BAILEY, Colo. - The gunman who killed a student and committed suicide during a high school standoff methodically selected six girls as hostages - apparently favoring blondes - and sexually assaulted at least some of them, authorities and witnesses said Thursday.

Sheriff Fred Wegener said the assaults went beyond touching or fondling.

"It was pretty horrific," Wegener said, without elaborating.

The killer was identified as 53-year-old Duane Morrison, a petty criminal who had a Denver address but had apparently been living in his battered yellow Jeep when he walked inside the school Wednesday with two handguns and a backpack that he claimed contained a bomb. Investigators did not immediately say what was in the backpack.

Authorities said they knew of no connection between Morrison, his hostages or anyone else at Platte Canyon High School in this mountain town of about 3,500.

During the siege, he took the girls hostage in a second-floor classroom and eventually released four of them. Morrison, still holding two girls, soon cut off contact and warned that "something would happen at 4 o'clock," authorities said.

About a half-hour before the deadline, a SWAT team used explosives to blow a hole in a classroom wall in hopes of getting a clear shot at him, but they couldn't see him through the gap, and they blew the door off the hinges to get inside, said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

Morrison fired at the SWAT officers, shot 16-year-old Emily Keyes in the back of the head as she tried to run away, and then killed himself, authorities said. During the lightning-fast gun battle, police said, they shot Morrison several times.

A sorrowful Wegener defended the decision to try to take Morrison by force.

"My decision was to either wait, with the possibility of having two dead hostages, or act to try and save what I feared he would do to them," the sheriff said. "We have confirmed he did traumatize and assault our children. … This is why I made the decision I did.

"We had to go try and save them."

Classes were canceled for the rest of the week as the community tried to come to grips with the bloodshed, which evoked memories of the 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School, less than an hour's drive away, that left 15 dead.

"This is - this is something that has changed my school, changed my community," the sheriff said. "My small county's gone."

Louis Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Keyes family, said the girl's father was among scores of parents anxiously awaiting word from their children inside the school during the standoff. John Keyes had just bought Emily and her twin brother cell phones for their 16th birthdays.

"How are U?" a volunteer text-messaged Keyes on her father's behalf.

At 1:52 p.m., she messaged back, "I love you guys."

Police stormed into the classroom less than two hours later.

"In memory of Emily we would like everyone to go out and do random acts of kindness, random acts of love to your friends or your neighbors or your fellow students because there is no way to make sense of this," Gonzalez said. "It's what Emily would have wanted."

Student Chelsea Wilson said she was in the college prep English class when the gunman came in and told the students to line up facing the chalkboard.

"All the hairs on my body stood up," Chelsea said. "I guess I was somewhat praying it was a drill."

One by one, the gunman started letting students go, and Chelsea, a tall brunette, said she was the first girl to leave. Her mother, Julia Wilson, said she thinks the gunman made all the blond, smaller girls stay. Keyes' yearbook photo shows a smiling blond girl with blue eyes.

Chelsea said she heard what might have been a gunshot after she left the classroom.

"He's a pervert," Chelsea said. "I'm not sure of motivation. I just knew it wasn't good."

A 16-year-old student at the school, Cassidy Grigg, initially said in interviews with network morning shows that he was in the classroom and offered to stay with the girls - but the gunman threatened to kill him. His father, Tom Grigg, gave a similar account of what his son had told him to The Associated Press. But Thursday, the teen's mother said he made the entire story up.

Larina Grigg said her son told her he fabricated the story because he wanted it to be true.

"He said, 'Mom, all those kids were my friends and I just wanted so much to help them. … I guess I just made it up in my mind. I just wanted it to be true so bad."'

Morrison was arrested in July in the Denver suburb of Lakewood after he failed to appear on a 2004 harassment charge in Littleton, another suburb. He was also arrested on suspicion of larceny and marijuana possession in 1973.

"He's a weird dude. It was a telephone harassment. He left some messages at a business in the city," Littleton police Sgt. Sean Dugan said. He declined to release details of the charge, but said Morrison received a nine-day jail sentence in August that was suspended.

At their home in Tulsa, Okla., Morrison's stepmother said she and her husband, Bob Morrison, "have no record of him being, having any trouble before."

"We just know the way he was raised," Billie Morrison said, declining to elaborate. She said the last time she saw him was three to four years ago, she doesn't know what prompted the violence in Colorado.

"We don't know why," she said. "We don't know how."

Lynda Richards, 64, said Morrison was a tenant at a Denver apartment complex she managed in 2004 and 2005 and that she saw him nearly every day. She said he occasionally made inappropriate sexual comments.

"I was in (the laundry room) and he came in and before he left, I was washing underwear and he said 'Oh, my, look at those sexy panties,"' she said. "And that scared me at that point. I thought 'What is up with this?"'

Morrison - wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt that made him look like a student - walked into the school shortly before noon Wednesday. Authorities said that during he standoff, he spoke at first with sheriff's deputies, then used the girls to relay his messages.

Authorities say they found a motel key and possibly prescription drugs among Morrison's possessions and they were checking into the possibility that he had been camping in the area.

The sheriff, a 36-year resident of Bailey with a son at the high school and a daughter who recently graduated, paused when asked if he made the right choice to confront Morrison.

"You re-evaluate your decisions, but given the fact that he was victimizing - I should say sexually assaulting - the hostages, I felt I had to do something," he said. "Given the information I had, I feel like I made the right decision."

Residents gathered at the Platte Canyon Christian Church for support and others stopped by the Cutthroat Cafe, where Keyes had worked for about two years.

"It's very sad here. You know, the family lost their daughter but as a community, we lost a child," said Bobbi Sterling, a waitress and cook. "We're just sitting here, numb and in shock. We're all just kind of stunned."

- Associated Press writers Chase Squires in Bailey; Don Mitchell, Dan Elliott, Sandy Shore and Pat Graham in Denver; and Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Okla., contributed to this report.

On the Net:

High school site: http://plattechs.tripod.com/index.htm

Police in Florida search for man who shot 2 sheriff's deputies, killing 1

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) - A man who had been pulled over for a traffic violation shot two sheriff's deputies Thursday, killing one of them and prompting an intensive manhunt that forced a lockdown at three schools, officials said.

