FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday afternoon on three counts of manslaughter for deaths that happened after a sweat lodge ceremony he led in northern Arizona last year.
Ray was taken into custody on an indictment at his attorney's office in Prescott, and was to be booked into the Yavapai County jail in Camp Verde, sheriff's officials said. His bond was set at $5 million.
About halfway through the two-hour ceremony just outside Sedona on Oct. 8, some participants began feeling ill, vomiting and collapsing inside the 415-square-foot structure. Despite that, Ray urged participants to push past their physical weaknesses and chided those who wanted to leave, authorities and participants have said.
Two people -- Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee -- passed out inside the sweat lodge and died that night at a hospital. Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., slipped into a coma and died a week later. Eighteen others were hospitalized.
Scientist guilty of murder try
NEW YORK -- A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist was convicted Wednesday of charges that she tried to kill Americans while detained in Afghanistan in 2008, shouting with raised arm as jurors left the courtroom: "This is a verdict coming from Israel, not America."
A jury deliberated three days in federal court in Manhattan before finding Aafia Siddiqui guilty in the third week of her attempted murder trial, which she often interrupted with rambling courtroom outbursts.
Siddiqui, 37, was convicted of two counts of attempted murder, though the jury found the crime wasn't premeditated. She was also convicted of armed assault, using and carrying a firearm, and assault of U.S. officers and employees.
Brown will likely be seated today
BOSTON -- Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown changed course and demanded he be sworn in to replace the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on Thursday, an accelerated timetable that conservatives had been clamoring for and one that Democrats quickly accepted -- and had already been moving to accommodate.
Brown said he wanted to be present for unspecified votes, and his swearing-in would give the GOP 41 votes in the Senate -- the precise number it needs to sustain a filibuster of Democratic initiatives.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said he expected a ceremony at 5 p.m. today.
The demand reversed Brown's earlier declaration that he did not want to be sworn in until Feb. 11, a grace period he said he needed to hire a staff and prepare for his new responsibilities.
Americans give $644M for Haiti
NEW YORK -- In the three weeks since a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti, the American public has donated more than $644 million for relief efforts -- yet already there's concern that the generosity will fade even as dire needs persist.
As of Wednesday, according to a running tally by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, private donations to major organizations engaged in Haiti relief totaled $644 million -- roughly on pace with some other big disasters of the recent past.
Patrick Rooney, executive director of Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, said the three-week total surpassed the pace for the 2004 Asian tsunami, ran slightly behind the pace after the 9/11 terror attacks and was well behind the flow of donations after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.
-- From wire reports
