NATION IN BRIEF: Families mourn 5 victims

Family members and friends in search of answers and solace descended Monday on a homeless encampment in Long Beach, Calif., where five people were shot to death over the weekend, and police hoped an anonymous caller would come forward and say more. “There is still a demon out there killing innocent people,” said Don Morgan, 58, who said he was friends with the victims but wasn’t homeless himself. The bodies of three men and two women were found Sunday in the camp. Authorities have not released the names of the victims or provided a motive for the slayings.

Stevens juror lied, went to horse race

A juror dismissed from the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) after she told the judge her father had died in California admitted in court Monday in Washington that her excuse had been a lie: She actually left town to attend a horse race. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan declined to sanction the juror, Marian Hinnant, 52, of Washington, and allowed her to return to work after a federal public defender said Hinnant had been in such “a state of mind” on Oct. 23, a day after the jury began deliberating, that she could not have continued. The jury, with an alternate replacing Hinnant, convicted Stevens on Oct. 27 of seven counts of lying on financial disclosure forms to hide receipt of about $250,000 in gifts and renovations to his Alaska home.

Fifth body found from migrant boat

A body that washed ashore near Key Biscayne, Fla., on Monday was the fifth victim from a boat carrying migrants that ran aground off Miami last week. A rusty, 40-foot boat carrying migrants ran aground Friday near a small island east of downtown Miami. Three people were found dead that day and a fourth was found floating Sunday. About a dozen passengers are missing, but it is unclear whether they drowned or made it ashore and fled. Five Brazilians and 22 Dominicans are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Child abuser, killer gets life sentences

A federal judge in Boise, Idaho, sentenced convicted child killer Joseph Duncan to three life terms in prison for kidnapping and sexually abusing two children. The federal terms imposed Monday are in addition to three life terms imposed the same day in state court for the murders of the children’s mother, her fiance and the children’s 13-year-old brother. Duncan was sentenced to death in August for the 2005 kidnapping, sexual exploitation and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene. Duncan was arrested weeks after the slayings and kidnappings and Dylan’s sister was rescued when they turned up in a restaurant at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Bloomberg signs law to OK third term

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a term-limits law that will allow him to seek a third consecutive term next year. The bill-signing ceremony at City Hall drew dozens of New Yorkers who disagree with the way Bloomberg and the City Council quickly approved the law change. The critics said voters should have decided through a referendum, because voters twice approved term limits in the 1990s.

Jail to let Muslims wear scarves

A Southern California county will allow jailed Muslim women to wear headscarves after settling a lawsuit with a woman who claimed deputies violated her religious freedom by making her remove her head covering after she was arrested in December 2005 in Pomona for having an invalid train pass. Under the settlement released Monday, Muslim women can remove their own headscarves in a private area while being searched and San Bernardino County will provide a temporary head covering. The county also will pay plaintiff Jameelah Medina $45,000 in damages.

2 more teens left in Nebraska

Two more teenagers have been abandoned at Nebraska hospitals under the state’s much-criticized safe-haven law, bringing the number of mostly older children dropped off to 26 since July, authorities said. The teens, both 16, were left at separate hospitals, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. A girl was dropped early Monday at Midlands Hospital in Papillion and a boy was abandoned at Children’s Hospital in Omaha late Sunday.

Remains verified as Steve Fossett’s

Authorities said Monday they have positively identified some of Steve Fossett’s remains: two large bones found a half-mile from where the adventurer’s plane crashed in California’s Sierra Nevada in September 2007 after taking off from a Nevada ranch. Madera County, Calif., Sheriff John Anderson said DNA tests conducted by the state Department of Justice positively identified the bones as the remains of the millionaire aviator. The wreckage of Fossett’s plane was discovered last month after a hiker walking off trail near Mammoth Lakes stumbled across Fossett’s pilot’s license and a wad of weathered $100 bills.

Space scrap metal falls into Pacific

A refrigerator-size piece of space junk has fallen harmlessly into the South Pacific, according to NASA. The junk, a tank full of ammonia coolant that was no longer needed on the international space station, was thrown overboard during a spacewalk in July 2007 by astronaut Clayton Anderson, space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Monday, and splashed down somewhere between Australia and New Zealand on Sunday night.

Anchorwoman did not ID her attacker

The parents of slain Little Rock, Ark., TV anchorwoman Anne Pressly say their daughter couldn’t identify her attacker because she never fully regained consciousness after the beating that led to her death. Guy and Patti Cannady appeared Monday on NBC’s “Today” and said they were grateful for the outpouring of support that followed the Oct. 20 attack on their daughter, a morning anchorwoman for KATV. Police Lt. Terry Hastings said there were no new developments. Hastings said DNA and other evidence gave police a portrait of the person they’re looking for, but they still don’t have a name.

Gunman gets Obama sign

A man in a ski mask waved an American flag and a handgun on a Santa Barbara, Calif., freeway overpass for about three hours Monday, forcing a massive traffic shutdown before negotiators coaxed him to surrender. Police said after Edward Van Tassel, 28, an Iraq war veteran, dropped his weapon, he asked for a Barack Obama campaign sign, which authorities delivered to him using a bomb squad robot. The man attached the sign and the flag to the overpass and later walked backward to officers, who took him into custody. No shots were fired and police said the man’s gun turned out to be unloaded.