PARIS -- A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than euro600,000 ($900,000) on Tuesday, but stopped short of banning the group's activities.
The group's French branch said it would appeal the verdict.
The court convicted the Church of Scientology's French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits.
DC sniper set for lethal injection
RICHMOND, Va. -- The mastermind of the 2002 Washington, DC-area sniper attacks will die by lethal injection next month, Virginia officials said Tuesday.
John Allen Muhammad declined to choose between lethal injection and electrocution, so under state law the method defaults to lethal injection, Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.
Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10 for the October 2002 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings.
The three-week killing spree in October 2002 left 10 dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Muhammad's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, is serving a life sentence in prison.
eBay plans to block auction
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Online retailer eBay said Tuesday it will block an auction planned to raise money for the man charged with killing Kansas abortion provider George Tiller.
Supporters of the man had said that they wanted to raise money to pay for Scott Roeder's defense. They planned to auction off items including an Army of God manual, an underground publication for anti-abortion militants that describes ways to shut down clinics, including bombing.
Also on the auction list was a prison cookbook compiled by Shelley Shannon, the Oregon woman who shot and wounded Tiller in 1993 and was later convicted in a series of abortion clinic arsons and bombings.
If the items were posted, eBay said it would remove them from the online marketplace site because the company "does not allow listings that promote or glorify violence, hate, racial or religious intolerance.
22M H1N1 shots now available
ATLANTA -- More than 22 million doses of swine flu vaccine are available now, and most Americans should soon find it easier to get their dose, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.
"We're beginning to get to significant increases in the availability," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a briefing.
Last week there were just 14 million doses on hand, despite initial predictions that as many as 120 million would be ready by mid-October. The government later slashed that estimate to 45 million. The slow supply trickle has frustrated Americans, who have stood in line for hours in some parts of the country.
The shortage has probably increased demand, Frieden said.
"It's quite likely that too little vaccine is one of the things that's making people more interested in getting vaccinated, frankly. When we have shortages, we see an increase in demand," he said.
-- From wire reports
