MIAMI — The alligator has some foreign competition at the top of the Everglades food chain, and the results of the struggle are horror-movie messy.

A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said.

The incident has heightened biologists' fears that the nonnative snakes could threaten a host of other animal species in the Everglades.

"It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top-down predator," said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor.

Over the years, many pythons have been abandoned in the Everglades by pet owners.

The gory evidence of the latest gator-python encounter — the fourth documented in the past three years — was discovered and photographed last week by a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it.

In previous incidents, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.

"There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons," Mazzotti said. "This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win."

It is unknown how many pythons are competing with the thousands of alligators in the Everglades, but at least 150 have been captured in the past two years, said Joe Wasilewski, a wildlife biologist and crocodile tracker.

Pythons could threaten many smaller species that conservationists are trying to protect, including other reptiles, otters, squirrels, woodstorks and sparrows, Mazzotti said.

Wasilewski said a 10- or 20-foot python also could pose a risk to an unwary human, especially a child. He added, however, "I don't think this is an imminent threat. This is not a `Be afraid, be very afraid' situation."'

Death toll from storms in Central America rises to nearly 100

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Heavy rains pounded Central America for a fourth day Wednesday, pushing rivers over their banks, flooding communities and unleashing at least two deadly mudslides as the region's death toll rose to nearly 100 people.

Hurricane Stan, which had helped spawn rainstorms in Central America, weakened to a depression over the southern state of Oaxaca on Wednesday, a day after making landfall along Mexico's Gulf coast. But punishing rains continued in parts of Central America and southern Mexico.

In Guatemala, two mudslides in Solola and nearby San Lucas Toleman, both about 60 miles west of Guatemala City, buried several houses. It was not clear how many people were under the debris, said Carlos Santizo, chief of the Solola fire department.

An AP photographer on site said he saw at least 12 bodies recovered.

The additional victims would bring the death toll in Guatemala alone to at least 31, and the total number of confirmed victims to 99.

Flooding in more than 88 Guatemalan communities forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 residents. Nearly all of the country's rivers overflowed their banks, while landslides and fallen trees blocked at least 30 roadways. Most of the victims were killed in landslides, national disaster agency officials said.

Guatemalan President Oscar Berger called on Congress to declare a national state of emergency, allowing the government to force evacuations of dangerous areas, set prices on emergency supplies and provide federal coordination of relief efforts.

"But we're only going to do all of this if it is absolutely necessary," Berger said.

In the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, at least 49 people were killed by four days of mudslides and flooding. More than 16,700 Salvadorans had fled their homes for 167 shelters nationwide.

Among those evacuated were residents of Santa Tecla, outside the capital, San Salvador, where a strong earthquake caused a massive landslide in January 2001. Officials have worried the mountain running alongside the neighborhood might collapse again with heavy rains or another quake.

Nine people died in storm-related storms in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck. Four deaths were reported in Honduras and one in Costa Rica.

In the Chiapas city of Tapachula, near Mexico's border with Guatemala, two people were killed when they were dragged away by a river that overflowed its banks and roared through the city, also carrying homes of wood and metal with it, civil protection officials said Wednesday. The flooding forced hundreds of evacuations.

President Vicente Fox paid a visit to the area on Wednesday, and promised victims the government would do what it could to help.

Tapachula was largely cut off from surrounding areas as major highways, roads and bridges were left under water. "Sadly, we know it's going to keep raining," Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar said.

Other Mexican victims included a married couple who were killed Wednesday in a landslide in the southern state of Oaxaca, civil protection officials said.

Civil protection authorities in the state of Veracruz, which took a direct hit from the hurricane, reported only seven injuries. But a man and his donkey were missing in the town of Gutierrez Zamora after being swept away by floodwaters while attempting to ford a flooded ditch. And witnesses said a man was electrocuted as he helped evacuation efforts in the city of Veracruz.

Associated Press writers Juan Carlos Llorca in Guatemala City and Miguel Hernandez in Veracruz, Mexico, contributed to this report.

