SHOOTER TELLS JURY TO CHOOSE DEATH PENALTY

PHOENIX — A man convicted of killing six people asked jurors yesterday to "look at the picture of each and every person who had been shot, hurt, killed, mangled" and sentence him to death to help the victims' families heal.

"I'm not up here to point the finger at anybody else and say, 'Have mercy on my poor and withered soul,' " Dale Shawn Hausner said to jurors before they began deliberations on whether to condemn him.

Hausner, 36, was convicted this month of killing six people and attacking 19 others in random nighttime shootings that terrorized the Phoenix metropolitan area in 2005 and 2006. Investigators said he preyed on people and animals from his car in shootings that occasionally included his brother, Jeff Hausner, and his ex-roommate, Samuel Dieteman.

FAA KEEPING BIRD COLLISION FILES SECRET

WASHINGTON — The federal government plans to block public access to its records of aircraft and bird collisions such as the one that forced a US Airways jet to splashdown in New York's Hudson River in January.

The Federal Aviation Administration says that the information could mislead the public and its release could prompt some airports and others not to report incidents. The proposal is drawing sharp criticism from bird safety experts and public records advocates.

Two months after a flock of geese snuffed out an Airbus A320's engines and forced it to ditch in the Hudson, the FAA filed a little-noticed proposal that would bar release of its extensive record of bird collisions dating back to 1990.

U.S. PLANE FRAGMENTS RAIN ON BRAZIL TOWN

SAO PAULO — Engine pieces from a U.S. plane fell from the sky early yesterday in Brazil, hitting 22 houses and a car but sparing passengers and residents on the ground.

Pieces of one of the turbines of the DC-10 plunged to the ground in the Amazon jungle town of Manaus in northern Brazil. The plane is owned by the Miami-based Arrow Cargo company. Television images showed houses with damage to their roofs as an engine piece nearly 6 feet long lay nearby in front of amazed onlookers.

GIRL ARRESTED FOR NUDE PICS ON MYSPACE

TRENTON, N.J. — A 14-year-old New Jersey girl has been accused of child pornography after posting nearly 30 explicit nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com — charges that could force her to register as a sex offender if convicted.

The case comes as prosecutors nationwide pursue child pornography cases resulting from kids sending nude photos to one another over cell phones and e-mail. Legal experts, though, could not recall another case of a child porn charge resulting from a teen's posting to a social networking site. The teen, whose name has not been released because of her age, was charged with possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. MySpace would not comment on the investigation.

9/11 SKYSCRAPER STICKS WITH LEGAL NAME

NEW YORK — The Freedom Tower is out. One World Trade Center is in.

The agency that owns ground zero confirmed yesterday that the signature skyscraper replacing the towers destroyed on Sept. 11 will be more commonly known as One World Trade Center. The building under construction at the site was named the Freedom Tower in the first ground zero master plan. Officials at the time said the tallest of five towers at the site would demonstrate the country's triumph over terrorism.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chairman Anthony Coscia says the agency refers to the building as One World Trade Center, the building's legal name and "the one that's easiest for people to identify with."

PETS BLAMED FOR 86,629 TUMBLES A YEAR

WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday that an average of 86,629 Americans visit the emergency room each year after taking a fall caused by pets or their paraphernalia.

That's the equivalent of 240 ER trips a day, and roughly 1 percent of the 8 million visits for falls.

About a third of the falls broke bones, about one-quarter caused bruises, one-fifth caused sprains, and a little more than one-tenth caused lacerations. The report didn't mention injuries suffered by pets bearing the brunt of their stumbling owners.