National briefs

CALIFORNIA22-year term 'too lenient'

A federal appeals court said yesterday a 22-year prison sentence was too lenient for an al-Qaida-trained terrorist convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in 1999. A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Ahmed Ressam, 41, deserved a much longer term because he had reneged on a deal to cooperate with investigators. U.S. prosecutors said his change-of-heart after two years of cooperation compromised at least two U.S. terrorist cases, resulting in charges being dropped. The appeals court also took the rare step of removing from the case the Seattle trial judge who imposed the initial sentence because his "previously expressed views appear too entrenched to allow for the appearance of fairness." Federal guidelines suggest that Ressam should get 65 years to life.

FLORIDACharge in lottery death

A woman who befriended a lottery winner who went missing was charged yesterday with trying to conceal his death, five days after his body was found buried in her backyard. Dorice "DeeDee" Moore, 37, was charged as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder in the slaying of Abraham Shakespeare, 43, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said. Investigators said an autopsy showed the Lakeland resident died of "homicidal violence." Polk County officials named Moore a "person of interest." She had befriended him after he claimed the $30 million winning ticket in 2006.

KANSASA threat from prison

A woman who shot and wounded Dr. George Tiller in 1993 warns that abortion providers will "continue to be stopped," despite a Kansas jury's first-degree murder conviction of the doctor's confessed killer. Shelley Shannon, serving time in Minnesota for a series of clinic arsons, sent the message through the prison e-mail system's Web page to anti-abortion activist Dave Leach in Des Moines, Iowa. Scott Roeder was convicted in the May 31 fatal shooting of Tiller at his Wichita church.