National news briefs

'Gidget' director Wendkos dies at 84

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul Wendkos, who directed over 100 films and television shows during a 50-year career, including the 1959 surf movie "Gidget," has died. He was 84.

Family spokeswoman C. Christie Craig says Wendkos died Thursday in Malibu of a lung infection that followed a stroke.

"Gidget," starring Sandra Dee as an all-American surfer girl, was a hit and led to two sequels for Wendkos.

His other films include the 1957 drama "The Burglar," starring Jayne Mansfield, and 1969's "Guns of the Magnificent Seven."

For television, he directed series such as "The Rifleman" and "Hawaii Five-O."

Tip on missing N.C. girl leads to wide search

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Authorities acted on a tip Sunday and searched a wide area in south-central North Carolina trying to find a 5-year-old girl reported missing by her mother, who has been charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution.

Capt. Charles Kimble of the Fayetteville Police Department said several agencies spent the day looking for signs of Shaniya Davis between Spring Lake and Sanford, which are about 25 miles apart. They suspended the search at dark. The area included woods and some homes, police said.

The N.C. Highway Patrol sent a helicopter to aid in the search, Lt. Everett Clendenin said. Shaniya hasn't been seen since Tuesday, when a surveillance camera recorded the man charged in her kidnapping carrying the girl into a hotel room.

Earlier Sunday, authorities arrested Antoinette Nicole Davis, Shaniya's mother. The charges against Davis are related to her daughter's disappearance, said Theresa Chance, a spokeswoman for Fayetteville police.

11-year-old shoots, kills bear on porch

DRIGGS, Idaho (AP) — An 11-year-old Idaho boy fatally shot a black bear on his family's front porch after he said it wouldn't leave.

The boy was at his home near Driggs, just west of the Idaho-Wyoming border, with his younger sisters last Wednesday when the bear showed up. He says he couldn't shoo the animal away, so he got a gun and shot it.

Doug Petersen, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game conservation officer, says the boy and his family probably won't be in any trouble because the agency had received multiple complaints about a black bear in the area.