Nation briefs

7 injured in ski chairlift accident

CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine -- A chairlift at a Maine ski resort stopped and began sliding backward down the mountain Saturday, prompting frantic riders to jump off and injuring seven, officials and witnesses said. Four people were taken to a hospital from Sugarloaf Mountain Resort, though none are believed to have life-threatening injuries, resort spokesman Ethan Austin said. Sugarloaf officials said Saturday's accident was a "rollback" that carried riders backward a distance of about 450 feet.

Abuse photos ordered released

NEW YORK -- The U.S. must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a federal judge has ruled in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein's ruling Friday gives the government, which has fought the case for over a decade, two months to decide whether to appeal before the photos could be released. The American Civil Liberties Union has been seeking to make the photos, including images from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, public in the name of holding government accountable.

Autopsy report days away in hanging case

PORT GIBSON, Miss. -- The body of a black man found hanging in a tree in Mississippi has been sent from a state crime lab to a funeral home, but the FBI said it will be days before autopsy results are complete. Until then, investigators are holding off on saying whether Otis Byrd was killed or took his own life. Don Alway, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Jackson, said preliminary information about the cause of death is expected this week. Early Saturday, the FBI issued a statement saying agents are tracking down relatives and acquaintances of Byrd. The county coroner confirmed the man found hanging from a white sheet Thursday was Byrd, a 54-year-old ex-convict who was reported missing by his family more than two weeks ago. Byrd lived 200 yards from the spot where his body was found, in woods behind his house.

Grandma guilty of running girl to death

GADSDEN, Ala. -- Jurors who convicted an Alabama woman in the running death of her 9-year-old granddaughter soon must decide whether to recommend she should die for the crime or spend the rest of her life in prison. A jury convicted 49-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard late Friday in the February 2012 death of Savannah Hardin, siding with prosecutors who depicted Garrard as a "drill sergeant from hell," a domineering taskmaster so enraged over a lie about candy she made the girl run until she dropped. The sentencing phase -- a mini-trial within the trial -- will begin Monday, the judge said. The jury will hear additional testimony and decide whether to recommend life without parole or death for Garrard, but the final decision is up to Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree. Garrard showed no reaction when the verdict was read, but she hugged her three attorneys before being led away by deputies. She glared at the audience as she walked out silently.

-- From wire reports