In brief: Police shots killed undercover officer

BALTIMORE – Baltimore police say that fellow officers fired the gunshots that killed a plainclothes officer during a melee outside a nightclub.

A 22-year-old civilian was also killed in the early Sunday morning shooting.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefield III said on Monday that no civilians fired any shots.

Officer William Torbit Jr. was on duty in plainclothes when he responded to a report of trouble at the club. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Torbit was trying to break up a fight when he was attacked and pulled out his weapon to defend himself.

At some point after that, officers opened fire, killing the officer. Police say Torbit was wearing his badge but there were no other indicators he was police.

The officers who fired are on administrative leave.

Ryan denied prison release

CHICAGO – A federal appeals court denied a bid by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to be released from prison on bail, according to an opinion released late Monday afternoon.

In a one-page opinion, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said it rejected Ryan’s release “because his chance of success on appeal is not sufficiently high.”

The court went on to note that Ryan’s lawyers had offered for him to be moved from a federal prison camp in Terre Haute, Ind., to the Kankakee County Jail in Illinois so he could spend days with his ailing wife, Lura Lynn. But the court said that’s a decision for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to make.

Ryan’s lawyers contend his conviction should be overturned because of a Supreme Court decision last year that weakened the controversial “honest services” fraud statute that was a key part of the charges against the former governor.

Bombing suspect requests case file

DETROIT – A Nigerian charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009 wants the file held by his former defense lawyers.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab says he believes the file contains information from experts who don’t believe he was capable of destroying Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam.

DALLAS – The American Heart Association wants all students to know how to do CPR and use a defibrillator by the time they graduate from high school.

In an advisory released Monday, the heart group says state legislatures should mandate that students know how to perform CPR and how to use an AED, which shocks the heart back into a normal rhythm.

The heart group said at least 36 states either require the training or at least encourage it.