Design for New Mexico commuter train unveiled
(AP) - A rapid rail commuter train Gov. Bill Richardson has proposed to run between Santa Fe and Belen has been named the New Mexico RailRunner.
The service is to begin by the end of the year between Belen and Bernalillo, and would be extended to Santa Fe by the spring of 2008, Richardson said Monday.
The Mid Region Council of Governments is expected to solicit bids next month for construction of station platforms, which are expected to be completed by October.
Body of missing woman found in Rio Grande
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
TAOS, N.M. (AP) - A body found in the Rio Grande just south of the gorge bridge has been identified as that of a missing Santa Fe woman, state police said.
The Office of the Medical Investigator identified the body of the 37-year-old woman who went by the single name of Naia on Monday.
The body was spotted by rafters on Saturday and recovered from an area about two miles south of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge on Sunday, state police Lt. Jimmy Glascock said.
Naia had not been seen since her car was found at the rest area near the bridge Feb. 23.
Judge delays decision on Schiavo hearing
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Armed with a new law rushed through Congress over the weekend, the attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents pleaded with a judge Monday to order the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reinserted. But the judge appeared cool to the argument. U.S. District Judge James Whittemore did not immediately make a ruling after the two-hour hearing, and he gave no indication on when he might act on the request.
Sex offender charged in Florida girl's death
INVERNESS, Fla. (AP) - A convicted sex offender was formally charged Monday with capital murder and other crimes in the abduction and death of a 9-year-old Florida girl. John Evander Couey, 46, was also charged with burglary, kidnapping and sexual battery on a child under the age of 12, officials said. His arraignment is set for Tuesday, officials said.
Agency criticizes U.S. interrogation methods
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. law enforcement agents at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for terrorism suspects concluded that the U.S. military's aggressive questioning yielded information that was "suspect at best," according to newly released portions of an FBI document.
That conclusion is contained in an internal FBI e-mail message, dated May 10, 2004, that also said the FBI had made it known to Pentagon officials in 2002 that the FBI "has been successful for many years obtaining confessions via nonconfrontational interviewing techniques."
Ambushed U.S. soldiers kill 26 Iraqi guerrillas
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers, ambushed by dozens of Iraqi militants near the infamous "Triangle of Death," responded by killing 26 guerrillas in the largest single insurgent death toll since last fall's battle for Fallujah, the U.S. military said Monday. The high number of deaths in Sunday's daylight battle south of Baghdad was attributed to the large number of attackers, unusual in a country where most clashes are carried out by small bands of gunmen or suicide bombers.
Israelis, Palestinians agree on town's handover
TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) - Israelis and Palestinians reached a deal Monday about handing over security control of the West Bank town of Tulkarem - another boost for a fledgling peace process.
The handover could help Palestinian officials carry out a new directive restricting weapons in the hands of militants, who insist they'll comply only if Israel withdraws from West Bank towns.
Tulkarem is the second of five towns to be delivered to Palestinian security as part of an agreement to end four years of bloodshed that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced at a Feb. 8 summit.
