Mideast appeal...Autopsies planned...Four in custody

White House (AP) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (mahk-MOOD' ah-BAHS') is looking for some help from the White House today. He'll be asking the Bush administration to push Israel to stop expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Abbas meets with President Bush this afternoon. Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have become bogged down.

CHICAGO (AP) Autopsies are scheduled for five people whose bodies were found inside a house on Chicago's South Side. Police say all of the victims were in their 20s, and they all knew each other. It's been a violent few weeks in Chicago, with a series of shootings.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Four men are in custody in connection with an Indiana bank robbery in which a pregnant teller was shot. But police say the suspected gunman is still at large. The teller's husband says she's still hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) The owner of a wild animal training center in California can't understand how a "simple routine," as he put it, turned tragic. Randy Miller says he's overcome with grief over the death of his cousin, Stephan Miller, who was killed by a grizzly bear during the Filming of a promotional video on Tuesday. He describes the bear as a "loving, affectionate, friendly" animal.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) When Wesley Snipes is sentenced today in Florida, prosecutors want to see him get the maximum three years in prison and a fine of at least five million dollars. Snipes was acquitted of five of eight counts in his tax trial, but he was convicted of three lesser charges of willful failure to file a return.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 04-24-08 0452CDT | save this article / add to your favorites list