Nation in brief

Unique WWII plane crashes, killing 2

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - A World War II-era German bomber en route to an air show crashed into a building under construction Thursday, killing the pilot and his passenger, police said.

Witnesses said they heard a sputtering sound shortly before the twin-engine HE-111 plowed through a chain link fence, slammed into the brick structure and caught fire, police Lt. Robert Korber said.

No one in the unfinished building was hurt.

The bomber was the last of its kind known to be flying in the world, said Tina Corbett, spokeswoman for the Commemorative Air Force.

The plane was headed from Midland, Texas, to Montana when the pilot reported engine failure, Corbett said.

The identities of the pilot and passenger were being withheld until their families could be notified.

IOWA CITY, Iowa - The state has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of six people who said they were taught to stutter as part of research conducted by a renowned speech pathologist in 1939.

Special Assistant Attorney General Craig Kelinson and Assistant Attorney General Bruce Kemkes argued in a court document Wednesday that since the events happened before passage of the Iowa Tort Claims Act in 1965, the state is immune from such a lawsuit.

The Legislature determined the state was potentially liable only for claims after Jan. 1, 1963, they said. Before the act took effect, the state had immunity, the motion states.

No hearing date on the motion has been set.

The lawsuit, filed in Johnson County District Court in April, seeks unspecified damages. Only three of the six defendants are still alive.

The six-month research project was led by University of Iowa speech pathologist Wendell Johnson, who tried to induce stuttering in children to prove that the speech impediment resulted from environment rather than genetics.

A graduate student used negative psychological pressure to try to cause stuttering in the children, who lived in the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport.

WASHINGTON - National Zoo investigators report a new suspect in the July Fourth killing of a bald eagle.

Based on the culprit's eating habits, attack strategy and a tiny fur sample, they now think a red fox did in Captain, the zoo's 21-year-old eagle. Earlier they'd suspected a bobcat.

CONDIT LIBEL SETTLEMENT: Carolyn Condit, wife of former Rep. Gary Condit, settled her $10-million libel suit against the National Enquirer over a story that said she berated Chandra Levy days before the Washington intern disappeared. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

POWERBALL WINNERS: Two tickets, one in Missouri and the other in Pennsylvania, matched the numbers drawn in the Powerball lottery Wednesday, splitting the estimated $261.3-million jackpot, lottery officials said. William and Claudia Walkenbach of Hermann, Mo., held one winner and had modest spending plans. On their list are a new refrigerator and a "tractor with brakes." The other winner had not yet come forward.

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