California sees 11th execution in 28 years

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- Prison officials executed a three-time murderer early Wednesday, making him the 11th inmate put to death in California since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. Donald Beardslee, 61, was executed by injection for killing two women in 1981 while on parole for a third slaying. The execution came only hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected a clemency petition seeking to commute the death sentence to life without parole, and the Supreme Court rejected two last-minute appeals. Beardslee's attorneys said he suffered from brain maladies when he killed two to avenge a $185 drug deal.

Jury pool for ex-WorldCom chief fills in financial form

NEW YORK -- Potential jurors for the trial of former WorldCom Inc. chief Bernard Ebbers were asked Wednesday if they had any financial ties to the company and what they have read about the case. The jury candidates were given a five-item questionnaire, the first step in the jury-selection process for Ebbers' securities fraud trial. Ebbers, 63, is accused of orchestrating an $11 billion accounting fraud at WorldCom, exaggerating its revenue and disguising expenses so egregiously that the company was driven into bankruptcy in 2002. The jury questionnaire said the trial is expected to last until early to mid-March, running five days per week.

Barges halt shipping on part of Ohio River

REEDSVILLE, Ohio -- Ohio River traffic was halted along a 42-mile stretch Wednesday after water levels fell to critical lows behind a lock and dam that was jammed by the wreckage of a barge accident. Salvage crews worked at the Belleville, W.Va., Lock and Dam to remove twisted barges from control gates that were stuck in the open position. The jammed gates are keeping the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from controlling the water levels from Belleville to the Willow Island Lock and Dam above Parkersburg, W.Va.

Jury awards $75 million to family in DWI case

NEWARK, N.J. -- A jury awarded $75 million in punitive damages Wednesday to the family of a 7-year-old girl paralyzed in a car wreck caused by a drunken football fan. A day earlier, the family was awarded $60 million in compensatory damages. Ronald and Fazila Verni were headed home from a pumpkin-picking trip in 1999 with their 2-year-old daughter, Antonia, when their car was hit by a truck driven by Daniel Lanzaro, 34. Antonia was paralyzed from the neck down. Lanzaro, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, is serving a five-year prison term for vehicular assault.

Al-Qaida case damaged by suicide attempt

NEW YORK -- Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a major blow in the war on terror in March 2003: The government had charged a Muslim cleric with personally handing $20 million to Osama bin Laden. But as the trial approaches for Sheik Mohammed Ali Hasan al-Moayad, the jurors are unlikely to hear that spectacular allegation. Its sole source, an FBI informant from Yemen, set himself on fire in front of the White House late last year, and it is all but certain prosecutors will not put him on the stand. "The government has acted outrageously and unethically by trumpeting charges that it was not prepared to prove," said al-Moayad's attorney, William Goodman. "Now they're hanging by their fingernails." Federal prosecutor Roslynn Mauskopf declined to comment.