Nation in brief

Military studies sabotage of 13 parachutes

ATLANTA -- The apparent sabotage of at least 13 parachutes at Camp Lejeune, N.C., has investigators scrambling to find who might be trying to kill Marines.

Three Marines narrowly avoided death Sept. 21 when their main parachutes failed to deploy during a training jump and they were forced to use their reserves.

None of the three was injured, and all are on duty, 1st Lt. Marisol Cantu, a Marine spokeswoman, said Thursday.

Investigators since have found 10 more parachutes that were tampered with.

Child left in car dies; mother charged

ATLANTA -- Police have charged a mother with murder after she left her 3-year-old daughter with Down's syndrome strapped in a sweltering car on the first day of her new job.

Ashante Burgess died Wednesday shortly after arriving at a hospital, where doctors said her temperature was 108 degrees.

Police also charged Nakia Burgess, 28, with cruelty to children. The woman's attorney, Phinia Aten, said her client left Ashante in the car because she couldn't find affordable day care.

Burgess wept during a brief hearing Thursday and was placed on suicide watch at the Atlanta-Fulton County Jail.

The high temperature in Atlanta was 85 on Wednesday, but temperatures inside closed cars can climb 40 degrees higher. The windows were cracked, but the car was exposed to the sun, police said.

Suspect in bus attack attempts suicide

FRESNO, Calif. -- A homeless man accused of stabbing a Greyhound bus driver with a pair of scissors and causing a crash that killed two passengers tried to commit suicide in jail Thursday, police said.

Arturo Martinez, 27, cut himself three times on the arms after taking apart a disposable razor issued by the jail, sheriff's Lt. Margaret Mims said. Martinez was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery.

His arraignment was rescheduled for today.

Pedophile ex-priest faces more suits

BOSTON -- Sixteen men and a teenage boy filed new lawsuits Thursday against convicted pedophile John Geoghan and a roster of church officials who supervised the former priest, signaling that the Boston Archdiocese may be defending itself against sexual abuse claims against Geoghan for years.

Some of the cases allege relatively recent acts of abuse and could lead to further criminal prosecution of Geoghan, said Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney for the 17 victims. One of them, at age 17, is still a minor, and says he was fondled by Geoghan five or six years ago.

Garabedian said the accusations made in the new cases range from fondling to rape and occurred over more than three decades, from 1964 to 1996.

Suspect says he's not bank robbery killer

NORFOLK, Neb. -- A letter apparently written by a suspect in one of the nation's deadliest bank robberies claims he is innocent and that the gunman who killed five people last month remains free.

On the envelope was the name of Jose Sandoval, 23, of Norfolk, one of four charged with murder in the Sept. 26 robbery of a US Bank branch.

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