Suspect indicted in N.C. student’s death

Suspect indicted in N.C. student’s death

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal grand jury has indicted one of two men accused in the slaying of the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Monday’s indictment against 22-year-old Demario Atwater is on charges of carjacking resulting in death and carrying and using firearms during and in relation to carjacking. Federal prosecutors could seek a death sentence.

State prosecutors had already charged Atwater with murder in the March 5 death of 22-year-old Eve Carson, of Athens, Ga.

Also charged in state court is Laurence Lovette, who was under age 18 when Carson was killed.

Fatal shooting not random

CONWAY, Ark. — A shooting that left two students dead at the University of Central Arkansas did not appear to be random, authorities said Monday as the school’s president pronounced the campus secure.

Two suspects were being questioned and two others were being sought after Sunday night’s shooting, which wounded a third person at the 12,500-student campus.

University police Lt. Rhonda Swindle identified the dead as Ryan Henderson, 18, and Chavares Block, 19 — both students. A nonstudent, Martrevis Norman of Blytheville, was treated at a hospital for a shot in one leg.

Child-prostitution sweep

WASHINGTON — More than 600 adults have been arrested and 47 children rescued in a three-day roundup targeting people who force children into prostitution.

The FBI said the roundup by federal, state and local law enforcement occurred in 29 cities, adding that the raids dismantled 12 large-scale prostitution operations run through call services, truck stops, casinos and Web sites.

Child prostitution has taken on a new urgency in recent years with the growth of online networks where pimps advertise the youngsters to clients.

Big pay for FBI informant

CAMDEN, N.J. — Being an informant for the FBI in the Fort Dix terror investigation has paid well, a witness explained to jurors Monday.

John Stermel, an investigator assigned to an FBI counterterrorism task force, spent Monday morning on the stand detailing the role of informant Mahmoud Omar, who wore a wire for 16 months in the investigation of five men accused of planning to shoot soldiers at the Army training base.

By year’s end, Omar will have received nearly $240,000 for his help; $185,000 in payments plus reimbursement for $25,000 in expenses and nearly $29,000 in rent.

Peacekeepers attacked

GOMA, Congo — Furious mobs stoned U.N. peacekeepers’ compounds Monday, and thousands of desperate people fled advancing rebel troops as chaos returned to eastern Congo, fueled by festering hatreds left over from the Rwandan genocide and the country’s unrelenting civil wars.

Later in the day, peacekeepers in helicopter gunships attacked rebel forces surging on Kibumba, about 30 miles north of Goma, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

Deadline looms in Iraq

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has advised Iraqi authorities that it will have to shut down security and service operations in Iraq if the year ends without a security agreement or a renewed U.N. mandate for American forces, Iraqi officials said Monday.

Iraqi politicians are considering a draft agreement that would keep U.S. troops in Iraq through 2011 and give the Iraqis a greater role in security operations.

Al-Qaida leader killed

SUKKARIYEH, Syria — Families in this Syrian village on Monday buried relatives they said died in a U.S. helicopter attack. A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces killed the head of a Syrian network that funneled fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq.

The raid Sunday targeted the home of Abu Ghadiyah, the nickname for the leader of a key cell of foreign fighters in Iraq, according to the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Taliban down helicopter

KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents on Monday downed a U.S. helicopter in a province near the capital, American military officials said — an unusual feat for the Taliban. The crew survived and was rescued, a U.S. military spokesman said.

Also Monday, a suicide bomber dressed as an Afghan policeman killed two American soldiers and wounded several other people at a police station in northern Afghanistan.

Combined dispatches