■ UNITED STATES
Whales heading back to sea
A mother whale and her calf were headed through a deep water shipping channel toward the Pacific Ocean, nearly a week after taking a wrong turn and swimming inland 145km to California's capital, Sacramento, the US Coast Guard said. By 9pm on Sunday the whales had traveled 32km down the Sacramento River from the Port of Sacramento, where crowds had gathered to catch a glimpse of the humpbacks. As darkness fell, the Coast Guard escort that had followed the whales all day ceased trailing them so the vessels would not accidentally hit them. Vessels carrying Coast Guard officers and wildlife officials were to start following the whales again at 7:30am yesterday.
■ UNITED STATES
Authorities defend agent
An FBI agent who got into a confrontation with a Muslim student at the University of California, Irvine, earlier this month was trying to get a closer look at a "suspicious" truck at the time, federal authorities said on Sunday. The agent had followed the truck to the campus from a separate location as part of an investigation that was unrelated to the school or student activities, bureau spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. Student Yasser Ahmed, 21, had said the agent followed his truck near a protest against Israel on May 14. Ahmed said that after he got out of the truck and asked the driver to identify himself, the agent revved the engine and began pushing Ahmed back with the front bumper before driving off.
■ UNITED STATES
Vets in more to sex crimes
Military veterans in prison are more than twice as likely to have been convicted for sex offenses as non-veteran inmates, federal researchers say. They cannot say why. A study released on Sunday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics compared the populations of inmates who served in the military and those who did not. Veterans are half as likely to be incarcerated as those without service experience in the first place, researchers found, but 23 percent of the veterans in prison were sex offenders, compared with 9 percent of non-veteran inmates.
■ UNITED STATES
Bigamist keeps going
A traveling Georgia minister who served two years in prison on bigamy charges for having eight wives has been jailed again on accusations of trying to marry even more. At least four women claim Bishop Anthony Owens, 35, proposed to them after being released from prison in November 2005. Officials say there is no evidence he divorced the eight previous wives. A judge will decide whether he should go back to prison. Owens, who turned himself in on April 30, had no comment. But his new fiancees are not keeping quiet.
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