Gwinnett Daily Post

The Associated Press. Scott Roeder sits in a Sedgwick County District courtroom Thursday in Wichita, Kan., for his sentencing for the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller.

WICHITA, Kan. -- An anti-abortion zealot convicted of murdering a prominent Kansas abortion doctor was sentenced Thursday to life in prison and won't be eligible for parole for 50 years -- the maximum allowed by law.

Scott Roeder, 52, faced a mandatory life prison term for gunning down Dr. George Tiller in the back of Tiller's Wichita church last May. Tiller was one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert could have made the Roeder eligible for parole after 25 or 50 years, but gave him the harsher sentence because he said the evidence showed Roeder stalked Tiller before killing him.

Wilbert also sentenced Roeder to serve an additional year in prison on each of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two church ushers in the melee. That means -- allowing for possible time off those sentences for good behavior -- Roeder won't be eligible for parole for 51 years and eight months.

FBI says ruse created to arrest militia members

DETROIT -- Members of a Midwest Christian militia accused of conspiring to overthrow the government were arrested after the FBI lured them to a warehouse to attend a phony memorial service, where they would be unarmed, Michigan's chief federal agent said Thursday.

The ruse Saturday in Ann Arbor was part of a series of weekend raids in several states that resulted in the indictment of nine people in the alleged plot, officials said.

''We basically set up a scenario where we were able to draw them all to one location,'' Andrew Arena, head of the FBI in Detroit, told The Associated Press. ''And the reason we did that was to obviously get them away from their weapons.''

9-year-old boy killed by bus at Disney World

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- A 9-year-old boy was struck and killed by a Walt Disney World bus while riding his bike with a friend on the theme-park's property Thursday, authorities said.

The boy hit the bus near the Fort Wilderness area, which offers camping and an outdoor experience at Disney World, Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Kim Montes said. The boy was riding with an 11-year-old girl, who was not hurt. Both were wearing helmets.

The children and the bus were headed in the same direction. There was a sidewalk but no curb, and the boy appeared to cross into the road and hit the middle of the bus, Montes said. He was pulled under the right rear tire.

31 face charges in meth ring bust in Western states

LOS ANGELES -- Federal authorities said 31 people faced drug charges in a crackdown Thursday targeting a large-scale ring that funneled methamphetamine from Mexico to California and Washington using fake vehicle batteries.

The suspected ringleader, Jesus Marquez-Marquez, was believed to be in the Mexican state of Michoacan and has not yet been arrested, authorities said.

Marquez-Marquez, also known as Don Chuy, allegedly ran the drug ring that stored the drug in Tijuana before it was moved across the U.S.-Mexico border via hidden compartments and bogus car batteries.

Medical waste shipments turn up heads, torsos

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The first discovery was gruesome enough: a head and torso tucked inside a red biohazard tub that arrived at a Kansas company. Then it got worse.

Six more heads and torsos showed up in the next week after someone apparently dismembered the bodies with a chain saw or another cutting device, police said.

Authorities are investigating a New Mexico company that was supposed to have donated the organs in the bodies to science and have the remains cremated. The owner of the Albuquerque company, Paul Montano, was arrested Thursday.

Ligatures, drugs found in Ohio women's deaths

CLEVELAND -- Eight of 11 women whose remains were found in a sex offender's home were strangled, most with various household objects, and nine had traces of cocaine or depressants in their systems, according to autopsy reports obtained by The Associated Press.

The reports released Thursday by the Cuyahoga County coroner's office reveal that women found at Anthony Sowell's Cleveland home last year were killed with objects including a belt, a rope, an electrical charger, a knotted fabric cloth and the strap of a shoulder bag. Many still had the ligatures around their necks.