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WYOMING

Camera-shy bull elk

rams photographer

YELLOWSTONE

NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - A bull elk charged and injured two people, including a tourist who took a flash photograph of the animal from less than 10 feet away.

The 60-year-old Texas man was stuck by the elk's antlers Sunday at Mammoth Hot Springs, a popular area in Yellowstone National Park. He received cuts and bruises to his head, hands and chest, officials said Wednesday.

The man, whose name was not disclosed, had walked up to the elk, took his picture and then turned his back and began to walk away, officials said. The startled bull put its head down and charged the visitor, who turned around just in time to be gored.

Later in the day, a National Park Service employee leaving a building was charged by the same bull and suffered bruises and strained muscles.

The elk also damaged six cars, adding to six it had previously attacked. Damage to the vehicles was estimated at $12,000 to $15,000.

OREGON

Man gets life in deaths of daughter's friends

OREGON CITY - A man who killed two of his daughter's friends and hid their bodies in his back yard pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder charges and received two life sentences in prison.

Ward Weaver, 41, avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty in the 2002 deaths of the girls who were classmates and friends and who disappeared within two months of each other.

Weaver told the judge he had come to court on ''medications'' but agreed that the plea agreement was a product of his ''own free will.''

LOUISIANA

Evangelist apologizes for gay-murder remark

BATON ROUGE - Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart apologized Wednesday for saying in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically.

A complaint was filed with a Canadian broadcasting group, and Swaggart said his Baton Rouge-based Jimmy Swaggart Ministries has received complaints from gay groups over the remarks made on the Sept. 12 telecast.

In the broadcast, Swaggart was discussing his opposition to gay marriage when he said ''I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry.''

''And I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died,'' Swaggart said to laughter and applause from the congregation.

On Wednesday, Swaggart said he has jokingly used the expression ''killing someone and telling God he died'' thousands of times, about all sorts of people. He said the expression is figurative and not meant to harm.