The shooter was first approached during a traffic stop, but he fled into a wooded area when the officer began asking him about his identity, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

That officer and a deputy who arrived seconds later with a police dog chased the suspect into the woods. Both officers and the dog were hit by gunfire, Judd said.

The suspect exchanged fire with more officers shortly afterward when they approached a house in the wooded area, but he got away, Judd said.

"We will not sleep. We will not rest until we have the suspect in custody for this heinous action today," a visibly shaken Judd said.

The shooting occurred near Kathleen High School, which was locked down, Wood said. A woman at the school who would identify herself only as Mrs. Platt said students were locked in their classrooms and were safe.

Two other schools farther away also were locked down.

Authorities cordoned off a large area around the suspect's car but had not evacuated any homes. Helicopters circled in wide arcs as emergency vehicles raced up and down roads.

Television video footage showed officers with shields searching a wooded area with traffic backed up on nearby Interstate 4, which runs through the city about 35 miles east of Tampa.

Officers arrived from neighboring counties to assist in the search.

Judd said 10,000 to 15,000 people live in the area. Officers were going house to house in some areas asking people to lock themselves inside.

The sheriff identified the slain deputy as Vernon Matthew Williams, 39. The other deputy was shot in the leg and will survive, he said. Williams' police dog was also fatally wounded.

Williams, a husband and father of three, had been with the sheriff's office since April 1994.

Inmate who killed 10-year-old girl tattooed in prison with victim's name: 'Katie's Revenge'

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - An inmate serving a life sentence for molesting and murdering a 10-year-old girl named Katie was apparently forcibly tattooed across the forehead by a fellow prisoner with the words "KATIE'S REVENGE," authorities say.

Anthony Ray Stockelman, 39, was removed from the general prison population for his own safety last weekend after authorities discovered the tattoo, officials said.

Prison officials said an inmate has been identified as a suspect.

A photo of what is identified as Stockelman's forehead appeared this week on a crime blog called "Lost In Lima Ohio" that focuses on news reports about crimes against children and women.

Two prison guards suspected of supplying the picture were fired for making unauthorized copies of an evidence photo, said Rich Larsen, a spokesman for the Wabash Valley state prison in Carlisle, about 70 miles north of Evansville.

Child molesters rank near the bottom of the prison hierarchy and are often brutalized by other inmates. Tattoos are against prison regulations, but inmates often fashion crude tattoo instruments with plastic utensils and needles.

Stockelman's tattoo covers nearly his entire forehead.

"If I had to guess I'd say it's a statement from the inmates," said Collman's father, John Neace.

Stockelman pleaded guilty to abducting, molesting and drowning Katlyn "Katie" Collman, whose body was found in 2005 in a creek about 15 miles from her home in the town of Crothersville.

Police initially believed Katie was abducted and slain because she had stumbled onto a methamphetamine operation in the neighborhood, but that theory was later discarded.

Another man confessed to the killing at one point but was cleared after DNA and other evidence connected Stockelman to the crime.

Transgendered con artist allegedly up to old tricks

BALTIMORE (AP) - A transgender thief described by one prosecutor as an "incorrigible" con artist is in trouble with the law again - despite being released from prison last year to die of AIDS at home.

Joseph Murphy, Maryland Court of Special Appeals chief judge, said he released Dee Dierdre Farmer on probation in February 2005 "in the hopes that that might encourage him to remain crime-free while he was out with what little time he had left."

Those hopes appear to have been dashed. Farmer, 41, of Baltimore, was charged Wednesday in Baltimore with trying to use a forged death certificate to avoid prosecution on identity theft charges.

Farmer was born male and underwent a sex-change operation to become female. According to court documents, she legally changed her birth certificate to reflect that she was a woman named Dee Deirdre Farmer.

Farmer was sentenced in 1986 to 20 years in federal prison for credit-card fraud and 30 years in state prison for theft. While awaiting sentencing, she was caught participating in a telephone jewelry theft scheme from jail, Murphy said.

While in federal prison, Farmer was at the center of a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court decision that forced prisons to take more responsibility for protecting inmates from one another.

The lawsuit was filed after Farmer was raped in a federal prison for men in Terre Haute, Ind. At the time, Farmer had breast implants and male sex organs and was undergoing estrogen therapy. The lawsuit claimed prison officials had violated Farmer's constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment by ignoring the risks faced by an inmate wearing women's clothing and makeup in an all-male prison.

The Supreme Court ruled that prison officials can sometimes be held liable for inmate assaults. But after the decision, Farmer lost her lawsuit at trial.

Having served her federal sentence, Farmer was serving the Maryland sentence imposed by Murphy when he was a judge in Baltimore County.

Murphy said he thought Farmer's "life expectancy was very, very short" when he released her in February 2005, but she has gotten in trouble at least five times since then. The charges include five counts of mail fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft in federal court, as well as identity theft, identity fraud and theft in Baltimore County.

She was charged Wednesday in Baltimore with presenting false information for entry on a death certificate to commit identity fraud and other offenses. According to charging documents, Farmer used a similar scheme to get unrelated charges against her dismissed in Virginia.

Farmer also goes by the names of Douglas C. Farmer and Larry G. Prescott. The person whose death certificate she allegedly tried to change was male, and Farmer identified herself as Larry Prescott when she was arrested in December at a department store and accused of applying for and using store credit cards in other people's names. She has appeared in court on those charges dressed as a man, Baltimore County prosecutor Michelle Samoryk said.

"He is just a con man. Incorrigible," Baltimore County prosecutor Steve Roscher said.

Defense attorney Nicholas Szokoly, who helped secure Farmer's release from prison, said he was saddened to learn of the new charges against his former client.

"I was hoping he would get some peace," Szokoly said. "I was looking forward to Dee being able to return home (last year) and have some quiet time with his family."

Other lawyers who formerly represented Farmer would not comment Thursday on her current representation.

Police allege priests stole millions from their Palm Beach parish; 1 arrested, other sought

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Two Roman Catholic priests stole millions in offerings and gifts made to their parish over several years, authorities said Thursday.

