SAN DIEGO - Lawyers for a man incarcerated for 16 years for rape and murder say they have uncovered evidence that could exonerate him - evidence that was not turned over at his 1993 trial by a prosecutor who is now a Superior Court judge in Vista, Calif. The information is the newest development in the long-running case of Samson Dubria, 44, a doctor serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole in ... [full story]

SAN DIEGO - Randy "Duke" Cunningham is back in San Diego, 16 months after being shipped off to federal prison for taking millions in bribes from defense contractors. It was a homecoming far different from what the disgraced former Republican congressman was accustomed to. Cunningham arrived Sunday night in the custody of federal prison authorities, wore an orange jumpsuit and was placed in a fifth-floor special segregation unit in the downtown federal jail. Law enforcement ... [full story]

AUSTIN, Texas -- Hundreds of mentally retarded children and adults living in Texas state schools were routinely abused, neglected and humiliated, it was reported Tuesday. The abuse is documented in employee records ordered released by the Texas attorney general, The San Antonio (Texas) Express-News reported. Nearly 300 cases of abuse and neglect were confirmed during each of the last two fiscal years and some of the offending employees were allowed to keep their jobs, The ... [full story]

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Southern California drivers favor allowing solo motorists to use freeway car-pool lanes at certain times of the day as a means easing traffic congestion. The Orange County Transportation Authority said that a survey found that nearly two-thirds of commuters were agreeable to allowing single-occupant vehicles use the carpool lanes during off hours. Proponents have pointed to slow-moving traffic at times when the car-pool lane is largely unoccupied. The survey proposed that ... [full story]

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A bill to be voted on by the City Council of Annapolis, Md., would ban the use of plastic bags in all retail stores. The council is scheduled to vote on the bill, which is aimed at protecting fish and birds in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries from the choking hazards the bags present, in October, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The ban would require stores to do away with plastic ... [full story]

NEW ORLEANS -- A Louisiana doctor will not face charges related to the deaths of several Hurricane Katrina victims, a New Orleans special grand jury ruled Tuesday. While New Orleans physician Anna Pou had been accused of taking part in the euthanization of several patients during the 2005 natural disaster, the Criminal District Court grand jury ruled against any possible indictments against her, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. The court's ruling ends a year-long investigation ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reveal the White House briefed top administration diplomats on Republican electoral prospects. The documents detail the Bush administration's efforts to keep appointees involved in foreign policy in the loop when it came to Republican election goals for congressional and gubernatorial races, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. The briefings included a meeting prior to the 2002 midterm elections that highlighted 55 critical House races and critical ... [full story]

CHESHIRE, Conn. -- Two suspects were in custody in Connecticut for allegedly wounding a doctor and killing his wife and two daughters in their Connecticut home. Dr. William Petit Jr., 50, an endocrinologist, was listed in serious but stable condition with a head wound, The New Haven (Conn.) Journal Register reported Tuesday. Petit's wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and his daughters, Hayley, 18, and Michaela, 11, were found dead Monday in the family's upscale home in ... [full story]

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to death for purposely infecting Libyan children with HIV, have left Libya and received pardons. The six medial personnel were flown out of Libya and to Sofia where Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov pardoned the five nurses and the doctor, who was given Bulgarian citizenship, the Bulgarian news agency SNA reported. The six people spent eight years in Libyan prisons charged with deliberately infecting more ... [full story]

BAGHDAD -- A booby-trapped truck in the southern Iraq Shiite city of Hilla exploded near a children's hospital Tuesday, killing at least 22 people and injuring 60 others. A police spokesman told Kuwait's KUNA news agency the truck had been fully packed with explosives and that many of the injuries were severe. Hilla is about 60 miles south of Baghdad, where a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded. One person was killed and three ... [full story]