INTERNATIONAL
In important breakthrough, scientists trap antimatter atoms
GENEVA (AP) — Scientists may have been able to capture elusive atoms of antimatter, but don’t expect that to lead to interstellar rocket engines or powerful bombs anytime soon — if ever. Despite its importance, they emphasized that science fiction uses of the stuff remain in the realm of the imagination.
Cholera protests in Haiti capital, epidemic killed more than 1,000
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Protesters in Haiti’s capital are lashing out at U.N. peacekeepers and the government, blocking roads and attacking foreigners’ vehicles.
Demonstrators are setting up burning barricades, and Haitian police have fired tear gas.
The protest follows days of rioting in northern Haiti over suspicions that U.N. soldiers introduced a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 1,000 people.
Stonehenge gets millions in grant for major makeover
LONDON (AP) — Stonehenge is getting a multimillion-pound grant that conservators say will help restore dignity to a World Heritage site blighted by busy roads and cramped facilities.
English Heritage said Friday it has about two-thirds of the money it needs to revamp the area around the prehistoric circle of stones, although the group said the improvements probably won’t finish before the 2012 Olympic Games, when hordes of tourists are expected to descend on the site.
A 25 million-pound plan to redo the site was derailed when the cash-strapped British government moved to curtail public spending earlier this year.
Friday’s 10 million-pound grant is being awarded by the Heritage Lottery Foundation, which uses money raised through the national lottery to refurbish museums, parks and archaeological areas.
NATIONAL
Iraq veteran convicted in slaying of 18-year-old Auburn student
OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — A former Army soldier who claimed to be mentally disturbed from his deployment in Iraq was convicted of capital murder Thursday in the abduction and shooting death of an Auburn University student from Georgia.
Jurors deliberated about six-and-a-half hours over two days before convicting Courtney Lockhart, 26, of rural Smith Station, in the killing of 18-year-old freshman Lauren Burk of Marietta, Ga.
Jurors voted 12-0 to recommend sentencing him to life in prison without parole, rather than death by injection. The judge set sentencing for Jan. 28.
Burk was abducted on the night of March 4, 2008, as she got into her car in a campus parking lot after visiting her boyfriend. According to statements given by Lockhart, he pulled a gun on the screaming student, trying to rob her, and forced her into her car as he drove it off.
 
Louisiana grand jury indicts ‘dead’ man on kidnap charges
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man who was declared dead in 1994 has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the kidnapping of a 12-year-old Las Vegas girl whose skeletal remains were found last month in central Louisiana.
Thomas Steven Sanders is scheduled to face a federal magistrate Friday at a detention hearing in Alexandria, La., on the kidnapping charge.
Stephanie A. Finley, a U.S. attorney in Louisiana, said in a news release Thursday that Sanders could face the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping 12-year-old Lexis Roberts, which allegedly resulted in her death.
Authorities in Louisiana’s Catahoula Parish, where Lexis Roberts’ body was found in the woods off a dirt road Oct. 8, say they will charge Sanders with first-degree murder in state court after he’s processed on the federal charge.
STATE/LOCAL
State says Medicaid revamp won’t start for another year
(AP) — State Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein said it will be the end of 2011 before the state starts a revamp of Louisiana’s Medicaid program that would offer a new health care delivery system for the poor.
Witness: Police officer laughed after burning a man’s body
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans police officer was laughing after he burned the body of a man who had been gunned down by police in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, a fellow officer testified Thursday.
The testimony came during the trial of officer Greg McRae and Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann, who are charged with burning the body of 31-year-old Henry Glover in a car after he was shot and killed by a different officer outside a strip mall on Sept. 2, 2005.
 
 
 
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