NASA- 'Super Bowl of welders' to fix shuttles

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- With the entire space shuttle fleet grounded this summer by fuel-line cracks, NASA said Friday it will weld the flawed plumbing and aim for a late-September launch.

Space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said NASA has assembled "a Super Bowl of welders" from across the country for the unprecedented job, which will begin next week on shuttle Atlantis. The hope is to launch Atlantis on a belated space station construction mission as early as Sept. 28.

Dittemore said the shuttle welding will require more precision than typical hard-hat work.

Shuttle flights were halted earlier this summer after 11 hairline cracks no longer than three-tenths of an inch were found in the hydrogen-fuel lines of all four spaceships. The cracks were in the metal liners and are thought to have been there for years and perhaps decades.

Ex-policeman fatally shot during highway standoff

MANSFIELD, Ohio -- A recently fired police officer suspected of killing his wife led authorities on a chase Friday in a stolen sheriff's vehicle and was critically wounded during a highway standoff, officials said.

Hermando Harton carried two guns as he ran from the sport utility vehicle into a wooded highway median, where officers shot him, said Lt. Gary Lewis of the State Highway Patrol.

Harton was in critical condition Friday at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. He was shot twice.

Harton, 39, was fired as a Columbus police officer on July 8 because he shot and wounded a passenger in the van of a fleeing shoplifting suspect while working a security job in 2000, said Antone Lanata, the acting police chief in Columbus.

Police arrest seven in Chicago mob deaths

CHICAGO -- Police were pursuing murder charges Friday against seven gang members in the beating deaths of two men who were dragged from their van after an accident.

Chief of Detectives Phil Cline said the suspects, ages 16 to 57, were identified by witnesses who came forward after community leaders went door-to-door, urging cooperation with investigators.

Police said they were seeking first-degree murder charges and had turned the case over to the Cook County State's Attorney's office. The suspects were in custody. Police were awaiting formal charges.

Authorities said two of the suspects were relatives of one of the women struck by the van.

Woman stung by swarm of bees dies from shock

SUNIZONA, Ariz. -- A woman was stung at least 80 times by a swarm of bees and told her boyfriend she loved him just before she died.

Cheryl McClain and Ted Richard were attacked on Tuesday while moving items into a storage shed behind their home. They sprayed themselves with water and tore at their clothes, Richard said from his hospital bed.

Finally, he said, McClain looked at him and said, "I love you, Ted."

"I love you, too, Cheryl. It'll be OK, Cheryl," he answered as she collapsed.

McClain, 46, died from anaphylactic shock, the coroner's office said. She was the fifth person in Arizona to die from a bee attack since 1993.

--From wire reports