Court releases rancher accused in nun’s murder

Court releases rancher accused in nun’s murder

SAO PAULO — A Brazilian court has freed an Amazon rancher accused of masterminding the 2005 murder of a U.S. nun and rain-forest activist.

The court says it released Vitalmiro Moura while it considers a habeas corpus petition that would order him brought before a judge.

Moura was convicted in 2007 of orchestrating the murder of Dorothy Stang, a nun from Dayton, Ohio. Stang was shot six times in the jungle city of Anapu, where she had worked to keep ranchers from developing public lands.

As a first-time offender sentenced to 30 years in prison, Brazilian law allowed Moura a second trial, and he was acquitted in 2008. A court overturned that decision this month, ruling that video evidence his defense had used had been illegally gathered.

Money manager accused of faking death speaks out

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A troubled Indiana money-manager accused of trying to fake his death in a Florida plane crash tells The Associated Press in a letter that he “snapped.”

In a four-page letter the AP received Wednesday, Marcus Schrenker said his business and marriage were collapsing. He writes that he never asked for help and then it “all came crashing down around me.”

Authorities say the amateur daredevil pilot put his small plane on autopilot Jan. 11 and bailed out near Birmingham, Ala., after making false distress calls. He then sped away on a motorcycle, leaving the plane to crash.

Schrenker, 38, had slit his wrist when authorities found him at a campground. He has a federal court hearing today to determine if he is competent to stand trial on charges related to the plane crash.

Lesotho’s prime minister escapes assassination

JOHANNESBURG — Lesotho’s prime minister escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday at his home in the capital, but the attack sparked a gunfight with police that left three would-be assassins dead, South Africa’s president and media reports said.

Some of the attackers in the city of Maseru managed to escape, but a South African and a Mozambican were arrested, and a number of weapons were seized, the South African Press Association reported.

Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili survived the attack, but details were sketchy.

Mosisili, 64, has been premier of the impoverished southern African mountain kingdom for 12 years.

4 hostages released

BAMAKO, Mali — Kidnappers on Wednesday liberated four foreign hostages who had been held for months, including two U.N. staffers, a Malian official said.

Presidential spokesman Seydou Cissouma said two Canadian U.N. workers, Robert Fowler and his aide Louis Guay, were set free along with two female tourists.

Al-Qaida’s North Africa branch had claimed the kidnapping, saying it was holding Fowler, a senior U.N. peace envoy, and the others after taking them captive in neighboring Niger. The U.N. staffers were captured in December, while the two women were members of a group of four tourists seized a month later.

U.S. soldier killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military says an American soldier has been killed in Iraq.

A statement released by the military says the Multi-National Division soldier died Wednesday from combat-related injuries sustained during a patrol in an eastern section of the capital.

It doesn’t identify the soldier or give more details but says the incident is under investigation.

The death raises to at least 4,275 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. That’s according to an Associated Press count.

A suicide bomber killed at least five people Wednesday in a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad.

Freddie Mac CFO hanged himself, authorities say

WASHINGTON — The chief financial officer of money-losing mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead in his basement early Wednesday in what police said was an apparent suicide. David Kellermann, 41, apparently hanged himself, said a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

Kellermann’s death is the latest in a string of blows to Freddie Mac since it was seized by the government last September. Freddie Mac lost more than $50 billion last year, and the Treasury Department has pumped in $45 billion to keep the company afloat.

Associated Press