High water watch in La.

High water watch in La.

NORCO, La. — In a sure sign that the Mississippi River is uncommonly high, muddy water poured steadily Tuesday into a holding area through a beaver-dam-like structure built after the great flood of 1927, aiming for the sea.

For now, the Army Corps of Engineers is not overly concerned about the high water, saying levees and spillways can easily handle the volume flowing south to the Gulf of Mexico from areas upriver soaked by recent heavy rains.

Parachute isn’t Cooper’s

SEATTLE — A parachute found buried in southwestern Washington was not used by plane hijacker D.B. Cooper when he bailed out over the Pacific Northwest in 1971, the FBI said Tuesday.

The agency came to its conclusion after speaking with parachute experts and digging where children found the parachute early last month, said Laura Laughlin, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle division.

Earlier, the man who packed the four chutes given to the mysterious hijacker said they could not have been used by Cooper. Earl Cossey examined the found parachute for the FBI on Friday.

Plea in slashing death

NEW YORK — A former mental patient accused of slashing a Manhattan psychotherapist to death with a meat cleaver pleaded innocent Tuesday to murder and other charges.

Court papers filed by the prosecution, meanwhile, say David Tarloff told police he was by sexually abused by his grandmother, and by a stranger when he was 5 years old. The abuse claims could help form the basis of a possible insanity defense. In court Tuesday, his lawyer said Tarloff has made bizarre statements to his father such as, “I’m the Messiah; why are they doing this to me?”

Tarloff, 40, of Queens, is charged with first- and second-degree murder in the death of Kathryn Faughey, 56, in her Manhattan office on Feb. 12.

Man detained at airport

ORLANDO, Fla. — A man was detained Tuesday at Orlando International Airport carrying materials in his luggage that could have been used for an explosive device, said a congressman briefed on the incident.

Federal behavioral specialists spotted the man around noon in the ticketing area, said Lee Kair, federal security director at the airport. The man had never passed through security, Kair said.

Researchers: AIDS drug doubles heart attack risk

LONDON — A commonly used AIDS drug appears to nearly double the risk of a heart attack, researchers said Tuesday.

In a study published online by the medical journal Lancet, the researchers also said another less frequently used AIDS drug increased the chances of a heart attack by 50 percent. Experts said doctors should be aware of the increased risks, but they did not recommend that patients abandon the two drugs, Ziagen and Videx.

Missile deal includes guarantees to Russia

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Scrambling to seal a missile defense deal this weekend, the U.S. is offering guarantees to assure the Russians the system isn’t a European military threat aimed at them.

A key pledge: The U.S. won’t activate new sites in Poland and the Czech Republic unless Iran proves itself an imminent threat to Europe by test-flying a missile capable of reaching the continent. A broader but less-specific agreement seems assured when President Bush sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Peacekeeping in Darfur

UNITED NATIONS — The United States has urged the United Nations to get 3,600 new peacekeepers on the ground in conflict-wracked Darfur by June, according to a letter obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Ambassador Richard Williamson, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, told Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the letter that additional troops are the best hope of increasing security in the Sudanese region.

Call to end farmers strike

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Cristina Fernandez blasted striking farmers at a rally on Tuesday, comparing their nearly three-week-old protest to a 1976 strike that sowed chaos one month before a military coup.

Seeking to build popular opposition to the strike against a disputed export tax increase, Fernandez urged farmers to immediately end hundreds of highway blockades.

Associated Press