Newswatch

Husband held in 1998 death

RENO, Nev.--A Seattle man accused of murdering his wife by driving their truck off a mountain highway more than two years ago near Reno has been arrested and awaits extradition in the King County Jail.

Peter Bergna, 47, was arrested Friday by Seattle police and a Washoe County sheriff's detective, two days after a Washoe County grand jury indicted him in the June 1998 death of his wife, Rinette Riella-Bergna, 49.

Bergna maintained an address on Queen Anne Hill and was a regional representative and antique appraiser for a San Francisco-based auction house. Washoe County Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Clifton said it took investigators more than two years to piece together what happened on the Mount Rose Highway.

Bergna's wife was found dead in the vehicle with her seat belt on at the bottom of a ravine. She was an international tour director and owned a pharmacological consulting business.

Bergna, who escaped with minor injuries, said he had been thrown clear of the truck. He was found 80 feet down the mountain after he managed to call for help using a cell phone.

But investigators concluded that if he had been thrown out, it likely would have been from the passenger side.

Investigators spent considerable time trying to reconstruct the events of that night and even called in Ford Motor experts to test airbags.

Fire Department plans drill

AUBURN--The Auburn Fire Department will conduct live fire training tomorrow through Wednesday in a large clearing near Eighth Avenue East and Lakeland Hills Boulevard. The department hopes the location will draw fewer false-alarm calls than training in downtown Auburn would, training chief Tom Marino said.

Firefighters will be canvassing the homes and distributing fliers near the exercise to inform residents about it. Nearby residents will see smoke as it is released from the training exercise but no flames. For more information, contact Marino or Public Education Officer Kimberly Cunningham at 253-931-3060.

3 arrested in abductions

SPOKANE--Police yesterday arrested three people suspected in the mysterious abductions of five Japanese students.

After receiving an anonymous tip earlier in the week, officers arrested Edmund F. Ball, 40, Lana C. Vickery, 42, and David M. Dailey, 38. Each was booked on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping, Spokane police said.

Two students who were abducted Oct. 28 and three who were abducted Nov. 11 described similar perpetrators and a similar red station wagon.

Each abduction involved Japanese women who were offered rides while waiting at a bus stop. All of the students escaped or were released by their captors.

The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported that U.S. Customs Service agents who specialize in Internet pornography trafficking are assisting in the investigation. The FBI also is involved.

Police would not discuss any possible link between the abductions and pornography purveyors.

I-5 lanes to close for work

SEATTLE--The Washington State Department of Transportation will close three lanes of northbound Interstate 5 tomorrow night for shoulder reconstruction near the Mercer Street exit.

The closures will begin at 8 p.m. with a single lane. A second lane will be closed at 11 p.m., and a third lane at midnight. All lanes will reopen at 5 a.m. Tuesday Weather permitting, the same northbound lane closures, and extended northbound express-lane operations, will also take place Nov. 28 and 29. The University Street onramp to northbound I-5 will also be closed. The lanes will reopen by 5 a.m. each day. The ramp will remain closed until 5 a.m. Nov. 30.

Northbound drivers should expect delays for the first few days after the 20th and the 29th while crews make changes to striping and barriers on the outside of the northbound I-5 shoulder approaching Mercer Street.

Grant used for virus control

MEDFORD, Ore.--Oregon's public-health veterinarian plans to use a $90,000 grant to increase the state's mosquito surveillance to prepare for a possible problem with the West Nile virus on the West Coast. Dr. Emilio DeBess, who received the grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wants to improve vector-control districts around the state and get the state laboratory equipped to handle more testing.

The West Nile virus is spread to humans by infected mosquitoes. It was first seen in the United States in 1999 in New York and has killed eight people.

The virus can cause encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, as well as meningitis, the swelling of the lining of the brain and spinal cord.DeBess noted the virus has moved from New York to Washington, D.C. "It's on the move," he said. "And it has a high-percent death rate, the population is highly sensitive because we haven't seen the disease before."

The grant includes $7,000 for Jackson County to expand its current mosquito-trapping efforts into Josephine, Douglas and Curry counties.

DeBess said Jackson County is one of the few in the state with an extensive program of checking to see if any mosquito-borne illnesses are in the area.