Investigators search suspect's residences

Investigators searchsuspect's residences
SEATTLE -- More than 70 investigators combed through four residences previously occupied by Gary Leon Ridgway, held in connection with a series of murders known as the Green River slayings.
A King County Sheriff's spokesman said Sunday that once the homes have been thoroughly searched a new task force would likely be convened to probe the slayings of 49 women from 1982-84 -- long the nation's worst unsolved serial killing case.
At the height of the investigation in the mid-1980s, scores of investigators were assigned exclusively to the killings of young women, mostly runaways and prostitutes.
Detective Tom Jensen, who was the lone investigator on the case after the King County task force was disbanded in the 1990s, has said the killer's death toll may be somewhere in the mid-50s or higher.
Sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart declined Sunday to comment on whether the bodies of several women discovered after the official 49 victims would be added to the Green River list.
Ridgway, 52, was arrested Friday as he left his job at Kenworth Truck Co. where he has worked as a truck painter since 1969.
Support for changefor Japan's monarchy
TOKYO -- A top Japanese government official said he supported legal changes needed to allow women to assume the throne of the world's oldest monarchy, but suggested today that the process could take decades.
The comments by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda came two days after Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako became the parents of a baby girl, their first child.
The imperial family hasn't had a boy born since 1965, leading to worries that Naruhito may have no male heir to carry on the monarchy.
Fukuda, the government's top spokesman and also the minister in charge of gender equality, said he would support allowing women to take the throne. However, he also said extensive discussions were needed before any change.
Healthy quintuplets
MOORHEAD, Minn. -- Quintuplets delivered 15 weeks early were faring well Sunday in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit.
The three boys and two girls, born to a 29-year-old mother and 32-year-old father on Friday, were not due until March 11.
"They've had a very good start," said Dr. Judy Ney, who delivered the babies. "She had a very good pregnancy."
The National Center for Health Statistics said that in 1999, there were just 67 births involving five or more babies in the United States.
Officials at the Children's Hospitals and Clinics have not released the names of the babies or their parents.
Associated Press