In the Nation

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A sweat lodge outside Sedona, Ariz., where two people were overcome and later died lacked the necessary building permit, an official said yesterday.

Yavapai County's building safety manager, Jack Judd, said there was no record of an application or permit for a temporary structure at the Angel Valley Retreat Center.

At any one time, 55 to 65 people attending the "Spiritual Warrior" program hosted by self-help expert and author James Arthur Ray were crowded into the 415-square-foot space during a two-hour period Thursday night, sheriff's officials said.

Ray's spokesman, Howard Bragman, declined to comment on the permit but said the resort's staff was under contract to build a sweat lodge for up to 75 people.

- AP

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for four men accused of killing a Florida couple known for adopting children with special needs.

State Attorney Bill Eddins said yesterday that he would pursue the punishment for the accused ring leader, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr., 35; Donnie Ray Stallworth, 25; Wayne Thomas Coldiron, 41; and Frederick Lee Thornton Jr., 21.

All four have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, along with another man and a 16-year-old boy. A woman has pleaded not guilty to accessory to first-degree murder.

Byrd and Melanie Billings were killed by masked gunmen who burst into their bedroom as they slept in July. Nine of their adopted children, all between 4 and 11 years old, were home at the time. - AP

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Yale University said its formal goodbyes to Annie Le, the graduate student found strangled last month behind a wall in a medical school building's laboratory.

Classmates, professors, and others gathered at Battell Chapel for a memorial service that was open only to members of the Yale community. University president Richard Levin remembered Le, 24, as a model student who was caring, and spontaneous.

Le worked on a team that experimented on mice as part of research into enzymes that could have implications for treatment of cancer, diabetes, and muscular dystrophy. Raymond Clark 3d, a former university lab technician, has been charged with her murder.

- AP

Slain gay-rights activist Harvey Milk will get a special day of recognition in California, May 22, making him only the second person in state history, after conservationist John Muir, to gain such a designation. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill yesterday. Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. In 1978, he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Supervisor Dan White.

U.S. Border Patrol agents say several groups of illegal immigrants from China have been arrested in southern Arizona in recent days. Agent Colleen Agle said it was part of a trend that has seen increasing numbers of Chinese migrants trying to sneak into this country from Mexico. Agle said smugglers were taking advantage of an increase in Chinese tourism in South and Central America and enticing Chinese to be smuggled into the United States.

Utah music teacher Heather Christensen, 33, was being hailed as a hero after she died while trying to prevent the crash of a bus carrying 54 of her students. The bus veered off the road in Idaho, and she left her seat to grab the steering wheel after seeing the bus driver slump over. She was the only one who died in the crash.