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London not used to fighting heat wave

LONDON - Britain's meteorological office says it has raised the country's heat wave alert status amid the country's warmest spell in three years.

The Met Office said Wednesday it had raised the heat wave alert to level three - the second highest - for the first time since 2006.

Temperatures reached 30 C in London by mid-afternoon Wednesday.

Britain's health service said it received more than 300 calls Tuesday from people suffering from heat-related ailments.

Average temperatures for late June and early July are usually around 20 C.

Mother going to prison for young son's murder

NORTH HERO, Vt. - A Vermont judge has sentenced a 51-year-old Montreal woman to 15 years in prison for drowning her eight-year-old son three years ago.

Judge Michael Kupersmith issued the sentence to Louise Desnoyers in Vermont District Court for Grand Isle County after hearing her give a lengthy statement of apology to her family, friends and the court.

Desnoyers pleaded no contest earlier this year in the death of Nicholas Desnoyers-Langlois.

Desnoyers had originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The judge said he determined during the case that Desnoyers knew what she was doing when she drowned the boy in August 2006.

She told authorities she held her son under water so he wouldn't have to suffer through her impending breakup with his father.

U.S. senators try to get priest released

WASHINGTON - Thirty-seven U.S. senators are asking Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to release a dissident Roman Catholic priest serving prison and house arrest terms totalling 13 years.

In a letter sent through the Vietnamese Embassy, the senators said the Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, 63, had no lawyers during his four-hour trial and was silenced repeatedly by a security guard who put his hand over the priest's mouth, then removed him from the courtroom.

The letter also requested information about Ly's health and welfare. Signers included the Senate's assistant majority leader, Democrat Richard Durbin, and his counterpart for the Republicans, Jon Kyl.

The initiative was organized by Freedom Now, which advocates freedom for political prisoners.

Man who bares it all on plane arrested

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - A cross-country US Airways flight was diverted to Albuquerque after a male passenger removed his clothing mid-flight.

Dan Jiron, a spokesman for the Albuquerque airport, said 50-year-old Keith Wright of New York disrobed Tuesday while sitting in his seat in the back of the aircraft. He said Wright was unresponsive when a flight attendant asked him repeatedly to get dressed and refused to be covered with a blanket.

Jiron said law enforcement employees who were passengers on the plane helped subdue and handcuff Wright before the flight landed. The FBI said Wright is in federal custody on a charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants.

Source: The Associated Press