Brothers wanted for murder

may have fled to Mexico

SUNOL -- Two brothers wanted for allegedly murdering their cousin and disfiguring his face and body with acid before dumping the corpse at a Sunol park are believed to have fled to Mexico, authorities said.

Arrest warrants were issued Tuesday for Nicasio Carbajal Leon, 39, and Felipe Carbajal Leon, 35, in connection with the November 2003 slaying of Reyes Sanchez Carbajal, 32, at a Stockton home, said Alameda County Sheriff Sgt. Scott Dudek.

The victim's severe acid burns made identification difficult.

A witness contacted authorities two months ago to identify the suspects, Dudek said. The men may have fled to Mexico where they have relatives, the witness said./AP

Owners sue cops for shooting fenced in dog

SAN FRANCISCO -- The owners of a pit bull that wandered from its backyard and was gunned down by three Richmond police officers pursuing a fleeing suspect have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city.

The officers acted with "reckless and callous disregard" for the rights of Cynthia Peters and Mark Parr in the July 2005 shooting of their 1-year-old dog named Blu following a foot chase, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court.

The couple says the dog was in their fenced yard when the officers opened the gate to pursue a neighbor and opened fire when the dog escaped. The dog was shot 11 times with pistols and a shotgun.

The city's Police Commission decided in February that the dog's death was caused by inadequate department guidelines for handling such situations.

An earlier internal investigation by the police department did not fault the officers in the shooting.

In another case, the city paid $525,000 to James Fuller of Richmond in 1994 after a San Francisco federal appeals court ruled that the 1991 police shooting of his dog, Champ, violated Fuller's rights./AP

FBI searches Mich. land for Hoffa clues

MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- The FBI on Wednesday searched property northwest of Detroit for clues to the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, officials said.

The Teamsters leader was last seen in July 1975 at a restaurant in Oakland County's Bloomfield Township.

Agent Dawn Clenney, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, said the bureau was executing a search warrant in Milford Township, about 35 miles west of Detroit.

Investigators are looking for "evidence of criminal activity that may have occurred under previous ownership" on the property, Clenney said.

Asked if they were looking for Hoffa's remains, she said, "Could be," but declined to comment further./AP

DNA study maps human-chimp split

NEW YORK -- One of the most detailed comparisons yet of human and chimp DNA shows that the split between the two species was a long, messy affair that may even have featured an unusual evolutionary version of breakup sex.

Previous genetic research has shown that chimpanzees and humans are sister species, having split off from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. The new study goes farther by looking at approximately 800 times more DNA than earlier efforts.

That additional data make it possible to determine not just when, but how the split happened.

"For the first time we're able to see the details written out in the DNA," said Eric Lander, one of the collaborators on the study. "What they tell us at the least is that the human-chimp speciation was very unusual."/AP