaults on women going back to 1975.

"I know it wasn't an easy decision for the jurors," Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, said afterward, her voice shaking. "But Dru's voice was heard today."

The jury reached its decision after more than a day and a half of deliberations. The same federal jury convicted Rodriguez on Aug. 30 on a charge of kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death.

Rodriguez's mother, Dolores, and sister, Ileanna Noyes, cried as the verdict was announced, as did a number of the jurors.

Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared from a Grand Forks shopping mall parking lot on Nov. 22, 2003, and her body was found the following April in a ravine near Crookston. Authorities said she was beaten, raped and stabbed.

Rodriguez, who got out of prison about six months before the killing, was charged under federal law because Sjodin was taken across state lines.

Sjodin's disappearance brought national attention and months of searches by students, National Guard members from Minnesota and North Dakota and others. It also led to tougher sex offender laws in the two states.

Defense attorney Richard Ney said he will first file a motion for a new trial and if that is denied, he will appeal.

"A life is worth saving, no matter who it is," Ney said.

Earlier, in his statements to jurors, Wrigley said the death penalty would be the "right thing, in the right case." He stood near her portrait and asked for justice.

Ney asked the jury for mercy after calling psychologists and Rodriguez's family to talk about his childhood of poverty, abuse and exposure to farm chemicals. Ney also said Rodriguez had been anxious about being released from prison after serving more than 20 years for assaults on three women in 1975 and 1980.

Walker and Allan Sjodin, Dru's father, said they could have accepted a sentence of life in prison.

"Whatever would have happened, we would have been equally satisfied," Sjodin said. "For Dru's sake, this needed to happen."

Guard says he was overpowered by inmates making escape from jail near Mexican border

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A guard said a group of inmates that escaped from a federal jail near the Mexican border earlier this week distracted him with a decoy then overpowered him. - "They were distracting me to put my guard down for a moment and it worked," Enrique Zepeda, 18, a guard at East Hidalgo Detention Center in La Villa told the San Antonio Express-News in a story published Friday.

Zepeda, who has worked at the privately-run jail for three months since graduating from high school, declined to comment on how the inmates - a former police officer facing drug charges and five alleged drug gang members - escaped.

A spokesman for Lafayette, La.-based LCS Corrections Services Inc., which owns and operates the jail, confirmed that Zepeda, who wasn't injured, and one other employee were put on paid administrative leave Thursday.

The San Antonio Express-News did not identify the other jail employee and LCS Corrections Services would not discuss either case.

No more prisoners were being sent to the East Hidalgo Detention Center pending a probe into how the inmates overpowered a guard, opened a power-controlled door and cut through several fences, which included an alarm-equipped electrical fence that apparently was not functioning and may have been turned off. No alarm was sounded.

U.S. Marshals Service Deputy Joe Magallan said tips and reports of sightings were streaming in, but so far nothing had proved substantive. Investigators were questioning relatives of the escapees and trolling fugitives' known hangouts.

Detectives believe the fugitives split up and were probably picked up in a vehicle on the highway that runs in front of the jail.

LeBlanc offered a $25,000 reward was for information leading to the capture of 41-year-old Francisco Meza-Rojas, the former McAllen police officer.

Rojas' trial on federal drug trafficking charges was scheduled to begin Oct. 3. The other escapees were illegal immigrants from Mexico alleged to be members of Raza Unida, a violent drug gang.

Police question woman in Ill. about body of woman found with fetus apparently cut from womb

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) - The body of a woman who apparently had a fetus cut from her womb was found in a vacant lot, and police said Friday they were searching for her three young children. - The children were last seen with a 26-year-old woman who was taken into police custody late Thursday. State police described her only as a person of interest.

She had buried a baby Thursday that she said had been stillborn, East St. Louis Police Chief James Mister told the Belleville News-Democrat. An autopsy will be performed on the baby Friday to determine whether it was removed from the dead woman's womb, Mister said.

Her boyfriend told officials that she had confessed to him during the funeral that the baby wasn't his and that she'd killed a woman and taken her baby, Mister said.

Police found the body in the lot soon afterward. The victim's name was not immediately released. The Associated Press is not naming the 26-year-old woman because she has not been charged with any crime. Police said they captured her at a home late Thursday but would not say if she had been arrested.

