Nation briefs 10/27/03

Three infant bodies found in garbage bag in Texas

BROWNWOOD, Texas -- A family renovating a rural home they had lived in for three years found an old trash bag in an attic crawl space containing the mummified bodies of three infants. Authorities said Sunday they were investigating the deaths as homicides.

"One baby was wrapped in a towel, one baby was in a blanket, and the baby we originally found was wrapped in a sheet inside a paper sack," said Chief Deputy Mike McCoy of the county sheriff's department.

McCoy said authorities were searching for the home's prior occupants and no arrests had been made.

Sniper jurors observe emotions, harsh photos

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Kwang Im Szuszka sobbed as she looked at a photo of her slain sister and recognized the red cooler that her sibling used to carry her lunch to work.

Muhammad Rashid slumped in the witness stand as he listened to himself on a recording of the 911 call he made after he was shot, crying out to a dispatcher: "I am dying."

The first week of testimony in the trial of sniper shootings suspect John Allen Muhammad was filled with emotionally charged moments, and more are expected this week as prosecutors continue methodically detailing the three weeks of shootings last October that killed 10 people and terrorized Washington, D.C., and its suburbs.

Muhammad is being tried only in the death of Dean Meyers, gunned down at a gasoline station in Manassas. But because one of the capital murder charges against him alleges multiple murders over three years, prosecutors must prove Muhammad committed at least one other murder.

Israeli ministers demand evacuation of settlement

NETZARIM, Gaza Strip -- Moderates in Israel's Cabinet called Sunday for the evacuation of this tiny Jewish settlement, which relies on an entire army battalion for protection, after three soldiers were killed there by Palestinian militants.

However, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon believes a pullout from the enclave in Gaza would show weakness and encourage Palestinian violence, and one former Israeli commander says Netzarim must remain a strategic "bone in the throat" of the Palestinians. Others in the military say using an estimated 350 soldiers to guard 400 people is a waste of resources.

In this quiet, leafy enclave just 2 1/2 miles from the border with Israel and surrounded by Palestinians on all sides, people remain confident they will stay right where they are.

"God promised this area to Israel," said Yossi Krakover, 35, who has lived there for 12 years.

'Sunni Triangle' vets try to charm desert groups

NUKHAYB, Iraq -- In town after town, village after village throughout Iraq, American forces announce their arrival in much the same way: they appoint mayors, set up town councils, refurbish schools and hand out toys.

One of the areas where it didn't work is in the so-called Sunni triangle around Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein loyalists have been most active.

Now U.S. veterans of hotspots such as Fallujah are giving it another try 225 miles southwest of Baghdad, in the vast, desolate desert of southwestern Iraq.

"In Fallujah, no matter how much we helped, we were not liked," lamented Lt. Col. Christopher Hickey, commander of the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which arrived in Iraq in April.

"My first goal here is to establish trust and confidence. I want to create people who will cooperate with us, not shoot at us."

At least nine dead in twin earthquakes in China

BEIJING -- The central government sent cold-weather tents, seismological teams and cash Sunday to an earthquake-prone patch of remote northwestern China where powerful twin temblors, minutes apart, killed nine people and leveled houses in their wake.

The first quake in rural Gansu province, which hit at 8:41 p.m. Saturday and measured magnitude 6.1, sent people scurrying outside into freezing temperatures. As some ventured back inside, the second temblor -- almost as powerful at magnitude 5.8 -- hit seven minutes later.

"It was chaos. People were running out of their homes and into the night," a resident of Yonggu township told The Associated Press. Reached by telephone Sunday, he gave only his surname, Zhang.

Another six people were seriously hurt and 37 more suffered minor injuries, the official Xinhua News Agency reported from Lanzhou, the provincial capital. More than 200 aftershocks were reported -- several as strong as magnitude 4.0, the government said.

-- From wire reports