Boston: Cardinal’s deposition to be made public

Transcripts of depositions given by Cardinal Bernard Law in sexual abuse lawsuits against a retired priest will be made public next week under a ruling issued Tuesday.

Judge Constance Sweeney said the transcripts from the first two days of Law’s testimony in June must be filed with the court Aug. 13.

The retired priest, Paul Shanley, 71, became a key figure in the church sexual abuse scandal when the archdiocese released personnel files indicating church officials had received complaints about Shanley going back to 1967.

He was indicted in June on 10 counts of child rape and six counts of indecent assault and battery for allegedly abusing boys from 1979 to 1989 while he was a priest at a church in Newton. Shanley has pleaded innocent.

Oklahoma City: Proceedings in trial for Nichols delayed

A judge stopped short of setting a preliminary hearing in the state trial of Oklahoma bombing conspirator Terry Nichols after his attorney complained Tuesday of not being paid for 11 months.

Brian Hermanson said he had not paid his office rent for four months and that his unpaid staff had deserted him.

Judge Ray Linder told Hermanson to take up the matter with the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the county court fund, and he scheduled an Aug. 23 hearing at which he will either set the preliminary hearing or consider Hermanson’s motion to withdraw from the case.

Nichols is charged with 160 state counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of civilians in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

Nichols already is serving a federal life sentence for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of eight federal agents in the explosion.

Co-defendant Timothy McVeigh was executed last year.

California: Growing wildfire forces evacuations

A mountain wildfire jumped past a fire line and was burning with renewed vigor Tuesday, forcing further evacuations of communities east of San Diego.

The rural town of Warner Springs, population 1,200, was partly evacuated, while 70 people were told to leave the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation. In Borrego Springs, elderly residents who might suffer from smoky air were also urged to leave.

The fire was 48 percent contained Tuesday, with full containment still expected by Sunday evening, officials said. The blaze had been about 80 percent contained before it leapt the fire line.

Louisiana: Death toll reaches five in West Nile outbreak

The West Nile virus has killed a fifth Louisiana resident and infected 14 more people in what health officials said Tuesday was the nation’s biggest outbreak since the disease was first detected in the United States in 1999.

Seventy-one Louisiana residents have been confirmed to have the mosquito-borne disease.

Before now, the largest outbreak had been the first, when 62 people became ill and seven of them died in New York three years ago.

The latest to die was a 76-year-old woman from St. Tammany Parish, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans.

Most people bitten by an infected mosquito will not become noticeably ill, but some develop flu-like symptoms, and the weak and the elderly can get encephalitis, a potentially fatal brain infection.

State and local officials have boosted mosquito-spraying efforts and urged people to protect themselves against the insects.