FBI director says balance needed on security, rights

STANFORD, Calif. -- A delicate balance must be struck to protect the United States from another terrorist attack without violating the civil rights of Muslims here, FBI director Robert Mueller said Friday.

Mueller said that as head of the nation's lead agency handling counterterrorism, he struggles to find that balance.

"The overwhelming majority of Muslims in this country and around the world are peaceful, law-abiding citizens. A small number of Muslims, however, are members of radical fundamentalist sects sworn to the destruction of the United States," he said in a speech at Stanford University. "This presents a dilemma for those charged with protecting against the next attack."

Since the terror attacks, there have been a series of federal actions, laws and new regulations that have drawn criticism from some civil rights activists.

Mom in videotaped beating caught for theft

LAGRANGE, Ind. -- The woman accused of beating her daughter in an incident caught on security video and broadcast nationwide has been charged with stealing fabric from a department store.

Authorities filed a felony theft charge against Madelyne Toogood and Margaret Jean Daley, Toogood's sister, LaGrange County Prosecutor Jeff Wible said Friday.

The charges allege Toogood and Daley took the fabric on Aug. 21 from Yoder's department store in Shipshewana, about 35 miles east of South Bend. Wible said they reportedly told a clerk they had bought the material earlier but left it behind and forgot to take it home.

Neither woman was arrested on the theft charge.

Toogood, 25, has been free on bail since pleading innocent to felony battery of her 4-year-old daughter. That charge involved a Sept. 13 incident in which a department store parking lot security camera caught Toogood taking her daughter to a car and allegedly beating her.

Police find meth lab in music practice room

UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas -- Police at Southern Methodist University say they found a methamphetamine laboratory in a campus music practice room.

No arrests had been made, said campus police Capt. Tommy Jones.

The drug production lab was found at the Owens Fine Arts Center on Thursday, a day after students returned from fall break.

The center houses the Meadows School of Fine Arts, including offices, classrooms and practice rooms. All are open to the public until the center is locked up at night, Jones said.

Suspects go to court in cross-dressing killing

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Three Newark, Calif., men who became enraged after learning that the stunningly beautiful girl at their late-night party was actually a 17-year-old cross-dressing boy punched the youth, dragged him into the garage and strangled him with a piece of rope, according to court documents released Friday.

Eddie Araujo's body was then wrapped in a sheet and buried in a shallow grave near Placerville, Calif., about 150 miles from his family's home, police said.

On Friday, the three main suspects -- Jose Merel, 24, Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, and Michael Magidson, 22 -- made their first appearance in court, where they each face one count of murder, with a hate crime enhancement. The enhancement could add up to four years of a prison term. All are being held without bail.

Mobile home fire kills six children in Mississippi

TCHULA, Miss. -- Six children under the age of 12 died early Saturday after fire swept through the mobile home they were sleeping in.

Holes County Sheriff Willie March said the fire appeared to have started when a candle burned down after the children fell asleep in the home, about 80 miles north of Jackson. No adults were home when firefighters arrived, he said.

--From wire reports