NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON: No stay of execution for Virginia woman

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to halt the execution of a woman who planned the murders of her husband and stepson, meaning that Virginia is almost certain to execute its first woman in nearly a century. Teresa Lewis, 41, admitted plotting the 2002 killings of Julian Lewis and his son, Charles "C.J." Lewis, to collect insurance money. She is to die by injection Thursday night. Her supporters argue that she is borderline mentally disabled, and had been used by a much smarter conspirator. The two men who fired the shots received life terms. Police said Lewis gave her conspirators $1,200 to buy weapons and pulled her teenage daughter into the plot, even taking the girl to have sex with one of the killers. Lewis left a door unlocked so the gunmen could slip in and she blamed unknown intruders for the killings. A woman was last executed in the United States in 2005: Frances Newton was killed by injection in Texas for the fatal shootings of her husband and two children. Eleven women have been executed nationwide since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

INDIANA: 2 kids confined in closet found dead

A woman charged in the deaths of two children allegedly locked them and three siblings in a closet and left to visit a friend, returning 10 hours later to find the boy and girl dead. An Indianapolis police report released Tuesday said Edyan Farah, 28, said she "was not in her right mind" when she allegedly put her children in an upstairs closet about 6 feet long and 18 inches deep Sunday and blocked the door with a bed. Farah, an immigrant from Somalia, found daughter Zuhur, 5, and son Zakariya, 3, dead when she returned, the report said.

UTAH: Wildfire endangers 450 homes

Hundreds of families were told Tuesday they would be kept out of their homes for a third night while firefighters and the Army National Guard battled a wildfire ignited by guard members during weekend machine-gun training. Police said it was still too dangerous to let residents in the Salt Lake City suburb of Herriman return to about 450 homes.