Monsignor John Skehan, who was pastor at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church for four decades, was arrested Wednesday night on charges that he stole $8.6 million from the church, using the money to buy property and other assets, investigators said.

The 79-year-old priest was arrested at Palm Beach International Airport as he returned from Ireland and was being held on $400,000 bond on grand theft charges.

The Rev. Francis Guinan, who succeeded Skehan three years ago, has disappeared and was being sought, authorities said. He is alleged to have stolen an unspecified amount of money to take gambling trips to Las Vegas and the Bahamas.

"Millions of dollars that should have gone to helping the homeless folks or the school itself" didn't, said Amos Rojas Jr., a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

An anonymous tip in June 2005 led police and the church to launch the investigation.

An audit of church books detected the theft and the investigation continues to find possible misappropriation, said Preston Mighdoll, assistant state attorney in Palm Beach County.

Investigators say Skehan created several "slush" accounts, and instructed church workers to funneled there to hide it from the Palm Beach Diocese. The thefts began in 2001, police said.

Skehan is charged with grand theft of $100,000 or more between September 2001 and January 2006, while Guinan faces the same charge for activity from September 2003 to April 2005.

Specifics about where most of the $8.6 million went or precisely how it was taken were not included in court records.

Skehan's attorney, Ken Johnson, said he thought the multimillion dollar figure was "over sensationalized."

"My reading of the probable cause affidavit indicates that the amount of money he's actually accused of misappropriating amounts to about $325,000, which is a far cry from $8.6 million," Johnson said.

Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito of the Diocese of Palm Beach said the two priests were placed on administrative leave and will not have permission "to exercise publicly their priestly ministry" until the criminal matter is resolved.

On the Net:

Palm Beach Diocese: http://www.diocesepb.org/

Smith satisfied pathologist's report shows her son didn't commit suicide, lawyer says

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith believes a pathologist's conclusion that her son died from an accidental lethal combination of drugs shows he didn't commit suicide and hopes that others will learn from the tragedy, a lawyer said Thursday.

An American examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said 20-year-old Daniel Smith had methadone and two antidepressants in his system when he died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas. Low levels of the three drugs interacted to cause an accidental death, Wecht said.

"At least she knows the attacks on her son's reputation can be put to rest because it's clear he didn't intentionally take his life," said Wayne Munroe, a Bahamian attorney for the 38-year-old reality TV star and former Playboy Playmate.

Smith, who gave birth to a daughter three days before her son died at her bedside, is awaiting the conclusions of Wecht and the Bahamas pathologist who performed a separate official autopsy, Munroe said.

Wecht is waiting for test results on tissue samples before he completes his final report.

Smith wants others to learn from her son's death, Munroe told The Associated Press.

"She wants to see exactly what happened in a final report because she wants to make sure it doesn't happen to someone else's son," he said.

Daniel Smith, who reportedly was hospitalized for depression and back pain before he traveled to Nassau, had been prescribed the antidepressant Lexapro, Wecht said. He said he had not determined whether Smith had also been prescribed Zoloft, the other antidepressant found in his system.

The two drugs can be lethal when taken together or in sequence, according to Ann Blake Tracy, the Des Moines, Iowa-based director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness.

"The residue can stay there for some time, and if they're prescribed one after they've taken another, they can end up in trouble," she said.

Wecht said he did not know why Smith was taking methadone, a pain-reliever that is also used to ease heroin cravings for recovering addicts.

The combination of the three drugs, even in low doses, could easily have killed Smith, said Lisa Johnson, a pharmacist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"The methadone will slow you down, but the other ones make your system speed up, so it's an odd combination," she said.

Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said he has not received official toxicology results or a police report, which can determine whether a jury inquest is necessary. Wecht, a Pittsburgh-based forensic pathologist, plans to discuss his findings with Bahamas officials. Gomez said Wecht's toxicology results will not affect the Bahamian investigation.

Daniel Smith, who appeared several times on the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show," was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later.

Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year. She has since been involved in legal disputes over the estate.

- Associated Press writer Michael Melia in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

Mountain View to trap, kill aggressive squirrels after attacks

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) - The city plans to start trapping and killing aggressive tree squirrels following a spate of attacks on people, including a young boy who was scratched and bitten last week. - Over the next three weeks, the city will set tube-like traps in the trees of Cuesta Park and euthanize captured squirrels "in a humane way," said David Muela, Mountain View's community services director.

But wildlife advocates oppose the unusual measure and say it won't solve the problem.

"The squirrels will be back," South Bay wildlife rehabilitator Norma Campbell said. "For every one you take out, two more will come in. It could be a never-ending project that isn't going to accomplish anything."

In recent months, the city has received reports that Cuesta Park squirrels had scratched several visitors and bitten at least three.

Officials say the animals have been jumping inside baby strollers, opening food bags and even scratching people as they seek a handout. They say the increasingly brazen behavior stems from years of being fed by park visitors.

Last week's attack on 4-year-old Andrew Packard prompted officials to take action. The preschooler has received rabies shots and taken powerful antibiotics after the squirrel repeatedly bit and scratched him as he ran through the park screaming.

Earlier this week, signs were posted in Cuesta Park warning visitors to beware of the creatures. Officials are enforcing regulations against feeding wildlife and increasing park patrols.

Bearded Spaniard forced off plane by fellow passengers

MADRID, Spain (AP) - A Spanish university professor with a long beard and dark complexion said Thursday he was briefly forced off an airliner during a layover on the Spanish island of Mallorca by passengers who feared he was an Islamic terrorist. - Pablo Gutierrez Vega told The Associated Press that he was humiliated when three German passengers on an Air Berlin flight approached him during a layover in Palma de Mallorca on Aug. 30 en route from Seville, Spain, to Dortmund, Germany, and asked to search his carry-on luggage.

The men told him that other passengers were frightened by his appearance, said Gutierrez Vega, a 35-year-old law professor at the University of Seville.

"They treated me like an Islamic terrorist because of my appearance," Gutierrez Vega said, according to an account posted Thursday on the Web site of the newspaper El Pais.

