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From The Associated Press

AP Poll: Americans remain deeply split over guns

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The nation is profoundly split along gender, racial and other lines over gun violence and what the government should do to control it, despite near-universal sorrow over the Virginia Tech shootings, an AP-Ipsos poll has found.

Women and minorities are far likelier than men and whites to view gun violence as a major problem, to worry about being shot and to want stricter firearms laws, said the survey, which was taken after the killings.

Fault lines also exist by political party and where people live, with Democrats and city dwellers taking a far dimmer view of guns than Republicans and suburban and rural residents.

Though Monday’s horrific killings of 32 students and teachers—plus the gunman—were fresh in people’s minds, there was scant movement in their attitude toward gun laws.

Forty-seven percent said firearm controls should be tightened, 38 percent said they should remain unchanged and 11 percent said they should be loosened—about the same as in a January survey.

Six in 10 women think gun laws should be toughened, nearly double the proportion for men. Fifty-five percent of minorities favor stricter legal requirements, compared with 44 percent of whites.

Nearly 60 percent of Democrats favor stricter gun laws, almost double the number of Republicans, with more women in both parties supporting tougher standards.

Just more than half in the survey say they are likelier to support a presidential candidate who favors tougher gun control laws, with the bulk of that support coming from women, minorities, city residents and Northeasterners. Far more Democrats than Republicans voiced that preference, while independents were split about evenly.

Palo Verde engineer charged in Iran case

PHOENIX—A former engineer at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant has been charged with taking computer access codes and software to Iran and using it to download details of plant control rooms and reactors, authorities said.

The FBI said there’s no indication the plant employee had any terrorist connections.

Mohammad Alavi, 49, a U.S. citizen who worked at the triple-reactor Palo Verde power plant west of Phoenix, was arrested April 9 at Los Angeles International Airport when he arrived on a flight from Iran, authorities said.

He is charged with a single count of violating a trade embargo that prohibits Americans from exporting goods and services to Iran. If convicted, he would face up to 21 months in prison.

Palo Verde, about 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, supplies electricity to some 4 million customers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California.

Blue Angel crashes during S.C. airshow

BEAUFORT, S.C.—A Navy F-18 Blue Angel plane crashed during an air show Saturday, according to televised reports. The county coroner’s office said one person was killed.

Witnesses said the planes were flying in formation during the show at a Marine air base, and then one dropped down below the trees and apparently crashed.

At the Blue Angels command headquarters at Pensacola Naval Air Station the petty officer duty said he “had no comment at this time.”

Space Center shooter got poor job review

HOUSTON—The shooter in an apparent murder-suicide at the Johnson Space Center had received a poor job review and feared being fired, police said Saturday.

William Phillips, 60, smuggled a snub-nosed revolver into the space center Friday, shot David Beverly, 62, and barricaded himself with a hostage before shooting himself in a building that houses communications and tracking systems for the space shuttle, officials said.

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said Phillips bought the .38-caliber revolver March 18, two days after receiving an e-mail citing deficiencies in his job performance and saying that he was going to be reviewed.

Beverly’s wife, Linda, said her husband of 41 years was an electrical parts specialist who felt working at NASA was his calling.

Fourth Fallujah office holder killed

BAGHDAD—The Fallujah city council chairman, a critic of al-Qaida who took the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed on Saturday, the latest blow in a violent internal Sunni struggle for control of an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

In the capital, U.S. and Iraqi officials defended plans to build a barrier around a Sunni enclave to protect its inhabitants from surrounding Shiite areas, while residents expressed concern it would isolate the community.

U.N. chief seeks time on Sudan sanctions

GENEVA—U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Saturday on the Security Council to allow more time for diplomacy before considering whether to impose further economic and military sanctions on Sudan over the situation in Darfur.

The international community should wait and see whether Sudan’s decision Monday to allow the deployment of the U.N.’s so-called “heavy support package” to assist the 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur indicates a serious commitment by Khartoum to abide by a three-phase stabilization plan agreed for the volatile western region last year, he said.

A series of measures passed by the Security Council already restricts arms shipments to the Sudanese government, the rebels and government-backed janjaweed militias, and the council has imposed further sanctions against specific individuals who defy efforts to bring peace in Darfur.

Coconino National Forest mulls off-road vehicle ban

FLAGSTAFF—Coconino National Forest officials are considering closing almost all off-road trails used by motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles by September 2009.

The local off-road driving ban is part of a national proposal designed to cut back motorized cross-country travel in national forests and could be modified once existing trails are mapped, U.S. Forest Service officials told riding groups.

A local forest management plan is set to be released next month, and tentative maps show none of the thousands of miles of off-road trails now used by riders. Some of the trails are illegal, some may be legal and others have actually been approved by the forest in the past, riders said.