Mother charged with killing child

ORLANDO - The mother of a missing 3-year-old girl was accused yesterday in an indictment of killing her daughter, prosecutors said, though the child's body has not been found during an exhaustive four-month search. A grand jury returned charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter, and four counts of lying to investigators against Casey Anthony, 22, in the death of her daughter, Caylee, State Attorney Lawson Lamar said. (AP)

LUCASVILLE - Ohio executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer yesterday who argued his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane. Richard Cooey, 41, died at 10:28 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, said Jim Gravelle, a spokesman with the state attorney general's office. Cooey's lawyers had argued that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to access a vein suitable for injecting the deadly chemicals. (AP)

The federal budget deficit soared to $454.8 billion in 2008 as a housing collapse and efforts to combat the economic slowdown pushed the tide of government red ink to the highest level in history. The Bush administration said yesterday that the deficit for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was more than double the $161.5 billion recorded in 2007. Economists predicted a far worse number next year as the costs of the government's rescue of the financial system and the economic hard times hit the government's balance sheet. (AP)

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans with high blood pressure is on the rise because of growing rates of obesity, researchers said yesterday. But increasing numbers of those with high blood pressure are getting the condition treated, researchers from the National Institutes of Health wrote in the journal Hypertension. High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, or kidney failure. (Reuters)