SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Officials have tried poison, gassing and euthanasia to control a breeding frenzy among squirrels in a city park here. Now, they plan to give birth control a shot.

A new program that would start this summer calls for squirrels in Palisades Park to be injected with an immuno-contraceptive vaccine to stunt sexual development.

Santa Monica would be only the second city in the state, besides Berkeley, to try the immunization program.

"We don't want to kill them if we don't have to," said Joe McGrath, the city's parks chief. "I personally like squirrels, but we also have to be receptive to the county's concerns. When you are dealing with mammals, people get upset."

Health officials say the squirrels, which number an estimated 1,000 in the park, pose a public health risk. They warn the rodents are aggressive and may carry rabies or host fleas that can spread disease, such as bubonic plague.

Since 1998, Santa Monica has been cited five times by Los Angeles County for squirrel overpopulation. But suppression methods used, including euthanasia, have angered animal-loving activists seeking a nonlethal solution.

City officials say the infertility shots offer a diplomatic solution that should please all sides in the debate.

The vaccine, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, stops ovulation and lactation in female squirrels, while halting testicular development in males.

It costs $2 to $10 a shot and has no side effects such as swelling or abnormal blood developments, said James Gionfriddo, a USDA wildlife biologist.

Animal activist Catherine Rich said she supports the vaccine program, but said any health risk posed by the squirrels is overblown.

"There is not a pressing threat of squirrels attacking people," Rich said, "so I don't know why the county is getting their panties in a bunch."

8 killed after helicopter and plane collide in Austria

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A helicopter and a small plane collided in the air and crashed near a ski slope in Austria on Monday, killing all eight people aboard the two aircraft, police said.

The late-morning collision occurred near Zell am See, in Salzburg province, police said. Wreckage was scattered in a wooded area, according to Austrian broadcaster ORF.

Seven victims - five Swiss nationals, a German and a French citizen - were in the helicopter, which belonged to a Swiss company and was flying from Kaprun, Austria, to Germany, police said.

The plane's pilot, an Austrian, also died, police said. Eyewitnesses interviewed by Austrian television said the plane exploded near the ski slope.

There were no reports of anyone on the ground being injured.

About three minutes before the collision, the helicopter pilot reported to an airfield in Zell am See that he saw the plane, which had taken off from the airfield a minute earlier, police said.

Authorities were investigating the cause of the accident.

3 German teens alleged to have caused ostrich's impotence with fireworks

BERLIN (AP) - Three teenagers may face a hefty fine if a court decides their festive firecrackers outside an eastern German farm scared the libido right out of an ostrich named Gustav.

Rico Gabel, a farmer in Lohsa, northeast of Dresden, is claiming $6,450 in damages for the alleged antics on Dec. 27-29, 2005, by the three teen-agers.

The farmer claims that fireworks set off by the boys made the previously lustful Gustav both apathetic and depressed, and thus unable to perform for a half-a-year with his two female breeding partners, according to the lawsuit.

Before Gustav regained his sex drive in the second half of the year, the farmer estimates he lost out on 14 ostrich offspring - worth $460 apiece.

The suit is due to be heard March 12 in a regional court in nearby Bautzen, the court said Monday. The teens were not identified by name.

Prince Charles' wife undergoes hysterectomy

LONDON (AP)- Prince Charles' wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, underwent a hysterectomy at a London hospital Monday, officials said.

Camilla, 59, arrived for the procedure at the King Edward VII hospital on Sunday, having recently returned to Britain following a 10-day tour of the Mideast with Charles.

"The Duchess of Cornwall had her operation this morning and is recovering well," Prince Charles' office said in a statement.

Officials said Camilla is expected to remain in the hospital for the rest of the week.

A hysterectomy is a surgical procedure to remove all or part of the uterus. The operation can be done for various reasons, including cancer, abnormal growths, menstrual problems or complications following birth.

Clarence House had said the operation was not the result of cancer, but did not provide any further details.

Camilla is expected to require six weeks of recuperation.

Prolific, popular French writer Henri Troyat dies at 95

PARIS (AP) - Writer Henri Troyat, who fled Russia's revolution as a child and went on to become one of France's most prolific, popular and respected authors, has died, the Academie Francaise said Monday. He was 95.

