Miami
Taser use on 6-year-old prompts protests
Parents and community leaders are outraged that a Miami-Dade County police officer used a 50,000-volt stun gun to subdue a 6-year-old boy who was using a shard of glass to cut himself and hold a security officer at bay.
The incident occurred Oct. 20 inside the principal's office at Kelsey L. Pharr Elementary School, police said. The unidentified child, who has a history of behavioral problems, was alone in the office with a school security officer.
Principal Maria Mason told police she heard glass breaking and rushed into her office where the boy was bleeding and holding a piece of glass he'd taken out of a picture frame he broke with his fist.
By the time school district and police officers arrived, the boy had cut himself under his right eye. The child began cutting his leg with the glass, police said. That's when Miami-Dade officer Maria Abbott fired the stun gun. The probes hit the boy in the torso and the bottom of his shirt.
Atlanta
CDC statistics show mild West Nile season
After two record-breaking years of West Nile virus illnesses and deaths, the nation is experiencing a relatively mild season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
CDC data shows 2,282 people have been sickened by the mosquito-borne virus and 77 have died. This time last year, there were 8,219 illnesses and 182 deaths.
The virus went on to sicken 9,858 and kill 262 in 2003. There were 4,156 cases and 284 deaths in 2002.
The numbers of cases in 2002 and 2003 in the United States reflected the largest West Nile epidemics ever recorded, said Dr. Ned Hayes, a CDC West Nile expert.
The CDC does not know why the numbers declined. Temperature, rainfall and prevention could be factors, Hayes said.
This year, the greatest numbers of cases were in areas that did not have much virus activity last year -- California (737 cases, 20 deaths) and Arizona (381 cases, 10 deaths). Most cases were in the central to western parts of the country, Hayes said.
New York
Second cervical vaccine shows early promise
Researchers say a second experimental cervical cancer vaccine appears to broadly protect against infection and risky precancerous conditions for more than two years, affirming scientists' belief that the disease could be progressively eradicated in a global campaign much like smallpox and polio.
The study, which was conducted in the United States and Brazil, showed patients given the vaccine sustained a high level of immune response against the virus that spreads cervical cancer, and that it would prevent infection for many years.
Whether revaccination ultimately would be needed must be determined by an additional, longer trial, researchers said.
Details appear in Friday's issue of the British medical journal The Lancet.
Cervical cancer is the leading cancer killer among women in the developing world.
Cervical cancer is caused by infection with human papilloma virus, or HPV, which is spread through sex.
North Carolina
Election exposes flaws in voting system
A Florida-style nightmare has unfolded in North Carolina in the 10 days since Election Day, with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.
The fiasco has not reached the proportions of what happened in 2000 in Florida, in part because the presidential race was not close here. But election observers say North Carolina has been the site of some of 2004's worst problems.
The biggest failure resulted from a computer glitch that wiped out more than 4,400 votes in one county, while other disputes have focused on how to count provisional ballots.
Two statewide races -- for agriculture commissioner and superintendent of public instruction -- remained unresolved Friday, and they were so close that recounts will be conducted in the next week.
Seattle
Democrats sue over provisional ballots
Washington state Democrats, fearful their candidate for governor might narrowly lose because of disputed ballots, sued election officials Friday in the state's largest county.
The lawsuit would block election officials in King County, home to Seattle, from discarding about 900 provisional ballots. Party officials hoped they could get a decision later in the day.
"We have one objective: Count every vote," said Paul Berendt, the state party chairman.
The legal wrangling is the result of the closest gubernatorial race in state history. As of Friday morning, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by about 3,600 votes out of more than 2.7 million counted. The count could drag on into next week.
King County has about 25,000 ballots left to count, mostly provisionals, which are essentially backup ballots cast when a resident's registration is in dispute.
Phoenix
Voters extend sales tax for light rail project
Hoping to transform the city's reputation as business park by day and ghost town by night, voters have jumped aboard a sweeping, sales tax-funded transportation plan that includes a light rail system, beefed-up bus service and miles of new freeways.
Residents of this sprawling metropolitan area last week approved Proposition 400, which continues a half-cent sales tax for 20 years, generating an estimated $15 billion for a plan that seeks to reduce congestion and centralize development.
While downtown Phoenix houses the majority of the business sector, workers scatter to the suburbs to live, spending money there on bigger homes and nearby entertainment venues.
Russia
Military to reduce troops in Chechnya
The Russian military will cut its deployment in Chechnya by about 1,000 troops and stop using draftees in the war against separatist rebels next year, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday.
The announcement, however, did not appear to indicate that Russia thinks it is gaining an advantage over the guerrillas it has been battling for more than five years. Ivanov said the 42nd Motorized Division that is the military's main unit in Chechnya "will stay there forever."
Russian officials this year said there were about 70,000 armed forces in Chechnya, including those from the army, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet KGB.
Georgia
Opposition supporters seize headquarters
Thousands of supporters of Abkhazia's opposition presidential candidate briefly seized the office of the outgoing leader Friday as tensions again spiked in the breakaway Georgian region nearly six weeks after a disputed -- and still unresolved -- election.
Demonstrators supporting Sergei Bagapsh, who has claimed victory in the Oct. 3 election, stormed the headquarters of outgoing President Vladislav Ardzinba in the province's main city, Sukhumi, and occupied it for several hours.
