NATION IN BRIEF

Mall Gunman Not Seen as Terrorist

SALT LAKE CITY -- A shopping mall where five people were gunned down this week reopened Wednesday, as authorities tried to figure out why a Bosnian immigrant committed the rampage and how he got his hands on a gun.

FBI agent Patrick Kiernan in Salt Lake City said the bureau has no reason to believe that Sulejman Talovic, 18, who was killed by police, was motivated by religious extremism or intended an act of terrorism. "It's just unexplainable," Kiernan said. "He was just walking around and shooting everybody he saw."

Armed with a .38-caliber pistol, a shotgun and a backpack full of ammunition, Talovic shot nine people, five fatally, at the Trolley Square shopping center Monday before he was stopped by police, including an off-duty officer from Ogden.

"We are Muslims, but we are not terrorists," said Ajka Omerovic, Talovic's aunt.

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· PAHRUMP, Nev. -- The Pahrump Town Board has struck down a law that made English the official language and barred residents from flying a foreign flag by itself. The ordinance, which briefly put this growing desert community 60 miles from Las Vegas in the middle of the national immigration debate, was enacted in November but never enforced.

· RALEIGH, N.C. -- Former North Carolina House speaker Jim Black (D) resigned from the legislature, and his attorney Ken Bell confirmed that he plans to plead guilty to a federal corruption charge. Black, who chose not to run for a fifth term as House speaker in December, was not in the chamber when a clerk read his resignation letter.

· TOPEKA, Kan.-- An investigation into an abortion provider that was initiated by the state's previous attorney general has been dropped, though the official's successor has the option to refile charges. The criminal charges filed late last year by then-Attorney General Phill Kline against Wichita physician George Tiller will not be reinstated, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

· NEW ORLEANS -- A grand jury was selected to investigate the deaths of four patients at a sweltering, flooded hospital during Hurricane Katrina, an assistant district attorney in New Orleans said. Anna Pou, a doctor, and nurses Lori Budo and Cheri Landry were arrested after an investigation by the office of Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti Jr. Foti said the women killed desperately ill patients with an injection of drugs after determining that they were too ill or too incapacitated to be transported.

· ST. LOUIS -- True love may conquer all, but it was still pretty cold as more than 100 couples tied the knot on Valentine's Day under the Gateway Arch. Many of the brides wore wedding gowns and veils despite snow drifts and a wind chill of minus-2. The wedding, billed as the largest in St. Louis history, was organized by country radio station WIL-FM.

-- From News Services