Nation briefs 6/2/06

State of emergency in effect in Basra, Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Police set up roadblocks Thursday around the oil-rich southern city of Basra as a monthlong state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went into effect. Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waeli said army troops and police fanned out around Iraq's second-largest city as part of a crackdown on rampant violence that has increased in recent weeks as rival Shiite militias fight each other for power. "The emergency plan was implemented last night. Army and police were deployed in large numbers," al-Waeli said. Besides a curfew, the state of emergency broadens police powers in the city 340 miles southeast of Baghdad. Although curfews exist in other cities where violence is rampant, including the capital, Basra is the only one where a state of emergency is in effect.

Four dead in military helicopter crash in Ga.

DOERUN, Ga. -- A military helicopter clipped a rural television tower and crashed Thursday morning, killing four soldiers on a training mission, officials said. A fifth soldier aboard the MH-47 Chinook helicopter survived, said Lisa Eichhorn, a spokeswoman for Fort Rucker, Ala., home to the Army helicopter training school where the soldiers were headed. The helicopter had left Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah and went down in rural Colquitt County just after 8 a.m., said sheriff's dispatcher Becky Perry.

Maintenance tasks are on tab for spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- wo crew members ventured out of the international space station Thursday night for a nearly six-hour spacewalk filled with maintenance tasks such as replacing a camera and fixing an oxygen system. Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams were scheduled, among other things, to reposition a cable, replace a camera and retrieve a thruster residue collection plate, a contamination monitoring device and biology experiments. The spacewalk was the first scheduled for the two crewmen since their arrival at the space station in early April. During their careers, Vinogradov has conducted five previous spacewalks; Williams has made one. The maintenance tasks left little time for publicity stunts. Plans were scratched for Vinogradov to whack a golf ball into orbit for the longest drive in history.

Girl 'left for dead' in home where 3 were slain

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. -- A 1-year-old girl spent up to three days alone with the bloody bodies of her murdered family, her face kicked or beaten and lips cracked from dehydration, police said. "She was left for dead," Lt. Mike Handfield said Tuesday. "If she would have been here any longer, she could have perished from lack of food and water." Police found the bodies of Phuong Hung Le, 30, his wife, Trish Dawn Lam, 25, and Lam's 6-year-old son, Tommy, on Monday when they conducted a welfare check at the family's home, on a street lined with two-story stucco houses about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County. All the victims were stabbed, Lt. Dennis Ellsworth said Wednesday, withholding details of the wounds. The girl, whose name was not immediately available, was treated at a hospital for dehydration and facial injuries and placed in protective custody.

Mother sentenced to 15 years for killing infants

FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany -- A woman was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for killing eight of her newborn babies in the 1990s and burying their bodies around her parents' home in a case that shocked Germany. Sabine Hilschenz, 40, was given the maximum sentence after the court found her guilty of eight counts of manslaughter. She also was suspected in the death of a ninth child in 1988, but the statute of limitations does not allow for that case to be tried. Hilschenz was arrested after the remains of the infants were found in July, buried in flower pots and a fish tank in the garden of her parents' home near the German-Polish border. The macabre discovery and a string of serious child abuse cases caused a media storm in Germany and helped prompt a government drive to improve protection for minors.

-- From wire reports