Investigators say paparazzi not a factor in Lohan collision

WEST HOLLYWOOD — Paparazzi "were not a factor" in a traffic collision involving actress Lindsay Lohan, sheriff's officials said Wednesday, contradicting a claim by the teen star's publicist.

According to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statement, "Preliminary investigations have revealed that paparazzi were not a factor in the traffic collision, and the matter is being handled as a traffic collision only."

The 19-year-old star of films such as "Mean Girls," "Freaky Friday" and "Herbie: Fully Loaded" was driving north on Robertson Boulevard just south of Beverly Boulevard shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday when her black Mercedes- Benz convertible struck the passenger side of a maroon Chevrolet Astro van.

The van, "also traveling northbound, turned in front of her," the sheriff's department reported.

Witnesses alleged that the crash involved high-speed driving by the actress.

The impact caused the van to collide with another van that was parked nearby.

Sheriff's officials said Lohan and her female passenger were taken to a hospital "for treatment of minor injuries." The driver of the van suffered "moderate" injuries and was also hospitalized.

The cause of the accident remained under investigation. Sheriff's officials said alcohol did not appear to be a factor.

Several witnesses reported that before the crash, which occurred in the same neighborhood where a celebrity photographer rammed his car into Lohan's four months ago, Lohan was trailed and photographed by paparazzi as she lunched and shopped along Robertson Boulevard.

"This is another example of the paparazzi endangering citizens, both Ms. Lohan and the other driver in the collision," Lohan publicist Leslie Sloan told the Los Angeles Times in remarks published this morning. "As the matter is still under investigation, we cannot comment further at this time."

In an interview with "Access Hollywood" scheduled to air tonight, the driver of the van said Lohan walked away after the collision without checking on his condition.

"I imagine if I had hit someone, I am going to ask them right away if the other person is OK," Raymundo Ortega, 40, told the television entertainment newsmagazine. "But she did not do that with me.

"I know it wasn't my fault. On her behalf, if she wants to call me to ask how I am doing, that would be good. But if she doesn't, then I'll leave it on her conscience because honestly, she doesn't even know my name."

Sheriff's Deputy Scott Gage said all aspects of the collision — including Lohan's actions — are still under investigation.

An assistant for Sloan said this afternoon she had no further comment on the sheriff's preliminary findings of Ortega's remarks "because of the ongoing investigation."

Ortega, who was treated at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and released, told "Access Hollywood" he was en route to his job at the Newsroom Cafe when the collision occurred, and he didn't know who had hit his van.

"I didn't recognize her," the father of six said. "All I knew was that she was driving really fast. I mean, she had to be going at least 75 mph. I was finishing my turn, when all of a sudden she came out of nowhere. All she needed was wings for the car to fly."

Victoria Recano, a reporter with "The Insider" and "Entertainment Tonight," said Lohan was driving "really fast" on Robertson near the Beverly Center when the collision occurred.

Katherine Starr, 50, of New Orleans, told The Times she was walking along the sidewalk when she noticed Lohan driving at a high rate of speed.

"She was just flying down the street," Starr said. "People crawl along there, but she had to be going 50 or 60 mph. I really don't think she should have been driving so fast. There's too much pedestrian activity there."

Starr told The Times that the collision "was a very violent crash. … It was such a loud impact, it was explosive."

The air bags in Lohan's convertible deployed, and both Lohan and her female passenger — possibly her assistant — jumped out of the car and ran into a nearby antiques store, Recano said.

Recano, who was on the scene at the time, said Lohan didn't appear to be trying to flee the scene of the accident, just ducking into a store to avoid paparazzi.

—— North County Times wire services

Blake denies soliciting stuntmen to kill his wife

BURBANK — Actor Robert Blake testified Wednesday that he met separately with two stuntmen to discuss security concerns at his Studio City home, but denied allegations that he tried to hire one or both of them to kill his wife.

The former "Baretta" star, on trial in connection with a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the children of his slain wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, said he met both stuntmen in March 2001.

