Nation digest 06/08/02

Endeavour delivers new crew to space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Endeavour delivered a new crew to the international space station Friday to relieve the three men who have been living aboard the orbiting outpost for the past six months.

Astronaut Daniel Bursch, Carl Walz and Yuri Onufrienko, their Russian commander, moved into the space station in early December and did not expect to stay so long. Robot-arm problems at the space station and then shuttle launch delays added more than a month to their stint in orbit.

Replacing them aboard the space station were Russians Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev and American astronaut-biochemist Peggy Whitson.

Endeavour will remain at the station for eight days.

Lawyers in dog attack case seek new trial

SAN FRANCISCO -- Lawyers for a woman convicted of murder in the dog mauling death of a neighbor asked a judge Friday for a new trial, saying prosecutors failed to prove she knew the animals would kill anyone.

Marjorie Knoller and her husband, Robert Noel, were arrested after their two huge Presa Canario dogs attacked 33-year-old Diane Whipple outside her apartment door last year.

Knoller was convicted in March of second-degree murder. She was also found guilty, along with her husband, of manslaughter and having a mischievous dog that killed someone.

Knoller, 46, faces 15 years to life in prison. Noel, 60, faces up to four years. Sentencing had been scheduled for Friday, but the first order of business was the request for a new trial.

Student pleads innocent to May pipe bombings

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- A college student accused of planting pipe bombs and anti-government letters in mailboxes in five states pleaded innocent to federal charges Friday.

Luke Helder, 21, made a brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate John Jarvey, then was quickly escorted back to jail.

Helder was indicted Wednesday on federal charges of using a pipe bomb to destroy Delores Werling's mailbox in rural Tipton on May 3. A conviction could bring up to 40 years in prison. He also is charged with using a bomb in a crime of violence, which could bring life in prison.

Helder, a University of Wisconsin-Stout student, allegedly put 18 pipe bombs in mailboxes in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas. He was arrested near Reno, Nev., May 7.

A trial was scheduled for Sept. 16.

Jury in Andersen case asks to rehear testimony

HOUSTON -- Jurors in Arthur Andersen LLP's obstruction of justice trial asked Friday to rehear testimony from the firm's former top Enron Corp. auditor regarding his guilty plea to the same charge.

The auditor, David Duncan, 43, spent more than four days on the stand last month. He pleaded guilty in April to directing mass shredding of documents related to the energy company's audits.

After some haggling from attorneys on both sides about what portions to read back, the judge approved sections from Duncan's questioning by prosecutor Andrew Weissmann and from cross-examination by lead defense lawyer Rusty Hardin.

The jury ended its second day of deliberations without reaching a verdict; they were to resume today.

-- From wire reports