School therapist's blood debated in murder trial
(AP) - There's no doubt that the blood of a school occupational therapist who was killed was on a school janitor's clothes and in his car. The question is how it got there.
The prosecution in the trial against Martin Saiz contends he attacked and killed Carolyn Rustvold after she went looking for a janitor to open her locked classroom. They contend he then put her body in the trunk of his car, drove to Belen and put the body in a ditch, where the body was found March 9, 2003.
But the defense argues the blood was transferred to Saiz's possessions while he cleaned the classroom as part of his job as night janitor.
Reactions mixed on marriage of teacher, teen
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OJO CALIENTE, N.M. (AP) - The relationship between a 16-year-old student and her former teacher has raised mixed reactions from residents of this northern New Mexico village.
Frank Ortiz, who was a Spanish teacher at Mesa Vista High School, is accused of having sex with a student who was 15 years old when their relationship began.
Both Ortiz and the girl, who is now pregnant, have denied having a sexual relationship. The two got married in Las Vegas, Nev., early last month.
Ortiz was later arrested by state police on charges of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and criminal sexual contact of a minor.
State police have said they will conduct a DNA test on the baby when it is born to determine whether Ortiz is the father.
West wins 3 Grammys; Keys takes home 4
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The late Ray Charles duets album Genius Loves Company, recorded during the final months of his life, was the leader at the Grammys with seven wins on Sunday night. His duet with Norah Jones "Here We Go Again," won record of the year. Kanye West took best rap album for The College Dropout, his third award of the evening. Alicia Keys won four Grammys, including best R&B album, as she chased the record for most awards given to a female artist in one night.
Man sought suicide pacts with women for 5 years
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A man who used an Internet chat room to try to set up a mass suicide on Valentine's Day had been trying to persuade women for at least five years to engage in sex acts with him and then kill themselves, a sheriff said Sunday. Gerald Krein faces charges of solicitation to commit murder, but prosecutors are expected to increase the charge to attempted manslaughter Monday, said Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger.
Jackson's lawyers seek fairness in jury selection
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - Attorneys in Michael Jackson's child-molestation trial are turning to the tough job of finding jurors who can judge the pop star not as a legend but as a defendant.
Finding a jury of peers is a daunting task when the defendant lives in a storybook mansion with its own amusement park.
"If you talk about a jury of your peers, it would have to be Madonna, Liza Minelli and maybe Elvis," said former San Francisco prosecutor and trial watcher Jim Hammer. "Michael looks like nobody else in the courtroom."
Sharon orders crackdown on Jewish extremists
JERUSALEM (AP) - Responding to threats against government ministers, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered law enforcement agencies Sunday to crack down on Jewish extremists opposed to the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Cabinet ministers said the charged climate is reminiscent of the period before the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and one minister warned that Sharon himself could become a target.
German chancellor warns against forgetting history
DRESDEN, Germany (AP) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Sunday warned Germans against forgetting history, as far-right supporters rallied in Dresden to protest a devastating Allied bombing in World War II that killed an estimated 35,000 residents 60 years ago.
The rally - and fears of street clashes - cast a shadow over a day of remembrance and reflection on the U.S.-British air raids, which set off firestorms and destroyed the centuries-old city center.
North Korea's U.N. envoy says six-party talks over
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador said there would be "no more" six-nation talks on the country's nuclear program and maintained the real issue is whether the United States intends to attack the reclusive communist nation.
Han Song Ryol made clear his country's announcement Thursday that it is a nuclear power and that it would indefinitely suspend its participation in six-party negotiations was the result of Pyongyang's belief that the United States is bent on invading North Korea to topple Kim Jong Il's authoritarian regime.