Blake testified that he met with stuntman Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton, whom he hadn't seen in more than 30 years, at a Dupar's restaurant in Studio City. They also went to his house, where Blake showed Hambleton an envelope of Bakley's things, including nude photos, Blake testified.

Although they talked about Bakley, Blake said the meeting "had to do with security … specifically it was about the security of my house."

Hambleton encouraged Blake to buy a calling card to contact him, because the stuntman didn't want "any connections with me" in case there were any problems with police, the actor testified.

Blake said he "was getting scared" because although he has seen people around his house before, he had recently seen an increasing number of trucks and cars parked near his home.

When plaintiffs' attorney Eric Dubin asked if Blake ever communicated to Hambleton that he wanted to kill Bakley, Blake responded, "No."

Hambleton has not yet testified in the civil trial, and it is unclear if he will.

Bakley's children sued Blake after she was killed May 4, 2001, in the actor's Dodge Stealth near Vitello's restaurant in Studio City, where the couple had just eaten dinner.

The lawsuit and resulting civil trial had been on hold while Blake faced a murder charge. A criminal case ended in March with a Van Nuys jury acquitting him of killing Bakley, the mother of his 5-year-old daughter, Rosie.

He did not testify in that trial.

Blake contends Bakley was shot while he returned to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he left behind.

In court Wednesday, Blake also discussed a March 2001 meeting with stuntman Gary McLarty, who testified earlier in the trial that the actor contacted him and described several scenarios for how a woman who was scamming him could be killed.

In one of those scenarios, someone could go into the guest house on Blake's property when the woman was sleeping and "pop her," McLarty testified.

Blake testified, however, that he did meet with McLarty, but that meeting was set up strictly to discuss improved security at his house. Blake said he offered McLarty $10,000 and also showed him the same envelope of Bakley's things. The actor said he took McLarty around his Studio City property, including the guest house where Bakley stayed.

Blake said he used the calling card to contact both Hambleton and McLarty to distance himself from them.

When Dubin asked if Blake communicated to McLarty that he wanted the stuntman to "kill or pop your wife," Blake responded, "No."

The actor also testified that he never spoke to either man again after Bakley was killed.

During his testimony last Thursday and on Monday, Blake was combative with Dubin, and at times talked over the judge and his own attorney, Peter Ezzell.

"Well, if he can get dramatic, I can get dramatic," Blake said of Dubin. "I get paid to do it."

On the stand this afternoon, however, a more subdued Blake sat stone-faced and his voice dropped, occasionally stuttering, as he described his efforts to find help for his wife after he returned to his car that night, finding blood on her nose and mouth.

The actor testified that he knocked on the doors of two nearby houses, yelling, "My wife is hurt. She's over there in the car, call 9-1-1, call 9-1- 1."

After finding a resident who called 9-1-1, Blake returned to the restaurant, he said.

"I was looking for a doctor," Blake testified.

Dubin asked Blake why he didn't drive Bakley to the hospital.

"That would have been the stupidest thing in the world," Blake said. The actor said he didn't then — and still doesn't know — where the nearest hospital is, although he has lived in the area for 30 years. He also testified that he thought an ambulance would be faster than him driving.

Blake said he ran to Vitello's and asked for help. He thought he went to the dining room, but was told later he actually sat down on some stairs near the cash register.

Blake said he recalled being "dizzy" and someone brought him several glasses of water.

When Dubin pressed him why he stopped to drink water while Bakley's fate was unknown, Blake yelled, "I didn't ask for the water. I didn't ask for the water."

Blake said a woman who identified herself as a nurse accompanied him back to his car. Dubin asked Blake if he saw the paramedics load Blake into the ambulance.

"They pulled me away from there," he said.

When asked why he didn't go to the hospital, Blake said when he got into a police car that night, he thought that was where they were taking him.

—— North County Times wire services

PeopleSoft founder proposes mansion bigger than Hearst Castle

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Some of the computer software industry's richest moguls may soon be dealing with a case of castle envy.

