Attorney: Conn. dad who shot masked son devastated

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, APNEW HAVEN, Conn. — An attorney says a popular Connecticut teacher who fatally shot a knife-wielding prowler in a ski mask and then learned it was his 15-year-old son says he's devastated and filled with questions about what the boy was doing.

Jeffrey Giuliano's lawyer tells The Associated Press on Monday that the family is "broken in half" by the tragedy. He says he doesn't expect Giuliano to face criminal charges.

Tyler Giuliano died outside his next-door neighbor's house in New Fairfield. His father went outside with a gun Thursday when his sister called to say someone was trying to break into her house.

Jeffrey Giuliano saw a masked person holding a weapon. Police say the person came toward Giuliano and Giuliano shot him, only to be told later that it was his son.

High court won't hear wife's appeal in murder case

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will not hear the appeal of a former toxicologist convicted of poisoning her husband in a notorious San Diego murder case.

Former lab worker Kristin Rossum said she deserves a special hearing to determine whether her trial lawyer's performance was so bad that she was entitled to a new trial. Rossum was convicted in 2002 of the murder of her husband, Gregory deVillers, and sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors said Rossum, then 24, killed deVillers in November 2000 after he threatened to expose her affair with a supervisor and her methamphetamine habit unless she quit her job.

The justices on Monday rejected Rossum's appeal.

Russian nationalists want wedding shooters jailed

By MANSUR MIROVALEV, APMOSCOW — It was an unusual wedding escort even for Moscow's brash style: A red Ferrari led a motorcade in which guests fired celebratory shots from car windows as they sped down one of the city's main avenues near Red Square.

Sunday's parade drew an angry reaction from the Kremlin-controlled parliament, where senior lawmakers voiced outrage Monday after wedding guests from the province of Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus walked away with $3 fines. Just one man was ordered to pay a $60 fine by police who stopped the motorcade just outside the Kremlin.

Video of the incident also prompted angry comments from ethnic Russians, who denounced the wedding traditions brought into the Russian capital from the volatile Caucasus. Some called for tougher punishment for such behavior.

In an apparent response to the public outcry, a Moscow judge handed out a 15-day jail sentence to one of the shooters, the Interfax news agency reported.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of Liberal Democratic Party, said Monday while it's "a sign of joy" for people from the Caucasus to shoot off guns in celebration, "here it's a sign of robbery, banditry." He suggested such incidents be punishable by up to two years in jail.

Sergei Zheleznyak of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party suggested that celebratory gunfire should land a 15-day jail sentence and substantial fines.

"Meager fines for hooliganism with the use of firearms are a mockery of law and common sense," he said.

Millions of mostly Muslim natives of Dagestan and other Caucasus provinces flooded into western Russia after the 1991 Soviet collapse. Some have formed ethnic gangs notorious for their cruelty, and many others have been involved in violent clashes with ethnic Russian nationalists and soccer fans.

Many Russians harbor anti-Caucasus sentiments, and even those who would not describe themselves as racist are resentful of the hefty subsidies sent to the Caucasus, particularly to Chechnya.

The money is designed to bring stability after two separatist wars in Chechnya, but the region remains deeply impoverished while provincial leaders and officials flaunt their wealth and are often seen driving expensive cars and throwing extravagant wedding parties.

A 19-year-old Chechen man was arrested for three days and fined $150 in 2010 after drunk-driving his SUV over the Grave of an Unknown Soldier just outside the Kremlin.

Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption lawyer and popular blogger who has helped organize a wave of massive anti-Kremlin protests, said the wedding guests got away with tiny fines because of their connections.

"This single episode completely changes our ideas about what hooliganism and anti-social behavior are," he commented in his blog Monday.

Crickets causing a stink in Central Texas city

WACO, Texas — Several businesses in the Central Texas town of Waco (WAY'-koh) are dealing with a smelly problem that won't go away: decaying cricket carcasses.

A bank, a drugstore and other businesses have been inundated with the odorous onslaught of dead crickets that have been trapped inside walls and have collected on sidewalks.

Jani Rodriguez, the branch manager at Synergy Bank, tells the Waco Tribune-Herald ( http://bit.ly/QcSOLs) that scented products have been unable to get rid of the smell. Using air-scrubbing machines hasn't worked either.

Fred Huffman, an entomologist who runs a local pest control business, says the cricket problem has been worse this year because mild winter conditions resulted in the insects appearing earlier than normal.

Health officials say the crickets don't pose any direct health risks.

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Information from: Waco Tribune-Herald, http://www.wacotrib.com/

In Sweden, man does time for convict friend

By LOUISE NORDSTROM, APSTOCKHOLM — A man convicted of smuggling in Sweden outwitted his jailers by sneaking in a friend to serve most of his yearlong sentence, prison officials said Friday.

The identity of the false convict was discovered only when he'd been released on probation after serving about two-thirds of his friend's sentence "sometime in 2008 or 2009," Elisabeth Lager of Sweden's Prison and Probation Service said.

Lager said the in-lieu convict came to serve the sentence with a false ID — a driving license in the name of the smuggler friend but with his photograph. She declined to name either man or give more details about the switch.