Troyat wrote more than 100 works, including novels, biographies and plays. Many of his biographies focused on major Russian figures, including Tolstoy, Catherine the Great and Pushkin. Troyat's fictional tales often were involved, epic sagas that drew comparisons to the novels of the 19th century.

His lost Russia was a continuing source of fascination and inspiration throughout his career.

"Thanks to him, the Russian novel has become a bit French," French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said in an homage. President Jacques Chirac called Troyat a "giant of French letters."

Troyat died Friday in Paris, the Academie Francaise said. He had been inducted into the prestigious academy in 1959, making him the most long-standing member of the group of 40 so-called "immortals" who safeguard the French language.

Maurice Druon, another academy member, recalled that Troyat often wrote standing up at a pedestal, wearing a hole in the carpet beneath his feet.

"He was a born teller of stories, both true and invented," Druon wrote in Le Figaro newspaper. "That was what he lived and breathed for. A day without writing seemed like a sin to him."

Troyat was born Lev Tarassov in Moscow in 1911. His family lost everything they had when they fled Russia during the Revolution. They wandered for years, with stops including Istanbul and Venice, before settling in Paris in 1920.

Troyat never returned to his native land, even after the fall of the Soviet Union, saying he wanted to keep alive the imaginary Russia he created out of childhood memories and dreams.

"The snow is cleaner in my dreams," he once said.

Polls often ranked Troyat as the favorite writer of the French. He also won France's highest Legion of Honor ranking, the Grand-Croix or Grand Cross. But Troyat said he cared little for glory.

"Success means nothing," he once said, according to Le Figaro. "I know what I'm talking about - at the very beginning of my life, I saw my parents lose everything in a reversal of fortune, and I kept that lesson in mind."

Troyat studied law as a young man, but he won early renown as a writer with the publication of his first novel "Faux jour" (False Light) when he was completing his mandatory French military service.

His fifth novel "L'Araigne" (The Spider), published when he was just 27, won France's top literary prize, the Goncourt. Many of Troyat's books were set in Russia, while others were portraits of French families. He also wrote biographies of French writers, including Emile Zola and Honore de Balzac.

Troyat remained prolific in his later years, publishing his final novel, "La Traque" (The Hunt) last year, when he was 94. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said Troyat's works "fascinated thousands of readers for 70 years, and will continue to fascinate them."

Troyat is survived by two children. A funeral is scheduled for Friday in Paris.

Small plane crashes into Indiana home, both people aboard plane dead, authorities say

BEDFORD, Ind. (AP) - A small plane crashed into a home near a southern Indiana airport Monday, killing both people aboard, authorities said.

There were no reports of injuries on the ground, though the impact left much of the plane lodged inside the house.

Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said two people were aboard the plane when it crashed about 11 a.m. Their identities were not immediately released.

Vivian Pace told The Times-Mail newspaper she was in her living room when the plane struck the side of her home.

"Everything fell off the walls," she said. She said the plane was making a "horrible noise" before it crashed.

Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to land when it veered sharply and went out of sight, The Times-Mail reported on its Web site.

State police Cpl. Eric Dunn said the plane had been leased from the Virgil I. Grissom Municipal airport near the site of the crash, about 20 miles south of Bloomington. The cause of the crash was not immediately known, he said.

Washington memorializes humor columnist Art Buchwald

WASHINGTON (AP) - Political and media insiders joined family and friends Monday to share a last public laugh and remember the antics of humor columnist Art Buchwald.

Buchwald's family and a selection of heavy hitters from the world of media and politics kept the audience laughing for about an hour and a half at a memorial service for Buchwald, who died of kidney failure in January.

"His readers got a few column inches every week … but his friends got the hand-crafted, original, good-enough-for-Broadway material," former NBC "Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw told the audience at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The group included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, CNN newsman Wolf Blitzer, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. and Margaret Warner, a senior correspondent on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."

Ethel Kennedy drew a tremendous response from the crowd with an anecdote about selecting Buchwald, who was Jewish, as the godfather to some of her children. She said he reacted badly when the priest asked him to renounce the devil, running to the back of the church and telling her that he wasn't "ready to renounce Satan" yet.

