Virginia

Lawyers for sniper suspect Malvo to argue insanity

Lee Boyd Malvo’s lawyers said Thursday they would mount an insanity defense at his murder trial in the Washington, D.C., sniper case, arguing that the teenager was a victim of “indoctrination” by the older John Allen Muhammad.

The prosecutor in the case, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Atty. Robert F. Horan Jr., said he had reviewed the reports of a court-appointed mental-health expert and there was nothing to suggest mental illness on Malvo’s part.

Malvo, 18, is set to go on trial Nov. 10 in the slaying of FBI analyst Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot store. She was among 13 people who were shot, 10 fatally, during a three-week spree this past fall in the Washington, D.C., area.

Muhammad goes on trial Tuesday in the slaying of man who was pumping gas near Manassas.

Tokyo

Prime minister dissolves parliament’s lower house

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ordered the lower house of Japan’s parliament dissolved today, paving the way for national elections that he’s counting on to strengthen his party.

The dissolution places the 480 seats of the powerful lower house up for grabs. Koizumi is expected to set Nov. 9 as the date for the balloting.

The order was issued after a morning Cabinet meeting, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and the Kyodo news service. It will formally take effect after it is approved by Emperor Akihito and read to the lower chamber this afternoon.

Chicago

Garbage collectors vote to end nine-day strike

Union garbage collectors voted overwhelmingly Thursday to end a nine-day strike that left stinking piles of trash throughout the Chicago area.

Members of the Teamsters union, following the recommendation of their negotiators, voted 1,540 to 373 to accept a pact giving workers a 28 percent raise in wages and benefits over five years.

The Chicago Area Refuse Haulers Assn. said trucks would work through the night clearing festering piles of trash. The city’s sanitation official said, however, it would be days before all the trash would be collected.

The 3,300 union workers handle garbage for 17 private waste haulers that serve Chicago’s high-rises and the suburbs.