NATION IN BRIEF

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Teenager Wounded By Fla. SWAT Team

LONGWOOD, Fla. -- An eighth-grader was shot and wounded by a SWAT team officer in a school restroom Friday after he pulled out a pellet gun that resembled a real weapon and raised it at deputies, authorities said.

Sheriff Don Eslinger said the 15-year-old brought the gun to Milwee Middle School in his backpack. Eslinger said two students saw it and one persuaded the other to report it, causing a scuffle.

"He was suicidal," Eslinger said of the youth deputies cornered in the restroom. "During this standoff, and during the chase, the student said he was going to kill himself or die."

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· MESA, Ariz. -- A Catholic priest was sentenced to 111 years in state prison for sexually abusing three boys at a suburban Phoenix church and area campsites 15 to 20 years ago. The Rev. Paul LeBrun, 49, received the maximum sentence for his conviction on six felony sex crimes against youths ranging in age from 11 to 13.

· RALEIGH, N.C. -- An appeals court gave new life to the defense of a former Green Beret doctor convicted of the 1970 murders of his wife and daughters, ruling that his lawyers can introduce evidence that a prosecutor threatened a witness. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, meeting in Richmond, granted a motion by Jeffrey MacDonald's lawyers to present the new evidence in Raleigh federal court. It could result in a new trial, said Hart Miles, one of MacDonald's attorneys.

· BOSTON -- After more than a decade of traffic detours, the last major piece of roadway in Boston's Big Dig opened Friday, officials said. The opening of an off-ramp from Interstate 93 south means the $14.6 billion project to ease congestion in downtown Boston is substantially finished, said Matt Amorello, Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman. Heavy construction began in 1991.

· ANCHORAGE -- A volcano on an uninhabited island 180 miles from Anchorage erupted three times, sending plumes of ash more than six miles into the sky. Airplanes were warned to keep at least five miles away from 4,134-foot Augustine Volcano.

· CHICAGO -- City Clerk James Laski, 52, was charged with soliciting bribes and obstructing justice, becoming the latest figure charged in a federal investigation into a city program that awarded hauling jobs to trucking companies. According to court papers, a witness told investigators that Laski asked for $500 a month to get him work in the Hired Truck program, then increased the amount to $1,000.

· CAMDEN, Ark. -- A teenager holding a toy gun forced her way into a hospital nursery and snatched a newborn from a crib before the employees grabbed her and held her down, police said. Neither the baby girl nor the workers were harmed, said C.C. McAllister, chief executive of Ouachita County Medical Center. Authorities said the 18-year-old will be charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault.

· SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- At least 23 inmates and two staff members were hurt in a melee in a crowded dining hall at San Quentin State Prison late Thursday, prison officials said.

· VANCOUVER, Wash. -- An 88-year-old woman, trapped for five days after her car went down an embankment and into a blackberry bramble, survived by wiping condensation off the windshield with a towel and sucking the moisture, her son said. Mary Lillian Anderson was rescued Wednesday by a delivery truck driver who spotted her car just off Interstate 5. Andrew Thompson said "she looked very happy" to see him.

· HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- A toddler was killed when his neck got stuck in a car's power window while his father slept in the driver's seat, police said. Thomaris Waite, who would have been 2 next week, and his father, Thomas Waite, 42, were waiting in the family car Thursday as the boy's mother and sibling were visiting a doctor. Thomaris leaned his head out a window and hit the switch that raised the glass, pinning his neck between it and the frame, police said.

· NEW YORK -- A fire that killed two sisters and their teenage uncle in a Coney Island apartment was started by a 7-year-old boy playing with a butane lighter, investigators said. The boy escaped serious injury.

-- From News Services