Arizona

Rain soaks wildfire

Rain fell on parts of a mountain wildfire for the first time since the blaze broke out nearly a month ago and destroyed more than 300 homes and cabins, helping firefighters who are trying to keep it from growing.

The fire in the Santa Catalina Mountains overlooking Tucson should be fully contained by Tuesday evening, fire information officer Dick Fleishman said Saturday. The 84,750-acre blaze was 80 percent contained by firebreaks on Saturday.

Minnesota

Minister freed in Laos calls for investigation

A Lutheran minister released from a Laotian prison after international pressure gave thanks Saturday for his safe return, and called for an investigation of human rights abuses in the Southeast Asian nation.

The Rev. Naw-Karl Mua and two European journalists — sentenced to 15 years in the death of a Laotian village guard — were freed after diplomatic efforts. Mua, 44, of St. Paul, was back home Thursday.

French cameraman Vincent Reynaud, Belgian photojournalist Thierry Falise and Mua, who was their interpreter, were in Laos to cover the Hmong rebels, remnants of a CIA army that fought communist forces during the Vietnam War. The three were caught in a firefight June 3 in which the guard was killed, and were convicted of obstructing police work and weapons possession.

Pennsylvania

Grandmother charged with poisoning infant

A woman has been charged with poisoning her 5-week-old granddaughter by pouring salt into the infant’s formula, authorities said.

Police said that Merry Long, 43, poured about two cups of salt into a can of powdered formula because she was angry at her son and his girlfriend, who is the child’s mother.

The mother unknowingly mixed the formula with water and fed it to the baby, who went into convulsions and died Feb. 18, officials said.

Long fled the area after confessing Feb. 24 that she put salt in the formula.

Long was charged Friday with homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Authorities have not explained why they were unable to file charges earlier.

She has not been found.

The child, Megan Long, died from brain swelling caused by excessive sodium, the Dauphin County Coroner’s Office said.

Baltimore

Teen receives 20 years for killing homeless man

A teenager has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the beating death of a homeless man in an attack he and his friends called “bum stomping.”

Daniel Ennis, 18, who was sentenced Friday, pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder in the death of Gerald Joseph Holle, a 55-year-old transient living under a bridge.

Prosecutors said the attack was an effort by Ennis and his friends to “clean up” their neighborhood by beating homeless men until they died or left the area.