The airline confirmed the incident to the AP and called it regretful.

"I acknowledged that we contributed to this man going through something very unpleasant," said Air Berlin's managing director for Spain and Portugal, Alvaro Middelmann.

After realizing the men were not undercover police officers, Gutierrez Vega refused to hand over his luggage. The pilot then approached the group and led the professor to the runway so they could speak in private.

"The pilot said the passengers believed I was a Muslim," Gutierrez Vega told the AP.

On the runway, the pilot apologized for the incident and said he was willing to expel the passengers who confronted him and continue the flight with Gutierrez Vega on board. The pilot also said he could take Gutierrez Vega's luggage into the cockpit to pacify the other passengers.

Gutierrez Vega said he decided to get back on the plane and store his luggage in the cockpit "because I didn't want to cause any problems."

The pilot, however, erred by not ejecting the passengers who confronted him, Middelmann said.

Gutierrez Vega has hired an attorney to initiate legal proceedings against Air Berlin.

Typhoon batters Philippines, leaving 10 dead

MANILA, Philippines - A powerful typhoon cut across the northern Philippines Thursday, hitting the capital with gale-force winds and pounding rain, and killing at least 10 people, officials said.

Typhoon Xangsane toppled more than a dozen high-voltage power lines, causing a "total system blackout" on the main island of Luzon, said Arvee Villafuerte, spokesman of the state-run National Transmission Corp.

He said restoring the power was slowed by the extent of the damage, adding that only about 12 percent of the Luzon grid was back up four hours after it went down. The blackout and debris left Manila without traffic and street lights. Hotels and shops used their own generators.

The Office of Civil Defense and local officials reported at least 10 people were killed, including a drunken man who fell into a river in central Antique province and a driver pinned under the steel frames of a giant billboard that fell on his van in Manila's financial district of Makati.

The Manila airport, which canceled domestic and international flights due to the high winds and power outages, resumed operations by early evening.

The typhoon packed maximum winds of 81 mph and gusts of up to 100 mph when it came ashore overnight in the central Bicol region, where it knocked out electricity in five provinces.

It weakened into a storm with winds of 69 mph as it passed over Manila and moved to the South China Sea Thursday evening, heading west toward Vietnam at 14 mph with gusts of up to 88 mph, forecasters said.

High winds toppled trees and heavy downpours triggered landslides, blocking some provincial roads. The typhoon also shut schools, ferries and the country's financial markets.

Antique's acting Gov. Eduardo Fortaleza said rescue workers evacuated about 100 residents who were trapped on an islet in the middle of a raging river in the town of Barbaza.

Some residents ferried people across streets under knee-deep water on makeshift rafts, charging about 40 cents per person.

It was the strongest typhoon to hit Manila in 11 years. In November 1995, the 163 mph super typhoon Angela battered the Philippine capital and the central provinces, leaving 936 people dead.

Xangsane, the Laotian word for elephant, is the 10th typhoon this season.

No end in sight for Indonesia's mud volcano, thousands homeless as rainy season nears

PORONG, Indonesia (AP) - Factories that once produced watches and shoes lie under a sea of thick, stinking mud. Villagers stand on hastily constructed dams and gaze at the thousands of homes swallowed by brown sludge.

Four months ago, a torrent of hot mud from deep beneath the surface of Indonesia's seismically charged Java island began surging from a natural gas exploration site following a drilling accident.

The "mud volcano" pours out some 165,000 cubic yards of mud every day - enough to cover a football field about 75 feet deep. Often spewing out in geyser-like eruptions, the mud has left some 665 acres swamped or abandoned as unsafe, forcing more than 10,000 people from their homes.

Experts say the mud volcano is one of the largest ever recorded on land. Geologists fear the technology may not exist to stop the eruption, saying mud could flow for years or even centuries - or stop on its own at any time.

The mud is believed to come from a reservoir 3.5 miles below the surface that has been pressurized by shifts in the crust or by the accumulation of hydrocarbon gases.

The calamity has underscored the patchy safety record of mining companies exploiting the natural resources of this Southeast Asian nation made up of thousands of islands.

Police seized the drilling rig involved in the accident and are investigating whether to bring criminal charges against the principal well owner, PT Lapindo Brantas.

Lapindo, which is linked to the wealthy family of Indonesia's welfare minister, is paying for an ever expanding network of earthen dams to contain the mud, but many people fear the resulting slimy ponds will overflow during the approaching rainy season.

"The volume of mud that is coming out of the hole is not just large, it's enormous," Earl Hunt Jr., an engineer from Woodward, Okla., said while supervising dredging operations.

"We are running out of room up here, period," he said. "If they don't pump it to sea or something soon, then there will be more villages lost."

The government recently gave permission to dump the mud into the sea via a local river. But experts question whether that will get rid of the sludge faster than it gushes from the hole, and environmentalists are opposing the plan as a threat to the marine ecosystem.

The mud, which stands as deep as 16 feet in places, has submerged or washed into houses in four villages. At least 20 factories and many acres of rice fields and prawn farms have been destroyed.

The sludge has repeatedly washed over a major road, closing it for weeks at a time, and now it is threatening a rail line in the industrial area just outside Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city.

The mud, which is not toxic, first appeared several days after a blowout deep in Lapindo's well shaft May 29.

Police claim the company mishandled the accident by failing to cap the hole properly, allowing the mud to surge to the surface from several cracks close to the well.

Independent analysts also have said the company's activities were a factor in the torrent.

"This is a natural disaster induced by drilling activity," said Andang Bactiar, a consultant for the oil and gas industry who is working with authorities investigating the case. "Somehow, or somewhere, several mistakes occurred that caused the mud to come from the hole."

The company declined to give its version of what happened or the steps it took to stem the mud, citing possible legal liability. But spokeswoman Yuniwati Teryana said drilling activity had not been proven to be linked to the eruption.

The well is 50 percent owned by Lapindo. Another Indonesian firm, PT Medco E&P Brantas, has a 32 percent stake and Santos Ltd. of Australia holds the remaining 18 percent.

Lapindo has made emergency payments to those who have lost homes and promises to compensate their losses.

