Across Georgia

Woman dies in wreck involving stalled car

ATLANTA - A woman was killed when the car she was riding in was rear-ended on Interstate 20 as her friend stopped to check on a car stalled in the middle of the road.

Ashley Samples, 21, was a passenger in a Chevrolet Cavalier that was heading west on I-20 when it stopped after coming across the stalled car early Sunday.

The driver of the Cavalier, a Villa Rica firefighter, had noticed several cars swerving around the stalled car, and so stopped to see whether anyone was in it, Atlanta Police spokeswoman Sylvia Abernathy said.

A woman driving a Pontiac Grand Am saw the stalled car, swerved to avoid hitting it and rear-ended the Cavalier, Ms. Abernathy said. Ms. Samples died at the scene.

Ms. Abernathy said police later learned the stalled car had been reported stolen. Police were looking for the suspect.

Bear is killed after entering subdivision

RIVERDALE - Authorities killed a 200-pound bear after residents of a subdivision found it in a tree.

Residents saw the bear early Sunday after hearing neighborhood dogs barking at it.

One dog briefly fought with the bear but got away with only a few scratches, said state Wildlife Resources Division spokesman Ben Johnson.

As the bear began coming down the tree, a Clayton County police officer shot and wounded the bear to protect the dogs who were at the foot of the tree, said Clayton County Police Assistant Chief Jeff Turner.

Severely injured, the bear climbed higher into the tree.

It was killed by a state wildlife biologist who shot it with a rifle.

"This is not the outcome that we would've like to have seen," Mr. Johnson said. "We would really ask folks, if at all possible in a situation like this, to just bring pets inside, bring food inside and try to give the bear some space, and hopefully, it would've moved on."

The bear's body was to be taken to the University of Georgia to be tested for rabies.

Also during the weekend, a bear was found dead along a highway in Hall County. Police believe that bear was hit by a car.

Guard team will get new, lighter vehicles

ATLANTA - The Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team is at the leading edge of a national trend that will see slow, heavy tanks exchanged for lighter vehicles with more speed for urban warfare and, possibly, border-patrol duty, National Guard officials said.

In its transition from a mechanized to a light infantry unit, the 48th Brigade is losing its tanks, self-propelled artillery and Bradley Fighting Vehicles that were integral to its efforts in Iraq.

Also, jobs are being cut or changed, and some armories are expected to be moved from rural to urban locations in the state.

The 48th returned from Iraq this spring.

The transition is part of the federal government's greater reliance on citizen-soldiers to fulfill homeland security duties, according to National Guard officials.

- Edited from wire reports