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A mortar shell explosion killed seven Marines and injured seven more during mountain warfare training in Nevada's high desert, prompting the Pentagon to immediately halt the use of the weapons until an investigation can determine their safety, officials said Tuesday. The explosion occurred Monday night at the Hawthorne Army Depot, a sprawling facility used by troops heading overseas, during an exercise involving the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Lejeune, N.C. Several Marines from the unit were injured in the blast, authorities said. The Marines were practicing firing mortars, reports CBS affiliate KTVN-TV in Reno, when one of the rounds exploded while still inside the tube. Brig. Gen. Jim Lukeman said investigators were trying to determine the cause of the malfunction. The Pentagon expanded a temporary ban to prohibit the military from firing any 60 mm mortar rounds until the results of the investigation. The Marine Corps said Tuesday a "blanket suspension" of

Sinkhole swallows pond, There was something missing when Mark Korb went outside Sunday morning. Most notably, the giant pond that had once been in his yard, which was now a gaping crater in the ground. The Newcastle, Calif., man says the manmade pond on his property fell into a sinkhole that sucked it up in a matter of hours. The speed at which the underground cavity devoured the pond was staggering. Korb noted, by contrast, for instance, that when he drained the pond years ago with a pump the process took seven days. A geology professor from nearby Sierra College attributed the sinkhole to old mining activity or a preexisting fracture rather than groundwater dissolving material.

Sinkhole swallows pond, When Mark Korb woke up Sunday morning, he noticed the man-made pond on his property didn't look the way it did when he went to bed. "This looks like the moon," said Korb, pointing at a sinkhole that caused a pond to drain onto his property. A few years ago, Korb drained the pond with a pump, he said. The project took him seven days to complete. The sinkhole emptied the pond much faster: "I would guess probably four to five hours for this whole area to drain," Korb said.

Newborn twin deaths, The magistrate has found 26-year-old Tennessee woman guilty of murder on Tuesday in the 2011 smothering deaths of newborn twins found in her laundry basket. The jury of seven men and five women convicted Lindsey Lowe, of suburban Nashville, of felony murder, premeditated murder and aggravated child abuse. She was immediately sentenced to life in prison by the judge. Lowe, who was often emotional at trial, didn't break down as the sentence was pronounced. She was dry-eyed when she turned to sobbing family members and friends in the courtroom before being taken into custody. The defendant, who toted a Bible throughout much of the seven-day trial, told them softly, "I'm OK. I love you all. He's with me," as she pointed toward the sky. At trial, jurors saw a video of Lowe telling police she had given birth alone on Sept. 12, 2011, in the bathroom of her parents' home on a quiet cul-de-sac in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The bodies were

Newborn twin deaths, The police officer had choked up and another officer fought back tears Tuesday as they testified about finding two dead babies in a laundry basket at the home of a young Tennessee woman charged with murder. Officer Jeremy Fentress took the stand and described entering the bedroom of defendant Lindsey Lowe and pulling back a bloody towel. He stopped speaking for a few seconds, then told the court: "After I pulled the bloody towel back, I saw a deceased infant." Fentress said he touched the baby with two fingers and found the infant was cold and not breathing. The newborn was the first of two found Sept. 14, 2011, in a two-story home of an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Hendersonville, about 20 miles northeast of Nashville. The second was found by Sgt. James Garrett, who described getting ready to lay the first baby down on a bed "softly and gently" before he discovered the umbilical cord, still attached to something deeper in the baske

Nude beach shut down, Wisconsin authorities on Tuesday announced they will shut down one of nation’s most popular nude beaches on weekdays after struggling for years to curtail sex and drugs on the sandbar and surrounding woods. Nudists from around the country have been traveling to the public beach on the Wisconsin River near Mazomanie, about 25 miles northwest of Madison, for decades as word spread that prosecutors in ultra-liberal Dane County wouldn’t go after anyone for showing skin. But visitors haven’t stopped at just stripping down. They’ve been slipping off into the woods for trysts and drugs. Authorities say that’s crossing the line, but they haven’t been able to stop the shenanigans. Their frustration reached a tipping point Tuesday, when the state Department of Natural Resources announced it will close the beach, the islands immediately off it and the surrounding woods to the public on weekdays, when wardens say troublemakers tend to operate unseen. The closures begin immed

Nude beach shut down, Wisconsin officials say they will close down a well-known nude beach on weekdays to reduce problems with outdoor sex and drug use. Nudists from around the country have been traveling to the beach near Mazomanie for decades, and the state Department of Natural Resources has been struggling for years to curtail sex and drug use there. Wardens arrested 26 people for illicit sex and 16 people for drugs during just nine days of surveillance in 2011. The agency announced Tuesday it will close the beach, surrounding islands and wooded areas on weekdays beginning immediately. Warden Nate Kroeplin says that's when most of the illegal activity takes place. The beach will remain open on weekends from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.