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Guard strangled at Washington prison

MONROE, Wash.

A corrections officer who had raised concerns about being the sole guard in the chapel of a Washington state prison was strangled there over the weekend, and an inmate serving a life sentence is the primary suspect, authorities said Sunday.

Jayme Biendl, 34, was found dead Saturday night in the chapel at Monroe Correctional Complex about 30 miles northeast of Seattle, Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis said. She had been strangled with a microphone cord.

The male inmate, whose identity has not been released by authorities, was reported missing during a routine count at 9:14 p.m. Saturday. He was found three minutes later in the chapel lobby and told officers he had planned to escape.

“He is our primary suspect,” Monroe police spokeswoman Debbie Willis said. Biendl was fully clothed and there was no evidence of a sexual assault, Willis said.

Steroid-testing program may be cut

AUSTIN, Texas

When Texas began testing tens of thousands of high school athletes for steroids, the goal was to stop teens from taking dangerous performance-enhancing drugs. The death of a 17-year-old baseball player in a Dallas suburb had drawn national attention to the hazard.

But that program could now be axed to save money. Tough economic times are prompting the state along with school districts across the country to pull back from steroid testing just a few years after a series of scandals in professional and amateur sports.

Islamist leader returns to Tunisia

TUNIS, Tunisia

The leader of a long-outlawed Tunisian Islamist party returned home Sunday after two decades in exile, telling The Associated Press in his first interview on arrival that his views are moderate and that his Westward-looking country has nothing to fear.

Rachid Ghanouchi and about 70 other exiled members of Ennahdha, or Renaissance, flew home from Britain two weeks after President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from power by violent protests. At the airport, thousands of people welcomed him, cheering, shouting “God is great!” and drowning out his attempt to address the crowd with a megaphone.

Ghanouchi rejected any comparison to more radical figures, including the hardline father of the Iranian Revolution.

In Venezuela, 1 killed, thousands evacuated

MARACAY, Venezuela

A fire and a series of explosions tore through a military arms depot Sunday, killing one person and leading authorities to evacuate thousands of people.

About 10,000 residents fled their homes as the burning ammunition produced powerful blasts, officials said.

The cause of the pre-dawn fire was unclear. Hours after the initial explosions, faint booms could still be heard.

5 face piracy trial

SEOUL, South Korea

Five Somali pirates captured during a raid on a hijacked cargo ship in the Arabian Sea were brought Sunday to South Korea, where they could face life imprisonment, the coast guard said.

The men were arrested as South Korean commandos raided the South Korean-operated Samho Jewelry earlier this month, a week after pirates seized the freighter and its 21 crew members. The commandos rescued all crew members — eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and 11 Myanmar citizens — and killed eight Somali pirates.

Associated Press