Murders New York State

Michael Swango, a former doctor accused of injecting lethal doses of poison into patients in the United States and Zimbabwe, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Uniondale, N.Y., to charges of murdering three patients at a veterans' medical center in Northport, N.Y., in 1993. Prosecutors could seek the death penalty.

About 500 people attended a memorial service for the Buffalo, N.Y.-area physician who performed abortions, one year after he was killed by a sniper's bullet. A nurse who was critically injured in the 1998 abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Ala., was among those who attended the interfaith ceremony at a Presbyterian church for Dr. Barnett Slepian. Police kept watch outside and about 25 undercover police were scattered throughout the crowd.

An alleged mother-and-son con artist duo, already awaiting trial in New York in the slaying of an elderly Manhattan socialite, have been charged with capital murder for an earlier San Fernando Valley slaying. Prosecutors now say Kenneth Kimes, 23, and his mother, Sante, 63, killed David Kazdin, 63, of Granada Hills and dumped his body in a trash bin at Los Angeles International Airport in March 1998.

The grandson of Malcolm X who set a 1997 fire that killed the civil rights leader's widow will spend at least another year in detention for escaping, a judge ruled Tuesday. Malcolm Shabazz, 14, pleaded guilty to the juvenile equivalent of third-degree escape, a misdemeanor. His sentence, which had been scheduled to end in February, was extended by the judge to a year from Tuesday--a 6-month extension. But as before, the sentence can be extended yearly until he is 18.

The FBI put alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and anti-abortion activist and accused doctor killer James Charles Kopp on the bureau's list of Ten Most Wanted fugitives. There is a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of bin Laden, and $650,000 for information leading to the arrest of Kopp.

An abortion foe who is the subject of an international manhunt was charged with murder Thursday in the slaying of a doctor who was cut down in his kitchen by a sniper's bullet. Federal and state arrest warrants were issued for James C. Kopp, 44, of St. Albans, Vt. His whereabouts are unknown. "We have probable cause to believe this man, James Kopp, is responsible for the death of Dr. Barnett Slepian," FBI agent Bernard Tolbert said.

A rifle was found buried near the Amherst, N.Y., home of an abortion provider who was killed in his kitchen by a sniper's bullet last fall, investigators said. The rifle was sent to an FBI laboratory to determine whether it was used to kill Dr. Barnett Slepian, 52. No arrests were made at the time.

Prosecutors are reviewing a videotape from a New York nightclub that shows a New Jersey man physically abusing a Monterey Park woman after she danced with other men only hours before she was stabbed to death. Kevin Lee, 32, a Jersey City computer programmer, has been charged in the slaying of Elaine S. Carrillo, whom he met over the Internet. He is being held in lieu of $350,000 bail.

The Justice Department said investigators have evidence that the man wanted for questioning in the Oct. 23 sniper slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a Buffalo, N.Y., abortion provider, may have fled to Mexico. There is evidence that anti-abortion activist James Charles Kopp, 44, was driven to Mexico by a female friend, a Justice official said. Also, a Customs Service videotape from a border crossing point shows the woman's car returning from Mexico.

The FBI is seeking two men for questioning in the sniper slaying of a New York doctor who performed abortions. Dr. Barnett Slepian was struck by a bullet fired into his Amherst, N.Y., home Oct. 23. FBI Special Agent Paul Moskal in Buffalo, N.Y., said the agency had issued a nationwide bulletin to police alerting them to look for the two men, whom he did not identify. Moskal said the men were not suspects and did not believe they were witnesses.