Democrat wins Hastert's old seat

CHICAGO - Democrat Bill Foster won former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert's congressional seat yesterday in a closely watched special election that gave the longtime Republican district to the Democrats. Foster has won 52 percent of the vote compared with 48 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis. Foster's win means he will fill the remainder of Hastert's term until it ends next January. The 66-year-old Hastert, who lost his powerful post as speaker when Democrats took control of Congress, resigned late last year. (AP)

CHAPEL HILL - Detectives are searching for a man photographed using the ATM card of the University of North Carolina student body president found shot to death on a city street, police said. Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran released two surveillance photos of the suspect taken at a Chapel Hill ATM. (AP)

LOS ANGELES - A jury awarded a man a $1.3 million verdict, saying deputies used excessive force when they peppered his sport utility vehicle with 66 bullets. Winston Hayes, 46, suffered nine bullet wounds when deputies fired 120 shots at him at the end of a low-speed pursuit on May 9, 2005. More than half the bullets hit Hayes's vehicle. "Justice was done," Hayes said. (AP)

LOS ANGELES - Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos says he has agreed to represent a Japanese businessman who is accused of killing his wife during a visit to Los Angeles in the 1980s. Geragos says his first order of business will be trying to get the charges dismissed on grounds of double jeopardy. Kazuyoshi Miura was convicted of his wife's murder in Japan in the 1990s but the case was overturned. Miura, 60, says robbers shot his wife. (AP)