Authorities also declined to say Friday whether there was any connection between the two women. The boyfriend, who also was not identified by name, is a sailor home on leave, according to the News-Democrat.

Police searched for the children at a park in East St. Louis on Friday, moving along a lake shoreline in a boat with a search dog aboard. The children were identified as Demond Tunstall, 7, Ivan Tunstall, 3, and Jinella Tunstall, 2.

St. Clair County State's Attorney's Robert Haida called it "a very tragic case" but said authorities weren't "rushing to judgment."

"We are taking our time and waiting on reports from investigators," he said.

The East St. Louis case is the area's second recent case involving babies.

A 36-year-old woman from Lonedell is accused of slashing a young mother's throat and kidnapping her baby on Sept. 15. The baby was found in good condition four days later.

Another woman is to stand trial next April in the abduction of an unborn girl taken from the womb of Bobbie Jo Stinnett in December 2004 in Skidmore, Mo. The baby survived.

Minor earthquake shakes homes, breaks windows in northeastern South Carolina

BENNETTSVILLE, S.C. (AP) - A minor earthquake shook homes and broke windows around this community Friday morning, but no injuries or serious damage was reported. - The shaking was felt in Marlboro and Chesterfield counties, adjacent counties on North Carolina state line. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the 3.5-magnitude quake struck at 7:22 a.m. about 6 miles north-northwest of Bennettsville.

"We had some folks saying the whole house shook," including some who fled outdoors, said Roy Allison, emergency manager for Marlboro County.

Generally magnitude 3.5 quakes cannot be felt.

"This one is a little small for having those sorts of things - houses shaking or cracking windows. What it tells you is the house may be on ground that is a little more susceptible" to shaking, said Norm Levine, an assistant professor of geology at the College of Charleston.

He said the quake occurred in an area with two existing faults.

Earthquakes are not unknown in South Carolina. One with magnitude between 3 and 4 occurs about every 18 months, and 10 to 15 lesser quakes happen each year on average.

The most devastating S.C. earthquake on record was a magnitude 7.3 near Charleston in 1886 in which more than 100 people died.

On the Net:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

Pistol found in carry-on bag at Baltimore airport; 2 concourses temporarily evacuated

LINTHICUM, Md. (AP) - Security screeners discovered a pistol in a carry-on bag at Baltimore's main airport Friday morning, and two concourses were evacuated when its owner disappeared, authorities said.

The bag was held at the security checkpoint at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, but the man who owned it passed through, airport spokesman Jonathan Dean said.

There was no indication of terrorism, police said.

Police, security officers and search dogs unsuccessfully hunted the terminals for a man in his early 30s, wearing blue jeans and a red and black track jacket, Transportation Security Administration police spokesman Jonathan Green said.

"We simply were acting with all due precaution," Dean said.

The pistol was a .25 caliber semiautomatic, Green said.

Concourses A and B, which serve Southwest Airlines, reopened after 90 minutes. Passengers were being required to go through screening again, Dean said.

More than a dozen flights were delayed, said Cheryl Stewart, an airport spokeswoman.

On the Net:

http://www.bwiairport.com

Veteran Houston police officer shot and killed in his patrol car during traffic stop

HOUSTON (AP) - A veteran police officer was shot and killed as he sat in his patrol car during a traffic stop, authorities said. - Citing an ongoing investigation, police officials would not disclose details about the Thursday shooting of Rodney Johnson, 40, who had served 12 years on the force.

A handcuffed suspect allegedly fired multiple shots at Johnson from the rear seat of the patrol car, said Officer Gary Blankinship, a friend of Johnson's who went crime scene. The suspect had not been charged as of late Thursday.

A female passenger who left the scene had been found by officers for questioning, Chief Harold Hurtt said.

Johnson went to work as a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and then as a jail attendant. He graduated from the Houston police academy in 1994.

Prosecutors say despondent Wisconsin teens planned 'Columbine-style' attack for 2 years

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - Despairing their failures with girls, two high school seniors agreed to put a Columbine-style end to their lives, according to a criminal complaint.

William Cornell and Shawn Sturtz, both 17, planned the attack on East High School for two years and amassed a small arsenal of guns and bombs, investigators said. They were joined by recent graduate Bradley Netwal, 18, police said.

Prosecutors charged the three teens Thursday with conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide, punishable by up to 60 years in prison, and conspiracy to commit damage of property by use of explosives, which carries up to 40 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.

