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ByMichelleL.Price The Associated Press PROVO, Utah A Utah woman was charged Mon- day with six counts of first- degree murder in the kill- ing of her six babies over a decade, but she cannot face the death penalty if con- victed, prosecutors said. Defendant Megan Hunts- man, 39, is accused of kill- ing the babies between 1996 and 2006, before Utah law was changed in 2007 to make murder a capital offense if a victim was younger than 14, Utah County Attorney Jeff Buh - man said outside court af- ter a hearing in the case. Until the law was passed, killing a child was not con- sidered one of the aggravat- ing factors that can make someone eligible for the death penalty. Such factors also include the victim being a police of - ficer, the killing occurring while another crime, such as rape, was committed, or if the defendant has al - ready been convicted of an- other murder. Killing more than one person also is con- sidered a capital offense but only if they die in the same incident. AuthoritiessayHuntsman was the mother of the babies andtheywereawaitingDNA testingtoconfirmthatalong with the sex of the children. Theircausesofdeathalsore - main uncertain. No labs in Utah can an- alyze the type of DNA that has been taken from the small corpses, so the FBI has been brought in to help, police said. The bodies of the infants were found on April 12 in boxes in Huntsman's ga - rage in Pleasant Grove. A seventh infant found in the garage is believed to have been stillborn. During her brief court appearance, Huntsman mostly kept her eyes fo - cused on the ground as she was informed of the charges. Her wrists were shackled to her waist, and she was wearing baggy, or - ange jail pants and a green shirt. Defense attorney Doug Thompson told reporters after court that he has spo - ken with Huntsman but did not want to provide details on her state of mind. Prosecutors filed six f irst-degree murder charges against Hunts - man. Each carries a possi- ble sentence of five years to life. She has not yet entered a plea. Buhman said a medical examiner has completed autopsies on the babies. "We basically have an ini - tial report so we have some information but not a lot yet," Buhman said, declin- ing to provide further infor- mation. Buhman said investiga- tors will have to rely on re- ports from the medical ex- aminer and a forensic an- thropologist, along with Huntsman's statements to police, to determine the cause of death. Utah Womanchargedwith murder in baby deaths By Dan Elliott The Associated Press DENVER Prosecutors in the Colorado theater shoot- ing case hinted they may wanttosearchforadditional evidence or look for more documents, although they aren't publicly saying why. In a motion filed Friday and released Monday, pros - ecutors asked Arapahoe County District Judge Car- los A. Samour Jr. to keep secret any future requests they might make for search warrants or for court or - ders to produce records. The motion did not say whether prosecutors plan to make any such requests. But it said the investigation into the massacre is still un - derway, and "new leads and investigative avenues arise from time to time." Prosecutors and the de- fense routinely refuse to discuss the case, citing a gag order. The prosecution is seek - ing the death penalty for 26-year-old James Holmes, who is charged with multi- ple counts of murder and attempted murder in the July 2012 attack in the Den- ver suburb of Aurora. More than 400 people were in the theater, watching a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises," and 12 were killed. Seventy were wounded, either by gun - fire or in the scramble to escape. Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insan - ity. His attorneys have ac- knowledged he was the shooter but said in a court filing he was "in the throes of a psychotic episode." cOLORaDO shOOtiNg Holmes prosecutors hint at possible new searches The Associated Press EVEREtt, Wash. For more than five weeks, crews pains- takingly sifted through mud and debris, at first searching for survivors and then for the remains of those buried by the mudslide in Washington state. On Monday, officials called off the active search, though two bodies remain entombed in the tangled pile. At times, people dug with their bare hands, recover - ing 41 victims, but Steve Ha- daway and Kris Regelbrugge have not been found after a hillside collapsed March 22 and swept across the small community in Oso about an hour northeast of Seattle. "This has been a difficult decision" because the fami - lies of the two still missing seek closure, Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said at a news conference Monday. Frank Hadaway, whose brother Steve died in the slide, said he understood the county's decision. "The amazing thing is that of 43 people who were lost, 41 were found," he told The Seattle Times. "So, do I have an issue? No. Reality is reality. We knew this day was coming sooner or later." Trenary said officials have not given up on finding Steve Hadaway and Regelbrugge, but about 30 people would continue to search more tactically in a smaller area if weather and other condi - tions allow. At its peak, the efforts involved about 1,000 volunteers. Officials said they would use spotters in the field to help identify bodies and personal