Wen Ho Lee finishes plea bargain in security case

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Wen Ho Lee has completed terms of a plea agreement that was reached one year ago after a bungled government investigation into charges he mishandled top-secret information.

Lee was set free a year ago Thursday with a judge's apologies in a case that stirred a nationwide debate about national security.

But Lee's freedom had limits. He had agreed to be available for the ensuing year to answer FBI questions. At 12:01 a.m. Friday, Lee was officially free of the constraints

Armed Texas convict caught in Mississippi

BEAUMONT, Texas -- A convicted killer who escaped from a Texas prison earlier this week was captured Friday in Mississippi, authorities said.

"We got the guy," Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said. "We have confirmed his identity through fingerprints."

Harold Laird, 26, was arrested about 7:30 a.m. by a constable in Forrest County, Miss., which includes Hattiesburg. He was in a pickup truck with Georgia plates that had been reported stolen from Slidell, La. The truck was parked outside an abandoned grocery store.

The concern about Laird had been heightened because inside the original stolen truck was a .22-caliber rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition.

Eight death sentences given in killing plot

KINSHASA, Congo -- A military court in Congo has sentenced eight people to death for a failed plot to assassinate the central African nation's president, Joseph Kabila.

Fifteen others were sentenced to 10-year prison terms in Thursday's trial in the remote southern town of Likasi. Two people were sentenced to 15- and five-year terms, respectively, while the court acquitted 34 others.

Dozens of former child soldiers were among the suspects, but it was unclear whether any were among the convicted.

Next stage of Kursk sub salvage undertaken

MOSCOW -- Preparations for attaching cables that will lift the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk from the sea floor began Friday after salvage workers successfully cut off the vessel's bow.

The 26 holes cut in the main body of the submarine are being cleaned so that guides can be installed on its exterior hull for plugs to hold the cables, said Larissa Van Seumeren, spokeswoman for Dutch consortium Mammoet-Smit International. The consortium has been contracted by the Russian government for the $65 million salvage operation.

The submarine is set to be lifted around Sept. 25 from the bottom of the Barents Sea, where it sank on Aug. 12, 2000 with 118 men aboard.

$3 million scam gives trader five-year term

CHICAGO -- A former commodities trader was sentenced to five years in prison after admitting that he wooed investors with misleading radio ads that spoke of huge financial returns.

Prosecutors said Barry J. Wolf, 37, bilked 260 investors out of nearly $3 million. Wolf pleaded guilty in May to 13 counts of mail and commodities fraud.

In sentencing Wolf on Thursday, U.S. District Judge William Hart also ordered him to pay full restitution to his victims and to undergo drug counseling in prison.

--From wire reports