'Witness' of Virginia killings targeted in probe

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Canadian authorities said Saturday they have begun seeking out acquaintances of a man described as a "witness" in the disappearance of a 9-year-old Virginia girl and the deaths of her parents.

Garrison Storm Bowman, who owned a trailer in North Carolina near where the girl's remains were found Sept. 25, was being held in Canada on grounds he illegally entered the country about a month ago.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Bowman had been living in the town of Inuvik, about 700 miles north of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories.

"We will scan the population in Inuvik to determine who might have had dealings with Mr. Bowman and find out from them what they know about him," RCMP spokesman Sgt. Phil Johnson said in a telephone interview.

Hawaiian in Congress remembered at funeral

HONOLULU -- To the sound of a conch shell and a traditional Hawaiian chant, Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink was remembered for her sincerity, integrity and tenacity in fighting for her strong liberal beliefs.

About 1,500 people gathered in the state Capitol rotunda Friday for the funeral of the petite, energy-packed Democratic lawmaker known throughout the islands and the nation's capital simply as "Patsy." She had been the first woman from an ethnic minority to serve in Congress.

An honor guard from Washington, D.C., had watched over the closed casket through the night as hundreds of people entered a tent to pay their respects. Mink, who served 12 terms in Congress, died last Saturday of viral pneumonia. She was 74.

Somalis resent Maine mayor's letter

LEWISTON, Maine -- Somali immigrants are expressing resentment over a letter by Lewiston Mayor Larry Raymond urging them to "exercise some discipline" and stop moving so quickly into Maine's second-largest city.

Leaders of the Somali community were meeting over the weekend to draft a response to the letter, which expressed alarm about the arrival of more than 1,000 Somalis in Lewiston, a city of about 35,000 residents, over the past 20 months.

"This large number of new arrivals cannot continue without negative results for all," Raymond wrote in the three-page letter sent last week to Somali leaders and released to reporters.

"The Somali community must exercise some discipline and reduce the stress on our limited finances and our generosity," the letter read.

NASA to beam down live launch video

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- In a dramatic first for human space flight, a camera will beam down live video as shuttle Atlantis soars into orbit this week.

The shuttlecam view will start with the launch pad, then the whole launch site and then all of Cape Canaveral and the Eastern Seaboard as Atlantis blasts off and climbs higher and higher.

Two minutes into the flight, viewers should see the booster rockets peeling away. Six minutes later, Atlantis will separate from its fuel tank, with the grand curvature of Earth below.

"It's going to be like being on board the shuttle," said launch director Mike Leinbach.

Show time is Monday afternoon, after nearly seven weeks of delay.

Hooters owner wants to buy N.C. airline

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- The owner of the Hooters restaurant chain isn't giving up on his quest to buy an airline to serve this tourist town and the place he calls home.

Robert H. Brooks' bid to purchase the assets of bankrupt, Kansas City, Mo.-based Vanguard Airlines was rejected last week, but he says negotiations are in the works to buy Pace Airlines.

"We're just trying to reach an objective," Brooks told The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News Friday. "At one time, we thought we could walk in and it wouldn't take long to jumpstart Vanguard. But that didn't work out. Then we started looking at Pace."

--From wire reports