Prosecutors: Peterson hid wife's body in toolbox

Prosecutors: Peterson hidwife's body in toolbox
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Prosecutors contend Scott Peterson stuffed his pregnant wife's body in the toolbox of his pickup truck before setting out to dump her body in San Francisco Bay, revealing for the first time how they believe he may have hauled the body nearly 100 miles without anyone's noticing.
Prosecutors used a re-enactment of sorts to make their point, showing jurors pictures of a pregnant woman in the toolbox. Her measurements were nearly identical to those of Laci Peterson at the time she vanished.
One picture showed the woman -- at the time 38 weeks pregnant, 5-feet-2-inches tall and 157 pounds -- lying in the fetal position inside the toolbox.
Another showed her on the floor of his boat, where she could barely be seen above the rim.
Prosecutors used the photographs of the woman, who works at the Stanislaus County district attorney's office, to counter defense claims that someone would have seen Laci Peterson's body in the truck, or in the 14-foot boat as Peterson motored onto the bay.
Judge rebuffs effort to halt wolf reintroduction
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A judge has rebuffed an effort by ranching groups to shut down the Mexican gray wolf reintroduction program, saying the animals' survival is more important than minor economic losses.
U.S. District Judge M. Christina Armijo rejected a preliminary injunction of the program despite ranchers' allegations that wolves have attacked cattle and could breed with dogs to create a hybrid species.
"In this case," Judge Armijo wrote in her order Tuesday, "the balance of hardships and the public interest weigh in favor of allowing the reintroduction and translocation efforts."
The program began with the release of 11 captive-bred wolves into the Arizona wild in March 1998. About 30 of the wolves were listed in the wild in both New Mexico and Arizona as of late 2003.
The goal was to have a sustainable population of 100 Mexican gray wolves in their historic habitat. The wolves were virtually hunted to extinction during the first half of the 20th century, surviving only in captivity.
Indictment challenged
LOS ANGELES -- Michael Jackson's lawyers asked a judge to throw out his grand jury indictment on molestation charges, saying prosecutors bullied and argued with witnesses and "ran the proceedings as if they employed the grand jurors."
"There is no case in the history of the state of California that has condoned anything like the abuse of power demonstrated in this grand jury proceeding," said the motion signed by attorney Robert Sanger.
Filed Tuesday, the motion was released by the court Wednesday after being heavily edited by Santa Barbara County Judge Rodney Melville to remove names of witnesses and references to the specifics of the indictment.
The dismissal issue is to be argued at a future hearing in Santa Maria.
Bush declines invitation
PHILADELPHIA -- President Bush declined an invitation to speak at the NAACP's annual convention, the group said.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People expects more than 8,000 people to attend the convention opening Saturday.
Democratic challenger John Kerry accepted an invitation to speak next Thursday on the final day of the convention, the NAACP said.
Bush spoke at the 2000 NAACP convention in Baltimore when he was a candidate. But he has declined invitations to speak in each year of his presidency, the first president since Herbert Hoover not to attend an NAACP convention, John White, a spokesman for the group, said Wednesday.
"With the exception of Hoover and Calvin Coolidge, every president after Warren Harding has met with the convention," White said Wednesday.
European abortion ruling
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Europe's top human rights court rejected an appeal today to grant full human rights to a fetus, saying national governments must decide the issue themselves.
Meeting in Strasbourg, France, the European Court of Human Rights said it could not rule on a case filed by a French woman who was forced to have an abortion after a doctor's mistake.
Thi-Nho Vo had argued that France had violated the right to life of her unborn child, after French courts refused to convict the doctor of involuntary homicide.
The 17-judge panel ruled the issue of when the right to life begins "was a question to be decided at national level ... because the issue had not been decided within the majority of states" which have ratified the European Convention on human rights.
Associated Press