National news briefs

Woman in house fire died of bullet wounds

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Police investigating the deaths of four people in a house fire identified one of the victims Friday as a pregnant woman who had died of gunshot wounds, but they gave no clues on whether another mom-to-be who worked at a Nevada brothel that featured on an HBO reality series was among the dead.

A spokesman for the Oklahoma City Police Department, Sgt. Gary Knight, said the Medical Examiner's Office identified 22-year-old Milagrous Barrera as one of the victims in Monday's blaze. Authorities have said the fire was deliberately set and that they are treating the case as a homicide.

Knight said separately that a second victim — of three women and one man — had been pregnant.

Efforts to identify the victims have been slow because the bodies are so badly damaged, he said.

Death Valley bones may be '96 tourists

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Skeletal remains found in Death Valley may belong to one or more of the four German tourists who vanished in searing summer heat 13 years ago, authorities said Friday.

Two hikers discovered the bones Thursday in a remote area of the famous Mojave Desert park. The hikers were search-and-rescue workers from Riverside County but they were off duty at the time, Inyo County sheriff's spokeswoman Carma Roper said.

Identification for one of the missing tourists was found near the bones, she said.

Ohio plans to alter execution 'cocktail'

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio waded into uncharted territory Friday when it announced plans to switch from the usual three-drug cocktail used to execute inmates to a one-drug method that death penalty opponents praised as a step forward — albeit one that has apparently never been tried on prisoners.

The switch came two months after an Ohio inmate walked away from a botched execution attempt, and it is almost certain to get tied up in appeals and draw the close attention of other states that have long used the three-drug method.

Giant cruise ship gets big welcome

MIAMI — Oasis of the Seas, larger than life on the ocean's horizon Friday, swaggered into Port Everglades, Fla., sounding her horn as a crowd of onlookers at John U. Lloyd State Park beach let out a cheer.