Nation briefs 1/19/06

Two sailors die, one missing off Cape Fear

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Two sailors aboard a tugboat died when their boat sank about 40 miles off Cape Fear in gale-force wind and high seas, the Coast Guard said Wednesday as a search continued for one sailor who remained missing. The 135-foot tugboat Valour began sinking late Tuesday. The tug's crew called the Coast Guard for help after one sailor fell overboard. That crew member made it back aboard the ship, said Petty Officer Lawrence Chambers. A Coast Guard helicopter rescued another sailor and took him to a hospital in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where he remained Wednesday. Another tugboat rescued five other sailors before the Valour sank.

Nev. couple sentenced to prison in chili finger case

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A couple who planted a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili in a scheme to extort money from the fast-food chain were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms of at least nine years. Anna Ayala, 40, who said she bit into the digit, was sentenced to nine years. Her husband, Jaime Plascencia, 44, who obtained the finger from a co-worker who lost it in a workplace accident, was sentenced to more than 12 years. "Greed and avarice overtook this couple," said Superior Court Judge Edward Davila, adding that the pair had "lost their moral compass." The two pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to file a false insurance claim and attempted grand theft.

Launch of Pluto-bound probe again delayed

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- For the second day in a row Wednesday, NASA scrubbed the launch of an unmanned spacecraft on a nine-year voyage to Pluto -- this time, because a storm in Maryland knocked out the power at a laboratory that will operate the probe. NASA officials planned to make a third attempt to launch the New Horizons probe today after electricity is restored to the lab. Scientists have been working 17 years on the mission, and they were unfazed by the back-to-back postponements. "Two or three days doesn't mean a hill of beans," said Alan Stern, principal investigator for the mission. A storm in Laurel, Md., knocked out power early Wednesday at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The space agency has until mid-February to send the spacecraft on its way, but a launch in January would allow the spacecraft to use Jupiter's gravity to shave five years off the 3-billion-mile trip.

Evidence of DVD piracy found in W.Va. Capitol

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Tucked away in the basement of West Virginia's gold-domed Capitol, state officials say, an office was secretly transformed into a taxpayer-funded studio that may have been used to pirate DVD videos and music CDs. Administration secretary Robert Ferguson said his staff stumbled across the office after finding evidence that government purchase cards were used to buy $88,000 worth of computers and related equipment over three years. The office contained hundreds of blank DVDs, CDs and jacket covers as well as numerous recorders for both mediums and more than one computer, according to a memo written by state chief technology officer Kyle Schafer.

More than 3,200 still listed as missing after Katrina

NEW ORLEANS -- More than 3,200 people are officially still unaccounted for nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and the state medical examiner wants the search to resume for those missing from the most devastated neighborhoods. A total of nearly 11,500 people were reported missing to the Find Family National Call Center, a center run by federal and state workers. The reports included people from throughout the Gulf Coast area, but most were from Louisiana. As of Wednesday, all but about 3,200 had been located, the agency said.

-- From wire reports