Around the Nation

ARIZONA

Study finds HIV century ago

TUCSON | U.S.-led scientists estimate the human immunodeficiency virus began spreading between 1884 and 1924, about 30 years earlier than previous estimates.

Led by University of Arizona assistant professor Michael Worobey, the researchers discovered the world’s second-oldest genetic sequence of a strain of HIV known as HIV-1 group M. The sequence was recovered from a lymph-node tissue biopsy taken in 1960 from a woman in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The oldest-known HIV-1 group M genetic sequence is from a 1959 blood sample of a man also from central Africa. The scientists said a comparison of the 1959 virus and the 1960 virus led them to conclude the genetic divergence between the HIV sequences required more than 40 years.

The researchers said they also used other HIV-1 genetic sequences to estimate probable rates of the evolution of the HIV-1 group M strain. According to their calculations, HIV began spreading among humans between 1884 and 1924, about the same time large urban population centers were being established in west-central Africa.

The study appears in the journal Nature.

ARKANSAS

School shooter pleads to theft

BENTONVILLE | One of two young men who killed four students and a teacher at a middle school a decade ago faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to theft and marijuana possession.

Mitchell Johnson, now 24, entered his plea Tuesday before a Benton County circuit judge. Sentencing was set for Nov. 14.

He was accused of taking a debit card left by a disabled man at the gas station where he worked. Police said that when Johnson was arrested Feb. 2, he was in possession of marijuana.

In March 1998, Johnson, then 13, and classmate Andrew Golden, 11, stole guns from Golden’s grandfather and opened fire at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro. It was one of a series of school shootings that shocked the nation in the late 1990s.

CALIFORNIA

Rock slide destroys cabins in Yosemite

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK | Chunks of granite crashed to the Yosemite Valley floor in a cloud of dust Wednesday, injuring at least three people and destroying several cabins and trees at one of the park’s most popular lodging areas, officials said.

The rock slide was the second in two days in the area called Curry Village, a lodging and retail area defined by dramatic, sheer cliffs.

The slide destroyed five cabins and partially damaged at least three others, according to a park statement. Three visitors were treated for minor injuries.

The volume of rocks cascading from the granite face was estimated at 1,800 cubic yards, or about 180 truck loads, said Vickie Mates, a park spokeswoman.

There was another, smaller rock slide in the same area on Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured then.

In 1996, a rock slide in the same area sent as much as 162,000 tons of rock plummeting more than 2,000 feet, killing one visitor and felling 500 trees. A slide in 1999 killed one climber and injured three others while narrowly missing the popular campground.

ILLINOIS

Sheriff won’t clear foreclosed homes

CHICAGO | Residents of foreclosed properties in Chicago and other parts of Cook County don’t have to worry about deputies forcing them out.

Sheriff Tom Dart said that starting Thursday, his office won’t take part in evictions.

Sheriff Dart said he is concerned that many of the people being evicted are renters who were unaware that their landlords have been failing to pay their mortgages. He said his deputies have no way of knowing whether they’re removing someone who has defaulted on a loan or someone who has been faithfully paying rent.

Sheriff Dart said he thinks he is the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop such evictions during the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

He said the number of mortgage foreclosures in Cook County has skyrocketed and will probably keep rising.

LOUISIANA

No charges in frat hazing

NEW ORLEANS | The New Orleans District Attorney’s Office will not prosecute any of the Tulane University fraternity members accused of burning pledges with boiling water because the purported victims won’t cooperate.

Wednesday’s announcement means none of the 10 accused members of Pi Kappa Alpha will face felony battery charges punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

A lawyer for one of the purported victims said the incident happened during a “Hell Night” initiation when pledges were scalded with boiling water to see who could stand the most pain.

At least nine fraternity members still face a civil suit and university sanctions in the May 10 incident. At least one student was sent to the hospital, and the fraternity was ousted from the New Orleans campus.

MASSACHUSETTS

’Pregnancy pact’ schools eye the pill

GLOUCESTER | Schools in the Massachusetts city where girls reportedly made a “pregnancy pact” are considering whether contraceptives should be distributed at the high school.