But in a country where mistrust of government runs high after decades of dictatorship that ended only in 1998, many people fear the company will try to dodge its responsibilities. The involvement of Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie's family in Lapindo has only added to worries.

"We are just poor people, our rights will be torn up as usual," one resident, Sukararji, said as he stood on a dam gazing at mud that reaches the second-floor windows of his house. "We are being stepped on like ants."

After two unsuccessful attempts to stop the flow, Lapindo is digging three shafts alongside the hole, hoping to kill the eruption by pumping in concrete.

Experts are skeptical that will work.

"If they manage to stop it, it will be the first time in the world that it has been done," said geologist Arif Munsyawar.

Boston museum returns 13 disputed artifacts to Italy in exchange for loans

ROME (AP) - Boston's Museum of Fine Arts returned 13 disputed ancient artifacts to Italy on Thursday, including a statue and a bas-relief believed to have decorated Hadrian's Villa, in a deal that Italian authorities hope will pave the way for others to return antiquities they say were smuggled out of the country.

The agreement promises loans of other Italian treasures to the MFA, and marks the latest victory for Italy in its quest to regain antiquities that were dug up illegally and sold to museums worldwide.

"We determined that the proper home for these objects was Italy," said MFA director Malcolm Rogers. "We are proud to be doing the decent thing."

Speaking after a signing ceremony at the Culture Ministry in Rome, Rogers contended that the museum was not aware of the artifacts' illegal origin before Italian authorities presented them with new evidence during the yearlong negotiations.

"They were bought in absolute good faith, but some new evidence has come to light and we've responded," he said.

Rogers and Italian officials declined to say what the new evidence was or whether other pieces are in dispute. The agreement provides for an exchange of information between the two parties concerning any future acquisition of artifacts from Italy.

"We in Boston are committed, alongside the Italian government, to seeing the end of illegal trade and illegal excavation of antiquities," Rogers said.

Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said the landmark deal could push other museums to act.

Italy has aggressively tried to recover archaeological treasures through agreements such as this one, as well as through criminal prosecution. A 1939 Italian law requires any antiquities found in Italy to be turned over to the state.

In one case, Marion True, a former curator for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is on trial in Rome, along with American art dealer Robert Hecht for alleged trafficking in looted artifacts. Both have denied wrongdoing.

Lawyers for the Italian government have been negotiating with Getty officials toward reaching a deal similar to the Boston museum accord. Giuseppe Proietti, a top culture ministry official, said talks with the California museum would resume soon and a meeting was also being arranged with the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Earlier this year, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art agreed to return 21 artifacts that were looted from Italy in exchange for loans.

However, Boston's are the first artifacts to return to Italy. Those included in the Met deal are set to come home progressively over the next years, starting in November when Rutelli makes a visit to the United States. The trip will include a stop in Boston for discussions on which Italian pieces will be loaned to the MFA.

The artifacts returned Thursday, acquired by the museum between the 1960s and 1990s, include 11 vases from central and southern Italy mostly depicting scenes from ancient Greek myths. The black ceramic jugs, amphorae and pitchers, dating from the fourth to sixth centuries B.C., are decorated with the red figures typical of the style perfected by the Greek colonies in southern Italy and the Etruscan civilization in the center of the country.

The vases were displayed on a table at Thursday's ceremony, while the 6.5-foot marble statue of Sabina, the wife of the emperor Hadrian, was dramatically unveiled after the signing, drawing oohs and aahs from the crowd of officials and journalists.

The second-century statue, in excellent condition, portrays a standing Sabina gracefully clasping a cloak draped on her shoulders. Along with the first-century bas-relief, it is believed to have come from Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, 18 miles east of Rome.

The returned pieces will be displayed together at the National Roman Museum in the capital for a week, beginning Oct. 10. They will then go to museums close to their places of origin.

On the Net:

Boston Museum of Fine Arts: http://www.mfa.org

63 Kazakh children infected with HIV; some blame corruption, negligence

SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan (AP) - This industrial city is reeling after learning that at least 63 children have been infected with HIV through medical negligence many blame on corruption and the illicit sale of blood.

At least five infected toddlers have died after receiving injections or blood transfusions in hospitals in Shymkent, a city in Kazakhstan's most densely population region 1,000 miles south of the capital.

Valentina Skryabina, leader of the nongovernment group Nadezhnaya Opora, which works to prevent AIDS among drug addicts, is convinced the illegal sale of blood is the source of the HIV in Shymkent's hospitals.

"Blood is an article of trade…. Hospitals are offered blood, and not always through the (official) blood center. People trade in blood like they do in human organs."

Skryabina said addicts and the homeless have been accepted by the regional blood center because they agreed to be paid less than the official rate of $47 for about a half-pint of blood.

"Was their blood properly checked? We are not sure," she said.

Officials say they cannot comment on Skryabina's allegations until their investigation is over. Authorities do say, however, that five blood donors who are suspected to be HIV-carriers weren't found at their registered addresses.

Parents in this city of 400,000 are trying to conduct their own investigation. They say regional health officials were aware of the outbreak in March, and have been trying to cover it up by pulling pages from the infected toddlers' treatment records to eliminate any mention of blood transfusions.

The parents allege that up to 40 HIV-infected children aged 3 and under have died, but the true cause of the deaths was being concealed or attributed to diseases such as cirrhosis. Authorities declined to comment on these allegations, too, pending the investigation.

Some 13,000 children who were possibly infected have yet to be tested. Adults, too, could be infected: so far, three mothers of infected toddlers have tested positive for HIV.

Lawmaker Satybaldy Ibragimov says nothing will improve until Kazakhstan roots out corruption, which penetrates even universities where future doctors are graded according to the amount of money they give professors - and later treat people based on their ability to pay.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev's government has taken tough action. The health minister and the regional governor were fired this month, and several top regional health officials, the head of the regional blood center and several senior doctors are under criminal investigation.

New governor Omyrzak Shukeyev, former mayor of the capital Astana, called the situation in Shymkent's health care system "a catastrophe." He ordered an appraisal of medical staff in the region to root out incompetent or corrupt staff.

