31 million immigrants live in U.S., says census

WASHINGTON -- Roughly 8 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, early estimates from the 2000 census show, swelling the country's foreign-born population to more than 31 million people.

More detailed figures are due from the Census Bureau next month, and a final count of the foreign born population will be released next year.

If the estimates hold up, the numbers would be new highs, immigration experts said. The figures are in line with estimates from other census surveys released earlier this year.

The 1990 head count found 19.7 million foreign-born Americans.

Man carries loaded gun on flight to Phoenix

NEW ORLEANS -- A man carried a loaded gun through security checkpoints at the New Orleans airport Tuesday and boarded a Southwest Airlines flight before turning the gun over to a flight attendant.

FBI spokesman Ed Hall said the man did not realize he had the derringer in his briefcase until the Boeing 737 had left for Phoenix. The FBI questioned the man in Phoenix, but he was not charged because he had no intent to commit a crime.

The agency, along with the Federal Aviation Administration and International Total Services, the company that provides security at the New Orleans airport, are investigating why security agents didn't spot the gun when it went through the X-ray machine.

Italy gets WWII soldiers' remains from Russia

MOSCOW -- The remains of 1,064 Italian servicemen and prisoners of war killed in the former Soviet Union in World War II were turned over to Italian officials on Wednesday.

The ceremony at the Chkalovsky military airfield outside Moscow was organized by Russia's War Memorials organization. Its representatives had exhumed the remains together with experts from the Italian Defense Ministry. An Italian priest read prayers for the dead at the ceremony, which was attended by Italian Ambassador Giancarlo Aragona and Russian Defense Ministry officials.

Russian volunteers fan out across World War II battlegrounds every spring and summer, searching for bones and other military remains.

Fatal disaster at sea spurs migration action

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia announced plans Wednesday for an international conference on ways to curb illegal migration, days after hundreds of refugees drowned off the coast of Java.

Indonesia has been criticized by Australia for failing to crack down on the increasing flow of asylum seekers passing through its territory on their way to Australia or New Zealand. Critics claim migration rackets are supported by corrupt government officials and security forces.

International Organization for Migration officials had said a boat carrying 418 asylum seekers to Australia from Indonesia sank off the coast of Java on Friday. Only 44 people survived. The people were mostly Iraqis, Afghans, Palestinians and Algerians.

Jury clears Simpson in road-rage trial

MIAMI -- O.J. Simpson was acquitted Wednesday of grabbing another driver's glasses and scratching the man's face during a bout of road rage after insisting that the other man started it.

After the verdict, Simpson put his hand to his chest and mouthed "thank you" as he nodded toward the jury. He then hugged his lawyers and told the wife of lead attorney Yale Galanter, "Your husband did great."

The 54-year-old Simpson faced up to 16 years in jail had he been convicted of auto burglary and battery for last year's dispute with Jeffrey Pattinson in their suburban Miami neighborhood. The jury deliberated 90 minutes.

The two men offered vastly different accounts of what happened. Pattinson said Simpson ran a stop sign, then acted like "a madman" after Pattinson got him to pull over by flashing his lights and honking his horn.

--From wire reports