A woman who was wounded by a ricocheting bullet shot by guards at the building later died, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, and several people received minor injuries.
Ardzinba, who is sick, was at home when the seizure occurred.
The protesters cleared the building after Bagapsh asked them to leave.
Illinois
Van crash kills four
A commuter van carrying workers from two aerospace companies collided head-on with a tractor-trailer Friday on a Mississippi River bridge, killing four people in the van and injuring four others, authorities said.
State police said the van was on the Martin Luther King Bridge before dawn when it struck the 18-wheeler, spilling diesel fuel that caught fire near the Illinois end of the bridge. The flames were quickly extinguished.
The wreck closed the busy, four-lane bridge between East St. Louis and St. Louis for about five hours. The bridge is one of three crossing the river at St. Louis.
One victim worked for GKN, a British aerospace business with operations in the St. Louis area; the other three who died, including the van driver, worked for Boeing Co. at its St. Louis aircraft plant.
Above right, the commuter van is carried off the bridge by a wrecker.
Tennessee
Overdose murder charge dropped against mom
Saying the autopsy report was wrong, a prosecutor Friday dismissed a murder charge against a mother accused of killing her severely disabled daughter with an overdose of medication.
Dist. Atty. Mike Taylor told a judge that new tests showed 15-year-old Ashley Mignano, who had cerebral palsy, did not die July 4 from a fatal dose of phenobarbital. The teenager's mother, Margaret Mignano, had been arrested in August and spent a week in jail before she was freed on $200,000 bond.
The autopsy report was signed by Dr. Charles Harlan of Nashville, a forensic pathologist who is defending his medical license against state charges of misdiagnosing causes of death in other cases and destroying evidence in criminal investigations.
The teenager, who used a ventilator and feeding tube, died at a hospital after suffering cardiac arrest at home. The arrest warrant accused Mignano of crushing pills of phenobarbital and putting them in Ashley's feeding tube.
Virginia
US Airways wants union pacts voided
US Airways Group Inc. Friday asked a bankruptcy court judge to terminate the long-term contracts of its flight attendants, mechanics and customer service and ticket agents if the workers fail to agree to millions of dollars in pay and benefit cuts.
The airline also asked the judge for permission to reduce or eliminate company-paid health benefits for retirees and replace the remaining defined-benefit retirement plans of its flight attendants and mechanics with a defined contribution plan, similar to a 401(k).
Friday's motion to cancel contracts for about 20,000 of its 28,000 workers comes as the nation's seventh-largest carrier struggles to conserve cash under bankruptcy protection. US Airways filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in September, its second filing in two years.
US Airways is in negotiations with the three employee groups as it seeks to cut about $1 billion in labor costs. Pilots, flight crew training instructors and simulator engineers have agreed to steep cuts and are exempt from Friday's filing.
Phoenix
AG says anti-migrant measure has limits
A newly passed state initiative aimed at keeping illegal immigrants from getting public benefits applies only to some welfare programs, Arizona Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard said Friday.
Proposition 200 opponents and some supporters had argued it would apply to many more state and local programs, ranging from library cards to admittance to state parks.
Goddard issued an advisory legal opinion, which is meant to provide public employees with guidance and protection under state law unless a court rules otherwise.
Approved by voters Nov. 2 and expected to become law later this month, Proposition 200 requires proof of immigration status when applying for public benefits. It also requires public employees to report suspected illegal immigrants who try to obtain benefits.
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid health care program for poor people, asked Goddard for the advisory opinion.
Washington, D.C.
Panel: Toxic substances likely cause of Gulf War illnesses
A federal panel said Friday that exposure to toxic substances, not combat stress, most likely caused the mysterious medical problems suffered by many veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.
The report by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses reverses years of government insistence that stress was the primary cause.
Instead, the report said, toxic substances such as pesticides and the nerve agent sarin most likely led to the health problems. It also said the anti-nerve agents and insecticides given to the troops for protection might have contributed to their problems.
Ivory Coast
France denies accusations
France defended itself Friday against accusations by Ivory Coast authorities -- and some Western evacuees -- that it used excessive force in protecting foreigners against violent mobs during five days of upheaval in its former West African colony.
Ivorian government forces withdrew from rebel positions Friday, easing fears of a resumption of all-out civil war, as France and other countries continued to fly out thousands of foreigners.
The head of France's armed forces, Gen. Henri Bentegeat, acknowledged for the first time Friday that his soldiers opened fire to hold back what he called a "pack of looters, rapists and uncontrollable or manipulated people" attacking foreigners in Abidjan.
Tokyo
Submarine incident threatens Japan-China relations
Japan lodged a formal protest with Beijing on Friday after determining a nuclear submarine that entered its territorial waters without identifying itself belonged to China -- an incident that risks worsening the already cool relations between the two Asian neighbors.
Those relations are increasingly shaken by Tokyo's unease with China's growing military and economic might.
Japanese fear China's tensions with rival Taiwan and its drive for energy and marine resources to supply a booming economy are prodding Beijing toward an increasingly brazen military posture.
Washington, D.C.
Ashcroft says judges risk security by questioning Bush
Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Friday.
In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.
"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers group.
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