Jawbone does not belong to Holloway

Jawbone does not belong to Holloway

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico

A jawbone found on an Aruba beach does not belong to missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, prosecutors in the Dutch Caribbean island said Tuesday. The jawbone is human, though it is unclear who it belongs to. Dutch investigators compared the lone tooth on the bone with dental records supplied by Holloway’s family, and “it can be ruled out that the bone fragment came from Natalee Holloway,” the prosecutors said.

No verdict yet in DeLay trial

AUSTIN, Texas

Jurors in former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s money-laundering trial ended their first full day of deliberations without a verdict Tuesday, seeming to struggle as they asked questions that had the judge in the case shaking his head and saying they weren’t on the right track.

But just before the panel went home for the day, it sent Senior Judge Pat Priest a note that said, “We’re making some progress, but we’d like to go home and come back in the morning.”

DeLay is charged with money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors say he used his political-action committee to illegally funnel $190,000 in corporate donations into Texas legislative races in 2002 through a money swap.

Priest accused of soliciting hit man

SAN ANTONIO

A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested on charges that he solicited a hit man to kill a teenager who had accused him of sexual abuse.

Authorities said John Fiala first offered the job to a neighbor, who blew the whistle and helped police arrange a sting. They said Fiala got as far as negotiating a $5,000 price for the slaying before investigators moved in.

The 52-year-old clergyman was arrested Nov. 18 at his suburban Dallas home and jailed on $700,000 bond. In April, he was named in a lawsuit filed by the boy’s family, who accused Fiala of molesting the youth, including twice forcing him to have sex at gunpoint.

Drill breaks through to coal-mine shaft

GREYMOUTH, New Zealand

A drilling team today broke a narrow shaft through to the section of a New Zealand coal mine where 29 workers have been missing for almost six days and was greeted by a blast of potentially deadly gases from inside.

Officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of pulling the men alive from a network of tunnels some 11/2 miles deep in the side of a mountain, after a powerful explosion Friday.

UK sets new limits on immigration

LONDON

Britain will impose a tough annual limit on the number of non-Europeans allowed to work in the U.K. and slash visas for overseas students as it seeks to dramatically reduce immigration, the government said Tuesday. Home Secretary Theresa May told the House of Commons that the number of non-EU nationals permitted to work in the U.K. from April 2011 will be capped at about 22,000 — a reduction of about one-fifth from 2009.

Serial killer pleads guilty to 8th murder

SPRINGFIELD, Mass

A serial killer from western Massachusetts added an eighth murder to his record Tuesday, admitting that a woman he strangled in 1995 was his first killing.

Alfred Gaynor’s guilty plea Tuesday to another murder places the 43-year-old among the most prolific serial killers in recent Massachusetts history, according to prosecutors.

Associated Press