NATION IN BRIEF

Student Body President At UNC Shot to Death

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The University of North Carolina student body president was found shot to death on a city street in what police said Thursday appeared to be a random crime, stunning the campus community who knew her well.

Thousands of students gathered silently on campus to mourn Eve Marie Carson, whose body was discovered about a mile away early Wednesday. The 22-year-old senior from Athens, Ga., had been shot several times, including at least once in the head, police said. Officials said there are no suspects.

"We have lost someone whom we cherish and love," UNC Chancellor James Moeser told a huge crowd on the school's Polk Place quad. "We're all in a state of shock."

Carson, a premed student, was a Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow, taking part in a four-year leadership development program for undergraduates.

Meanwhile, police in Auburn, Ala., were pursuing leads in Tuesday night's shooting death of Auburn University student Lauren Burk, but they declined to disclose many details.

Renzi Friend Pleads Not Guilty

TUCSON -- Texas real estate investor James W. Sandlin, an associate of indicted Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired with the congressman to arrange a land swap that would benefit both men. The charges include wire fraud and money laundering. Renzi has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Separate Trials in Terror Case

TAMPA -- A judge ordered that a terrorism-related charge against an Egyptian student accused of transporting explosives will be handled in a separate trial from the explosives counts. Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and another Egyptian student, Youssef Samir Megahed, were arrested last summer in South Carolina after material was found in their car trunk. The judge scheduled Mohamed's trial on the terrorism count to begin May 12. He and Megahed are to be tried on the explosives counts in late April.

-- From News Services