Police think the girl set paper towels on fire and placed them inside the metal trash cans in four women's rooms between 9:50 and 10 a.m. Friday, said Linda Benware, principal of St. Petersburg High.

Surveillance tapes helped identify the girl.

The girl, whose identity is being withheld because she is a juvenile, was charged with four counts of arson and taken to the juvenile detention center, said Ron Stone, spokesman for Pinellas County schools.

School administrators will suspend her for 10 days and recommend that she be transferred to another school, Mrs. Benware said. The fires did not damage school property.

Woman, 100, dies in Citrus crash

A 100-year-old Homosassa woman died Thursday from injuries sustained in a crash on U.S. 19 the day before, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Nina Ruth Parrish of Wildermuth Point in Homosassa was a passenger in a car driven by her octogenarian daughter, who traffic crash investigators said cut off another vehicle while trying to make a turn. Parrish was initially treated at Citrus Memorial Hospital, where she died.

Parrish's daughter, Dorothy Winters Rowland, remained in stable condition Friday afternoon at Citrus Memorial Hospital. Both she and her mother were wearing seat belts.

What was that? Rain broke monthlong dry spell

The light rain that fell for several hours early Friday was the first in many parts of the Tampa Bay area in more than a month, National Weather Service officials said.

About 0.08 inches of rain fell at the Tampa International Airport between 4 and 6 a.m. Friday, said weather service meteorologist Dan Sobien.

Rainfall around the Tampa Bay area ranged from 0.02 to 0.2 inches, with coastal areas receiving the most.

The last measurable rainfall occurred Sept. 29, when the area received 0.5 inches.

The 0.06 inches of rain that fell last month marks the third-driest October since the Weather Service started keeping records, Sobien said. The normal amount of October rainfall in the Tampa Bay area is 2.28 inches.

Federal prosecutors plan to present secret evidence

The federal government says it will present secret evidence to a judge to try to keep a Tampa man in jail after losing its case in open court.

Mazen Al-Najjar, a former University of South Florida teacher, has been detained 31/2 years in an Immigration and Naturalization Service facility in Bradenton. He is accused of fundraising for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

But after a weeklong hearing, Immigration Judge R. Kevin McHugh ruled Oct. 27 that the government failed to prove any of its allegations. Al-Najjar is not a threat and may be released, McHugh said.

The government had until Friday to file court papers to force the hearing into a second phase and did so late Thursday. It may now share information it deems sensitive with the judge alone.

Al-Najjar was ordered deported for overstaying a student visa. In a hearing three years ago, McHugh denied him bail during appeals. McHugh heard secret evidence and told Al-Najjar it showed "an association with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad" and that he posed a threat to national security.

TV show will ask for tips to help find missing boy

CLEARWATER -- The search for missing 8-year-old Zachary Bernhardt will be featured on Fox Television's America's Most Wanted tonight, exactly two months after he disappeared.

Clearwater police say they hope the segment will generate information that will help them find the fair-haired Eisenhower Elementary third-grader.

The show, which averages 10-million viewers, has featured 358 missing or kidnapped children, 28 of whom have been found alive as a result of the program, said Smitha Hanumaiah, spokeswoman for America's Most Wanted. Typically, the show receives about 300 phone calls after each episode, she said.

The show will air a one-minute segment that requests help from anyone with information about Zachary's disappearance. The show begins at 9 p.m. on Fox affiliate WTVT-Ch. 13.

The show will pass along tips to Clearwater police, who will be ready to act on the information this weekend, Shelor said.

Zachary's mother, Leah Hackett, reported her son missing Sept. 11, after she said she went for a 4 a.m. walk.

Tampa man charged with leaving scene of accident

LAND O'LAKES -- A Tampa man has been charged with leaving the scene of a crash that fatally injured a 35-year-old Tarpon Springs woman in June.

Although Michael Bruce Bindscheattel, 32, was not charged with causing the accident, it is a felony to leave the scene of an accident where injury or death occurs.

Bindscheattel was driving a 1993 Chevrolet that struck Tracy Lynn Hoban at about 10:15 p.m. on June 3 at Dale Mabry Highway and U.S. 41 in Pasco County, authorities say. Hoban died June 21.

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