Few people in Vermont remember Dr. Robert W. Hyde, but one of his former patients can't forget him. The doctor was involved in one of the nation's darkest chapters in medical science: In the 1950s, Hyde conducted drug and psychological experiments at a Boston hospital through funding that apparently originated with the CIA. Later, he became director of research at the Vermont State Hospital.

The patient, Karen Wetmore, is convinced that Hyde and other researchers subjected her and possibly other patients to experiments paid for by the CIA at the Waterbury facility.

In addition to her claim, new evidence, though incomplete, suggests that such tests might have been conducted at the Vermont State Hospital.

US investigators believe an eight year old boy who shot his dad and another man dead could have been the victim of abuse. Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romas, 39, were blasted at close range with a .22 hunting rifle by the youngster.

Police said the boy, who has not been named, did not shoot on the spur of the moment. Instead they believe he walked through the house picking out his two targets. Police found one victim just outside the front door and the other dead in an upstairs room.

The youngster faces two charges of premeditated murder and is being held at a juvenile centre near his home in St Johns, Arizona. The boy, who prosecutors say had never been in trouble before initially denied any involvement but later confessed to the killings.

Woburn, Massachusetts - A court has rejected a new trial for a defrocked priest who was one of the central figures in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal.

Paul Shanley is currently serving a 12- to 15-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2005 of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s.

In his bid for a new trial, Shanley argued that his trial lawyer did not properly challenge the theory of repressed memory. The victim testified he did not remember the sexual abuse until 2002, when memories came rushing back amid media coverage of the scandal.

The FBI complaint against former state senator Dianne Wilkerson, who was arrested last month on federal bribery charges, cites unnamed "small-timers" who might also require greasing by business owners or developers. One such name surfaced yesterday when federal agents arrested Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner for allegedly taking a $1,000 bribe and lying to FBI agents.

The FBI has blanketed City Hall with subpoenas as part of its investigation into the alleged Wilkerson/Turner extortion scheme to obtain a liquor license for a proposed nightclub in Roxbury. That investigation could expand to two unnamed state representatives cited in the October bribery complaint against Wilkerson, concerning efforts to develop a state-owned parcel in Roxbury. The US attorney is tight-lipped. It is reasonable to expect investigators to be looking not only at developers who used Turner and Wilkerson to run interference but also at the "community partners" in local nonprofit groups who are often used to lend neighborhood support to development projects.

New York - Police are reviewing surveillance videos of a post-Thanksgiving shopper stampede that trampled a suburban New York City Wal-Mart worker to death but they acknowledge it may be difficult to bring criminal charges.

Nassau County police and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said no new information was available Saturday on the employee's brutal death, which rattled shoppers even as they flocked to the Valley Stream store a day later.