Officer in taser case kills self, police say

NEW YORK - A police lieutenant committed suicide yesterday, days after he ordered another officer to fire a stun gun at a naked, distraught man who then fell to his death, police said. The body of Lieutenant Michael Pigott, a 21-year police veteran, was found in a police locker room at a former airfield in Brooklyn, dead apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner for public information. Pigott used a weapon that was not his, police said. Pigott had been stripped of his gun and badge and was reassigned to desk duty after the Sept. 24 case in which police, summoned by the mother of the emotionally disturbed man, fired a Taser stun gun as he perched on a ledge. (AP)

ARKANSAS CITY - The mayor of a Kansas city appeared in blackface as part of a drag-queen beauty contest, then later apologized after a meeting with NAACP officials. Mayor Mel Kuhn of Arkansas City won the weekend contest, in which he appeared in dark makeup. The contest was a fundraiser for Court Appointed Special Advocates, which supports foster children. Kuhn's apology, posted on the website of the Wichita branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was made after a meeting with NAACP officials.(AP)

EMMAUS - Agents raided a kennel and discovered hundreds of animals crowded together in foul-smelling conditions and dozens of carcasses in a freezer, authorities said. Agents removed 56 ailing dogs and cats for immediate medical attention after Wednesday's raid at the Almost Heaven Kennel in Upper Milford Township, said Elaine Skypala, program director for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The society was negotiating to take 100 more animals, she said. (AP)

WASHINGTON - Scientists have pinpointed three genes related to the high blood levels of uric acid that cause gout, in a step that could help identify people at special risk for this common and painful type of arthritis. People who had specific variants of these genes were up to 30 to 40 times more likely to develop gout than those without them, US and Dutch researchers wrote in the Lancet medical journal. The scientists examined genetic information from 26,714 people to locate genes associated with gout. The genes seem to be involved in how the kidneys handle uric acid, researchers said. (Reuters)