Cornell also was charged with possessing explosives and a short-barreled shotgun, a charge that carries up to 18.5 years in prison and $35,000 in fines.

Cornell and Sturtz watched the court hearing from jail via a video link-up. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for them for Sept. 29. Netwal was scheduled to appear in court Friday.

The teens' alleged plan came to light last week after Matt Atkinson, a friend of Cornell and Sturtz, told an associate principal about it. The two were arrested at school within hours; Netwal was arrested the next day.

Cornell's attorney, Shane Brabazon, said the attack was hardly imminent and the teens seemed more bent on suicide.

"Sounds a lot like it's hurting themselves," Brabazon said.

But Brown County District Attorney John Zakowski said the plan was to kill kids at East, reminiscent of the Columbine school shootings in Littleton, Colo., in 1999.

"If both of these individuals (Cornell and Sturtz) had had a bad day on the same day, they would have bucked each other up and they would have gone through with their plan," he said. "Fortunately we're not going to have to find out if that would have been the case."

Messages left for Netwal's attorney and Sturtz's public defender were not returned late Thursday.

The criminal complaint paints Cornell and Sturtz as despondent and suicidal over their lack of relationships with girls and bullying at the school. Netwal told police he went along with the plan because he didn't want his friends to think he was a coward.

The complaint details an arsenal of weapons Cornell had stashed in his bedroom, including the sawed-off shotgun, rifles, pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Homemade explosives were also taken from the house. Among the cache was a black leather trench coat and a book titled "Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge."

Two bandoliers of ammunition and several knives were confiscated from Sturtz's house, authorities said.

Cornell made his own explosives using gasoline, which he and Netwal tested in the woods last winter, the complaint said. They planned to use the explosives in the attack, Netwal told police.

Still, each of them took turns backing out and rejoining the plan, the complaint said. But Cornell told police he met with Sturtz the day before they were arrested and Sturtz told him he wanted to go ahead with the attack.

The complaint quoted Atkinson's conversation with Sturtz the day before the arrests:

Sturtz told Atkinson he had a "bunch of rage" because a girl from California he'd been talking to over the Internet had dumped him the night before. Sturtz said he even laid down in the road for a few minutes, hoping someone would run him over.

Sturtz told Atkinson he was going to "shoot the place up."

"Well, what do you mean, like Columbine?" Atkinson asked him.

"Well, yeah, exactly," Sturtz replied.

Cornell told police he was in love with an East student, but she was engaged to someone else, according to the complaint.

The student said Cornell had talked about staging an attack on the school or a library so police would kill him, the complaint said.

"I am so sorry I have to go," said a note to the student that police found in Cornell's room. "Maybe I will find someone in next life. Sometimes I think that I must have done something wrong and God is punishing me … Don't be sad when I'm gone."

NYC police: Harlem baby dies after falling into bucket of mother's vomit

NEW YORK (AP) - A baby died after rolling off a bed and falling into a bucket of her teenage mother's vomit at a homeless shelter, police said. - The mother, Savarin DeJesus, 18, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child, and could get five years behind bars.

The young woman trembled and wept as she faced a judge Friday. "I loved my baby. I want you to know that," she said.

Authorities said DeJesus spent the evening of Sept. 15 downing gin and smoking cigarettes and then returned before dawn to the shelter where she lived with the 4-month old girl, Niah. DeJesus threw up into a bucket of cleaning solution next to her bed, then passed out on the bed, clutching Niah's legs, authorities said.

When she awoke about 10 hours later, she found the baby with her head in the bucket, which contained about six inches of liquid, according to court papers.

The cause of death was either asphyxiation or drowning, the medical examiner's office said.

DeJesus "loved her baby and would never hurt her," said her lawyer, Kenneth Gilbert.

The city's Department of Homeless Services said it was trying to determine if the East Harlem shelter had a crib.

DA: Alleged attack in Duke case took less time than accuser first claimed

DURHAM, N.C. - Three Duke lacrosse players took five to 10 minutes to sexually assault a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a team party, and not the 30 minutes she originally described to investigators, a prosecutor said Friday. - "When something happens to you that is really awful, it can seem like it takes place longer than it actually takes," District Attorney Mike Nifong said.

