CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A jury sentenced a Marine sergeant Friday to 15 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi civilian during a fruitless search for an insurgent.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III also was dishonorably discharged, reduced in rank to private and given a written reprimand.

Hutchins stood at attention and looked straight ahead as his sentence was announced. He then sat down and briefly put his head on the table in front of him and looked up with red eyes.

His wife, Reyna Hutchins, burst into tears, and other relatives appeared stunned, with his mother slumping in her chair.

On Thursday, Hutchins became the first and only member of an eight-member squad to be convicted of murder in the killing.

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Iraqi soccer team returns without captain who scored winning goal

BAGHDAD — There were no cheering crowds or ticker tape parade Friday along the dangerous airport road to greet Iraq's Asian Cup soccer champs. And the team's captain, a Sunni who scored the winning goal, didn't even return because he feared for his life.

But several hundred fans waved Iraqi flags and scuffled with police as they pushed through airport security to greet the country's soccer heroes as they stepped off a charter plane about 7 p.m.

Police wielded truncheons against some in the crowd who were trying to touch goalkeeper Nour Sabri. He was hoisted onto the teammates' shoulders and carried to a waiting bus, which took the team into central Baghdad for a meeting with the prime minister at his Green Zone office.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave each a diplomatic passport and put a wreath of flowers around their necks.

Tight security in the heart of the capital — and the team's late arrival — prevented many Baghdad residents from celebrating in the streets.

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General's memo to Bush contradicted medal citation

SAN FRANCISCO — Just a day after approving a medal claiming former NFL player Pat Tillman had been cut down by "devastating enemy fire" in Afghanistan, a high-ranking general tried to warn President Bush that the story might not be true, according to testimony obtained by The Associated Press.

Despite this apparent contradiction, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was spared punishment in the latest review of Tillman's shooting. On Tuesday, the Army overruled a Pentagon recommendation that he be held accountable for his "misleading" actions.

In a sometimes contentious November interview under oath and via videoconference, Pentagon investigators sharply questioned McChrystal about the conflicting accounts, according to the testimony obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act.

McChrystal acknowledged he had suspected several days prior to approving the Silver Star citation on April 28, 2004, that Tillman may have died by fratricide.

He said that suspicion led him to send a memo to top generals imploring "our nation's leaders," specifically "POTUS" — the acronym for the president — to avoid cribbing the "devastating enemy fire" explanation from the award citation for their speeches.

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Archaeologists find funeral chambers of Aztec emperor

MEXICO CITY — Mexican archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar have detected underground chambers they believe contain the remains of Emperor Ahuizotl, who ruled the Aztecs when Columbus landed in the New World. It would be the first tomb of an Aztec ruler ever found.

The find could provide an extraordinary window into Aztec civilization at its apogee. Ahuizotl (ah-WEE-zoh-tuhl), an empire-builder who extended the Aztecs' reach as far as Guatemala, was the last emperor to complete his rule before the Spanish Conquest.

Accounts written by Spanish priests suggest the area was used by the Aztecs to cremate and bury their rulers. But no tomb of an Aztec ruler has ever been found, in part because the Spanish conquerors built their own city atop the Aztec's ceremonial center, leaving behind colonial structures too historically valuable to remove for excavations.

One of those colonial buildings was so damaged in a 1985 earthquake that it had to be torn down, eventually giving experts their first chance to examine the site off Mexico City's Zocalo plaza, between the Metropolitan Cathedral and the ruins of the Templo Mayor pyramid.

Archaeologists told The Associated Press that they have located what appears to be a six-foot-by-six-foot entryway into the tomb about 15 feet below ground. The passage is filled with water, rocks and mud, forcing workers to dig delicately while suspended from slings. Pumps work to keep the water level down.

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Armless driver gets 5 years on latest traffic charges

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — A man with no arms and one leg who wouldn't stop driving despite a long list of traffic violations was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on felony driving and drug charges.

Michael Francis Wiley, 40, also was sentenced to 15 years of drug offender probation. He pleaded no contest in June to the charges.

"I'd just like to say I know what I did was wrong," Wiley said in court Friday. "I am truly sorry your honor. I am."

Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a license, kicking a state trooper and other charges.

He once had a valid license, but it has been suspended several times since 1985, according to his attorney. He starts the car with his toes, shifts with his knee and steers with the stump of his left arm. He turns on the lights with his teeth.

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Lionel Richie weighs in on daughter's pregnancy, jail sentence

LOS ANGELES — Lionel Richie says his 25-year-old daughter, Nicole, has "made some mistakes in her life," but that he raised her to take responsibility for her behavior.

"She has not blamed others for her problems and is growing up very quickly, albeit in the heat of the media spotlight," the 58-year-old R&B singer told Usmagazine.com.

"My father taught me to stand straight and take whatever punishment or hardships were the result of my own actions, and I am proud that I was able to hand that philosophy down to my daughter," he said.

Nicole Richie was sentenced last week to four days in jail and ordered to undergo drug and alcohol treatment. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of drugs.