CEDAR CITY, Utah (AP) – A police pursuit ended when the suspect’s dog – not happy about being bounced around in the car – bit its owner on the face.

Sheriff’s officers said they approached Nicholas T. Galanis of Salt Lake City to talk to him about some stolen property, but he got in his car and fled with his dog.

The chase Monday went through a winding, bumpy dirt road about 5 miles northwest of Modena, said sheriff’s detective Jody Edwards.

“Deputies could see the dog in the passenger seat getting slammed into the window,” he said. The dog, which is part pit bull, became so agitated “he bit his owner in the face,” removing part of Galanis’ nose, Edwards said. “And this is what ended the chase.”

Jesus cartoons result in charges

SINGAPORE (AP) – Authorities are investigating a man for publishing “offensive” cartoons of Jesus Christ on his Web site, police said Wednesday.

The 21-year-old man began posting the cartoons in January and the first one depicted Jesus as a zombie biting a boy’s head, The Straits Times reported. He published three more pictures after that, the report said.

“I never thought anyone would complain to the police because the pictures were not insidious,” the man was quoted as saying in the Times.

The man’s identity was not released because the police are still investigating.

“It is a serious offense for any person to distribute or reproduce any seditious publication which may cause feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore,” police said in a statement.

Coroner trainee charged in thefts

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A woman accused of stealing medical supplies from a medical center told police she had good reason to take the items: She needed them to study to be a coroner.

The 19-year-old woman was taken to Nebraska Medical Center after a traffic accident last week, police said. When she tried to leave the hospital, a security device went off.

A search of her pockets turned up six latex gloves, three tubes of lubricating jelly, 13 Band-Aids and 53 alcohol wipes, police said. The woman said she wants to be a coroner and for practice she opens up dead animals to study them. She said she needed the items to keep her safe from disease.

She was charged with misdemeanor theft.

Man, 52, guilty in teen escort’s death

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) – A businessman was found guilty Wednesday of supplying a 17-year-old escort with drugs that killed her at his upscale suburban home.

When the girl got sick, 52-year-old David F. Downey frantically called one of the girl’s friends and begged her to come and “get this girl out of my house,” according to testimony from the friend.

“This is a man who uses cocaine and girls. He exploits women,” Montgomery County prosecutor Samantha Cauffman said after Downey was convicted of a charge equivalent to third-degree murder and other counts. “He treats her like a piece of trash he thinks she is, not the human being she is.”

Over the years, Downey paid tens of thousands of dollars to hire escorts to do drugs and have oral sex at his home, according to testimony. When Ashley Burg, of Willingboro, N.J., got sick over a period of several hours on July 31, he called one of her friends – a topless dancer – and asked her to take the girl away, the dancer testified.

Eventually, the woman and her boyfriend came to take Burg to the hospital. But prosecutors said they discovered she was dead and accepted $2,000 from Downey to dump her body, which was found in northeast Philadelphia.

On the most serious charge of drug delivery resulting in death, Downey could face anywhere from five to 40 years in prison.

His attorney, Thomas C. Egan III, said he would appeal.

Egan argued that the teen escort may have used cocaine that Downey did not provide. Downey made a series of horrible decisions, Egan said, but did not act out of malice.

“Medically it appears that she was dead very rapidly,” he said. “He panicked and didn’t know how to handle the situation.”

AP-ES-06-14-06 2116EDT

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BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) – Army doctors in Thailand’s southern provinces are honoring King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60th anniversary on the throne by distributing free artificial limbs to the handicapped, an official said.

Nearly 200 people in Thailand’s three Muslim-dominated provinces have benefited from free prosthetic legs and arms provided by the army to honor the king, said Lt. Gen. Bunlert Chantarapas, head of the army’s medical department.

The provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat have been plagued with violence since the resurgence of a Muslim insurgency in 2004 that has left at least 1,300 dead and 1,500 wounded.

Artificial limbs can be prohibitively expensive for poor rural Thais, said Col. Wutthichai Isara, head of the army medical team in the south.

“There is a high demand for artificial limbs in the three provinces, and therefore we decided to donate them in honor of the king,” said Wutthichai, whose teams are working in conjunction with the Prince Vajiralongkorn Foundation, set up by the crown prince.

A five-day celebration for Bhumibol, 78, the world’s longest-reigning living monarch, was to wrap up Tuesday with a banquet in the capital for visiting royals and dignitaries from 25 countries.

AP-ES-06-14-06 0710EDT