■ United States
Writers Guild gives awards
The mob epic The Departed and the road-trip comedy Little Miss Sunshine won top honors at the Writers Guild of America Awards. William Monahan on Sunday won the adapted-screenplay prize for The Departed, Martin Scorsese's saga about rival moles who have infiltrated the police and a crime gang. The film was based on the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. With his debut script, Michael Arndt received the award for original screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' tale of a family's outrageous mishaps on the way to their little girl's beauty pageant.
■ United States
Inmate wants execution
In Dallas, Texas, one of the notorious "Texas Seven," who escaped from prison and killed a police officer during more than a month on the run, has told court officials he wants to drop all appeals to speed up his execution. Michael Anthony Rodriguez, 44, would be the first of the escapees to face execution for the 2000 killing. One of the escaped inmates killed himself before he could be captured. At the time of their escape, Rodriguez was serving a life sentence for hiring a hit man to kill his wife.
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