David Duffield, a billionaire who amassed most of his fortune by reluctantly selling PeopleSoft Inc. last year, has submitted plans for a 72,000-square-foot home that would eclipse the mammoth mansions custom-made for his more famous peers, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison.

But Duffield's palatial vision may never be realized.

The project already is facing intense opposition from the neighbors who would have to live in the shadow of the proposed three-story home in Alamo, Calif. — a tony suburb about 30 miles east of San Francisco.

Alamo resident Bruce Smith, whose family previously owned the 8,000-square-foot home that Duffield hopes to demolish to make room for his new house, said the land was never intended for a residence that will dwarf the 60,645-square-foot Hearst Castle and the 55,000 square foot White House.

"I really don't have a problem with a man pursuing his dreams, but this is just too much," Smith said in an interview Wednesday.

Efforts to reach Duffield were unsuccessful.

Jim Dugdale, Duffield's project manager, defended the proposed home in an interview published Wednesday in the Contra Costa Times, which first reported the building plans.

"It's a lovely designed home that complies with all the rules and the established practices of the area," Dugdale told the Times. Dugdale didn't return messages seeking further comment Wednesday.

The plans are drawing mixed reviews from Duffield's neighbors, said Richard Maxey, manager of the Bryan Ranch Homeowners Association, which encompasses the 22 acres where Duffield wants to build.

"There are a lot of emotions," Maxey said Wednesday. "Some people want it to be built because they think it will enhance their property values. I am also getting a lot of complaints about 'monsterization' and 'mansionization."'

With an estimated $1.1 billion fortune, Duffield isn't as well known or as wealthy as the men who founded the world's largest software companies — Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.

Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, tapped into his $51 billion fortune to build a 40,000-square-foot compound near Seattle, while Ellison spent more than $100 million of his $17 billion fortune on a Japanese-style estate in the hills over looking Silicon Valley. Ellison's living quarters reportedly is about 10,000 square feet.

If not for Ellison, Duffield might not be trying to build the mansion.

Duffield, 65, had been semiretired from PeopleSoft, living in a huge estate near Lake Tahoe until Ellison launched a hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft in 2003. Duffield returned to the San Francisco Bay area to run PeopleSoft a year ago in a last-gasp effort to thwart Ellison, but his company ultimately capitulated and sold to its larger rival for $11.1 billion.

As PeopleSoft's founder, Duffield pocketed one of the biggest windfalls. He is now using some of that money to start another San Francisco Bay area software firm, named Workday, that may mount another challenge to Oracle.

Duffield's insistence of building a castle evokes the image a "billionaire bully," Smith said. "He is trying to do to us what was done to him at PeopleSoft. This is sort of a takeover of our neighborhood."

Earthquake rocks Indonesia's Aceh province, triggering panic

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — A strong earthquake rocked Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province on Wednesday, causing panicked residents to flee their homes and run to higher ground for fearing a tsunami.

But there were no immediate reports of serious damage or threat of tsunami.

The magnitude 5.6 quake was centered about 30 miles southeast of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics office said on its Web Site.

State news agency Antara reported that scores of people ran to higher ground, fearing an impending tsunami.

"It caused panic among people. Some ran out of houses," said local seismologist Erida Wati.

Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra Island, has seen almost daily earthquakes since the massive temblor on Dec. 26 that produced a deadly tsunami, killing more than 176,000 people in 11 countries. Aceh was the hardest hit spot with more than 130,000 dead.

Earthquakes of magnitude 6 and below are not considered strong enough to trigger a tsunami.

NTSB begins tests to determine what capsized tour boat, killing 20

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) — By shifting barrels of water on the deck to simulate passenger movement, federal investigators Wednesday tested a tour boat nearly identical to the Ethan Allen to determine the cause of the capsizing that killed 20 elderly passengers.

National Transportation Safety Board officials believe the weight and distribution of the 47 passengers in the boat may have contributed to Sunday's accident on this Adirondack lake.

