Police: Signs point to child's death

ORLANDO - Lab tests confirmed a decomposing body had been in the trunk of a car driven by a missing girl's mother, and investigators believe the 3-year-old is dead, the sheriff's office said yesterday. Investigators have called Casey Anthony, 22, a "person of interest" in Caylee Anthony's disappearance. She faces charges of child neglect, obstruction and making false statements in the case. A spokeswoman for Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, did not immediately return a telephone message yesterday. He has repeatedly said his client doesn't know what happened to Caylee. Anthony was released on $500,000 bail Aug. 21, but returned to custody Friday following new theft charges unrelated to Caylee. Prosecutors have offered Anthony limited immunity in exchange for cooperation, but that was set to expire today. (AP)

ATLANTA - Visitors flocked to welcome the only panda born at a US zoo so far this year and watch mother and child on a live video feed at Zoo Atlanta yesterday. The tiny, hairless cub - which is the size of a stick of butter - is sequestered with her mom, Lun Lun, in the zoo's birthing den, where they will remain for several months. The bundle of joy was born Saturday, just a week before the second birthday of Mei Lan, the zoo's first panda cub. "You can go to every zoo and see elephants, but you can't go to every zoo and see pandas," said Christy Moonan, whose two children brought small stuffed panda toys with them to watch the cub on television screens in the zoo's panda habitat. (AP)

ANDERSON - Officials say a Michigan man survived a hot air balloon crash in South Carolina when the balloon's basket got caught in a tree about 10 feet above the ground. Officials say pilot Chuck Walz of Munith, Mich., broke his leg and pelvis Sunday in a crash at a balloon festival in northwest South Carolina. Anderson Fire Chief Jack Abraham says Walz's balloon may have been 9,000 feet in the air when it deflated. The fire chief says the balloon's basket was skewered by a tree branch 10 feet from the ground and stopped the fall. Walz fell from the basket to the ground. He was conscious when rescuers arrived. (AP)

MACKINAW CITY - Michigan's governor has celebrated a Labor Day tradition by trimming about five minutes off her own record for running across the five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge. Governor Jennifer Granholm is among thousands who observed the holiday by parking their cars and walking or running across the span that stretches between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. The governor joined a group of runners yesterday and crossed in 35 minutes and 27 seconds. (AP)