Briefly

Maine: Weapons arrest precedes arrival of President Bush

A man was arrested on weapons charges Friday near a small airport shortly before President Bush arrived on his way to his family’s seaside home, police said.

The man was on a road near Sanford Regional Airport that authorities had closed because of Bush’s arrival, said Sgt. Frank Holcomb of the Maine State Police.

The man, identified as Christopher Willey, 38, of nearby Springvale, was held on charges of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and having a loaded 9 mm gun in his vehicle, state Trooper Jeremy Forbes told the Portland Press Herald.

A home phone number for Willey could not be located, and he was not allowed to accept calls at the York County jail.

Sanford’s airport is often used by the Bush family when they visit Kennebunkport, about 20 miles away.

North Carolina: Police investigating shark bite

Police were investigating Friday what they believe was the year’s first shark bite off North Carolina’s coast.

A 9-year-old girl was bitten on the leg while swimming in shallow water Thursday evening off Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

Avery Olearczyk of Pleasanton, Calif., was expected to recover fully, police said. She had 1 1/2 hours of surgery Thursday night to repair tendons in the lower portion of her right calf and close wounds to the foot and her right hand, which she used to beat off the attacking animal.

Wrightsville Beach officials said they expect to know Monday whether the fish that bit Avery was a shark.

Avery was swimming in about three feet of water with other relatives when her father, who was also in the water, noticed a large fish swimming toward them. He said he shouted for the children to hurry from the water, but Avery was one of the last out.

Rome: Mother of accused criticizes Vatican in 1998 slaying case

Vatican officials have failed to bring justice in a 1998 apparent murder-suicide within the walls of the city-state, lawyers for the mother of the accused said Friday, urging the Vatican to turn the case over to civil authorities.

The Vatican denounced as totally unacceptable the lawyers’ “unfounded offensive statements.”

A Vatican inquest said 23-year-old Cedric Tornay of the Swiss Guards responsible for protecting the pope killed his commander, the commander’s wife, and then himself. But Tornay’s mother has long disputed this, and pressured the Vatican including the pope to reopen the case.

In the past, the Vatican has said no new evidence had emerged to warrant reopening the investigation into what were the first murders in the Vatican in 150 years.

The Vatican has said Tornay killed the two in a fit of madness after he was denied a medal. Lawyers for Tornay’s mother, Muguette Baudat, say an autopsy of Tornay and an analysis of his alleged suicide note cast grave doubts on the Vatican verdict.