World/nation briefs

Couple confesses in Dugard kidnappingA couple charged with kidnapping Jaycee Dugard and holding her captive for 18 years have given full confessions to authorities, defense lawyer Stephen Tapson said. Nancy and Phillip Garrido acknowledged snatching Dugard, then 11, in 1991 from a South Lake Tahoe street and answered dozens of questions about the years they spent with her and her two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido, said Tapson, who represents Nancy Garrido. The couple were arrested in 2009.

Statement by dying victim is admissibleThe Supreme Court ruled that a shooting victim's statement to police at a crime scene can be used in court, even if the victim later dies and cannot testify. The 6-2 decision in a Detroit case retreats from recent rulings holding that the Constitution forbids prosecutors from using "hearsay" statements to the police unless the witness testifies. The majority said the ruling applies in cases where police deal with "an ongoing emergency."

State leads nation in meth lab seizuresThe Missouri Highway Patrol reported that methamphetamine laboratory seizures jumped 10 percent last year -- rising to 1,960 from 1,774 in 2009 and leading the nation. "Once again, Missouri has the unfortunate distinction of being the leader in meth lab seizures, despite the hard work of the state's drug task forces and all law enforcement," said Col. Ron Replogle, superintendent of the Highway Patrol.

New hope for hikers jailed in Iran?Iran's top diplomat said he hoped his country's judiciary would expedite the case of two Americans charged with spying. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in Geneva that he hoped the case of Minnesota native Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal will "come to an end in the not too far future." Salehi compared the case to that of two detained German journalists who were released last week after Germany's foreign minister traveled to Iran to ask for their release. But he declined to say whether such a humanitarian release might be possible for Bauer and Fattal.

U.S. repositions troops in eastern areasThe U.S. military will start carrying out more counterterrorism missions against insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and work more closely with Pakistani forces in operations against insurgents along the porous and rugged frontier, the U.S. general commanding the region said. Maj. Gen. John Campbell, commander of NATO coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, said he had been repositioning some of his troops there since August.

Burundi signs Nile River accordBurundi has become the sixth nation to sign an agreement on water usage from the Nile River, enabling ratification of an accord that effectively strips Egypt of its veto power over rights to the flow from the world's longest river. A 1929 treaty brokered by former colonial power Britain granted Egypt the veto. The new agreement will establish a commission to oversee dam building and irrigation instead.