Ex-prof pleads guilty to killing colleagues

Ex-prof pleads guilty to killing colleagues

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

A former biology professor accused of pulling a gun from her purse and opening fire at a faculty meeting pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing three colleagues and wounding three others at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2010.

Amy Bishop, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of capital murder involving two or more people and three counts of attempted murder during a hearing in Huntsville.

She earlier had pleaded not guilty, and her lawyers said she planned to use an insanity defense.

Prosecutors say Bishop opened fire at the meeting Feb. 12, 2010.

Wildfires burn in dry Northwest

WENATCHEE, Wash.

A haze of thick smoke formed Tuesday over vast swaths of the West as wildfires forced more residents to flee their homes in several states.

Fire officials reported seven homes were destroyed and hundreds of people were evacuated near Casper, Wyo., where a wildfire has burned across almost 24 square miles.

In western Montana, fire crews said there was no containment in sight for a blaze that has prompted an evacuation order for 400 houses west of Hamilton.

More than 150 homes were evacuated due to the fire burning about 140 miles east of Seattle.

Yemeni official escapes bombing

SAN‘A, Yemen

Yemen’s defense minister narrowly escaped assassination Tuesday when a powerful car bomb ripped through his motorcade as it traveled in the nation’s capital, killing at least 13 people in an attack that bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida.

The bombing came a day after Yemeni authorities announced the killing of the No. 2 leader of the network’s Yemeni branch — the terror group’s most active — in an apparent U.S. airstrike.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the midmorning blast in San‘a, but al-Qaida’s Yemeni branch is believed to be behind at least five other failed assassination attempts against the minister, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, who recently has won national acclaim as a seasoned and popular commander in the fight against al-Qaida militants.

1st group of delayed deportees OK’d

WASHINGTON

Just three week after the Obama administration started accepting applications from young illegal immigrants seeking to avoid deportation and get a work permit, the government already has approved some of the roughly 72,000 applications the government has received.

The Homeland Security Department said Tuesday that a small group of applications has been approved, and those immigrants are being notified this week about the decision.

The department did not say how many applications had been approved.

Jury adds $20M to slander-case verdict

LOS ANGELES

A jury doubled its verdict against “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis on Tuesday, ordering him to pay an additional $20 million in punitive damages to Steve Wynn for claiming the casino mogul threatened to kill him.

The decision came one day after the same nine men and three women awarded Wynn $20 million after determining that Francis’ allegations slandered the designer of upscale casinos. Francis plans to appeal the verdicts.

Associated Press