Nebraska

Doctor: Abortion ban would have broad effect

The doctor who got the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Nebraska’s ban on a controversial abortion procedure testified Thursday that a similar federal law was so vague it would outlaw nearly all abortions after the first trimester.

“There are at least 21 different procedures that it covers,” Dr. LeRoy Carhart said during a challenge of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, signed last year by President Bush. “There are terms in this act that I do not understand … and that have many definitions.

“But in reality I think this act covers everything after the 12th week” of pregnancy, Carhart said.

The doctor’s lawyers rested their case Thursday and the government will put on its case next week.

Wisconsin

Police continue search for kidnapping suspect

Police interviewed a University of Wisconsin student Thursday for clues to her mysterious four-day disappearance, and they insisted that the hunt was still on for a suspect in the case.

Police released a composite sketch of the man Audrey Seiler said abducted her at knifepoint from her off-campus apartment early Saturday. Seiler, 20, was found in a marshy area two miles from the apartment Wednesday.

Seiler was cooperative during the interview, police spokesman Larry Kamholz said. He said authorities had no reason to doubt her claim that she had been kidnapped.

Florida

Anti-abortion advocate guilty of molestation

An associate of two men who murdered abortion doctors in the 1990s was convicted Thursday of molesting a teenager at a home he ran for troubled girls and women.

John Burt, 66, was found guilty of five counts of lewd or lascivious molestation or conduct, and faces a range of probation to 15 years in prison on each count. Sentencing was set for May 12.

Burt was accused of improperly touching and propositioning the girl last year, when she was 15. She testified Thursday over a satellite television link from Northern Ireland, where she now lives.

Texas

Mother calmly recounts slayings in videotape

Six days after bashing her sons’ heads with rocks, Deanna Laney calmly recounted the killings and told a psychiatrist she was awaiting her children’s resurrection, according to a videotape shown to the jury Thursday.

In an interview videotaped days after Laney killed her two older sons and severely injured her toddler, she was wide-eyed, occasionally smiling and animated as she described events leading up to the bloodshed last Mother’s Day weekend.

The tape was played as defense attorneys began their case in the trial, which began Monday. Laney, 39, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to charges of murdering 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke and severely beating Aaron, then 14 months old.

California

Gateway shuts down stores, cuts 2,500 jobs

Troubled computer maker Gateway announced Thursday that it would shutter all of its stores next week and eliminate 2,500 jobs, or nearly 40 percent of its work force.

The company, based in the San Diego suburb of Poway, said the 188 stores would close on April 9 and workers would be dismissed as the store operations wind down.

The company, which has posted losses in 12 out of the last 13 quarters, said it is exploring other options for customers to purchase its products.