Nevada

Firefighters keep fire from more homes

Firefighters kept an explosive wildfire from destroying more homes Friday in Carson City, but warned the flames were still so intense they were burning through retardant dropped by tankers.

The 6,100-acre fire — revised from an earlier estimate of 9,200 acres — has torched at least 14 homes as drought conditions, dense smoke, whipping winds and intense flames have challenged firefighters in the hilly terrain.

Above, Hugh Fenwick looks over the remains of his home, which was destroyed by the Waterfall Fire in Carson City.

In California, meanwhile, a wind-driven wildfire at the edge of the Angeles National Forest grew to more than 14,000 acres Friday, forcing hundreds to flee mountain communities. Smoke drifted 60 miles south into the Los Angeles basin.

Idaho

Parental-consent law on abortion thrown out

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out an Idaho law requiring girls under age 18 to get parental consent for abortions, ruling that its provisions on emergency abortions were too strict.

Writing for the court, Judge Marsha Berzon said there was no reasonable explanation for limiting emergency abortions without consent to “sudden and unexpected” instances of physical complications.

She noted that other emergency medical procedures are allowed on minors without parental permission that do not fit the “sudden and unexpected” category.

California

Mars rover now seeing Red Planet in reverse

NASA’s Mars rover Spirit has begun driving in reverse to overcome a balky front wheel, but engineers expect it to keep covering Martian ground, mission officials said Friday.

The new driving technique was detailed as scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory revealed that the six-wheeled Spirit had finally discovered a rock outcrop, a formation offering the potential for layered rocks that could give geologists a view far into Mars’ geologic past.

Spirit’s twin, Opportunity, fortuitously landed next to such an outcrop in January. Opportunity quickly found a wealth of evidence that the site in the Meridiani Planum region was once saturated with water, and conditions there could have been suitable for life.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Interim CIA director takes public stance

No one can accuse the CIA’s director of staying cloaked this week.

John McLaughlin capped his first week as acting director with a rallying speech to CIA workers Friday, where he promised the agency’s senior leaders would absorb the criticism from a brutal report on the flawed intelligence that preceded the Iraq invasion.

That followed at least a handful of press, radio and television interviews McLaughlin has done to defend a work force he’s been a part of for more than 30 years. He appeared for an interview on National Public Radio, even taking questions from callers, and presided over a rare press conference at the agency’s television studio.

CHICAGO

10 Most Wanted suspect captured in Mexico

An Illinois man on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list for allegedly stalking and killing two former girlfriends has been captured in Mexico, the FBI announced Friday.

Michael Alfonso, 35, was arrested Thursday without incident in Veracruz, Mexico, said Thomas Kneir, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago office.

Alfonso was handed over to American authorities and flown to Houston, where officials said he would be held until he could be sent back to Illinois.

Alfonso is accused in the shooting death of 28-year-old Genoveva Velasquez in June 2001 in the parking lot of a restaurant were she worked, and of 23-year-old Sumanear Yang in 1992.

Illinois

Chipmunks weathered Ice Age, experts say

Chipmunks are hardier than we thought, say scientists at the University of Illinois. The furry animals weathered the Ice Age 18,000 years ago in a northern refuge rather than follow the great migration south.

Using DNA samples from 244 chipmunks in Illinois and Wisconsin, researchers constructed a family tree, showing that chipmunks migrated farther south only after the glaciers had receded.

The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, challenges the scientific dogma that the cold would have forced such small mammals south.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

AP seeks quick release of Bush military records

The Associated Press asked a federal judge Friday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush’s military service record.

The White House has released partial documentation of Bush’s military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with the news service’s Freedom of Information Act request for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.

Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush fulfilled his National Guard service for a period during the Vietnam War, the AP argued in papers filed in federal court in New York.