In brief: Student held in principal’s death

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A 17-year-old student charged with first-degree murder in the killing of a Christian school principal told investigators he had planned to stab the woman on the third day of classes, when he knew he’d be alone with her in a classroom, police said Thursday.

Eduardo Marmolejo was held without bond and ordered to undergo a mental evaluation by a Juvenile Court judge during a hearing Thursday.

Marmolejo has been charged with planning the killing of 49-year-old Suzette York. York’s body was found by a teacher in a classroom on Wednesday at Memphis Junior Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist school of fewer than 100 students.

Police said Marmolejo told investigators he planned to kill York because he did not like her and she had made him angry.

Rhode Island man shot again

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Rhode Island man has been shot for the second time in five weeks on the same street.

Police Maj. Thomas Oates said 22-year-old Bruce Moten, of Providence, has been shot three times in the past three years. He was most recently shot early Thursday while riding in the back of a car.

Oates said Moten was shot in the buttocks. Oates said Moten was also shot July 3 when he was struck in the back.

Police said Moten was first struck by gunfire in 2008 at a public housing project. No arrests have been made in the 2011 shootings.

Spacecraft gains key information

PASADENA, Calif. – The Dawn spacecraft has begun collecting data about the asteroid Vesta.

The NASA probe made its first detailed observations of the surface Thursday from a distance of 1,700 miles and will spend the next several weeks taking images from that altitude. Afterward, it will spiral closer to the asteroid to get a better view.

Dawn slipped into orbit around Vesta last month after a four-year journey and beamed up early pictures revealing a rocky body with radically different northern and southern hemispheres.

Abortions law upheld in court

PHOENIX – An appeals court has allowed key parts of an Arizona law restricting abortions to take effect, including one that requires women to see a doctor in person the day before getting an abortion.

The provisions have been on hold for two years after a state judge ruled to block them from taking effect in 2009.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruling Thursday clears the way for women to be required to get so-called “informed consent” from a doctor in person before getting an abortion.

The ruling also covers provisions banning nurses from performing surgical abortions and requiring parental consent forms to be notarized for minors getting abortions.

Another provision expands an existing law that allows health care workers to refuse to participate in abortions for moral or religious reasons.