The Ethan Allen's sister vessel, the de Champlain, tilted as the NTSB conducted dockside tests on the boat at Lake George.

The work was the beginning of what NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker called a "road test" on the vessel. It's one thread in a wide-ranging investigation that is expected to take months.

NTSB investigators also were examining the Ethan Allen, which was hauled from the lake Monday, and may put it back in the water for tests.

The Ethan Allen was just shy of its 50-person capacity when it overturned, but that limit was based on a decades-old standard that assumes an average weight of 140 pounds for everyone on board. The NTSB tests are simulating an average passenger weight of 160 pounds.

Investigators also are looking at modifications made to the boat that may have made it heavier, including a wood-Fiberglas canopy that replaced a canvas model, a bigger engine and ballast to keep the boat level.

Investigators were awaiting results of an alcohol test on the Ethan Allen's captain, Richard Paris, 74, the only crew member aboard the 38-foot boat when it overturned.

Paris voluntarily provided a urine sample Tuesday at the NTSB's request, Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said. Investigators did not have reasonable cause to test Paris immediately after the accident because he showed no signs of impairment during an interview, Cleveland said.

The urine test can detect alcohol consumed days earlier. Paris has told investigators his last drink before the accident was a beer the previous Thursday.

Gov. George Pataki said Wednesday that he will soon propose legislation to make the state's boating-safety standards as tough as existing federal regulations. He said he's specifically looking at the federal requirement for testing a pilot for alcohol and drug use after a fatal crash.

The passengers aboard the Ethan Allen were senior citizens from Michigan and Ohio who had come East to see the fall foliage.

All 20 victims drowned, Tim Murphy, a Warren County coroner, said Wednesday.

Glens Falls Hospital, where all 27 surviving passengers were taken, discharged the last three Wednesday morning.

Museum set to display John Lennon's least known album — the stamp collection

WASHINGTON (AP) — Beatle John Lennon produced lots of popular albums in his career. The one that is probably least known is going on display Thursday. It's his stamp album.

The album, purchased in June by the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, will remain on display at least until April 10.

"Somewhere along the line, people started thinking of stamp collecting as somewhat stodgy. That's what has made John Lennon's stamp album so much fun, John Lennon could never be described as stodgy," said the museum's curator, Wilson Hulme.

Lennon would have been 65 on Sunday. The museum plans an open house in the afternoon for people to view the album and celebrate the music of Lennon and the Beatles.

The collection was begun by Stanley Parkes, Lennon's older cousin, who later gave it to the future Beatle when Lennon was 9 years old.

Lennon replaced Parkes's name and address on the album's flyleaf with his own signature and the address of the home he shared with his aunt, Mary Smith, and her husband, George.

Expressing his budding artistic talent, Lennon drew beards and mustaches in blue ink on the likenesses of British monarchs, including Queen Victoria and King George VI, on the album's title page.

Museum officials say there is evidence throughout the album that Lennon added and removed stamps over the years. Lennon's handwritten notes on the flyleaf indicate the album may have contained as many as 800 stamps at some point. Currently, the album contains 565 stamps.

The museum purchased the album from a British stamp dealer but declined to disclose the price.

On the Net:

Postal Museum: www.postalmuseum.si.edu

Tropical Storm Tammy churns toward Georgia, Carolinas

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Tammy skirted the Florida coast Wednesday before sending heavy rain and gusty winds north.

Tammy formed just off Florida's east coast early Wednesday, dropping rain into north Florida and soaking parts of Georgia and South Carolina.

Its winds strengthened from 45 to 50 mph Wednesday afternoon, but Robbie Berg, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Tammy is not likely to reach hurricane strength of 74 mph because it will spend so little time over water.

A tropical storm warning was issued from Flagler Beach, north of Daytona Beach, to South Carolina's Santee River. The warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within 24 hours.

As Tammy tracked along the Florida coast, the worst of its weather remained offshore, north and east of its eye.

"The system has moved right up the coast nicely. It was actually pushing rainfall out of this area," said Steve Letro, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Jacksonville.