Nifong's comments came as Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III denied a defense request that prosecutors provide a detailed accounting of the alleged assault, including the exact time, place and type of sexual act the accuser said each defendant committed.

A grand jury has indicted three lacrosse players - Reade Seligmann, 20; Collin Finnerty, 19; and David Evans, 23 - on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. The accuser, a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, told police she was raped in a bathroom by three men at a March 13 off-campus party. Defense attorneys have strongly proclaimed the players' innocence.

Kirk Osborn, who represents Seligmann, said the defense needed the "bill of particulars" because the accuser has told several different versions of the alleged assault, and his client has a right to know which version prosecutors will present at trial. In search and arrest warrants issued early in the investigation, police stated the accuser told investigators she was assaulted for 30 minutes.

Nifong said he is not required to state the exact time of the alleged attack, but offered that authorities believe it took place between 11:30 p.m. on March 13, when the accuser arrived at the party, and 12:55 a.m. on March 14, when police arrived and found no one at the house.

Friday's hearing was the first since Smith was appointed to take over the case, and it was scheduled to continue Friday afternoon.

Before the hearing began, Nifong gave defense lawyers 615 pages of evidence, a compact disc and a cassette tape. He said it included much of what was requested by defense lawyers, who had asked for handwritten notes from police officers involved with the case, reports outlining procedures used at the labs that tested the DNA of the players and notes from a mental health facility where police took the accuser after the party.

Civilians, not police, stopped armed Capitol intruder

WASHINGTON (AP) - Civilian employees rather than police stopped an armed intruder at the U.S. Capitol, authorities acknowledged Friday, adding new details to an already embarrassing security breach.

Carlos Greene, 20, accused of carrying a loaded handgun and crack cocaine, assaulted one civilian employee and struggled with another before a third got him in a bear hug, seconds before officers caught up with him Monday morning, police said.

"It was the civilians who did have him corralled or subdued," said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol police spokeswoman. "We were hot on his trail. We just didn't get there in time."

On Monday, following the arrest, acting Capitol Police Chief Christopher McGaffin said his officers subdued Greene outside a basement office that distributes flags to lawmakers.

At a detention hearing Friday in federal court, Capitol Police Detective Nettie Watts said Greene eluded two officers in his car, ran past a third officer on the Capitol grounds and slipped through an unguarded door into the Rotunda.

"At different locations, officers gave chase. They would lose him and another officer would spot him, but at a distance," Watts said.

U.S. Magistrate John Facciola ordered Greene held without bond on a charge of illegally possessing a firearm.

In an interview before Greene's court appearance, Schneider called the security breach unacceptable and said police are reviewing procedures to ensure it can't happen again. Lawmakers also have said they want to review the incident and find out what went wrong.

Schneider praised the "valiant efforts" of the civilians but said police still recommend that people call them rather than getting involved in security threats.

I-70 west of Denver reopens after wintry September blast strands some travelers

GEORGETOWN, Colo. (AP) - Interstate 70 reopened in the Colorado mountains Friday after blowing snow and icy roads forced an overnight shutdown and stranded some travelers. - A 50-mile stretch of eastbound I-70 was shut down late Thursday from Vail to Georgetown, which is about 45 miles west of Denver. Westbound traffic was allowed through Georgetown in stages, transportation department spokesman Ryan Drake said.

The wintry conditions sent many drivers hunting for rooms Thursday night.

"We're sold out," said Shawn Patel, general manager of Georgetown's Super 8 Motel. "We probably sold about 40 rooms in the last two hours."

Rising temperatures melted most of the snow Friday, clearing much of Colorado's main east-west route, but transportation department spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said some icy spots remained on Vail Pass.

The mountains have been hit with storms this week, and winter storm warnings remained in effect in some areas of western Colorado. The ski industry group Colorado Ski Country USA was reporting that some resorts already had a foot of snow or more.

Wind-damaged banner on casino prompts closure of Las Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Fears that a wind-damaged advertising banner could fall from top a Las Vegas Strip hotel prompted the closure Friday of one of the busiest portions of Las Vegas Boulevard, police said.

No injuries were reported after a huge sign for the show "Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular" was blown loose atop the Venetian just before noon, said Jose Montoya, a Las Vegas police spokesman.

Concern that the banner could fall prompted the closure for several hours of Las Vegas Boulevard in both directions from Spring Mountain to Flamingo roads - an area including The Mirage, Caesars Palace, Harrah's and Flamingo resorts.

