NATION BRIEFS

ARIZONA/3 murderers escape from prison

Police were using helicopters and dogs Saturday to search for three convicted murderers who escaped from a Golden Valley prison, kidnapped two semi-truck drivers at gunpoint and used the big rig to flee. Department of Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson said the men escaped Friday evening by cutting a hole through a perimeter fence at the medium-security Arizona State Prison, about 90 miles southeast of Las Vegas. They should be considered especially dangerous, he said. Officials identified the escapees as Tracy Province, 42, serving a life sentence for murder and robbery; Daniel Renwick, 36, serving 22 years for second-degree murder; and John McCluskey, 45, serving 15 years for second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm.

CALIFORNIA/Wildfire continues to burn

A wildfire smoldered in the high desert north of Los Angeles Saturday, spewing plumes of thick smoke into a nearby town as hundreds of firefighters worked to contain the 2-day-old blaze. The fire has charred nearly 22 square miles of brush in the Antelope Valley. It was 62 percent contained Saturday afternoon and no structures were threatened, said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Sam Padilla. Some 1,300 firefighters were assigned to the fire near Palmdale.

PENNSYLVANIA/Lawyers seek to ban duck boats

Lawyers for two Hungarian citizens killed in a duck boat accident on a river in Philadelphia are calling for the city and Coast Guard to bar the vessels from returning to the water. Mechanical inspections and on-the-water testing are being done on the 15 amphibious Ride The Ducks vehicles licensed for Delaware River operations. A 250-foot barge being pushed by a tug hit the stalled duck boat July 7, plunging 35 passengers and two crew members into the river. Attorneys for the families of the two people killed cite a federal analysis of a 1999 accident in Arkansas in saying that the vessels are unsafe due to their design and canvas canopies. Ride The Ducks says its canopies are designed to allow easy egress in the case of an accident.

RHODE ISLAND/Yellow lobster a rare catch

A yellow lobster pulled from Narragansett Bay is very rare. Denny Ingram says he found the lobster in one of his pots in the bay's East Passage last month. It is golden on the top and bright yellow on both sides. Experts say the genetic feature is very rare, occurring in about 1 in 30 million lobsters. Ingram says he plans to keep the yellow lobster on display at the fishermen's co-op at the State Pier in Newport.