Arizona

A federal appeals court Thursday threw out the conviction of an Arizona man in the 1991 killings of nine worshipers at a Buddhist temple, ruling that police had coerced the then-17-year-old's confession by interrogating him for 12 hours without a lawyer or supportive adult present. The decision could signal that Arizona authorities might face judicial censure for their treatment of an 8-year-old boy charged with two counts of murder earlier this month.

No one suspected the boy. Not the neighbors, whom the 8-year-old waved to while walking his boxer puppy. Not the police, who were investigating whether a workplace spat had ended in the shooting deaths of his father and another man. But a tip convinced authorities to re-interview the third-grader. He wore pajama pants, tucked his limbs closer to his body, teared up -- and, in the end, appeared to confess to the slayings.

The grandparents of a young Arizona boy charged in the shooting deaths of his father and another man told police that the 8-year-old was capable of the crimes. In documents released Wednesday by the Apache County prosecutor's office, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said that Liz Romero, also known as Liz Castillo, shouted out angrily when she was told the boy would be arrested in the Nov. 5 killings. "I knew this would happen," she said. "They were too hard on [the boy].

Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to an 8-year-old boy charged with murder in the shooting deaths of his father and another man, court records show. Complete details of the offer weren't spelled out in a court filing posted Saturday on the Apache County Superior Court's website. But Apache County Atty.

The dirt track we're bumping along doesn't qualify as a road -- even here on the sprawling, remote Navajo reservation. Next to me, behind the wheel of an old pickup, Christian Bigwater downshifts as he maneuvers over and around the rocks in our way. "You're in for a treat," he says as he stops at a point beyond which even he won't risk driving. From here, we hike through scraggly pines and yucca to a promontory from which the treat -- Canyon de Chelly -- reveals itself.

Two boys who suffered extensive head injuries from a beating at a Phoenix park were not expected to survive, police said Wednesday. Joe Sauceda Gallegos, 36, made an initial court appearance on two counts of child abuse and dangerous crimes against children in the Tuesday attack on 7-year-old Jesse Ramirez and 10-year-old Edwin Pellecier, Jesse's cousin. Police said the boys were in extremely critical condition. The hospital treating the boys would not release their medical status.

Western Union Co., the largest U.S. money-transfer company, said Wednesday that it had won a court ruling that bars Arizona from seizing funds sent by customers in other states to Mexico as part of a probe into drug and immigrant smuggling. Arizona Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard obtained a warrant in September to intercept transfers of $500 or more between 28 U.S. states and 26 places in Sonora, Mexico, so he could look for criminal ties.

IT isn't often that a weekend getaway with a toddler revolves around a fire station and a high-altitude saloon whose patrons roar up on Harleys. But a visit to this tiny, cliff-hugging town is bound to be full of some pretty weird moments. Jerome -- 90 miles north of Phoenix and snagged in a web of steep, narrow streets off scenic Arizona 89A -- at first glance is deceiving.

It's hard to buy undeveloped land in booming northern Arizona for $166 an acre. But now-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively did just that when a longtime friend decided to sell property owned by the employee pension fund that he controlled. In 2002, Reid (D-Nev.) paid $10,000 to a pension fund controlled by Clair Haycock, a Las Vegas lubricants distributor and his friend for 50 years.

It was an uncommon public gesture of dissent in the staid council chamber of this deeply conservative suburb of more than 400,000. The City Council meeting opened with a brief prayer offered by a Baptist minister, and then six council members stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. The seventh, attorney Tom Rawles, remained seated. He refused to say the pledge, he later said, to protest the war in Iraq. Rawles' silence during the opening of the Jan.