National News - Las Vegas Sun

Associated Press: National News

General

Crew plans to cut rope to free Hawaii whale

8 hours, 5 minutes ago

(AP) Marine sanctuary officials are still working to cut loose a young humpback whale entangled in several hundred yards of heavy plastic rope in Hawaii waters.The rope is twisted in a knot and runs through the animal's mouth, around its head and behind its blowhole.A whale-watching cruise spotted the animal Tuesday ...

Lawyer: Blagojevich would take 5th in casino suit

9 hours, 29 minutes ago

(AP) Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich would claim his 5th Amendment right against self incrimination if asked to testify in a civil lawsuit spurred by his federal corruption indictment, his lawyer says.Attorney Jay Edelson told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the former governor also would assert legislative privilege. That ...

Crab fisherman's body recovered near Astoria, Ore.

9 hours, 29 minutes ago

(AP) The Coast Guard says a dive team has recovered the body of a 32-year-old crab fisherman who fell from a boat about 10 miles off the mouth of the Columbia River near the Oregon-Washington border.He wasn't immediately identified.The Coast Guard says the man was wearing rain gear and a jacket ...

Border agents seize $1.6M in counterfeit toys

11 hours, 14 minutes ago

(AP) Officials have seized thousands of counterfeit toys worth $1.6 million along southern California border points.U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the toys included more than 2,500 knockoff Barbie dolls, worth $58,500, that were contained in boxes shipped to San Diego in October and November.At the Otay Mesa border point, agents ...

Single Asian carp found in Chicago-area fish kill

11 hours, 14 minutes ago

(AP) Environmental officials say they have found a single Asian carp in a canal leading to Lake Michigan _ the closest any of the giant fish have come to the Great Lakes.Environmentalists fear the Asian carp could starve out other fish and devastate the $7 billion-a-year Great Lakes fishing industry.Department of ...

Kidnapper who held victim in casket box gets life

12 hours, 16 minutes ago

(AP) A Southern California man has been sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a woman whom he imprisoned in a casket-like box in his van while demanding a $140,000 ransom from her husband.Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Amy Barajas said Thursday that Mark Warren of Victorvillle will have no possibility ...

Limo drags woman to death in LA drug dispute

12 hours, 17 minutes ago

(AP) A woman driving an old limousine ran down another woman in a Skid Row drug dispute, dragging her for almost a mile to her death early Thursday before pursuing police finally stopped the car, authorities said.The death occurred in a grimy area of downtown Los Angeles whose sidewalks by day ...

Texas executes killer of 11-year-old girl

12 hours, 17 minutes ago

(AP) A 44-year-old Texas man has been executed for raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl, despite his attorneys' pleas that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for capital punishment.Bobby Wayne Woods received lethal injection Thursday evening moments after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt his execution. His lawyers had ...

Ind. teen charged with strangling brother, 10

12 hours, 38 minutes ago

(AP) Ignoring his younger brother's plea of "Andrew, stop," a 17-year-old who told authorities he identified with a television serial killer strangled the boy, dragged the body to his car and drove to see his girlfriend, an Indiana prosecutor said Thursday.Andrew Conley of Rising Sun was calm and showed no remorse ...

Man charged with helping WA gunman elude capture

12 hours, 38 minutes ago

(AP) A half brother of the man accused of gunning down four police officers in a coffee shop in Washington state was charged Thursday with helping him elude capture.Rickey Hinton, 47, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to three counts of first-degree rendering criminal assistance. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frederick ...

Oregon tree hunters tell of 2 nights stuck in snow

12 hours, 59 minutes ago

(AP) Keith and Jennifer Lee were driving home on a remote mountain road, their prized Christmas tree strapped to the roof of their all-wheel-drive, when they rounded a backcountry corner and found themselves suddenly mired in snow.Out of cell phone range, and unaware a search was under way, the couple spent ...

Texas man loses Supreme Court appeal to spare him

12 hours, 59 minutes ago

(AP) The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday rejected appeals from a condemned Texas inmate who contended he was too mentally impaired to execute, clearing the way for his execution for raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl.Bobby Wayne Woods, 44, was transferred earlier in the day from his death row cell at a ...

Grand jury charges teen accused of killing nun

12 hours, 59 minutes ago

(AP) A federal grand jury has charged a teenager accused of killing a nun at her home on the Navajo reservation with first-degree murder.The U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque said Thursday that 18-year-old Reehahlio Carroll also is charged with burglary and transporting a stolen vehicle in interstate commerce.Carroll is accused of ...

Vicki Kennedy recalls reading memoir with husband

13 hours, 20 minutes ago

(AP) Vicki Kennedy says her late husband never saw a completed copy of his memoir, but Sen. Edward Kennedy "knew every word" because they had already read it aloud to each other.Continuing her public re-emergence after the senator's death, Kennedy told a crowd at the John F. Kennedy Library on Thursday ...

Records of man claiming to be Calif. spy unsealed

14 hours, 2 minutes ago

(AP) A judge on Thursday lifted a seal on court records and transcripts that a Southern California man says will prove he was an informant for the FBI.Craig Monteilh claims he has not been fully paid by the FBI for spying on mosques _ an activity that angered the Muslim community ...