Later, bands of rain moved into Georgia and South Carolina.

"We've seen some localized flooding, which you expect in a storm like this," South Carolina Emergency Management Division spokesman John Legare said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Tammy was centered about 35 miles east-southeast of Jacksonville and moving north-northwest at 14 mph. A northwesterly turn was expected over the next day.

On its forecast track, the center of Tammy was expected to move into northeastern Florida or southeastern Georgia on Wednesday night. Tropical storm winds extended outward up to 260 miles, mainly to the north and east of the storm's center.

The storm is predicted to drop 3 to 5 inches of rain over southeast Georgia, eastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina, with maximum amounts of 8 to 10 inches, the National Hurricane Center said.

The rain will not be entirely unwelcome: Parts of the Carolinas have been suffering from drought.

Still, some business owners in Florida lamented the storm's approach. Seven hurricanes have brushed past or hit the state in the last 14 months, including three this year.

Tourists and business people are canceling reservations with the approach of the storm, said Eric Fort, general manager of the Sea Walk Hotel in Jacksonville Beach. He estimated business is off 75 percent from this time last year, a triple whammy from the economy, gas prices and fear of the storm.

"It has a lot to do with Katrina," he said. Hurricane Katrina struck south Florida as a Category 1 storm on Aug. 25, four days before it devastated Louisiana and Mississippi as a Category 4.

Tammy is the 19th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30. This season is tied for the second-busiest since record-keeping started in 1851; 19 storms also formed in 1995 and 1887. The record for tropical storms and hurricanes in one year is 21, set in 1933.

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Six more dead from mysterious outbreak at Toronto nursing home; death toll stands at 16

TORONTO (AP) — A deadly outbreak of a respiratory illness at a Toronto nursing home for the elderly has claimed six more lives, raising the death toll to 16, health officials said Wednesday.

The cause of the outbreak at the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged remains unknown, although officials insisted the situation was under control. Thirty-eight people remained hospitalized with the illness, and officials fear many of them are too frail to fully recover. Another 88 residents, employees and visitors have been affected.

Public health officials have said it may never be possible to determine the exact type of bug responsible for the rash of illnesses, but they have ruled out influenza, avian flu, SARS and Legionnaire's disease.

Anxiety over the outbreak has been exacerbated by fears of SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — which claimed 44 lives in Toronto from two outbreaks in the spring of 2003. More than 8,000 people worldwide contracted the illness and 774 people died.

Authorities have said the outbreak, while more serious than average, was not particularly unusual, especially as the flu season approaches.

On the Net:

Toronto Public Health: www.toronto.ca/health

Blizzard knocks out power, closes roads and schools in parts of the West

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Portions of Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming were hit by a slow-moving snowstorm that knocked out power, closed roads and dumped up to 13 inches by Wednesday.

Thousands of power outages were reported and some schools were closed by the storm, which began Tuesday. Drifting snow contributed to road closings and the National Guard was called out to rescue stranded motorists in southwestern North Dakota.

"It's really treacherous — heavy, deep snow. Visibility is just really poor. It's so heavy that vehicles just can't push through it," North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Mark Bethke said.

As much as 11 inches of snow had fallen in southeastern Montana by early Wednesday. Billings had received 10.8 inches and set a record for snowfall Tuesday with 9.9 inches, National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Humphrey said.

At least 11,000 customers throughout the region lost power due to the storm, officials said.

The storm, which moved in from the Rockies overnight, dropped more than a foot of wet snow in parts of western and central North Dakota, and winds up to 50 mph created blizzard conditions in some areas.

"It is, on our records, probably one of the earliest ones, as far as our recorded history goes, in 126, 130 years," said Sam Walker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck, N.D.

In Dickinson, N.D., an estimated 13 inches of snow had fallen by noon, forcing authorities to pull their vehicles off the road.

There were no reports of injuries.

The storm came just a few days after North Dakota had temperatures in the 90s. Warmer weather was forecast to return in the coming days.

In Utah, the ski industry was looking up.

Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort received its first snow of the year Tuesday with 6 inches atop 11,000-foot Hidden Peak. More snow was falling Wednesday.

"There are still projects to be done before winter arrives, but this first snowfall has put smiles on the faces of people all around Snowbird," said Snowbird President Bob Bonar.

Associated Press writer Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.

Witness says alleged Atlanta courthouse gunman said: 'I got nothing to lose'

ATLANTA (AP) — The man accused of killing four people during a rampage that started in a courthouse herded people into an office before the shootings, held a gun to a deputy's head and declared, "I got nothing to lose," a witness told investigators.

The account was among 33 witness statements obtained by The Associated Press that sheriff's investigators had culled from people in the courthouse March 11 when Brian Nichols allegedly went on the shooting spree. A judge unsealed the statements Monday, but they were not released to the AP until Wednesday.

"Man, why you doing this?" Sgt. Grantley White told investigators he asked Nichols. "You know, everything is going to be all right. Why you doing this?"

Apparently worried the deputy might reach for his gun, Nichols responded, according to White, "Don't do it, Sarge. I got nothing to lose. I got nothing to lose."

Afterward, Nichols allegedly entered the courtroom where his rape trial was to resume later that day and fatally shot the presiding judge, Rowland Barnes, and a court reporter.

Several witness statements show confusion in the courthouse as the shootings took place.

A deputy told investigators he encountered a man fitting Nichols' description in a hallway after a judge and court reporter were shot.

"I stopped the individual," Sgt. Vincent Owens said. "I said, 'Is everything okay? Is anything wrong?"'

Owens said the man put up his hands and mumbled he didn't know anything. Owens said he let the man go. He found out later that the man was likely Nichols.

Nichols also is accused of killing a sheriff's deputy who chased him and, that night, a federal agent. He was captured the next day after police said he took a woman hostage in an Atlanta suburb. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. No trial date has been set.

Security has been tightened at the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta since the shootings, and several investigations and security reviews have been launched. In August, eight deputies were fired over the shootings. White and Owens were not among those fired.

Two days before the shootings, metal shanks were found in Nichols' shoes. Despite that, Nichols' handcuffs were removed just before he allegedly overpowered a deputy guarding him, grabbed her gun and went on the spree.

In one of the previously sealed witness statements released Wednesday, Nichols' lawyer in the rape trial, Barry Hazen, told investigators that after the shanks were found, Barnes requested extra security measures in the courtroom for when the verdict in Nichols' rape trial would be announced. The jury had not yet reached a verdict in the case.

"Judge Barnes thought that there was the possibility for an outburst if the jury returned a guilty verdict," Hazen said. "Among the precautions were to remove from the courtroom area where Mr. Nichols was anything that could be used as a projectile."

Bolivian grandmothers of unclaimed girl in New York face off in custody battle

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — The grandmothers of a 4-year-old found wandering barefoot on a New York street faced off in a custody battle Wednesday, with one requesting a U.S. visa in the Bolivian capital and the other flying to the U.S. city to seek adoption.

Roxana Rivadineira, 40, traveled Wednesday from her home in Cochabamba to the capital, La Paz, and went to the U.S. Embassy to request a visa to see her granddaughter, Valery Belen Saavedra Lozada. She said Wednesday that she hoped to travel to New York within days.

"Once I get the visa, and go to New York, I want Valery to be with me, because she's the blood of my blood," she told The Associated Press.

Valery's other grandmother, Ana Maria Rivera, flew to New York on Wednesday to seek custody in the name of Valery's father, who is serving time in a Cochabamba prison on drug charges.

"She was very eager to go and see her grandchild," said Fernando Lazcano, Bolivia's consul general in Los Angeles.

Rivadineira, told that Rivera was seeking custody, said: "I am very worried."

Valery was found last month wandering the streets of the New York borough of Queens, where people have been fascinated with her plight since the child, in a television appearance intended to help determine her identity, described her mother as looking "like a princess."

