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Police look into timing of killings

FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno's police chief acknowledged Wednesday that his department is investigating whether Marcus Wesson fatally shot nine of his children while police waited outside his house, despite frantic pleas from relatives to intervene.

Relatives of the victims and neighbors say police should have done more, and police Chief Jerry Dyer said even some officers were wondering whether they did the right thing. But Dyer defended authorities' response to what began as a custody dispute.

Police "made what I believe to be an appropriate decision . . . to negotiate the situation peacefully," Dyer said.

SAVANNAH, Ga. - A convertible in the city's St. Patrick's Day parade Wednesday sped through an intersection and slammed into spectators and a marching band. Eight people were injured.

People were screaming "Stop! Stop!" as the car lunged toward them at an estimated 30 mph, witnesses said.

Investigators determined the driver was not intoxicated and had not suffered a health condition. The vehicle, a Chrysler Sebring, was being examined for any possible mechanical defects, police said.

NEW YORK - A South African academic who studies the relationship between faith and science and has worked as an advocate for the homeless won a religion prize Wednesday that is billed as the world's richest annual award.

George Ellis has received the honor known as the Templeton Prize, presented by the John Templeton Foundation of Radnor, Pa. The prize is 795,000 British pounds, or more than $1.4-million.

Ellis, 64, is a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town who specializes in general relativity theory. He also is the co-author with Nancey Murphy of On the Moral Nature of the Universe, which emphasizes the importance of examining ethics together with science.

"The way in which science and religion by and large complement each other is becoming ever clearer, as are the natures of the various points of tension between them and some possible resolutions of those tensions," Ellis said. "It is a good time to look at these issues."

WASHINGTON - The number of Asians and Hispanics in the United States is expected to nearly triple by 2050 and will almost equal the nation's non-Hispanic white population at mid century, the Census Bureau says.

In projections being released today, the Census Bureau predicts the population of the United States will grow by nearly 50 percent to 420-million by 2050. These are the first projections from the Census Bureau since 2000.