Dozens of possible jurors rejected

Dozens of possible jurors rejected

PHOENIX

Roughly a third of 300 potential jurors were dismissed Monday in the penalty retrial of convicted murderer Jodi Arias after telling a judge they had seen too much media coverage of her first trial to be impartial or had already made up their minds about her punishment.

Other jurors were let go due to work conflicts or language barriers, among other reasons, as jury selection began in the second attempt by prosecutors to secure a death sentence in the Arizona case that became a tabloid TV sensation.

Arias, 34, has acknowledged killing ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008 at his suburban Phoenix home but said it was self-defense.

More bodies found at volcano in Japan

KISO, Japan

Toxic gases and ash from still-erupting Mount Ontake forced Japanese rescue workers to call off the search for more victims Monday as dozens of relatives awaited news of their family members.

Rescuers found five more bodies near the summit of the volcano, bringing the death toll to 36. They have managed to airlift only 12 bodies off the mountain since the start of the eruption on Saturday because of dangerous conditions.

How the victims died remains unclear, though experts say it was probably from suffocating ash, falling rocks, toxic gases or some combination of them. Some of the bodies had severe contusions.

Doctor gets 10 years for poisoning lover

HOUSTON

A jury Monday sentenced a Texas cancer researcher to 10 years in prison after she was convicted of poisoning her colleague, who was also her lover, by lacing his coffee with a sweet-tasting chemical found in antifreeze.

Dr. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, 43, a breast-cancer doctor based at Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center, had been involved in a sexual relationship with her fellow researcher, Dr. George Blumenschein.

Prosecutors said the affair turned into a “fatal attraction,” and she poisoned him with ethylene glycol after Blumenschein spurned her in favor of Evette Toney, his longtime live-in girlfriend with whom he was trying to start a family. Blumenschein survived the 2013 poisoning.

45 dogs dead, 48 alive after Vegas fire

LAS VEGAS

A weekend fire that tore through a North Las Vegas home with 93 small dogs — more than 15 times the maximum number of canines allowed in a house by the city — killed 45 of them and injured one man. Now the two tenants who rented the home from a North Las Vegas city councilman could face animal-cruelty charges, authorities said Monday.

Councilman Isaac Barron issued a statement Monday through a city spokesman saying that he’s heartbroken about the dogs that died at the Stanley Avenue home he owns, and he expects people will be held accountable if crimes were committed.

Barron is also a teacher at Rancho High School in Las Vegas. It wasn’t immediately clear if his tenants had the dogs as pets or were breeding them for sale.

Their names weren’t immediately made public.

Indian PM visits

washington

Once shunned by the United States, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode a wave of enthusiasm and popular support Monday to the White House, where he kicked off a two-day visit with President Barack Obama.

The two leaders sought to put a brave face on the relationship despite widespread concerns that U.S.-Indian ties have frayed in recent years.

Associated Press