NATIONAL BRIEFS

SOUTH CAROLINA: Sanford wins GOP runoff

Former Gov. Mark Sanford defeated a former county council member Tuesday to win the GOP nomination for a vacant U.S. House seat. With 78 percent of precincts reporting, Sanford had 56 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Curtis Bostic, a former Charleston County Council member. They were vying in a GOP runoff in the 1st Congressional District. Sanford will face Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert, and Green Party candidate Eugene Platt in a May special election.

TEXAS: Two prison escapees hunted

Two inmates with long criminal histories, one of them awaiting trial for capital murder, escaped an East Texas jail, dumped their black-and-white scrubs and were fleeing a manhunt Tuesday. Brian Allen Tucker of Sulphur Springs and John Marlin King of Cumby slipped past a fence around a recreation yard at the Hopkins County Jail around 8 a.m., the sheriff's office said.

VIRGINIA: Couple arrested in 70 arsons

A former volunteer firefighter and his girlfriend were arrested Tuesday, suspected in a majority of 70 arsons on the Eastern Shore in the past five months. State Police said Tonya S. Bundick, 40, and Charles R. Smith III, 38, were arrested after another vacant residence was set ablaze.

UTAH: 'Mountain Man' captured

An elusive survivalist suspected of burglarizing cabins, leaving some covered with threats and bullet holes was captured Tuesday, ending a six-year saga. Troy James Knapp, 45, dubbed the "Mountain Man" by cabin owners, was arrested in the snowy mountains outside Ferron in central Utah after firing several shots at officers in a helicopter. No one was hit. Officers on snowmobiles converged on him.