"May Jack and Bobby take care of you, who took such wonderful care of the children and me," she said.

But the man himself got the biggest laughs of the day when two extended video clips were played on a large screen behind the faux lampposts decorating the stage.

"Mr. President I see by the puzzled look on your face, that you are wondering what I am doing here tonight on a program devoted to culture," Buchwald said to President Reagan at the 1981 Kennedy Center Honors. Later he added, "my role is to prove that even those of us who work in the press rooting out evil, defending the truth and unearthing scandal wherever we may find it, have nothing personal against Beethoven."

Buchwald's friends and family even managed to find humor in his death.

"Dad was probably the only person to ever gain weight while in the hospice," son Joel Buchwald said. Longtime doctor and friend Michael Newman later added that after Buchwald decided to stop dialysis treatment, he "ate with enthusiasm."

Buchwald himself found ways to make light of his medical problems, saying his decision to forgo dialysis treatment brought media attention to his situation. The service included a clip from a December 2006 episode of "CBS Sunday Morning," when Buchwald said, "pretty soon people in television and radio and newspapers said 'hey, Buchwald's dying in hospice, go over there. It could be a good story."'

Friend and fellow humor columnist Dave Barry related that Buchwald kept him in stitches while explaining his leg amputation due to circulation problems.

"He talked funny, he wrote funny, he lived funny and damned if he didn't figure out a way to die funny," Barry said.

Other eulogies were delivered by "60 Minutes" newsman Mike Wallace, former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, daughter Jennifer Buchwald, daughter-in-law Tamara Buchwald and George Stevens Jr., producer of the Kennedy Center Honors.

N.Y. police hope cherry tattoo will help ID torso found in suitcase on a beach

MAMARONECK, N.Y. (AP) - The headless torso of a large woman with a tiny tattoo was found in a suitcase that washed ashore on a suburban beach on Long Island Sound.

Because of flooding on streams in the region, the torso found at Harbor Island Park could have come from almost anywhere around the sound, Mamaroneck police Sgt. Robert Holland said.

Deputy Mayor William Paonessa said the village has no active missing-person cases.

The torso was of a Hispanic or black woman who would have been 35 to 50 years old and weighed 180 to 200 pounds, Lt. James Gaffney said. There was a stab wound, he said Monday, but he would not give details.

Police hoped that the woman's tattoo above her right breast - two red cherries on a green stem, about an inch long - would help identify her.

"We have been getting phone calls," Gaffney said. "Detectives are acting on leads."

The suitcase was found Saturday.

Paonessa said police divers had found no other body parts.

Former transit electrician worked on vending equipment, charged with stealing $40,000 in coins

BOSTON (AP) - A retired transit authority electrician allegedly stole more than $40,000 in coins and tokens and stashed them in plastic containers in his basement, authorities said Monday.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said its security cameras caught Robert Gibson, 69, feeding tokens into fare vending machines and obtaining fare cards called CharlieCards in January at a station north of Boston.

Transit police claim that Gibson redeemed several thousand tokens in exchange for more than 45 CharlieCards, with maximum values of $100 each.

Gibson, who retired in October, worked for 20 years for the MBTA as an electrician who repaired fare vending and collection equipment, authorities said.

Transit police charged Gibson with larceny by scheme. Gibson is to be arraigned on March 21.

A call to Gibson's home was not returned Monday.

The T used metal tokens for nearly 90 years, and switched to an automated fare system in December. The new credit-card style fare card, the CharlieCard, is named for the folk song popularized in 1959, "Charlie on the MTA."

Tranquilized moose knocks helicopter out of the sky in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A helicopter is not necessarily a match for an angry moose.

Instead of lying down after being shot with a tranquilizer dart, a moose charged a hovering helicopter used by a wildlife biologist, damaging the aircraft's tail rotor and forcing it to the ground.

Neither the pilot nor the biologist was injured, but the moose was maimed by the spinning rotor and had to be euthanized, wildlife officials said.

"It just had to be one of those quirky circumstance. Even dealing with bears and goats and moose and wolves, this is pretty unusual and truly a very unique situation," said Doug Larsen, regional supervisor for the Division of Wildlife Conservation.

