VA OFFICIAL STEPS DOWN

VA official steps down
WASHINGTON -- A Veterans Affairs deputy assistant secretary who didn't immediately notify top officials about a theft of 26.5 million veterans' personal information is stepping down, citing missteps that led to the security breach. Michael H. McLendon, deputy assistant secretary for policy who supervised the VA data analyst who lost the data, said he would relinquish his high-level post Friday. The data analyst also will be dismissed while the acting head of the division in which he worked, Dennis Duffy, has been placed on administrative leave, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said Tuesday. McLendon is the first official to depart after Nicholson pledged to hold officials accountable following the May 3 burglary, in which a laptop computer and disks were stolen from an agency analyst's home in Maryland. "Words are inadequate to describe how I feel about these recent events and the impact on the band of brothers and sisters of service members and veterans that we are supposed to serve," McLendon wrote in a letter obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
New evidence, witnessesfound in Diana's death
LONDON -- A senior detective leading an official inquiry into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, said Tuesday that new forensic evidence and fresh witnesses have been uncovered by investigators. Lord John Stevens, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police, refused to elaborate further on the findings of the two-year inquiry into the high-speed car crash in August 1997 in Paris that killed Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their chauffeur, Henry Paul. An interim report had been expected to be published this month, but police officials said no date had been set for its release. Speaking at a literary festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, Stevens said his team of 10 detectives had made progress in examining the deaths -- and a raft of conspiracy theories that surround the crash. "We've got new witnesses and new forensic evidence," Stevens said, but refused to confirm if any were eyewitnesses. "I can't tell you at this stage ... you've already got under my radar."
Accused serial killerpleads guilty to 8 deaths
PEORIA, Ill. -- A serial killer who prosecutors say burned some of his victims to ash and bits of bone in his mother's backyard pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing eight women. Under a deal with prosecutors, Larry Bright, 39, escaped a possible death sentence and instead will get life in prison without parole. Four of his victims' bodies were found dumped along little-traveled roads around Peoria in 2003 and 2004, and the remains of the others were found in burn pits in the yard at the home he shared with his mother. The killings and the time it took authorities to connect them and then track down the killer caused an uproar in Peoria's black community. The victims were black and several were prostitutes and drug addicts. Bright is white.
Boy found alive afterbeing lost for 4 days
CANON CITY, Colo. -- An 8-year-old boy who wandered away from his campsite over the weekend was found Tuesday after searchers investigated a report of a crying child in a remote canyon. "He's alive and well," said Zack Slutzky of Western State Mountain Rescue in Gunnison and a spokesman for the operation. Evan Thompson was found roughly 41/2 miles from where he had been camping with family friends and a teacher, and was being evacuated to a hospital. He wandered away from the campsite Saturday morning after eating breakfast. Nearly 100 rescuers and three aircraft searched for the boy in rugged country about 90 miles south of Denver. The area is dotted with pinyon pine and juniper trees and creased by steep cliffs and narrow ravines. Rescuers and his family remained optimistic throughout the search that the boy could survive in the clothes he was wearing because the weather had been mild.
Muhammad convictedof 6 more sniper murders
ROCKVILLE, Md. -- John Allen Muhammad was convicted of six of the Washington-area sniper killings Tuesday after the prosecution's star witness, Muhammad's young prot & eacute;g & eacute;, portrayed him as the mastermind of an audacious terror scheme in which phase two would have been bombings against children. Muhammad, 45, is already under a death sentence in Virginia for a killing there. The most he can get for the six murders committed in Maryland is life in prison without parole. The jury took slightly more than four hours to convict him after a four-week trial in which he acted as his own attorney. As the verdict was read, Muhammad sat grim-faced, his arms folded across his chest. He was led out of the courtroom, pausing to ask the judge, "Your honor, may I speak?" The judge answered, "No, sir," and Muhammad was taken away.
Associated Press