Winds were a steady 20 mph Friday at McCarran International and North Las Vegas airports, with gusts up to 30 to 40 mph, said Andy Bailey, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Producer of DVD showing gang members ordered to trial

FRESNO (AP) - A producer of a video portraying gang life was ordered to stand trial on two felony weapons charges.

Lonnell "Nitti" Greene, 29, helped produce "Fresno Uncensored," a 91-minute DVD released locally last year that showed gun-toting gang members mocking police, growing marijuana and showing off gang tattoos.

"A great percentage of the video contains criminal acts," Fresno police detective Ron Flowers testified Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court.

Officers said Greene supplied gang members with two assault weapons for use in the DVD.

Greene and his business associate, Marshall Day, said they made it strictly for entertainment and to showcase local hip-hop artists. There was no intent to promote gangs or violence, though the DVD did show gang members, they said.

Greene faces up to eight years in prison if convicted on the weapons charges with gang enhancements. He was being held in county jail Friday in lieu of $150,000 bail.

High school students plead guilty to video beating

BAKERSFIELD - Five high school students who were videotaped beating a freshman could face more than a year in custody after pleading guilty in the attack.

Lexi Stafford, Shayna Hughes, Haylee Shull-Hyde and Cody Richardson, all 15, and Maverick Richardson, 16, admitted beating classmate Kelsey Cox, 14, on Sept. 7. They pleaded guilty Thursday to different charges that included battery and false imprisonment.

A video of the assault showed several people hitting Cox in the head while about 20 other students encouraged them, said Kern County Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Norris.

The victim was bruised and had a contusion on the left side of her forehead.

Authorities are trying to identify other students in the video and may make more arrests, Norris said.

Cody Richardson was released to his mother. The rest will remain in custody at a juvenile camp until their sentence hearing on Oct. 5.

Management firm gets state go-ahead to operate 3 Elko casinos

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A company headed by the former president of the MGM Grand hotel has been given state approval to manage three northeast Nevada casinos.

Navegante Group chief Larry Woolf told the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday that he plans to add company staff but retain managers who oversee day-to-day operations at the Red Lion, Gold Country and High Desert casinos in Elko.

Woolf said plans called for refurbishing the three properties with ticket-in, ticket-out slot machines and shifting marketing to attract local residents following the closure of Casino Express, an airline that flew customers to town.

"You get a fair amount of visitors through traffic on I-80, but there's never been a push before toward the local market," Woolf said.

Woolf started Las Vegas-based Navegante in 1995 as a casino management firm. The company also consults with gambling companies on executive recruiting and development.

The company in December took over management of four downtown Las Vegas casinos - the Plaza, Gold Spike, Las Vegas Club and Western - on behalf of Tamares Group, a private investment company.

It also manages the Grand Sierra in Reno, formerly the Reno Hilton, and Casino Fandango in Carson City.

Safety board says fatal aircraft wasn't cleared to fly low

SPRINGVILLE, Calif. (AP) - Federal investigators say in a preliminary report that a state firefighting airplane wasn't cleared to fly low when it struck trees in a Sierra foothills box canyon this month.

The pilot and a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighter were killed when the observation plane crashed September 6 as it observed a small wildfire in the Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest in a remote area of the Tulare County foothills.

One witness said the plane appeared to be flying at 400 to 600 feet.

The state bars firefighting planes from flying below 500 feet without permission, and the National Transportation Safety Board says the pilot did not have that authorization.

A witness said he heard the airplane's engines revving just before the crash.

Death of Anna Nicole Smith's son sparks scandal in image-conscious Bahamas

By:NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - The handling of the death of Anna Nicole Smith's son has touched off a scandal in the image-conscious Bahamas, with an outspoken coroner reassigned and some worrying the media frenzy could damage the vital tourism industry. - As rumors swirled about 20-year-old Daniel Smith's death at his mother's hospital bedside, head coroner Linda Virgill last week labeled the case "suspicious" and called for an inquest that could lead to criminal charges.

The air of mystery began to lift this week as judicial officials removed Virgill from the case, citing unspecified remarks she made to the media. Authorities said tests could show Smith died of natural causes - meaning no inquest would be needed.