Biologist Kevin White was aboard the chartered helicopter on Saturday for a study of moose near Gustavus, a community of 459 people about 50 miles northwest of Juneau in southeast Alaska. Moose outnumber humans there 2-to-1, White has written in an essay for the Department of Fish and Game Web site.

He shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart, Larsen said, and the pilot maneuvered the helicopter to keep the animal from slipping into a tight space or collapsing in water and drowning.

"The moose would start to move, and then the helicopter would back off and try to keep the moose out in the open," Larsen said.

But instead of moving toward open space, the moose charged the helicopter.

"As the animal got closer and closer to going down, an animal sort of loses its thinking - its ability to rationalize what's in its best interest," Larsen said.

Pizza Patron will continue accepting pesos permanently

DALLAS (AP) - A pizza chain that attracted national attention and plenty of hate mail for its decision to temporarily accept Mexican currency said Monday it is making the pesos policy permanent.

Dallas-based Pizza Patron announced in December that it would accept pesos as well as U.S. currency at its 60 locations across the U.S. The "Pizza por Pesos" program - which brought death threats and hate mail to the company - was set to run through the end of February but will now continue indefinitely.

"What the pesos for pizza program is intended to do is reinforce our brand promise - as the premier U.S. Latino brand and focus on serving the Latino community like we have done for 20 years," Pizza Patron founder and chief executive Antonio Swad said in a statement. "We have carved this niche in the pizza industry to compete and serve an underserved market - the Latino customer, not to make any political statement."

Pizza Patron has said 60 percent of its customers are Latino, proclaiming on its Web site that "to serve the Hispanic community is our passion." Its restaurants are in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods, and each manager must be bilingual and live nearby.

Most of Pizza Patron's locations are carryout only. The take-home menus are in both English and Spanish.

On the Net:

Pizza Patron: www.pizzapatron.com

Police: Man shoots former girlfriend, man before killing himself outside her NJ home

VINELAND, N.J. (AP) - A man fatally shot his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend in her townhouse bedroom before committing suicide outside, police said.

Police found Debra Smaniotto, 43, and Bruce Bertoldi, 47, dead inside the master bedroom of her two-story townhouse Sunday night, said Kenneth Tomaso, chief of detectives for the Cumberland County prosecutor's office.

The man believed to be the shooter, Edgar Carrasquillo, 45, was found dead outside near his truck, police said.

Smaniotto and Carrasquillo were romantically involved in the past, police said.

"All three parties were in some kind of romantic relationship. It may have been a relation that had ended," police Lt. Tom Ulrich said.

When police arrived at the town house, they also found Smaniotto's 15-year-old daughter asleep, apparently unaware of the shooting.

Mary Jane Brewer, who lives in the townhouse next door, said Smaniotto had just broken up with her boyfriend a few months ago.

Mother says 'girl bandit' in Georgia bank heist fell into wrong crowd and made a bad choice

ATLANTA (AP) - The mother of an 18-year-old arrested in a bank theft scheme said Monday that her daughter isn't a bandit, she just fell in with the wrong crowd and made a bad choice.

Joy Miller said her daughter, Ashley Miller, is sorry for what she did.

Ashley Miller and Heather Johnston, 19, were videotaped wearing sunglasses and laughing as they appeared to rob a Bank of America in upscale Acworth on Feb. 27. Police also arrested a bank teller and another man in connection with the theft, saying the heist appeared to be an inside job.

"I want (people) to know that her and Heather both are not bandits," Joy Miller told ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday." "They're little girls that made a bad choice."

Johnston's father, Edward Johnston, has said his family was in shock.

"God gives us free will and it's up to us what we do with it," he said. "Any adult has to make decisions and live with them - good, bad or indifferent."

Miller and Johnston remained jailed Monday morning. Bond had not been set for Miller. Johnston's bond was set at $26,000.

Dubbed the "Barbie Bandits" by some Atlanta media, the teens were captured by a surveillance camera handing a bank teller a note then casually waiting for money as if "it's all fun and games to them," said Cobb County Police spokesman Wayne Delk.

