Georgia Tech, Emory get research grant

ATLANTA - Georgia Tech and Emory University have received a $20 million federal grant to set up one of seven national cancer research centers.

The National Cancer Institute awarded the grant as part of a five-year, $144.3 million initiative to develop and apply nanotechnology to cancer research and treatment. Emory and Tech will join the ranks of such schools as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as schools that will tag team to study cancer and nanotechnology, the science of working at the atomic and molecular levels.

One nanometer is a billionth of a meter, about 80,000 times less than the width of a human hair. The grant will be used to create a Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, focusing on the study of molecules so tiny they can drill inside a cancer cell and kill it.

Police say man killed self to stay out of jail

ATHENS - Authorities have identified a 25-year-old Athens man who shot and killed himself after a police standoff.

Andrew Lance Thomason was on probation for a 2000 kidnapping charge in Butts County and did not want to go back to jail, the Georgia State Patrol said.

Dozens of residents in his neighborhood in western Clarke County were evacuated during the standoff, which began at about 5 p.m. Sunday when Mr. Thomason fired a shot at state patrol troopers who were trying to execute a search warrant.

Mr. Thomason fired several shots but no one was injured. Authorities say he shot himself in the head at about 2:30 a.m.

Officers arrest woman in roommate's slaying

ATLANTA -- A 45-year-old woman has been arrested in the slaying of her roommate, authorities said.

Connie Shelia Green, 45, was arrested Tuesday morning at a motel in Jackson, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Jasper Police Department said in a statement.

Authorities had been looking for her since Saturday, when the body of her roommate, Roger Cox, 58, was found in their Jasper apartment by a relative. His 1992 white Honda Accord was missing, police said.

WorldCom deal would give Georgia millions

ATLANTA - Georgia would receive about $40 million as its share of a proposed settlement of state tax claims against WorldCom, the telecommunications giant that declared bankruptcy after a massive accounting fraud, officials announced Tuesday.

Under the proposed agreement with MCI, with which WorldCom was merged under a reorganization plan, 15 states and the District of Columbia would divide $315 million under a pro rata distribution formula.