Shukeyev, under orders from Nazarbayev to urgently resolve the crisis, pleaded with experts at an AIDS crisis meeting this week: "I'm waiting like nothing else for a moment when you say that the virus has been contained."

"We cannot give you a time frame. This is going to be a lingering epicenter of disease," replied Vyacheslav Dudnik, the region's new health chief.

Shukeyev said the government would restructure and modernize the region's medical institutions. Each infected toddler's family will be given about $800 - twice the average monthly salary - in compensation and all treatment will be paid for by the government.

The most immediate problem is the lack of local expertise on how to treat young children with the AIDS virus.

Four AIDS specialists from UNICEF and several experts from Russia have been asked to help. But for now, said Sagdat Masaurov, whose 18-month-old grandson is infected, "nobody can tell us where to go, what to do and how."

Officially, by the end of 2004 Kazakhstan had about 4,700 HIV/AIDS cases, but the real number is believed to be higher. In the first six months of this year, the country recorded 828 new HIV carriers and 70 AIDS patients, a 70 percent increase over 2005.

Parents carrying toddlers come in a steady flow to the rundown two-story AIDS center in Shymkent for HIV tests.

In the center's courtyard, anxious-looking parents with HIV-infected children await examinations by doctors. Children can be heard crying.

Eighteen-month old Baurzhan Alseitov sat in his mother's arms, a blank look on his face. His father, Kanat Alseitov, was afraid the child's listlessness indicated the virus was already sapping his little body.

"He was restless and cried all night. He doesn't want to walk anymore," the father said.

Authorities clear one in Duquesne shooting, charge 2 others

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Prosecutors on Thursday dropped charges against one of two men accused of shooting five Duquesne University basketball players, but filed charges against two additional suspects.

All charges were dropped against Brandon Baynes, 18, of Penn Hills, in the Sept. 17 shooting after an on-campus dance party.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said Baynes was cleared after a witness recanted her story. He would not identify the witness.

Zappala also announced charges against two other people: Derek Lee, of Pittsburgh, and Erica R. Sager, of Wilkinsburg.

Lee, who police said is 18 or 19, is accused of shooting at the players. He is charged with five counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault.

Sager is accused of urging Lee and another teen named William Holmes to "shoot victims during a verbal dispute that she probably initiated," Zappala said. She was charged with five counts of aggravated assault and criminal solicitation.

Lee and Sager were arraigned Thursday. Lee was jailed on $1 million bond. It was not immediately clear if Sager posted bond, nor was it known whether either defendant had an attorney.

The shooting occurred as the basketball players left the dance. Several players told The Associated Press the shooter was a non-student unhappy that a woman he accompanied to the dance had talked with a player.

The most seriously injured player, Sam Ashaolu, remained hospitalized Thursday, three days after doctors removed a bullet fragment from his head. The four other players have returned to campus.

Lee and Holmes are the only defendants accused of firing at the players.

Holmes, 18, of Penn Hills, was arrested last week and charged with attempted homicide and aggravated assault.

A fourth person, Brittany Jones, 19, also of Penn Hills, has been ordered to stand trial on charges she helped six people get into the dance even though she knew some of them were armed.

Baynes' public defender, Sumner Parker, said last week that Baynes was present at the shooting but was not responsible for it. Baynes was expected to be released from jail Thursday afternoon.

Parker thanked police and prosecutors for keeping an open mind.

"I lost a trial fee and I couldn't be happier," he said.

Student in suspected hazing incident at Florida A&M had serious injury, doctor testifies

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The surgeon who operated on an aspiring Florida A&M University fraternity member testified Thursday in a hazing trial that he considered the student's injuries serious although he had no broken bones, muscle damage or lasting effects other than a scar.

The seriousness of the injuries is a key issue. Five defendants are among the first to be charged with violating Florida's new anti-hazing law, which makes it a felony to cause serious bodily damage or death.

Four men are accused of beating Marcus Jones, 20, of Decatur, Ga., with canes and boxing gloves to the point that he suffered a perforated eardrum and needed surgery to remove a blood clot from his buttocks.

The fifth defendant is accused of encouraging Jones and other candidates to bear up under the beatings and reviving them with water if they passed out.

Dr. David Fern said the buttock injury was as severe as anything he has seen in an auto accident but acknowledged that it affected only 1 percent of the victim's body; that there was no muscle, nerve or vein damage; and that the injury has healed nicely.

"I consider it a serious injury," Fern said. "He could have had other potential problems."

Jones briefly took the stand Thursday and was questioned about a fraternity investigator's testimony on how he could identify one suspect - Brian Bowman, 23 - while blindfolded.

"There's no doubt in my mind," Jones said. "I can identify his voice."

Accused are Bowman, Cory Gray, 22; Marcus Hughes, 21; Michael Morton, 23; and Jason Harris, 25. Harris is not accused of wielding a cane or boxing gloves.

Also Thursday, Jones' father denied his family has a financial motive for seeking the five men's criminal prosecution.

Army Master Sgt. Mark Jones Jr. acknowledged he has hired a civil law firm but said he wanted the attorneys to help him handle the news media.

When asked whether he was planning to sue, he said he was interested only in making sure justice was carried out.

"There was this big, huge purple ball protruding out of his right buttocks," he said. "I was angry, very angry. My wife was terrified."

Penalties for violating the anti-hazing law can range from probation to five years in prison.

Owens back at practice a day after being hospitalized

IRVING, Texas (AP) - Dallas police have classified Terrell Owens' case as an "accidental overdose," not an attempted suicide, closing their investigation Thursday of the Cowboys receiver's hospitalization.

Dallas police chief David Kunkle said he has "great confidence in the original officer report," which said rescue workers were called to the scene because of an attempted "suicide by prescription pain medication." The police document also said a friend described Owens as being depressed and that Owens said "Yes" when asked whether he was trying to harm himself.

"The report in my opinion reflects what the officers were told and represents their best interpretation of what happened," Kunkle said at a news conference Thursday. "But that doesn't mean it's the definitive account of the incident. Like all these situations, we're dealing with incomplete information and facts that change."

