Los Angeles: Police chief takes office

William J. Bratton, a former Boston street cop who went on to become one of the best-known law enforcement executives in the United States, was confirmed Friday as the 54th chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.

With only one councilman voting against Mayor James K. Hahn’s nominee, council members overwhelmingly expressed confidence in Bratton’s promise to reform the LAPD and make Los Angeles the safest big city in America.

Bratton will be sworn in as chief in a public ceremony Oct. 28.

Council members, including some who previously lobbied Hahn to select an LAPD insider for the job, said they had been impressed by Bratton’s take-charge attitude. During their two-hour hearing, council members repeatedly praised him for his knowledge of policing and his vision for the LAPD.

San Fransisco: Protester cleared of terrorism charges

A woman who said she tried to light herself on fire to protest Vietnam’s politics was cleared Friday of attempted terrorism charges.

The jury did find that Ngoc Hanh Dang Nguyen was guilty of arson and assaulting U.S. officials who subdued her after she approached Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung last December.

She was cleared of charges of attempting violence on a foreign government official and two counts of attempted terrorism.

Ngoc Hanh, a Vietnamese citizen who lives in France, had testified that she did not intend to harm the deputy prime minister but was trying to light herself on fire a traditional Vietnamese form of protest.

Mississippi: Three die in separate floodwater accidents

Three people died in separate accidents in the Mississippi Delta after their cars went off flooded roads into drainage ditches, authorities said Friday.

The body of a 27-year-old Tennessee woman was recovered Friday from a car in a rain-swollen ditch hours after the discovery of a teenager who died in a similar accident in a neighboring county.

Mieisha Lewis, 16, and Kanoshee Turner, 17, were killed as they were returning home early from school Thursday.

The body of Maria Rocio Hernandez, who went into a ditch in neighboring DeSoto County shortly after midnight Thursday, was identified Friday by her husband, officials said.

Tennessee: Bank heist accomplices sentenced to 33 years

Two men convicted of forcing a Clarksville bank manager to rob the bank while they held her family hostage were sentenced Friday to 33 years and nine months in federal prison.

Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas Wiseman also ordered defendants Carlton Victor Smith and Thomas Albert Nichols to serve five years of supervised release and pay restitution of $851,000.

Smith and Nichols also were convicted for their role in two similar bank heists in East Tennessee.

Doug Daigle, whom prosecutors say masterminded the scheme he called “the love connection,” hanged himself in jail after his arrest in 1997.

New Jersey: Fire destroys Sugar Hill recording studio

An early morning fire Friday destroyed a music studio in Englewood believed to be the place where one of the first rap albums was recorded by the Sugar Hill Gang 23 years ago.

Firefighters responded to a report of heavy smoke at Sugar Hill studio on West Street shortly before 2 a.m., Fire Chief Robert Moran said.

They entered the building but quickly retreated because of a “small backdraft explosion” caused by the ignition of toxic gases, Moran said.

The cause was not immediately determined.