The Gloucester school board is expected decide whether to distribute contraceptives to students without parental consent. It could also vote to give them out only with parental consent or to continue a policy of not giving them out at all.

The mayor and the school board chairman have expressed support for contraceptives with parental consent.

Time magazine reported that some of the 17 pregnant girls at the high school had agreed to have children and raise them together. The mayor and some of the pregnant girls denied any pact existed.

MINNESOTA

Woman sentenced in fatal bus crash

MARSHALL | A woman who initially lied about her identity and still denies driving a van that slammed into a school bus, killing four children, was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 13 years in prison.

Olga Marina Franco Del Cid was sentenced on four counts of vehicular homicide in the Feb. 19 crash involving a bus from Lakeview School in the southwestern Minnesota town of Cottonwood.

Franco was extricated from the driver’s seat of the minivan, which hit the school bus after barreling through a stop sign. But her attorneys tried to show during her trial in August that Franco’s boyfriend was driving, fled the scene and hasn’t been seen since.

The children killed ranged in age from 9 to 13 and included two brothers. Fourteen other people were injured.

MISSOURI

’Precious Doe’ defendant guilty

KANSAS CITY | A man has been convicted in Missouri of killing a 3-year-old girl who became known as “Precious Doe” after her decapitated body was found in 2001.

A jury convicted Harrell Johnson, 29, of first-degree murder Wednesday in the death of Erica Green.

Johnson kicked the girl, then left her to die on the floor of a Kansas City home where he and the girl’s mother were staying. He cut her head off and dumped the body in the woods.

A police officer found later found the body in April 2001. Her identity was unknown until 2005, when a community activist received a tip from the suspect’s grandfather in Oklahoma.

NEVADA

Mother, boyfriend guilty in child’s death

LAS VEGAS | A Las Vegas jury has convicted a mother and her boyfriend of killing the woman’s 3-year-old daughter and dumping the body in a trash bin.

Marc Anthony Colon, 30, and Gladys Perez, 26, were found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the 2006 beating death of Crystal Figueroa.

Crystal’s identity was not known for six weeks after her body was found in a trash bin east of the Las Vegas Strip.

Colon faces a death sentence. Perez faces life in prison without parole.

Each has blamed the other for the death.

NEW YORK

Sharpton convicted in disorderly protest

NEW YORK | A New York judge has convicted the Rev. Al Sharpton of disorderly conduct during protests over a police shooting and sentenced him to time served.

Criminal Court Judge James Stephen issued the verdict Wednesday against Mr. Sharpton and seven other activists. Mr. Sharpton has already served 5 1/2 hours in jail.

About 250 protesters were arrested in May for blocking bridges, tunnels and intersections in response to the police killing of Sean Bell on his wedding day.

Most of the cases were dismissed, but Mr. Sharpton and his co-defendants had insisted on a trial.

Mr. Sharpton testified Monday that the protests were peaceful, saying: “We wanted to stop violence, not cause violence.”

OHIO

Teen charged in nude photos

NEWARK | Police have arrested a 15-year-old girl on juvenile child pornography charges over nude cell phone photos of herself sent to classmates.

The girl was arrested Friday and held over the weekend. Her defense filed denials in court Monday.

OKLAHOMA

Biker slaying suspect surrenders

BARTLESVILLE | A suspect in the slaying of the leader of the San Francisco Hells Angels motorcycle gang a month ago surprised police in this small city in Oklahoma by turning himself in.

Christopher Ablett asked for assistance Sunday afternoon at police headquarters and said he wanted to surrender, Bartlesville Police Chief Tom Holland said.

Mr. Ablett, 37, of Modesto, Calif., is at the center of an investigation that made international news.

Hells Angels’ San Francisco President Mark Guardado, 45, was fatally shot Sept. 2. Motorcyclists from around the world came to San Francisco to pay their respects.

Police in California had identified Mr. Ablett as a suspect in the case partly based on witness reports that tied someone fitting his description to the scene of the shooting. Police searched his Modesto home, seizing a motorcycle and other evidence.

Mr. Ablett is said to be a member of the Mongols Motor Club, a rival of the Hells Angels.

From wire dispatches and staff reports