New Orleans: Two girls accused of killing 16-year-old

A crowd of children and teen-agers attacked and killed a 16-year-old in front of her home Saturday, police said.

Vinicia Smith was apparently killed in a neighborhood feud, said Sgt. Paul Accardo, a New Orleans police spokesman.

He said two girls, ages 12 and 14, were booked as juveniles on second-degree murder charges. Police were looking for more boys and girls, he said.

Seven to 10 people attacked Smith, and one stabbed her with a steak knife, Accardo said.

Witnesses pointed out the 12-year-old, and the 14-year-old surrendered moments later, Accardo said.

Florida: Judge denies release for church fire suspect

A judge denied a request to release a paranoid schizophrenic who admitted setting fire to 17 churches from a government-run medical center.

Patrick Lee Frank was found not guilty of arson by reason of insanity in 1993.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul said Frank had not shown significant improvement and had failed to prove his release “would not create a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person or serious damage of property.”

Frank’s mental health problems were in “significant remission” and he was no longer a danger to others, according to a medical report, public defender Tom Miller said.

Frank, 51, was accused in 1991 of setting 17 fires in Gainesville, High Springs, and Ocala. Combined, the fires caused about $10 million in damage. No one was injured.

Frank has lived in the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo., for almost a decade.

Washington: Stampede injures 30 at Eminem concert

More than two dozen people were injured most of them slightly in a mosh pit stampede while rapper Eminem was performing Saturday night at RFK Stadium, officials said.

One man suffered a heart attack during the melee and was taken to a local hospital, District of Columbia fire spokesman Alan Etter said. His condition was unavailable.

Four others were taken to area hospitals with injuries not considered to be life-threatening, he said. The rest were treated at the scene for less serious injuries.

“There were fights and a lot of pushing and shoving,” said Brent Turner, 17, of Damascus, Md., who said he witnessed the disturbance.

The two-day concert sponsored by a Maryland radio station included a number of acts on several stages. Eminem resumed his performance after a brief delay, while police calmed the crowd, and the concert was to continue today as planned.

New York: Opposition leader addresses graduates

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a videotaped college commencement address Saturday, said the Burmese people thirst for education and should be allowed to pursue it.

“We would like to see a country where our people are free from the economic and social handicaps that force them to choose between education and survival,” Suu Kyi said in the address taped May 19 for students at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson.

“In other words,” she said, “we would like to make basic education available to all. Then we would like our education to be of a quality that opens up a wider spectrum of choice to our young people on the threshold of adulthood.”

The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, freed earlier this month after 19 months of house arrest, received an honorary doctorate of humane letters in absentia.