Syrian rebels gun down legal officials
DAMASCUS, Syria, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Syrian anti-government rebels staged three assassinations Sunday, killing two legal officials and an aide, state media reported.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said the attorney general of the province of Idlib, a judge and a driver were killed by gunfire in their car on their way to work.
A news release from the government of President Bashar al-Assad called the killings an act of an "armed terrorist group," CNN reported.
For more than 11 months, Syrian civilians have mounted anti-government demonstrations throughout the country and have been met with military force.
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists, says at least 8,500 people have been killed in the political uprising that began in March 2011. United Nations observers' fatality estimates are lower at 5,000.
Meanwhile, China's state-run Xinhua news agency published an unusually political defense of the country's alliance with Assad's government.
"The West … appears to be driven less by their self-proclaimed 'lofty goal' of liberalizing the Syrian people than by geopolitical considerations," the agency wrote.
Earlier this month, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's armed response to what has become a civil war.
19 killed in 2 bus accidents in China
GUIYANG, China, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Thirteen people were killed and 25 others were injured Saturday when a bus rolled down a 43-foot slope in China's Guizhou province, officials said.
The bus, carrying 35 people, veered off a road in Daozhen County after a tire exploded, witnesses told Xinhua, China's official news agency.
Ten people were declared dead at the site, and another three died in hospital.
Six others were killed in a separate accident Saturday when a bus collided with a truck in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Xinhua said.
The Ministry of Public Security said 70,000 people are killed each year in road accidents in China.
Speed Freak Killer mails note to TV news
SACRAMENTO, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Wesley Shermantine, one of California's so-called "Speed Freak Killers," said he was never paid for information leading to the discovery of more of his victims.
The convicted killer, who is on death row for the murders of four people, sent a letter dated Feb. 14 to KVOR-TV, Sacramento, the station reported Friday. In it, he tried to set the record straight about the string of murders San Quentin authorities claim he and Loren Herzog committed from 1984 to 1999.
"Their (sic) have been nothing but lies. 90 percent are lies," Shermantine said in the letter.
Investigators are sifting through about 1,000 bone fragments dug up from an abandoned well near Linden, Calif. Shermantine told bounty hunter Leonard Padilla where to find the remains of some 10 to 20 of his victims in exchange for $33,000, although in the letter to KVOR, Shermantine said he has yet to be paid.
"What is he is saying is 'if I don't get my money, I ain't gonna give up anymore information,' " Padilla said. "I got no problem with that."
Padilla said he's trying to set up a trust for Shermantine's money.
Elizabeth Smart marries in Hawaii
LAIE, Hawaii, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Kidnap and rape survivor Elizabeth Smart married Matthew Gilmour at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Laie, Hawaii, Saturday, a spokesman said.
"The bride and groom were beaming as they left the LDS Temple," Smart spokesman Chris Thomas said in a statement, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
"We're just thrilled that she's married," father of the bride Ed Smart said, adding his 24-year-old daughter looked beautiful.
Temple President H. Ross Workman performed the ceremony, the newspaper said.
The couple originally planned to marry in Scotland in July, but they moved up the date after an unanticipated amount of media attention.
The decision was "kind of a spur of a moment thing in a way," Ed Smart said.
"Elizabeth's desire was for what most women want -- to celebrate her nuptials in a private wedding with family and close friends," Thomas said. "She decided, about a week ago, the best way to avoid significant distraction was to change her wedding plans and to get married in an unscheduled ceremony outside of Utah."
The location of their honeymoon was not disclosed, but People magazine said the newlyweds, who met while doing Mormon missionary work in Paris, plan to live in Salt Lake City.
Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 when she was 14 and spent nine months as the captive of a transient couple before police found her by chance on the streets of Sandy, Utah.
Smart testified her captor, Brian David Mitchell, raped her almost daily between 2002 and 2003. She is now an advocate for abuse victims and provides reporting and analysis for ABC News on issues related to missing and exploited children.
