WASHINGTON, D.C.

General will take over probe of prisoner abuse

The four-star general in charge of the Army’s supply systems will take over an investigation into the role of Army intelligence personnel in the mistreatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, replacing Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Army officials announced Thursday.

Gen. Paul J. Kern will assess the status of the ongoing investigation before deciding whether to replace Maj. Gen. George Fay as the investigating officer, officials said.

Sanchez asked to be removed from the investigation’s chain of command because questions had been raised about his role in the prisoner abuse matter, and in order for him to be questioned the probe would have to be headed by either a more senior lieutenant general or a four-star general.

Georgia

Toddler kidnapped from car is found safe

A 2-year-old boy who was reported kidnapped in a carjacking and held for a $100,000 ransom was found safe Thursday outside a gasoline station in his hometown, authorities said.

Police said they were tipped to Tellious Brown’s whereabouts by an anonymous caller soon after his mother pleaded for his return at a news conference. No ransom was paid, said a law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Any suspects had fled before police arrived to pick up the boy, Maj. Russell Traino said.

The boy’s mother, 24-year-old Lakendra Trice, told police that she and her son were getting out of a car Wednesday night when two men pulled a gun on her and drove off with the child still in the car. Police had found the car a half-hour later, empty.

Alabama

Three officers killed at Birmingham house

Three police officers at a house to make an arrest were shot to death Thursday, and the sheriff said a suspect was taken into custody.

Colleagues of the officers found their bodies outside the house where the three had gone to serve “misdemeanor-type warrants,” said Brett Oates, spokesman for Birmingham’s mayor.

Authorities did not release further details, but the small, one-story dwelling, divided into apartments, had a reputation in the low-income neighborhood as a site for drug dealing.

Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale said Nathaniel Lauell Woods, 27, and four others were in police custody.

California

AIDS activists call for condom use in porn

AIDS activists rallied outside the front door of Larry Flynt’s company on Thursday to persuade the porn mogul to require condoms in his films.

Carrying large fake condoms, about 20 people called on Flynt’s Hustler label to adopt a 100 percent condom use policy. The demonstrators singled out Flynt because of his notoriety in the adult film industry and because of statements he made in a recent Los Angeles Times commentary that films with condoms “don’t sell.”

“We think it’s Larry Flynt’s responsibility to set an example,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Health Care Foundation.

Five porn actors were infected with HIV in April. The outbreak virtually shut down the multibillion-dollar industry when actors were put on a voluntary quarantine preventing them from doing sex scenes until they had passed two monthly HIV tests.