Nation in brief

Jackson indicted, say TV reports

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Pop star Michael Jackson was indicted by a Santa Barbara County grand jury investigating child molestation allegations, television news organizations reported Wednesday.

The reports by ABC, CNN and MSNBC cited sources that were unidentified. They had no details about the indictment, nor was there any official confirmation or announcement.

Grand jury indictments are usually secret until a defendant is arraigned.

Jackson attorney Mark Geragos, reached by telephone, would not answer questions from the Associated Press about whether there was an indictment.

Geragos, other defense attorneys and prosecutors in the case are covered by a gag order. The district attorney's office also would not comment about the media reports.

"This probably is a court matter, to be able to give the information out, not the district attorney's office," said Susan Tellem of Tellem Worldwide, hired to handle media inquiries for District Attorney Tom Sneddon in the case. "There's a gag order . . . and that means the district attorney really can't speak."

The grand jury has spent the last three weeks hearing from witnesses, including a 14-year-old boy who claims the pop superstar sexually abused him.

WASHINGTON - The House voted unanimously Wednesday to let financially pinched National Guard and Reserve troops tap into retirement savings without penalty.

The House voted 415-0 to waive the 10 percent penalty imposed on early withdrawals from retirement accounts and pensions for National Guard and Reserve troops deployed six months or longer since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Senate has not considered the bill.

McALESTER, Okla. - A judge refused to dismiss the murder case Wednesday against Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and restricted defense attorneys' ability to argue there was a wider conspiracy than the government has acknowledged.

Judge Steven Taylor found no basis for defense claims that the prosecution withheld evidence important to Nichols' case. He said the defense request for a dismissal was "laced with melodrama but no substance."

ST. LOUIS - The Archdiocese of St. Louis will pay nearly $1.7-million to a family whose son was sexually abused over three years by a Roman Catholic priest serving 15 years in prison, the family's attorney said Wednesday.

Robert Ritter said he and attorneys for the church settled Tuesday in the case of the Rev. Gary Wolken, the former associate pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Lawyers for basketball star Kobe Bryant will not be allowed to get medical records or subpoena health care providers to testify about psychiatric treatment received by the woman who accused him of rape in Colorado last summer, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Bryant's lawyers argued that the 19-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, has a history of mental instability and that she waived her right to privacy by talking about her treatment with friends, relatives and a police detective.

Judge W. Terry Ruckriegle, the chief judge of the 5th Judicial District Court, disagreed.

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