"To a certain extent, I question myself what is all the hullabaloo around the boy who died," Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner for the Royal Bahamas Police Force, told The Associated Press on Friday. "No one shot him, and there's no evidence of any crime taking place."

But with the cause of death still unknown pending toxicology tests, it remained to be seen whether Virgill's suspicions were unwarranted or officials were simply putting a better face on the investigation.

Smith died Sept. 10 while visiting the former reality TV star while she was recuperating from giving birth to a daughter three days earlier at a private Nassau hospital.

Two autopsies have ruled out homicide or suicide, but Ferguson said police were still investigating in part because the case was under such close media scrutiny.

"The fact of the matter is, the investigation surrounding this thing must be thoroughly done, it must be seen to be thoroughly investigated in any event," he said. "You have to follow everything."

Fears of missteps in the investigation have led some to worry about the islands' image overseas, and led to comparisons with the much-criticized investigation into the disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Authorities there have arrested nine people in her disappearance and released all of them for lack of evidence.

"We are all aware of what happened in Aruba," Michael Scott, a Bahamian attorney for Smith, said Thursday. "We don't want that to happen in this jurisdiction."

Some islanders disagree, saying Smith's decision to choose the Bahamas when looking for privacy during her pregnancy will only boost its image.

"This won't give us a bad reputation. We had nothing to do with the death," said Wendell Cornish, a 55-year-old sales consultant.

Others say the government has tarnished its reputation at home by devoting too many resources to the 38-year-old American celebrity.

Virgill was removed from the case following complaints of preferential treatment after she quickly scheduled an Oct. 23 inquest - despite a backlog of local cases.

Virgill could not be reached for comment.

The opposition Free National Movement has laid on the criticism, saying Smith received special treatment from a government that "hastily" granted her permanent residency.

A death certificate has been issued with the cause listed as pending - a move that officials say is not unusual - and Scott said Smith is considering a Bahamas burial for her son.

A private pathologist hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, has said Daniel Smith was taking a low dose of the antidepressant Lexapro and suggested he could have died accidentally from a lethal combination of drugs.

But Wecht said it could take weeks for toxicology results to provide definitive answers.

Daniel Smith, who appeared several times on the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show," was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later.

Smith's camp has been silent on the identity of the newborn girl's father.

Anna Nicole Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year and she has since been involved in legal disputes over the estate.

Judge Declines to Dismiss Dom Deluise Lawsuit Against Ex-Relative

LOS ANGELES - Comic Dom DeLuise's lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution by his ex-daughter-in-law and her lawyer will be allowed to go forward, a judge ruled today. - DeLuise, 73, filed his lawsuit against Brigitte DeLuise, lawyer Steven Zelig and his Los Angeles law firm, Zelig & Associates, in response to her lawsuit, which claimed DeLuise and his wife Carol conspired with his money managers to cut her off financially. She asked for $2 million.

Brigitte and DeLuise's son, David, filed for divorce in August 2003.

The former daughter-in-law also maintained that DeLuise and his financial advisers, Page & Ma Business Management, induced her to sign a deed giving her husband title to the West Hollywood home they bought in 2000.

Some of her claims were dismissed in 2004 and 2005, then she dropped the entire suit in January. However, she refiled it on June 23.

DeLuise's lawsuit, filed against his former daughter-in-law and Zelig on May 26, alleges they knew when they filed a separate suit against him in January 2004 that he was not liable. He claims her lawsuit caused him to suffer financial losses and that he was embarrassed, humiliated and left with emotional distress.

One of the grounds Zelig cited today for seeking the dismissal of DeLuise's lawsuit was that it fell within the type of litigation covered by the state's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) law.

Zelig maintained in court papers that the anti-SLAPP statute applies because his client's original lawsuit had legal merit and was not filed maliciously. He also argued in court that the only support DeLuise gave for his claim of emotional distress was that it was caused by the filing of Brigitte's lawsuit.

"That doesn't cut it," Zelig said. "It's a conclusion."

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Judith C. Chirlin rejected the motions and said DeLuise's lawsuit can move forward.

"I find that there were sufficient grounds for the lawsuit to have been filed … and that there is a likelihood of it prevailing on the merits," Chirlin said.

Zelig told Chirlin he likely will appeal her decision, but the judge said she was not surprised.

"I believe that whatever I did the other side would appeal," Chirlin said. "My friends on the Court of Appeal have to make a living, too."