Owens said Wednesday he mistakenly mixed the painkillers for a broken hand with supplements he ordinarily takes, causing him to become groggy while at home Tuesday evening. His publicist, Kim Etheredge, was with him and didn't like what she saw, especially when she also discovered an empty bottle of pills. She called 911, and Owens was taken by ambulance to an emergency room.

Within two hours of his hospital release Wednesday morning, Owens was catching passes at team headquarters. He went through a full practice Thursday, his first since breaking his right hand on Sept. 17, and might play Sunday in Tennessee.

At a news conference Wednesday, Owens denied the strongest parts of the police report, which was obtained by media outlets before most details were blacked out in the formal release. Etheredge lashed out at authorities, saying, "I am just upset that I just feel they take advantage of Terrell. Had this been someone else, this may not have happened."

Earlier Thursday, the president of the Dallas Police Association, which represents Dallas police officers, demanded an apology from T.O. and his publicist.

"The officers reacted because they were called to this location to do this job. Now they're being put under a microscope by some fancy little football person," Senior Cpl. Glenn White said. "Give me a break. Those officers are 10 times better than this man. … We police officers don't go out to these calls and make stuff up."

Kunkle said at his news conference that Owens and Etheredge were welcome to file a report against the officers if they believe anyone acted inappropriately.

"There's no reason for the officers to do anything inappropriate," he added.

Etheredge could not immediately be reached for a response. The voice mail on her cell phone was full, and she did not respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press.

Haitian teen, whose face had massive growth, smiles, dances in public

MIAMI (AP) - A Haitian teen who once hid her grossly distorted face smiled and danced Thursday, a sign of how far she has come since doctors removed a 16-pound tumor-like growth. - When Marlie Casseus arrived in Miami in December, the growth had stretched her facial features so far apart that only her eyes, nostrils and a single tooth were recognizable.

Though her lower lip now hangs open, causing her to drool slightly, the 15-year-old smiled broadly and shimmied at reporters and television cameras. Without music, she stood on her own, held up her arms and shook them and her hips back and forth.

Once she recovers from another surgery next month, Marlie will learn to swallow and speak again.

"Marlie is very happy now. She is happy to see the face now," Maleine Antoine, the teen's mother, said in English, which she has learned since coming to Florida with her daughter.

Surgeons removed the massive growth, narrowed the separation between her eyes and lips and rebuilt the interior of her nose and jaw in three surgeries in the past year at Holtz Children's Hospital.

A reconstructive surgery to reshape a titanium plate previously implanted in her jaw, scheduled Oct. 5, will be her last for now, said Dr. Jesus Gomez, a maxillofacial surgeon at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

"In the future she's going to look like a normal person," Gomez said.

The series of surgeries have progressively flattened Marlie's cheeks, centered her eyes and defined her nose. Her face is still elongated and slightly asymmetrical, and Gomez said she will likely need additional cosmetic surgeries once she stops growing.

Marlie suffers from a rare form of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, a nonhereditary, genetic disease that causes bone to swell and become jelly like. The growth began about six years ago, and eventually prevented Marlie from eating, breathing or speaking on her own. Doctors in Haiti gave her no hope to live, Antoine said.

The teen, who wore a Disney Cinderella T-shirt and ribbons in the braids in her hair Thursday, breathes on her own but cannot speak because of a tube implanted in her windpipe for surgery. She also still has a feeding tube.

Doctors will continue to monitor her condition, but the lesion that deformed her face is not expected to grow back once she completes puberty, Gomez said.

The hospital's International Kids Fund, which seeks to provide medical care for needy children from around the world, is asking for donations to continue Marlie's care. The Haitian nonprofit Good Samaritan for a Better Life helped bring the teen to the United States.

On the Net:

International Kids Fund: http://www.internationalkidsfund.org

Resellers find sluggish ticket market Montana Stones concert

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - You can't always get what you want when the Rolling Stones are set to play a small Montana city in less than a week, and you're trying to resell concert tickets. - The Stones performance Wednesday in Missoula was a sellout right after tickets went on sale in August. Now people looking to resell, even at less than face value, are struggling for buyers.

"I hope I don't eat them all," Andy Mefford said of the four tickets he's trying to unload after spending $800 to $1,000 for the lot.

Forty-six classified advertisements to sell Stones tickets appeared in the Missoulian newspaper Thursday, and tickets were for sale on eBay. One seller tried what amounts to a poignant appeal in Montana: "Need money for hunting rifle," read the posting for row 35, seats 9 and 10 at the University of Montana football stadium in Missoula, a city of some 60,000 people.

About 21,000 of the stadium's seats were designated for the concert, with ticket prices and related fees ranging from $77 to $377.

Monte Jenkins, an aspiring actor being laid off as an airline baggage handler in Missoula, said he paid $2,100 for 10 tickets that he expected to resell profitably. Jenkins' introduction to the so-called secondary market has been jarring. He said he sold seven of the tickets, two at a profit and the others at break-even or losing prices.

"I'll get whatever I can out of them," Jenkins said of the remaining tickets. He expects to end up $500 to $800 in the red. Using a ticket himself isn't much of an option, he said, because he doesn't like the Rolling Stones.

It may be there is a surplus of tickets for resale because true Stones fans bought theirs immediately, and the market has been satisfied without resale, said Gary Bongiovanni of Pollstar in Fresno, Calif. The company publishes news tailored to the music industry and maintains a concert database.

Stones tickets typically are in demand wherever the group performs, said Fran Curtis of Rogers & Cowan, an entertainment public relations firm that speaks for the Stones concert tour. On Wednesday, people still were searching for last-minute tickets to the Stones concert that night at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., Curtis said.

Playboy Club opens in Vegas after two decades missing from U.S. nightclub scene

LAS VEGAS (AP) - It was late 1985 when Hugh Hefner walked into the grand opening of Playboy's Empire Club in Manhattan, the latest attempt by the magazine company to freshen its suave, sexy image.

A quarter century of success in running such clubs was on the wane and a new gimmick was thought to be needed to attract a new audience of women - male bunnies.

"I thought, 'This is the end of it,"' Hefner recalls, chuckling. "And indeed, within a year or so, it was."

