74 charges against "Baseline Killer"

Phoenix

A man suspected of being the area's serial "Baseline Killer" has been indicted on charges including nine counts of first-degree murder, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The 74 charges against Mark Goudeau, which also include 15 counts of sexual assault and 11 counts of kidnapping, stem from crimes committed between August 2005 and June 2006 throughout the Phoenix area.

Defense lawyer Corwin Townsend said Goudeau will plead not guilty to the new charges. He has already pleaded not guilty to two sexual assaults that authorities also attributed to the Baseline Killer.

Houma, La.

Not-guilty plea in serial killings

A man who police say confessed to strangling or suffocating 23 men during an eight-year killing spree pleaded not guilty Tuesday to nine counts of murder.

Ronald Dominique, 42, who has a heart condition, was rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair. He mumbled "not guilty" to each count as his sister and other relatives looked on.

The nine charges of first-degree murder, which carry a possible death sentence, stem from the rape and murders of nine men between 2002 and 2005 in Terrebonne Parish, La.

Dominique, arrested at a homeless shelter in December, has confessed to 23 murders from 1997 to 2005, authorities said.

San Francisco

Mother convicted in sons' drownings

A mother who claimed she was sacrificing her young sons for God by tossing them to their deaths in San Francisco Bay was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder.

LaShuan Harris, 24, claimed she was insane when she drowned the three boys on Oct. 19, 2005.

Killed were Treyshun Harris, 6; Taronta Greeley Jr., 2; and Joshoa Greeley, 16 months. Their mother faces up to life in prison.

Brooks, Ky.

Train derailment forces evacuation

Several train cars carrying volatile chemicals derailed and exploded Tuesday south of Louisville, shutting down a highway and forcing evacuations of homes, businesses and a school, authorities said.

No serious injuries were reported, but at least 11 people near the crash checked themselves into a hospital and were soon released, authorities said. Officials asked residents within a mile to evacuate.

The fire continued into Tuesday evening, and officials said they will likely have to let the chemicals burn themselves out.

The chemicals on the CSX train contributing to the fire were cyclohexane, methyl ethyl ketone, butadiene and alcohol, said Gary Sease, a CSX spokesman.

Also

The death toll grew to 51 people in nine states, and about 450,000 homes and businesses in several states were still without electricity Tuesday after a fierce storm that brought ice, snow, flooding and high winds to a swath of the country from Texas to Maine.

Seattle Times news services