Chirlin also raised the possibility of setting a mandatory settlement conference in the case, which would require both parties to be present.

"Would it be a pipe dream that if the parties got into a mandatory settlement conference that they might be able to stop these blood wars?" Chirlin asked the lawyers.

The attorneys said they did not know if a settlement conference would help, so she set a status conference for Nov. 3 so Selig's appeal can be heard and decided.

On Aug. 30, Chirlin also ruled against Brigitte DeLuise and Zelig when she denied a motion to dismiss part of Dom DeLuise's case. They claimed it failed to state a cause of action for which relief could be granted. CNS-09-22-2006 11:31

- North County Times wire services

French court paves way toward trial in deadly 2000 Concorde crash

PARIS (AP) - France's highest court paved the way Friday for a trial of officials being investigated in connection with the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people.

Three people are under investigation in the crash - Claude Frantzen, a former official at France's civil aviation authority, as well as Jacques Herubel and Henri Perrier, two former officials from Aerospatiale, the company that built the supersonic jet. Continental Airlines is also being probed.

The three officials and Continental had asked France's highest court to throw out the investigation. However, the court rejected their request Friday - paving the way for a trial in a criminal court. The magistrate investigating the case still must formally close the investigation and sign an order to send them to trial.

A lawyer for Perrier and Herubel said the investigating magistrate had never clearly explained why they were targeted.

"Just because you were director of a program for years doesn't mean you necessarily bear responsibility if there is an accident," said lawyer Thierry Dalmasso.

The Air France Concorde crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport on July 25, 2000, killing all 109 people on board - mostly German tourists - and four on the ground.

Two French investigations concluded that a titanium strip left on the runway by a Continental Airlines DC-10 was to blame for the crash.

The metal strip caused one of the Concorde's tires to burst, which sent debris flying that punctured the jet's fuel tanks. The French judicial inquiry also determined the tanks lacked sufficient protection from shock - and that Concorde's makers had been aware of the weakness since 1979.

Reports: Two convicted on charges stemming from 1998 murder of liberal Russian lawmaker

MOSCOW (AP) - A court Friday convicted two men of charges stemming from the high-profile 1998 murder of a liberal Russian lawmaker, news agencies reported.

ITAR-Tass said jurors at the St. Petersburg City Court deliberated for six hours before finding Vyacheslav Lelyavin guilty of being member of an armed gang that organized the killing of legislator Galina Starovoitova, but said he was not involved in the actual murder.

Jurors found Pavel Stekhnovsky guilty of buying the rifle used to shoot Starovoitova but said prosecutors did not prove he knew the gun was intended for the murder, Interfax said.

Starovoitova, a member of the lower house of parliament, was gunned down in the stairwell of her apartment building in St. Petersburg, sparking outrage among many Russians. The killing was one of the highest profile of the turbulent 1990s in Russia, where business disputes were often settled violently.

In June 2005, two men were convicted of the actual killing. Four others charged in the case were acquitted.

News reports linked Starovoitova's murder to members of a rival political party, but this has never been proven and investigators are still pursuing the case.

Mexican family of woman dragged to death in Denver say she never spoke badly of suspect

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The daughters of a Mexican woman who was dragged to her death in the United States said they talked briefly with the suspect by phone, but knew very little about him.

The battered body of Luz Maria Franco Fierros, 49, was discovered early Monday in a suburb outside of Denver. Police say she was dragged behind a car, and have charged her roommate, Jose Luis Rubi Nava, 36, with first-degree murder.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Franco Fierros' daughter, Anel Leyva Franco, said her mother never spoke of any problems with Rubi Nava. The mother and daughter spoke nearly daily by phone.

"We want to know what really happened because no one deserves this," the 27-year-old Leyva Franco said from her home in the southern Mexican city of Chilpancingo, 210 kilometers (130 miles) south of Mexico City.

Leyva Franco said a friend of her mother's in Denver called Thursday to inform her of her mother's death, and that she was waiting for the remains to be sent home for burial.

She said Franco Fierros left Chilpancingo for the United States after Mother's Day 2005, crossing the border illegally in search of a better life. She followed the advice of a neighbor who said there were jobs in Denver, and ended up working at a Taco Bell restaurant, her daughter said. She met Rubi Nava in Denver.

