In the Nation

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, left, speaks during a news conference as and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly listens Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011, in New York. A sting operation resulted in the arrest Tuesday of five New York Police Department officers on charges that they smuggled firearms, cigarettes and slot machines they thought were stolen, federal authorities said. The officers were among 12 people charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan. (FRANK FRANKLIN II / Associated Press)

Posted: October 26, 2011

Officers arrested in federal sting

NEW YORK - Five New York Police Department officers smuggled firearms and slot machines they thought were stolen and some even used bolt cutters to pilfer hundreds of boxes of cigarettes from tractor-trailers as part of a 12-person theft ring that was under federal surveillance the entire time, authorities said Tuesday.

Three retired NYPD officers and a New Jersey correction officer are among the other defendants named in a federal criminal complaint alleging an undercover agent paid them more than $100,000 to moonlight as gun runners while under FBI surveillance. Three current officers also participated in a theft of cigarettes they were told were worth $500,000, the complaint says.

The men were eager to smuggle the weapons and commit other crimes "so long as the price was right," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference. - AP

Abuse is cited in Conn. trial

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A paroled burglar facing a possible death sentence for killing a woman and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion was sexually abused for years as a child but his ultrareligious family failed to get him proper help, his attorney told a jury Tuesday.

Joshua Komisarjevsky's adoptive parents isolated him by home-schooling him and joining a church that had cultlike practices, according to his attorney, Jeremiah Donovan. He said the family failed to get him counseling and medications after he was raped and burned with a cigarette by a 15-year-old foster boy his parents had taken in.

Komisarjevsky was convicted Oct. 13 of capital felony killing, kidnapping, arson, and sexual assault.

Komisarjevsky's accomplice, Steven Hayes, was sentenced to death last year after he was convicted of raping and strangling Jennifer Hawke-Petit and killing her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, who died of smoke inhalation in the Cheshire home. The girls were tied to their beds and doused with gasoline before the house was set on fire. - AP

Joe the Plumber announces bid

TOLEDO, Ohio - Joe the Plumber has launched his bid for Congress in Ohio, saying Americans deserved leaders from all walks of life. The man whose moniker became a household name during the 2008 presidential race made the announcement Tuesday in Toledo.

Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher said he was running in Ohio's Ninth District because he was angry about the economy and the way politicians try to patch problems with duct tape.

Wurzelbacher is running as a Republican. He rose from obscurity in 2008 after questioning then-candidate Barack Obama about his economic policies. He has become an icon for many antiestablishment conservatives and has traveled the country speaking at tea party and other conservative gatherings.

- AP

Elsewhere:

A solar storm pulled colorful northern lights unusually far south. TV stations in Georgia and Kentucky reported that people had called about the sky show Monday night.