Sandia Labs creates new crime scene equipment
(AP) - New technology developed by Sandia National Laboratories is protecting crime scenes and helping investigators.
The lab has been working with police in El Paso, Texas, to develop remote video equipment that authorities say will speed the investigation process, make crime scene management easier and prevent the contamination of evidence.
Man convicted of 2003 nightclub murder
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. - A former Alamogordo basketball standout was convicted Tuesday of fatally shooting a man and wounding another last year outside a nightclub.
Lenny Holly, 30, was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the death of Kenneth Douglas and the wounding of Jason Carrell. The jury, after deliberating for nearly two days, acquitted him of robbery and tampering with evidence.
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Holly put his head down on the desk as he waited to hear the verdict. His parents wept when it was read.
New York lawmakers lessen harsh drug laws
ALBANY, N.Y. - State lawmakers voted Tuesday to scale back some mandatory sentences under New York's infamously harsh drug laws, which could send a person to prison for life for possessing just a few ounces of heroin or cocaine.
Among the reforms would be to change the current maximum sentence of 15 to 25 years to life to a sentence of eight years to 20 years, making offenders eligible for release in less than seven years. They currently have to serve the minimum of at least 15 years.
The proposal would also eliminate the maximum term of life for the most serious offenses.
Air Force Academy blamed for sexual assault scandal
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon's inspector general says a series of commanders at the Air Force Academy failed to recognize and deal with reports of sexual assaults against female cadets on campus, officials said Tuesday.
"We conclude that the overall root cause of the sexual assault problems at the Air Force Academy was the 'failure of successive chains of command over the past 10 years to acknowledge the severity of the problem,'" Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz wrote in a Dec. 3 memo to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, quoting his own report.
UN shows little progress in battling world hunger
ROME - The number of hungry people in the world has hardly budged in the eight years since nations pledged to cut the number in half by 2015, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.
The target of cutting the number of undernourished people in the developing world in half by 2015 is still within reach, the Food and Agriculture Organization said, contending it would cost countries far less than the amount it would gain in extra productivity and income.
Though the number of hungry people in developing countries fell in the early 1990s, that trend was later reversed.
Neighbors of Iraq accused of not stopping insurgency
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A top Iraqi official accused the country's neighbors Tuesday of doing too little to stop foreigners from joining the brutal insurgency, while the U.S. combat death toll neared 1,000 with the killing of an American soldier in Baghdad.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he "cannot imagine" how Iraq's elections can go forward next month amid the violence.
Egypt agreement could initiate Mideast peace
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Egypt reported Tuesday reaching an understanding with Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and Europe for a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would include a truce and a peace conference in the American capital next summer. The report by Egypt's state-run news agency, MENA, came amid increased optimism over the peace process after the death of Yasser Arafat.