She left behind Leyva Franco; two other daughters, ages 31 and 26; and a 17-year-old son.

"She always wanted to go (to the United States) to find a better life, because she was always a single mother," Leyva Franco said.

She said her mother had told her she wanted to return to Mexico after paying unspecified debts.

"I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," she said of the way her mother was killed. "I wanted her to die naturally."

Court says 'condo queen' stole home of mentally ill L.A. man

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A real estate agent who called herself the "condo queen" stole the home of a mentally ill man who is the grandson of the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, an appeals court said.

Hildegard Merrill must immediately return the condominium to John Warren and pay $65,000 in damages, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said Thursday.

Merrill "had a deliberate plan to defraud him out of his down payment and the property," the three-judge panel said in its opinion upholding a lower court ruling.

"He was taken advantage of by a very, very unscrupulous Realtor who still has never admitted any wrongdoing," said James C. Fedalen, Warren's attorney.

A call to Merrill's attorney, Roger James Agajanian, early Friday was not immediately returned.

Warren, who suffered from neurological problems that affected his memory and thinking, wanted to buy the condo in Los Angeles' Woodland Hills section from Merrill in 2001 but had poor credit. Merrill arranged to have her daughter sign as co-purchaser and promised she would remove her name from the title after the deal closed. Warren agreed and made a down payment.

However, at the closing, Merrill got him to sign documents removing his name from the title, the court said.

Warren moved in but he later entered a drug and alcohol treatment center. When he returned to the home some months later, he found himself locked out.

Merrill had him evicted and moved out his belongings, including papers belonging to his grandfather, the court said.

Warren sued and won the case in Superior Court.

"In his last conversation with Merrill, Warren explained he was desperate and homeless. Over a four-month period he had stayed with various friends or slept in his car, but was then sleeping in the park and using public facilities to attend to his personal hygiene," the appellate opinion said.

Indian state court overturns ban on production, sales of Coca-Cola, Pepsi

COCHIN, India (AP) - The High Court on Friday overturned a ban on the production and sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi soft drinks in the southern Indian state of Kerala, but state officials said they would seek ways to challenge the decision.

Kerala's government imposed the statewide ban after a New Delhi-based private research group alleged the soft drinks contain high levels of pesticides.

On Friday, the High Court upheld an argument by the Indian division of Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. that the state government had no jurisdiction to impose a ban on the manufacture and sale of their products. Only the federal government can ban food products, it ruled.

The court also said the government did not give the soft drink companies time to challenge the ban before it was imposed.

The state's top elected official said he would try to overturn the ruling.

"The court's verdict quashing the Kerala government's order is unfortunate and the government is exploring legal steps to take corrective measures to reinforce the ban," Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan told reporters.

State Health Minister P.K. Sreemathi said the government would challenge Friday's verdict in India's Supreme Court.

The federal government had no immediate comment on the court ruling.

A New Delhi-based research group, the Center for Science and Environment, said the court's decision was "very unfortunate," and that state governments are duty bound to take measures to protect the health of their citizens in the absence of such action at a federal level.

"The (federal) government has still not notified the safety norms and without these, the drinks remain as unsafe as before," said Sunita Narain, director of the research group.

Coca-Cola India lauded the court's decision. Coca-Cola Co. is based in Atlanta.

"We are gratified that High Court of Kerala has set aside the illegal order," the company said in a statement. "Coca-Cola India has always been completely confident of the safety of its soft drinks in India."

PepsiCo, based in Purchase, N.Y., said the ruling validates its belief in the quality of its products. "PepsiCo products in India comply with the most stringent Indian and international regulation," the company said in a statement.

The Kerala ban was the harshest in India, where seven of the country's 28 states imposed partial or complete bans on Coke, Pepsi, Sprite and other drinks produced by the companies after the Center for Science and Environment made the pesticide allegations on Aug. 3. More than 10,000 schools also have banned the beverages.

Coca-Cola said it hoped other states would reconsider their positions after Friday's ruling, adding that the ban affected thousands of workers and retailers.

Although many food products in India contain pesticides, the Center for Science and Environment said it focused on Coca Cola and PepsiCo because they account for nearly 80 percent of India's $2 billion soft drink market.

Coca-Cola shares fell 14 cents to $44.06 on the New York Stock Exchange, while PepsiCo shares lost 26 cents to $64.35.