An international arrest warrant was issued for the real convict earlier this year, Lager said, but declined to comment on why it took police more than three years after the switch was discovered to issue the warrant. It was not clear if the smuggler's friend would be punished for misleading prison authorities and assuming a false identity.

The convict, who never served his term, was sentenced for a series of smuggling offences in southwestern Sweden in 2008. Several media reports said he had fled to Asia and had paid his friend for his "prison-sitting" service.

Police chief resigns, NM force has gone to the dog

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, APVAUGHN, N.M. — The police chief of the small eastern New Mexico town of Vaughn resigned Wednesday, leaving the town with just one certified member on its police force — a drug-sniffing dog named Nikka.

Dave Romero, attorney for the town, said Wednesday that police Chief Ernest "Chris" Armijo decided to step down after news stories reported that he wasn't allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal background.

"He decided the attention was distracting," Romero said.

State officials said Armijo couldn't carry a gun since acknowledging that he owed tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent child support payments in Texas. Armijo also faces new felony charges after being accused of selling a town-owned rifle and pocketing the cash.

Romero said Armijo is working to clear up the latest case. He said Armijo has not ruled out seeking the police chief's position again if his case is resolved and the position is open.

According to records, the only qualified member of the Vaughn Police Department is Nikka, a drug-sniffing dog. Vaughn's other officer isn't certified and pleaded guilty to charges of assault and battery last year. Noncertified officers can't make arrests and can't carry firearms.

But Romero said not having an officer qualified to carry a gun didn't put Vaughn at risk. "England doesn't allow police officers to carry guns," he said. "Sometime the strongest weapon in law enforcement is communication."

Vaughn, a town of about 450 located 104 miles east of Albuquerque, is a quiet town that is an overnight stop for railroad workers. And while residents say there is no crime problem, the town is set deep in what U.S. Homeland Security Investigations officials say is an isolated region of the state popular with drug traffickers. Officials say the desolate roads in Guadalupe County make it hard for authorities to catch smugglers moving drugs from Mexico.

Guadalupe County Sheriff Michael Lucero said since news about the police chief's record became public his department has helped patrol Vaughn. But he said those efforts have put a slight strain on his already short-staffed department.

"I visit the town at least once a month," said Lucero. "The important thing is to keep a presence so residents know we're there to help if we're needed."

Romero said town officials are considering whether to hire another police chief or keep the department staffed with just one officer. He said it's unclear whether the town will keep the police dog, which had been in Armijo's care.

When approached by a reporter from The Associated Press at his Vaughn home, Armijo said he had no comment, and he declined to grant access to the canine for photographs or video.

The dog's kennel could be seen in Armijo's backyard, and a police truck marked "K-9" was parked in his driveway.

At Penny's Diner, residents said they were embarrassed by the attention the episode has put on the small town.

"There's just a whole lot of nothing going on here," said cook Joyce Tabor. "We have very little crime. It's quiet. So this really doesn't matter."

Police: Drunken man on horse arrested after chase

BUNNELL, Fla. — A man was intoxicated while riding his horse as he led police on a half-hour chase through a northeast Florida town, authorities said Tuesday.

Charles Larkin Cowart, 29, was arrested Monday afternoon in the city of Bunnell, about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.

A police officer was responding to a report of "an intoxicated male riding a horse" when he turned on his emergency lights to stop traffic as Cowart crossed the street, according to the charging affidavit. Cowart said he was on his way to his grandmother's house in nearby Flagler Beach, but refused officers' order to dismount and "in an aggressive manner reared the horse back" and took off running.

Officers did not immediately chase after him, the report said, citing the public and the horse's safety. Cowart continued to ride through town, "causing a crowd of people to come out of their homes" and a train to slow down as Cowart crossed over a set of railroad tracks. Police kept their emergency lights on, but did not use their sirens to prevent the horse from being frightened and "potentially making the situation worse."

Cowart ignored several verbal commands to get off the horse, which after more half an hour, became exhausted. Cowart eventually jumped off and took off running. He was captured a short time later. The horse returned to Cowart's family and is doing fine, police said.

Cowart was booked into the Flagler County Jail on charges that included disorderly conduct, resisting arrest without violence and cruelty to animals. He was being held Tuesday on $7,000 bond.

A message was left Tuesday at a phone listing for Cowart in Bunnell, about 60 miles south of Jacksonville. It was not immediately known if he has an attorney.

Cowart was arrested for petit theft on Sept. 9 and on a DUI charge in October 2010. The disposition of those charges wasn't immediately known.

Fashion show canceled after collection is lost

By THOMAS ADAMSON, APPARIS — There's going to be a one-hour hole in the normally tight Paris Fashion Week calendar, after representatives of label Hakaan said its entire collection had been lost.

Turkish designer Hakaan Yildirim was set to present his spring-summer 2013 to the media on Tuesday afternoon.

But PR company Karlaotto sent out emails Monday to all those with invitations saying the preview was canceled — after all the clothes had mysteriously disappeared. "The whole collection is lost," said Karen Nitsche of Karlaotto. "It was when they were being transported. We don't know how."

Last November, Marc Jacobs canceled a London press preview after his collection was stolen during its transfer from Paris.