Now, two decades after rising feminism and a fading nightclub scene helped close the last U.S. Playboy Club in Lansing, Mich., in 1988, a new Playboy Club is set to open Oct. 6 in Las Vegas, just as fresh and retro-hip as a pair of bell-bottom jeans.

"Things that become old-fashioned in a certain time frame, in a new time frame take on a whole new kind of mystique," said Hefner, the 80-year-old founder and majority shareholder of Playboy Enterprises Inc. "That is exactly what happened to all things Playboy."

The original clubs, staffed by bustiered Bunnies and spurred by the sexual revolution, spanned the globe in their heyday in the 1960s and '70s, from Chicago and New York to Manila, London, Tokyo and the Bahamas.

Top acts like Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and the Beatles frequented the hotspots as guests and sometimes performers. The clubs also were magnets for professional athletes like Wilt Chamberlain and Dick Butkus. At their height, 22 clubs were in operation, employing more than 25,000 Bunnies and boasting more than a million "keyholders," or members.

But they ran into feminism on one side and easily accessible explicit adult content on the other.

The Margaret Thatcher government challenged and then revoked the club's casino license in the U.K. in 1981. It forced the closure of the London club, once the company's most profitable operation, and led to the inability of Playboy to obtain a gambling license for a hotel-casino in Atlantic City, N.J., shortly after.

"Once we lost the gaming, we were really not able to financially carry the rest of what we were doing," Hefner said.

The last overseas club closed in Manila in 1991.

Today, Hefner's original idea of providing a roadmap to urban life by urging men to appreciate food, music, high ideas - and beautiful women - has taken on a new cachet.

"If you look at the magazine even in the early days, there were features on decorating your apartment, cooking, buying nice clothes, buying wine," said James Beggan, associate professor of sociology at the University of Louisville. "I think that they've always been ahead of their time in advocating what later becomes known as the 'metrosexual identity."'

"Society has caught up with Playboy's view," he said.

The new club, on the top three floors of the Palms hotel-casino, pays homage to the past while introducing its swinging bachelor lifestyle to a new generation.

"Ninety-five percent of the people who are going to end up spending all the money here have never been to a Playboy Club," said George Maloof Jr., the bachelor casino magnate who runs the Maloof family's $925 million resort. "So it's not even like your dad, maybe it's your grandfather (who) went. We wanted to create something that did remind people of the Playboy Club, but had a fresh new look."

Lounge seating is back, as are the famous Bunny outfits, complete with ears, bow tie and cufflinks, designed by Roberto Cavalli. Hefner's portrait will hang over a fireplace, classic Playboy images decorate a wall embedded with flat screen TVs, and rabbit logos dot everything from sofa buttons to nail heads. One floor below the club is the Italian restaurant Nove; above is the dance club Moon, complete with retractable roof and dazzling light shows.

Most important to the $55 million club's profitability, however, is its casino license, marking the first time in a half century that a Nevada club will be allowed to charge customers a cover to access gambling tables.

Playboy expects to make $4 million a year in mostly guaranteed licensing fees thanks in large part to the slot machines and blackjack and roulette tables to be staffed by Bunnies.

Licensing, Playboy's fastest-growing and highest-margin business, took in $16 million in operating profit last year. The club will provide a "meaningful lift" to the bottom line, chief executive Christie Hefner said.

Plus, Sin City seemed a perfect fit.

"A town that's defining itself through an ad slogan that says, 'What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas,' you could argue is a pretty good environment for a Playboy-branded product."

The company is looking to open Playboy Clubs in other destinations in which casino games take center stage, Hefner said, first in London and Macau, and then other locations in Europe, the Caribbean and Australia.

"Our view was not that we wanted to go back into having a chain of nightclubs," she said. "But in markets where the dominant business proposition is casino gaming, you can complement that with a great club and lounge and entertainment and food and beverage and merchandising and make a great deal of money."

Analysts said the opening comes at a perfect time for the company, whose revenues from video products took a stutter step in the first half of the year as cable companies switched to video-on-demand technology and magazine advertising revenue continued to decline.

Magazine circulation is around 3 million, down from its peak of 7.2 million in 1972, and the print version is losing money because of high paper and postage costs despite being America's top-selling men's magazine and having 21 foreign editions. In the second quarter, Playboy Enterprises lost $2 million, eking out a tiny $393,000 profit in the first half.

"As far as the club itself, the fact that they're returning to that, we think that's a good thing," UBS Securities analyst Lucas Binder said. "It's an aspirational brand, where people aspire to be involved, and Las Vegas is a place that you know you can be part of something without having to go to the (Playboy) Mansion."

While some feminists, like Gloria Steinem who wrote a famous expose of the New York club as a Bunny in 1963, may be wringing their hands, Ariel Levy, author of "Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture" said the nation has changed in the 20 years since the feminist movement was active in shutting the clubs down.

"Women dressed as stuffed animals is not something that's going to meet a lot of public resistance because that matches the way women are portrayed in reality television and music videos. I think there's been a real return of acceptance to the bimbo image."

Playboy's brand has been increasingly accepted by women. The reality show featuring Hugh Hefner's life at the Mansion with his three girlfriends, "Girls Next Door," is the E! network's most popular show, and Playboy says 55 percent of the viewers are female.

Retail sales of Playboy-branded products have more than doubled over the past three years to $650 million - and most of the merchandise is in women's fashion or accessories.

Former Bunny and author of "The Bunny Years," Kathryn Leigh Scott, argues Bunnies used the clubs as stepping stones for careers as scientists, actresses and entrepreneurs and they served as exciting places to meet celebrities, especially "for a kid from Minnesota."

"There are always going to be young, self-assured women, confident and ambitious who are going to want to work as Playboy Bunnies, just as there were when I got the job," she said.

Lindsey Roeper, a 22-year-old communications major from Cal State Fullerton who has been training more than a month to become a Bunny dealer, said she's just excited to work in a town she normally visits to play.

"I think the outfit's cute, so we'll be fine," she said.

On the Net:

Playboy Enterprises Inc., www.playboyenterprises.com

Palms Casino Resort, www.palms.com