Valery has been staying with a foster family since police determined that her 26-year-old mother, Monica Lozada-Rivadineira, was probably dead. Lozada-Rivadineira's companion, Cesar Ascarrunz, is being held without bail on charges of strangling her, dumping her body in a pile of trash and abandoning Valery on the street.

Rivadineira suggested that she would try to adopt Valery, saying she would file papers to prove she is the grandmother. The foreign ministry said Wednesday it would try to help her get to New York.

"I'm worried, I'm desperate, to have my granddaughter with me, to see her, to hug her and make her feel like she's not alone, that she has family," Rivadineira said. "The problem and the shame is that we're so far away."

The girl's father, Juan Carlos Saavedra, who is divorced from Lozada-Rivadineira, said he too would seek custody. He is serving time on drug charges in Cochabamba's San Sebastian prison, according to a Cochabamba police official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to make public statements. It was unclear how long he would be in prison.

"She is my daughter, and my family is already taking the necessary steps to gain legal custody," Saavedra told the Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos.

Saavedra's family is caring for the former couple's other child, 3-year-old Juan Carlos, and Saavedra said he would work to be a better father for both children.

"I regret what I've done and I want to work and fight for my children," he told Bolivision television by telephone.

Saavedra's mother, Rivera, lives in Arizona. She traveled to Los Angeles to seek help from the Bolivian community there, which raised money to buy plane tickets to New York for her and a friend, Lazcano said.

A family court judge will decide where to place the girl, said Lisi de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children's Services.

Investigators in New York haven't found Lozada-Rivadineira's body but are certain she's dead. Ascarrunz allegedly confessed to strangling her during an argument.

"Regrettably, we don't have any reason to believe he would invent an admission to killing her," said police spokesman Paul Browne.

Rivadineira said she doesn't believe her daughter is dead.

"My faith in God makes me believe that she is still alive. I feel certain — I want to feel certain, secure and happy and find my daughter alive," she said.

But hope gave way to anger, especially when discussing Ascarrunz.

"I don't want this man set free. He should have a life sentence or capital punishment because of what he has done to my daughter and abandoning a defenseless little girl," she said. "Nobody has the right to take a life away."

Rivadineira said she last spoke to her daughter on Sept. 24, the day she disappeared. There was nothing out of the ordinary about their conversation. Lozada-Rivadineira told her mother she was feeling under the weather because she had some teeth pulled.

Rivadineira said her daughter moved to the United States to escape poverty.

"She left with the idea of improving her life and her daughter's life, because Bolivia's not an easy place to live," she said.

"She was an intelligent girl, who knew how to get by in life, although I imagine it must have been hard for her, because she was always working, or else she couldn't support her daughter."

Associated Press writers Tom Hays in New York and Joy Hepp in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Two men guilty in 1991 Chinatown massacre in Boston

BOSTON (AP) — Two men were convicted Wednesday in the execution-style slayings of five people in a Chinatown social club nearly 15 years ago.

Police said the killings appeared to be part of a dispute between rival gangs vying for control of Chinatown's gambling rackets.

Nam The Tham and Siny Van Tran were found guilty of five counts of first-degree murder and face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors said Tham and Tran were among three gunmen who burst into a basement gambling parlor before dawn in January 1991 and shot six people in the head at close range. One victim survived and became the prosecution's star witness.

Tham and Tran, Vietnamese raised in China, were fugitives for almost 10 years after the massacre, which remains one of Boston's most gruesome crimes. They were arrested in China in 1999 on unrelated charges, then extradited to the United States in 2001. The third alleged gunman has never been found.

Tran's lawyer told the jury that Tran was among those coming and going from the club that night but was not one of the killers. Tham's attorney questioned the credibility of the witnesses who identified his client.

The prosecution's star witness, Pak Wing Lee, testified he was one of eight people playing cards that night when three men he knew from the neighborhood burst in with guns and forced the card players to squat down with their hands behind their heads.

Lee said he heard the other men being shot, then felt the muzzle of a gun on the back of his head. The bullet shattered his skull but did not penetrate his brain.