property as heavy equipment removes massive piles of dirt. The task now switches to clearing debris from the 1-square mile slide that wiped out a small river - side community, blocked a state highway and partially dammed the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River. Snohomish County Exec - utive John Lovick said Mon- day that the county and state have formed a joint commis- sion to independently review whathappenedbeforeandaf- ter the slide, including what the county knew about the landslidedangersinthearea. "There will be a lot of questions, and we hope to have a lot of answers," he said. Lovick also said he has heard talk about turning the slide area into a memorial site, but they need to talk to family members first. The search for people has involved heavy equipment, he li cop te rs a nd h un dr ed s of people and dogs. Volunteers spent thou - sands of hours helping in the search or collecting do- nations for the community. Millions in private dona- tions have been raised, and millions more in federal aid has been promised. Soon after the slide bar - reled down the 600-foot bluff at about 60 miles per hour on a Saturday morning, rescu- ers saved 11 people, including a 4-year-old boy and a young mother and her infant son. But as the hours dragged on, the increasingly desper - ate search failed to turn up any more survivors, even as crews heard people yelling for help. No one was found alive after that first day. NatURaL DisastER Search ends for bodies in Washington mudslide TedS.Warren—TheaSSociaTedPreSS a search dog walks on a tree april 16as the search continues for the remaining missing victims of the massive deadly mudslide that hit the community of oso, Wash. By Julie Pace The Associated Press MaNiLa, PhiLiPPiNEs President Barack Obama vigorously defended his for- eign policy record Monday, arguing that his cautious approach to global problems has avoided the type of mis - steps that contributed to a "disastrous" decade of war for the United States. Obama's expansive com - ments came at the end of a weeklong Asia trip that ex- posed growingWhiteHouse frustration with critics who cast the president as weak and ineffectual on the world stage. The president and his advisers get particularly irked by those who seize on Obama's decision to pull back from a military strike in Syria and link it with vir - tually every other foreign policy challenge, from Rus- sia's threatening moves in Ukraine to China's increas- ing assertiveness in Asia's territorial disputes. "Why is it that everybody is so eager to use military force after we've just gone through a decade of war at enormouscoststoourtroops and to our budget?" Obama said during a news confer - ence in the Philippines. Summing up his foreign policy philosophy, Obama said it was one that "avoids errors." White House advisers ar - gue in part that Obama's ap- proach puts him on the side ofaconflict-wearyAmerican public, some of whom voted for him in the 2008 election because of his early opposi - tion to the Iraq war. Yet the president's foreign policy record of late has provided plentyoffodderforhiscritics. It was Obama's own dec - laration that Syria's chemi- cal weapons use would cross his "red line" that raised the stakes for a U.S. response when Syrian leader Bashar Assad launched an attack last summer. The Obama administration's own drum - beat toward a U.S. strike only fueled the narrative that the president was in- decisive or didn't have the stomach for an attack when he abruptly pulled back, first in favor of a vote in Con- gress, then to strike a deal with Syria and Russia that aimed to rid the Assad re- gime of its chemical weap- ons stockpiles. The Syria scenario has trickled into Obama's rela- tionship with Asia, where anxious allies spent much of the last week seeking as- surances from the president that he would have their back if China used military force to take the advantage in the region's numerous territorial disputes. And Russian President Vladi - mir Putin's flouting of West- ern sanctions in response to his alleged provocations in Ukraine has stirred fresh criticism that the presi - dent's strategy lacks teeth. asia Obama defends foreign policy record BulliT Marquez — The aSSociaTed PreSS u.S. President Barack obama arrives Monday at the ninoy aquino international airport in Manila, Philippines. By stephen Ohlemacher The Associated Press WashiNgtON The law- yer for a former Internal Revenue Service official at the heart of the agen- cy's tea party controversy asked Monday to address the House ahead of a vote to hold his client in contempt of Congress. He probably won't get the chance. Lois Lerner directed the IRS division that pro - cesses applications for tax- exempt status. This month, the House Oversight Com- mittee voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at a pair of hearings about IRS agents improperly sin - gling out tea party applica- tions for extra scrutiny. "We write to request an opportunity to present to the House the reasons why it should not hold Ms. Lerner in contempt," Lerner's lawyer, William W. Taylor III, wrote in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. The House is expected to vote on the contempt mea - sure in May, according to a memo from Cantor to House Republicans. 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