WEST

CALIFORNIANS WAIT TO RETURN TO HOMES THREATENED BY LANDSLIDE

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. – Hundreds of homeowners waited anxiously to return to their hillside neighborhood as crews worked to restore water and power yesterday, a day after a landslide destroyed 17 luxury houses and severely damaged 11 others.

Police kept roads blocked in case more soil shifted in the Bluebird Canyon area, but by noon there had been no additional movement around the multimillion-dollar houses with vistas of the Southern California coastline.

Early Wednesday, homeowners alerted by the cracking and popping sounds of walls and pipes coming apart ran for their lives in their pajamas. Five people suffered minor injuries.

About 1,000 people in 350 undamaged homes were evacuated as a precaution, and most spent the night with neighbors. They waited yesterday for officials to announce when they could return home.

“We may have some good news. … We think we’ve stabilized the area,” Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider told KNBC-TV. She wiped away tears while praising neighbors who had opened their doors to evacuees. Twenty homes were deemed uninhabitable, and no one was being allowed inside. Residents of 14 other homes were being allowed to return only briefly to gather belongings under supervision.

– Associated Press

MAN ACCUSED OF FOMENTING REBELLION IN CAMBODIA HELD WITHOUT BAIL

A California accountant accused of breaking American law by fomenting a rebellion in Cambodia was ordered detained without bond yesterday by a federal magistrate. Yasith Chhun, 48, was arrested Wednesday in connection with a coup attempt he led against Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in November 2000. At a hearing yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles, federal magistrate Paul Abrams refused to grant bail.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SOUTH

RUNAWAY BRIDE SENTENCED TO PROBATION

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Escorted into court by her fiance, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks tearfully pleaded no contest yesterday to faking her own abduction. She was sentenced to probation, community service, and a fine. “I’m truly sorry for my actions and I just want to thank Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth,” Wilbanks said in court.

Judge Ronnie Batchelor sentenced her to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service as part of a plea bargain. He also ordered her to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff’s office $2,550.

That is in addition to the $13,250 she previously agreed to pay the city of Duluth, Ga., to help cover the overtime costs incurred in searching for her. “She’s done everything that we would ask of her,” said her lawyer, Lydia Sartain. “She has accepted responsibility.”

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

WIFE ARRESTED IN SLAYING, DISMEMBERING OF HUSBAND

TRENTON, N.J. – The wife of a New Jersey man whose body was hacked up, put in three suitcases, and dumped off the Virginia coast last year was arrested yesterday in his slaying. Melanie McGuire, 32, of Brick, was arraigned in Middlesex County Superior Court yesterday afternoon on a first-degree murder charge in the death of her husband, William McGuire. McGuire, 39, was killed April 29, 2004. His dismembered body floated ashore in his own matching luggage in the Chesapeake Bay near Norfolk, Va. Attorney General Peter Harvey said authorities believe Ms. McGuire shot her husband in the chest and torso in their Woodbridge apartment before the body was dismembered and placed in suitcases that were dumped off the Virginia coast. Ms. McGuire bought the pistol used to shoot the victim from an Easton, Pa., gun shop two days before the slaying, Mr. Harvey said. “There are more people involved in this matter besides Melanie McGuire,” Mr. Harvey said at a news conference yesterday announcing the arrest.

– Associated Press

MIDWEST

SCHOOL, PARENTS SETTLE SUIT IN GIRL’S MARSHMALLOW CHOKING DEATH

CHICAGO – The parents of a sixth-grader who choked to death on marshmallows while playing a classroom game settled their lawsuit against the suburban school district yesterday for $2 million. The settlement came in the second week of a trial over the 1999 death of 12-year-old Catherine “Casey” Fish. Her parents had been seeking unspecified damages. “This case was never about money,” said the family’s attorney, Francis Patrick Murphy. “This case has been about getting the message across to America that dangerous games should not be played in school, with or without supervision.” Casey’s parents had argued that Glenview School District and teacher Kevin Dorken were responsible for the girl’s death because Mr. Dorken, who had been supervising the game, was out of the room while the children were stuffing marshmallows in their mouths to see who could hold the most and still say the words “chubby bunny.”

– Associated Press