Around the Nation

CALIFORNIA

Longtime fugitive returned to Mexico

LOS ANGELES — A former paratrooper in the Mexican military suspected in a string of violent bank robberies in Mexico City was returned to his native country yesterday after his capture by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents here, ending a nearly two-decades-long international manhunt.

Arturo Montoya, 51, was among Mexico’s “Most Wanted” fugitives for his role in a series of bloody bank robberies in Mexico City in the 1970s and 1980s. He had been at large since his escape from a Mexican prison in 1986.

Montoya, who has been named in connection with several killings and kidnappings, was taken into custody on immigration violations Monday without incident at his home in South Gate, a Los Angeles suburb, by members of ICE’s fugitive operations team.

GEORGIA

Spider bite keeps suspect from court

ATLANTA — The man accused of killing a judge and three others during and after an escape from a downtown courthouse did not attend a brief hearing yesterday because of a spider bite, one of his attorneys said.

Brian Nichols waived his right to appear at the status conference because of a “medical problem,” lawyer Gary Parker told Judge Hilton Fuller. After the hearing, Mr. Parker said Nichols was bitten on the head by a spider and suffered some swelling. He said the incident happened in Nichols’ jail cell, though he did not say when.

During the hearing, Mr. Parker introduced three lawyers he has chosen to assist him in Nichols’ defense. One is an Atlanta lawyer, the other two are from Charlotte, N.C. All have experience in capital cases. Nichols faces the death penalty if convicted of murder charges in connection with the March 11 shootings.

Judge Fuller asked the attorneys and prosecutors to file any motions they have by Sept. 1, though he did not say that was a final date.

HAWAII

City Council posts expense accounts

HONOLULU — For the first time, Honolulu City Council members’ expense reports are being posted online. Among the nine members’ expenses for the just-completed fiscal year were $18 for trick-or-treat candy and a $600 cell phone.

Each member started the fiscal year with an allotment of $9,920. The biggest spender went through $9,154, the lowest, $1,258.

IDAHO

Murder added to offender’s charges

COEUR D’ALENE — A convicted sex offender, already facing kidnapping charges in the abduction of two Idaho children, will be charged with murder in the slayings of three persons found dead at the children’s home, a prosecutor said yesterday.

The kidnapping charges against Joseph Edward Duncan III will be handled in federal court because the youngsters were taken across a state line, Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said. Federal prosecution will follow the state’s case, he said.

Duncan, 42, is being held in the abduction of Dylan and Shasta Groene, who were declared missing in May after police found the bound and beaten bodies of their mother, her boyfriend and the children’s older brother in their home.

Duncan was arrested after 8-year-old Shasta was spotted with him in a Coeur d’Alene restaurant on July 2. The body of Dylan, 9, was found at a campsite in Montana last week after Shasta gave authorities information about where the children had been held.

ILLINOIS

$10 million ordered for stem-cell studies

CHICAGO — Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich issued an order yesterday that earmarks $10 million in state money for stem-cell research, making Illinois the latest in a line of states to fund the research.

Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, said he would consider it immoral not to act because stem-cell research is an important avenue through which some diseases could be cured.

The money is to be given in grants to medical research facilities and would be part of a program the governor called the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute. The Illinois Department of Public Health will oversee the program, which is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

KENTUCKY

College student dies while ’car surfing’

LOUISVILLE — A Western Kentucky University student died from injuries he suffered while “car surfing” on a moving vehicle.

Benjamin Watson, 19, of Louisville, fell off a car and hit his head Saturday night, said Jack Arnold, a Jefferson County deputy coroner. He died Sunday at University Hospital, Mr. Arnold said.

MICHIGAN

Soldier donates kidney to mother

KENTWOOD — Army Pfc. Danielle Carpenter didn’t want to let down her fellow soldiers. She also couldn’t turn her back on her ailing mother, in desperate need of a kidney transplant.

So before she was deployed to the war in Iraq, Pfc. Carpenter, 20, gave her left kidney to her mother during a March 25 operation.

“I did this for my mother because she deserves it,” said Pfc. Carpenter, who is now at a base in northern Iraq. “I watched my mom deteriorate before my eyes growing up, and I told her from the minute I knew about the kidney failure that I would give her one of mine.”

NEW YORK

Debt refinancer sues Michael Jackson

NEW YORK — A financial firm has sued Michael Jackson for $48 million in fees it says the singer owes for help in refinancing his bank debts and claiming a larger stake in a library of Beatles songs.

Prescient Acquisition Group, also known as Prescient Capital Corp., filed the lawsuit against Mr. Jackson in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Monday.

The lawsuit said Prescient was employed in November by Mr. Jackson’s MJ Publishing Trust to help him secure refinancing of $537.5 million through another company.

“We’re going to take a look at the lawsuit and we’re going to handle it in a good and professional manner and make sure appropriate contacts are made with everyone concerned,” said Brian Oxman, an attorney for Mr. Jackson.

TENNESSEE

Race no factor in church arsons

SPARTA — Police have charged a local black man with arson and burglary in a string of seven fires that damaged two black churches and five vacant houses last week.

James Henry Dibrell, 47, was jailed on seven counts of arson and seven counts of burglary. Authorities have said race is not a factor in the burnings and Mr. Dibrell’s relatives say he is addicted to drugs and mentally ill.

“It’s a relief to be able to get some sort of closure to this so quickly,” police Chief Jeff Guth said yesterday.

No one was injured.

WISCONSIN

Hiding boy saved from compactor

KENOSHA — A 4-year-old boy who hid inside a duffel bag that was placed out with the family trash was nearly crushed in a garbage truck’s compactor before a sanitation worker heard him scream.

Jacob Deates had climbed inside the duffel bag just as the garbage truck came by Monday morning. All the items were tossed into the truck, including the bag with the boy, said his mother, Jennifer Deates.

Trash collector Inis Ramadani stopped the compactor after hearing the scream and then saw the boy, who was reaching out from the bag.

The boy was not injured.