SOUTH

DETAILS REVEALED OF FLORIDA GIRL’S ATTACK

HOMOSASSA, Fla. – A convicted sex offender entered Jessica Lunsford’s house through an unlocked door, snatched the 9-year-old girl from her bed, and later sexually assaulted her, authorities said yesterday. Medical examiners confirmed the sexual assault by examining her body. But because suspect John Evander Couey was under the influence of drugs, detectives might never know how long she was held before she was slain, the Citrus County sheriff, Jeff Dawsy, said.

The sheriff released new details of the attack on the same day Mr. Couey was returned to Florida in shackles. He was booked early yesterday on a probation violation and failure to register as a sex offender. He was being held without bail. Mr. Couey, 46, confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica after taking a lie-detector test Friday in Georgia, officials said. The girl’s body was found early Saturday, more than three weeks after she vanished from her bedroom.

Jessica’s father, in an emotional statement, expressed a desire to mete out justice of his own. “I won’t get the wish, but I wish I could see him, just one time,” said Mark Lunsford, his eyes hidden by dark sunglasses.

– Associated Press

WEST

THREE CHILDREN MISSING IN COLORADO LODGE EXPLOSION

PAONIA, Colo. – Three youngsters were missing and 16 others were injured after a fiery explosion that destroyed a remote mountain lodge as people started arriving for a family reunion, authorities said yesterday. The three missing, ages 3, 12, and 15, were all from the same family, the Delta county sheriff, Fred McKee, said. “We are very concerned that they were last seen in the lodge,” Mr. McKee said. Mr. McKee said the explosion Saturday at the Electric Mountain Lodge may have been caused by propane, which was used for heating. Investigators planned to enter the burned-out lodge yesterday if the wreckage had cooled sufficiently. Steve Douglas, one of the lodge’s co-owners, was tending bar when he heard an explosion. He told The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel that he believed there was a gas leak under one of the adjacent condominiums. Mr. Douglas’s fiance was on the third room of the lodge when the explosion occurred. “She rode it down like an elevator,” he said of the building’s collapse. The couple both escaped without injury. A family reunion was scheduled for the building. “Luckily, everyone hadn’t arrived. It was pretty vacant at the time,” Mr. Douglas said.

– Associated Press

NAVY SEAL COURT-MARTIAL FULL OF SECRETS

SAN DIEGO – The court-martial of a Navy SEAL lieutenant accused of abusing a prisoner in Iraq is a case full of secrets – even the defendant’s name is classified.

The SEAL is accused of punching an Iraqi detainee in the arm and allowing his men to abuse the prisoner, who later died during CIA interrogation at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison.

He faces a trial set to begin today on charges of assault, dereliction of duty, and conduct unbecoming an officer.

The Navy is taking extraordinary precautions to protect the identity of its terrorist-hunting Seals, members of an elite force named for Sea, Air, Land. The lieutenant will be referred to only by the first letter of his last name, as will all SEAL personnel in the courtroom – a step experts on military law say is virtually unprecedented. Swirling around the case are reports that point to the involvement of the CIA’s interrogation tactics in the death of the detainee – one of a handful of cases that the spy agency has referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. The SEALs acted as the CIA’s warrant squad on dangerous “capture or kill” missions in Iraq, bursting into homes in the middle of the night and carting off suspects. A secret policy governed these missions under the SEAL credo of “speed, surprise, and violence of action.”

– Associated Press

PACIFIC

WWII JAPANESE SUBMARINE FOUND NEAR HAWAII

HONOLULU – The wreckage of a large World War II-era Japanese submarine has been found by researchers in waters off Hawaii. A research team from the University of Hawaii discovered the I-401 submarine Thursday during test dives off Oahu.

“We thought it was rocks at first, it was so huge,” said Terry Kerby, pilot of the research craft that found the vessel. “But the sides of it kept going up and up and up, three and four stories tall. It’s a leviathan down there, a monster.”

The submarine is from the I-400 Sensuikan Toku class of subs, the largest built before the nuclear ballistic missile submarines of the 1960s. They were 400 feet long and nearly 40 feet high and could carry a crew of 144. The submarines were designed to carry three “fold-up” bombers that could be assembled for flight within minutes. Mr. Kerby said the main hull is sitting upright and is in good shape. The I-401 numbers are clearly visible on the sides, and the anti-aircraft guns are in almost perfect condition, he said. An I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945.

Their mission – which was never completed – reportedly was to use the aircraft to drop rats and insects infected with bubonic plague, cholera, typhus, and other diseases on American cities.

– Associated Press