Man pleads guilty to extreme animal cruelty
AZTEC - A 24-year-old man has pleaded guilty to gunning down nine sheep or goats and a dog while shooting from a truck last summer. Derek Witt accepted a plea this week for three felonies: extreme cruelty to animals, injury to livestock and shooting from a motor vehicle. Eight other counts of injury to livestock were dropped under the plea agreement.
New border checkpoints go into effect
HIGHGATE, Vt. - Motorists passed easily through border checkpoints Thursday as tougher identification standards for U.S. and Canadian citizens went into effect without the backups and confusion some travelers had feared. People entering the country can no longer declare to immigration officers at border crossings that they are citizens. Instead, those 19 and older need to show proof of citizenship - a passport, trusted traveler card or a birth certificate and government-issued ID such as a driver's license.
Reporter presents clues in Holloway case
ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Aruban authorities are investigating new evidence in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway provided by a Dutch crime reporter, prosecutors said Thursday. Information from reporter Peter R. de Vries may help resolve what happened to the American teenager, who vanished during a May 2005 school vacation to the Dutch Caribbean island, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
