FALL RIVER, Mass. -- Three members of a fundamentalist sect pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges stemming from an infant boy's starvation death authorities blame on a twisted "vision."

Sect leader Jacques Robidoux pleaded innocent to first-degree murder in the death of his nearly year-old son Samuel. His wife, Karen, is charged with second-degree murder and his sister, Michelle Robidoux Mingo, as an accessory before the fact.

After their pleas, Judge John A. Tierney set bail at $500,000 for Robidoux, $100,000 for Karen Robidoux and $50,000 for Mingo.

Members of the Attleboro-based sect do not believe in the use of traditional medicine and, before this case, have refused to recognize the legal system.

Accord, Camry top most-stolen list

DETROIT -- Car thieves again made Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys their top targets last year, with high-end light trucks also high on the list, a non-profit insurance group reported Tuesday.

Accords and Camrys -- which have topped the National Insurance Crime Bureau rankings for the past few years -- were followed by the Oldsmobile Cutlass, Chevrolet full-size pickup truck, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicles, Chevrolet Caprice, Ford Taurus and the Chevrolet Cavalier.

The NICB also said nearly one-third of the 50 most-stolen vehicles were pickup trucks, minivans and SUVs.

Observers say Camrys and Accords remain popular among thieves because they are durable top-sellers. There is great demand for their spare parts.

The list by the NICB is based on an FBI-estimated 1.1-million reported vehicle thefts last year.

Ford to give Explorer buyers tire choice

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday that consumers ordering 2001 Ford Explorers may substitute Goodyear tires for Firestone brands questioned in a recall the automaker has blamed for declining sales of the sport utility vehicle.

Ford spokeswoman Della DiPietro said she could not specify whether the move was directly related to the recall of 6.5-million Firestone tires under federal scrutiny in 119 deaths over reports of sudden tread separation, mostly on Explorers.

"It's definitely a matter of giving consumers a choice, particularly in this segment where there's been so much focus on tires," DiPietro said.

Ford dealers have said some customers have rejected Firestone tires on Explorers, asking that Firestone Wilderness AT tires be swapped out with other brands before making the purchase.

NEW CRASH TESTS PROPOSED: Automobiles would have to pass two higher-speed crash tests to be sold in the United States under rules proposed by Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater that are designed to reduce post-crash vehicle fires.

Although vehicle fires only occur in about 1 percent of crashes, 4 percent of the people killed inside a vehicle in 1998 were in a crash involving fire, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Instead of the current rear crash using a flat, rigid barrier at 30 mph, the proposed test would use a barrier more representative of a typical vehicle's front end at a speed of 50 mph.

The side impact fuel system integrity test would be upgraded from 20 mph using the rigid barrier to 33.5 mph using the new less rigid barrier.

Mother to die for starving daughter

PITTSBURGH -- A woman was sentenced to die Tuesday for starving her 7-year-old daughter to death.

Michelle Sue Tharp, 31, was convicted of murder in the death of Tausha Lee Lanham, who weighed less than 12 pounds when she died in 1998.

The girl's body was dumped along a West Virginia road. Tharp and her boyfriend reported that the child had disappeared from a shopping mall.

Tharp becomes the fourth woman on Pennsylvania's death row.

42 1/2 years given for burning 26 churches

INDIANAPOLIS -- A self-described "missionary of Lucifer" was sentenced to more than 42 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for burning 26 churches during an eight-state rampage in the 1990s.

Jay Scott Ballinger, 38, of Yorktown, Ind., was also ordered by a federal judge to pay $3.6-million in restitution. He had pleaded guilty in July to 29 charges, including 20 counts of damaging religious property. He is white; he is suspected of setting fire to both black and white churches.

He still faces federal charges in Georgia in five church fires in 1998 and 1999, including one that killed a firefighter.

The plea agreement said Ballinger "frequently expressed his hostility toward organized Christianity, signed individuals he met to contracts with the devil and termed himself a missionary of Lucifer."

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