Kristi Yamaguchi wins ‘Dancing with the Stars’

Kristi Yamaguchi wins ‘Dancing with the Stars’

LOS ANGELES — Kristi Yamaguchi has earned a well-deserved victory on “Dancing With the Stars,” defeating pro football star Jason Taylor in the season finale.

The figure-skating champion was clearly the most talented dancer on this season’s show. But it has been hard for women to win. Men triumphed the past four seasons before Yamaguchi’s victory. And with the current viewership 75 percent female, there was plenty of suspense heading into Tuesday’s finals.

China struggling with shelter for quake victims

AN XIAN, China — China is grappling with the next massive task in the aftermath of its earthquake — how to shelter the 5 million people left homeless.

Many were living Tuesday in tent cities like one at the base of Qianfo mountain in the disaster zone, offering some stability — along with food and medical care — to those whose lives were upended.

The government issued an urgent appeal Tuesday for tents and brought in the first foreign teams of doctors and field hospitals, some of whom were swapping out with overseas search and rescue specialists.

The switch underscored a shift in the response to China’s worst disaster in three decades from an emergency stage to one of recovery — and for many, enduring hardship.

Diplomats: Iran thwarted probe into nuclear activity

VIENNA, Austria — Iran has stymied the latest U.N. attempt to investigate allegations that it tried to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Tuesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, will acknowledge it was unable to follow up on the allegations in a report to be presented as early as Friday to its 35-nation board, two diplomats told The Associated Press.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei expressed optimism a month ago when he announced that Iran agreed to review intelligence collected by the U.N. agency, just a few weeks after Tehran had declared the books closed on any attempt to look into its reported nuclear arms programs.

Court strikes down late-term abortion ban

RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia law banning a type of late-term abortion is still unconstitutional, even though a similar federal ban was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the same court’s 2005 ruling striking down the law. The Supreme Court had ordered the appeals court to take another look at Virginia’s statute after the ruling on the federal ban.

The appeals court cited a key difference between the federal and state bans on the procedure that abortion opponents call “partial-birth abortion.” The federal law protects doctors who set out to perform a legal abortion that by accident becomes the banned procedure. The Virginia statute provides no such protection.

Four people charged in lottery winner’s death

CANTON — Four people have been charged in the shooting death of a 78-year-old man who reported several burglaries at his home in Canton after he won $250,000 in the Ohio Lottery.

Bond was set Monday at $2 million for each defendant on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated burglary.

They were charged in Thursday’s slaying of Lee Kost. He was found dead in his home Friday after police 35 miles away in Brecksville stopped the four defendants traveling in one of his two Jaguars for speeding and erratic driving.

Kost was retired and last year won $250,000 from the lottery. Earlier this year, he reported several burglaries at his home.

Former Carter aide dies

ATLANTA — Hamilton Jordan, a political strategist from south Georgia who helped propel Jimmy Carter to the White House and served as his chief of staff, has died after a long battle with cancer.

Carter’s former chief of communications, Gerald Rafshoon, says the 63-year-old died Tuesday night at his home in Atlanta.

Jordan’s battle with cancer began 22 years ago, when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, followed by bouts with melanoma and prostate cancer.

The Carter Center in Atlanta announced that a memorial service would be held there Friday.

Associated Press