Prosecutors won't seek death penalty for actor

LOS ANGELES -- Prosecutors won't seek the death penalty against actor Robert Blake if he is convicted of murdering his wife, the district attorney's office said Thursday.

Prosecutors will instead seek a sentence of life in prison without parole, the office said.

Blake was charged Monday with fatally shooting his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, after a dinner outing last May. Prosecutors said the 68-year-old actor and his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, plotted the slaying for months.

Blake and Caldwell have both pleaded innocent. Blake has said that his wife, the mother of his year-old daughter, Rosie, was shot while he went back into a restaurant to retrieve a gun he carried to protect her.

Lawmakers agree to add to farm subsidy program

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers reached broad agreement Thursday on an election-year overhaul of farm programs that would boost subsidies by about 70 percent, the lead Senate negotiator said.

The agreement would end two months of talks and could affect several important Senate races this fall.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said the agreement includes his proposal to reward farmers for improved environmental practices. At a cost of $2 billion, that plan would be the largest single new program in the farm bill, said Harkin, D-Iowa.

The legislation will replace farm, nutrition and land-conservation programs set to expire this fall. The new bill would expire in 2008, a presidential election

Auditing firm seeks to reopen negotiations

WASHINGTON -- Accounting firm Arthur Andersen, facing trial on a criminal obstruction charge related to the shredding of Enron Corp. documents, is renewing efforts to settle the case with the government.

Andersen lawyer Rusty Hardin said Thursday the firm had sent a letter to the Justice Department laying out its position in response to the government's request last week.

Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra would confirm only that the department had received a letter from the accounting firm. Officials are reviewing it and preparing a response, he said.

Andersen is scheduled to go on trial May 6 in Houston on the obstruction of justice charge..

Two more gel candies recalled as child hazard

WASHINGTON -- Two more batches of Asian-made jelly candy that poses a deadly choking hazard to children are being recalled, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday.

The cases involving small jelly candies sold in cups about the size of a coffee creamer bring to at least 22 the number of recalls involving this product, sold under various names.

Six American children have choked to death on this type of candy, containing the ingredient konjac, also known as conjac or konnyaku, yam flour or glucomannan.

The candy recalled :

464 cases of candies sold under the "Jojomo" and "Naluwan" brand names.

3,115 bags of candy distributed in bags labeled, in part, "Mi Costentia ... Gelatinas Coconut Candy.

-- From wire reports