Medgar Evers' killer dies in Mississippi hospital

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JACKSON, Miss. - Byron De La Beckwith, convicted assassin of civil-rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, died last night after he was transferred from his jail cell to a hospital. He was 80. No cause of death was announced.

Evers, a 37-year-old NAACP field secretary who pushed for an end to segregation, had stepped out of his Oldsmobile when he was shot in the back on June 12, 1963. He was walking to his house with an armful of "Jim Crow Must Go" T-shirts.

Beckwith was convicted at a third trial in 1994 after two mistrials three decades earlier. After his conviction, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

His fingerprint was found on a deer rifle used to kill Evers. It was abandoned in the lot across the street. But the former fertilizer salesman insisted he was 90 miles away in Greenwood when Evers was murdered.

Two all-white juries deadlocked in trials in 1964. The jury that convicted him 1994 included eight blacks.

Stormy weather contributes to Northeast bus accidents

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - A Greyhound bus overturned on a snow-covered highway early yesterday, injuring 46 people. It was one of three bus accidents as stormy weather spread across the Northeast.

The bus, headed to New York from Atlantic City, slid on a snow-covered stretch of the Garden State Parkway near Lakewood, spun out and hit a guardrail before overturning, police said.

Some of the injured suffered broken bones but most injuries were minor, state police said.

On Saturday, another New Jersey bus accident injured 40 people. That bus, en route to Scranton, Pa., from New York, overturned and caught fire at Allamuchy in northwest New Jersey. One woman remained in critical condition yesterday.

In the Philadelphia suburb of Plymouth Meeting, a tour bus collided with a snowplow and plunged down a shallow ravine early yesterday. Authorities said 33 passengers suffered minor injuries, and both drivers were seriously injured.

State Department authorizes U.S. personnel to leave Congo

WASHINGTON - The State Department said yesterday that in light of increased political turmoil in Congo, where President Laurent Kabila was assassinated Tuesday, it was authorizing the departure of nonemergency U.S. government personnel and embassy family members and renewing its advice that Americans not visit the country.

It said private American citizens living in the central African nation should take precautions, including leaving the country.

Unofficial armed groups operate in parts of the country and are responsible for pillaging, vehicle thefts, ethnic tensions and paramilitary operations, it said.

JetBlue airplane slides off runway; no injuries reported

NEW YORK - JetBlue Airways, a new airline with 10 planes in its fleet, said one of its jets slid off a runway at John F. Kennedy Airport yesterday during a snowstorm. No injuries were reported.

The jet, an Airbus A-320 arriving from Ontario, Calif., was carrying 139 passengers and six crew members, JetBlue said. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

Money launderer takes 11 years instead of life

MIAMI - An Aruban businessman who laundered money for Colombian drug cartels has reached a plea bargain, accepting an 11-year prison term to avoid a possible life sentence.

Randolph Habibe, who was extradited after a five-year legal battle, pleaded guilty Thursday to racketeering conspiracy for laundering $11 million in drug profits. He will be allowed to serve the rest of his term in Aruba, an island off the northwest coast of Venezuela.

The case, which dates back to 1993, was seen as a test of U.S. powers to prosecute foreign nationals involved in drug rings operating in the U.S.

Under-inflated, not faulty, tires are cited in blowouts

SAN DIEGO - Poor maintenance, not defective Firestone tires, caused tire blowouts and fires on San Diego Transit buses, a consultant has concluded.

Many tires on the city's fleet were under-inflated, and tests showed the likely cause of the fires was friction as they rubbed against the road or dual tires rubbed against each other, Harold Herzlick of Las Vegas said in a report issued Friday.

Overheated brakes also may have been a factor, the report said.

Exploding tires set off fires that destroyed three buses worth $429,000 each on freeways.

San Diego Transit leased about 2,000 tires from Firestone. They were not part of the national recall of some types of the company's tires.

San Diego Transit last month canceled a $550,000 tire-and-maintenance contract with Firestone.