Nation briefs

NEVADA

Midair collision kills 2 pilots

Two planes collided over the Nevada desert yesterday, killing both pilots, authorities said. A single-engine Cessna 170 and an experimental aircraft crashed in midair about 8 a.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said. The pilots were the planes' only occupants, and no one on the ground was hurt, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. The Lyon County Sheriff's Office said the crash occurred near Yerington in western Nevada, about 60 miles southeast of Reno, during an informal weekend fly-in at a dry lake bed.

NEW JERSEY

Hundreds rally against hazing

Hundreds came out yesterday evening for an anti-bullying rally in Sayreville, a town rocked by allegations of sex-related hazing involving its high school football team. The rest of the season was canceled. The rally occurred in a park across the street from Sayreville War Memorial High. Seven students face sex-crime charges. Three of them were charged with aggravated sexual assault, criminal restraint, hazing and other crimes stemming from an act of sexual penetration on a child. Four others were charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and other crimes.

ALABAMA

Sex sting that went awry

The Justice Department is asking a federal court to reinstate a lawsuit in connection with a 2010 school bathroom sexual attack on a 14-year-old girl whom a teacher's aide used as bait to try to catch a 16-year-old boy with a history of sexual harassment. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has been asked to overturn a lower court's dismissal of a federal lawsuit filed by the girl's father against the Madison County School Board, four school workers and the boy. Evidence shows she was raped before school officials could get into the bathroom. The aide, who later quit, said in sworn statements that the principal told her the boy would have to be caught "in the act before he could take any disciplinary action" and that she told an assistant principal about the bait plan before proceeding. The school denies administrators knew anything about such a plan.