Authorities have not said how much money the girls took, but Delk said it is "considerable." After a brief car chase, they were arrested about 20 miles from the bank.

VFW to send venison jerky to troops

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - U.S. troops in Iraq may soon be getting a deer-ly beloved taste of home.

A Veterans of Foreign Wars post here is sending venison jerky donated by hunters.

Mark Wagemann, commander of VFW Post No. 762, said he got the idea for "Jerky Worth Fighting For" from a magazine article.

The article told of a couple who made venison jerky and shipped it to their son who was serving in Iraq.

"I thought we could do the same thing for troops from North Dakota and Minnesota who are in Iraq," Wagemann said.

With hunters able to draw more than one deer tag, Wagemann figured many hunters would be willing to donate one or more of their deer to the project.

"I thought we could do this on a larger scale," Wagemann says. "Nobody eats four deer a year, so I figured there would be plenty available."

More than 1,000 pounds of jerky and venison sticks have been shipped to more than 40 soldiers from North Dakota and Minnesota, and new addresses arrive every week.

"I was hoping we'd get 30 deer donated when we started this project," Wagemann says. "It's been successful beyond my wildest dreams."

Man cited for running nude in snow

LAKE DELTON, Wis. (AP) - Good-quality snow makes some people want to make a snowman or go sledding. For one 33-year-old man, the fine powder seemed like a reasonable excuse to run naked through it.

The man was cited for disorderly conduct Sunday after a neighbor at the Woodland Park Apartment complex reported him cavorting nude. He was "running back and forth jumping up and down wearing no clothes," the police report quoted the witness as saying.

The neighbor was with her two children and a friend's child, all of whom saw the bare display. "It was disgusting," the oldest child reportedly told police.

Police located the man in the apartment complex. Through an interpreter, the snow lover said he was excited about the weather and wanted to run naked in it.

He told authorities he didn't realize the woman and children were watching. The man was charged with disorderly conduct.

Tooth of Confederate soldier found in Pa. hospital

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - The discovery of a tooth from a Confederate soldier killed at Gettysburg will lead to a proper memorial service for the soldier - 144 years after he fell on the field of battle.

Karin Bohleke of the Adams County Historical Society said she was going through boxes donated by a local family a few months ago when she found a small pouch with red embroidery.

"I thought maybe there'd be a pretty piece of jewelry," she said. "Instead … I found a tooth."

Accompanying the upper right lateral incisor was a note on yellowing paper.

"This tooth was taken out of a head lying in Roses Woods (Gettysburg battlefield) one year after the battle, at the head of a grave marked Lt. W.L. Daniel, Co. I, 2nd S.C.V.," read the note, signed by 1st Lt. W.T. King, Company G, 209th Pennsylvania.

Wayne Motts, the society's executive director, began a search that led to plans to give the soldier the kind of proper memorial service he never had.

Motts' research led him to William L. Daniel, born Jan. 30, 1833. Daniel got a medical degree and enlisted in 1861. He died at Gettysburg in 1863 and was buried where he fell.

The historical society in Saluda County, S.C., directed Motts to John Owen Clark, of Johnston, S.C., who told him that he had his great-great-uncle's tooth. In July, Motts plans to hand-deliver the tooth. It is to be buried in a box of wood taken from the part of the battlefield where Daniel died.

Detention center to accept credit-card payment for bail

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - Hauled to the pokey here and need to post bail? Put it on plastic.

The Missoula County Detention Center intends to accept credit-card payments for bail, as part of an effort to get people out of the building sooner and control jail crowding. For that reason, officials also want to expand telephone service for bail seekers, making it easier to call for help.

Acceptance of credit cards is set to begin Monday.

"The credit card machine is now installed at the jail, so if you get arrested and want to bail yourself out, you can put it on your credit card," said Margaret Borg, a former chief public defender here.

The Missoula County Sheriff's Department says that before long, people in custody also likely will have the option of calling cell-phone numbers. The jail telephone system now available to them allows only collect calls. Consequently, only calls to conventional phones may be placed.

Officials also have raised the amount for which inmates can write checks to cover bail. Checks for defendants in city court will be accepted in sums up to $250. In Justice Court cases, the new limit is $2,000.