Nation in brief

First charges filed in academy sex scandal

DENVER - For the first time since a sexual assault scandal erupted at the Air Force Academy, the military charged a cadet Tuesday with raping and sodomizing a female cadet in a dorm room last fall.

Douglas Meester, a sophomore, was also charged with indecent assault and providing alcohol to two cadets in the Oct. 18 incident. The military equivalent of a pretrial hearing was scheduled to begin Wednesday to determine whether there is enough evidence to court-martial Meester.

The alleged victim was a freshman from Pennsylvania who reported the attack immediately and underwent a medical examination, said her lawyer, Steve Werner. He also said she was disciplined for fraternizing with older cadets and for drinking.

The academy outside Colorado Springs has been under scrutiny for months since dozens of female cadets said they were reprimanded or ostracized when they reported being raped. The school's top officers have been reassigned, and the Air Force and Defense Department are conducting investigations into what happened.

Last week, a military preliminary hearing was held for Cadet Jason Lewis, who is accused in a sex assault case. Military officials are deciding whether to proceed to a court-martial.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A man who allegedly watched an acquaintance rape, beat and try to smother a university student found burned in her dorm room was charged Tuesday with murder.

Stephen Soules, 20, was arrested late Monday, a day after Lucas Goodrum, 21, was charged with the same crime in the May 7 death of Katie Autry.

The 18-year-old student was found in her burning dormitory room at Western Kentucky University on May 4 and died three days later at a hospital.

DETROIT - A former Northwest Airlines flight attendant pleaded guilty to assault for putting a prescription depressant in a toddler's apple juice to stop her crying.

Daniel Cunningham, 39, of Ann Arbor also pleaded guilty Monday in federal District Court to distributing a controlled substance aboard an aircraft and importing a controlled substance.

The incident in August was discovered by the girl's mother, Beate Turner, who took the juice off the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight after noticing that it was bitter and foamy and had blue and white specks floating in it. The 19-month-old girl suffered no serious injury.

Cunningham faces a maximum prison sentence of 11 years and a $600,000 fine. No sentencing date has been set.

BATON ROUGE, La. - In a solemn farewell to a political dynasty, former Sen. Russell Long was laid to rest Tuesday barely a mile from the Capitol where his tempestuous father held sway and was mourned in a massive funeral nearly 70 years ago.

Huey Long's funeral in 1935, a populist benchmark in Louisiana history, was very different from his son's, held at a downtown church replete with dignitaries including Sens. Joseph Biden, Christopher Dodd and Fritz Hollings, and former Sen. Bob Dole.

Russell Long died Friday at the age of 84 in Washington, D.C. He was first elected to the Senate in 1948 and retired in 1987, having served as majority whip and Finance Committee chairman.

CRUISE SHIP DROWNING: The body of a man who fell from a cruise ship during his honeymoon was found on an island off the Mississippi coast on Tuesday, authorities said. Sheriff's deputies found the body of Matthew Scott Bjorn, 35, of Northport, Ala. His wife, Renee Bjorn, 37, said that her husband had climbed over the ship's railing Sunday while the couple was attending a party.

HIGH SCHOOL HAZING: A second student suspended after participating in a videotaped hazing incident in Glenview, Ill., this one unnamed, filed a lawsuit Tuesday to prevent the punishment from being enforced. The lawsuit seeks an emergency injunction against the suspension, an official in the clerk's office said. The school announced it has now suspended 32 seniors, 28 girls and four boys, for their involvement in the incident. Within hours of Monday's disciplinary decision, senior Marnie Holz, 18, had filed a lawsuit.

SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY: The last of five former Symbionese Liberation Army members to face murder charges in a 28-year-old bank robbery killing pleaded guilty in a Sacramento, Calif., courtroom Tuesday in the death of a woman who was shot as she deposited her church's Sunday collection. James Kilgore, 55, was one of the nation's most wanted fugitives for a quarter century.

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