Copter's rotor lost power before crash

SAN FRANCISCO - An initial investigation into a deadly helicopter crash that killed nine people in Northern California earlier this month has found that the chopper's main rotor lost power during takeoff. The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter hit trees after losing power and fell out of the air over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to a preliminary crash report released yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The helicopter was ferrying firefighters away from a remote mountain site on the front lines of a stubborn wildfire when it crashed the evening of Aug. 5. (AP)

Pregnant women who live through wars are more likely to give birth to a child who develops schizophrenia, US researchers reported yesterday in a study linking prenatal stress with the mental illness. Babies born to women who were in their second month of pregnancy during the height of the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia as adults, they found. Similar patterns are likely among many stressed women, said Dr. Dolores Malaspina of the New York University School of Medicine, who led the study. (Reuters)

TYLER - A 41-year-old auto body shop worker was convicted yesterday of grooming children as young as 5 to perform in sex shows at a small-town swingers club. Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly showed no emotion after the verdict. Jurors deliberated about two hours before finding him guilty of engaging in organized criminal activity, a conviction that could send him to prison for life. (AP)