Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs convicted of being accomplice to rape

9/25/2007

(Posted at 4:15 p.m.) ST. GEORGE, Utah The leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group was convicted today of two counts of being an accomplice to rape for performing a wedding between a 19-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl. Warren Jeffs, 51, could get life in prison after a trial that threw a spotlight on a renegade community along the Arizona-Utah line where as many as 10,000 of Jeffs followers practice plural marriage and revere him as a mighty prophet with dominion over their salvation.

(Updated at 7:05 p.m.) SUSSEX, Va. Michael Vick was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on state charges related to the dogfighting ring he operated on his Virginia property. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was indicted for beating or killing or causing dogs to fight other dogs and engaging in or promoting dogfighting. The grand jury did not indict him on eight counts of animal cruelty. In a written plea for the federal dogfighting case, Vick admitted to helping kill six to eight dogs at the Surry County property.

(Updated at 11:25 a.m.) President Bush announced new sanctions Tuesday against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, accusing it of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship. "Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma," the president said in an address to the U.N. General Assembly. Now called Myanmar, the Asian country also is known as Burma.

(Updated at 1 p.m.) Antonio Henton, Ohio State's third-team quarterback, has been suspended indefinitely after being arrested on charges of soliciting a prostitute. Henton, a redshirt freshman, completed a pass in four attempts for 20 yards and also ran for 31 yards on seven carries in the eighth-ranked Buckeyes 58-7 win over Northwestern on Saturday.

(Updated at 11:30 a.m.) The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country. The high court will hear a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. who sued Kentucky in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

(Posted at 6:30 a.m.) The first nationwide strike against General Motors Corp. in 37 years has begun because the United Auto Workers union wants job security, an issue the company will find difficult to promise. UAW officials said the 73,000 UAW members who work at about 80 U.S. facilities for the nation s largest automaker struck at 11 a.m. yesterday because they want GM to promise that future cars and trucks, such as the still-on-the-drawing-board Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car, will be built at U.S. plants, preserving union jobs.

(Updated at 10:35 a.m.) Kiefer Sutherland was arrested early Tuesday on misdemeanor drunk driving charges after failing a field sobriety test, police officials said. The actor was pulled over at about 1:10 a.m. in West Los Angeles after officers spotted him making an illegal U-turn, said Officer Kevin Maiberger.