WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller sharply criticized Scotland's justice minister for releasing the Lockerbie bomber, an act that "gives comfort to terrorists" all over the world.

Mueller sent a letter to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who cited compassionate grounds in his decision to let Abdel Baset al-Megrahi return to Libya because he has prostate cancer and was given only months to live by British doctors.

The angry tone of the letter is out of character with the normally reserved Mueller, indicating his outrage is personal as well as professional. He also sent copies to the families of the Lockerbie victims.

Before he became FBI director, Mueller spent years as a Justice Department lawyer leading the investigation into the 1988 airplane bombing that killed 270 people, most of them Americans.

CONNECTICUT PRIEST WHO STOLE $1M DIES

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport says a Connecticut priest who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1 million from a Darien parish to support a lavish lifestyle has died.

The diocese says the Rev. Michael Jude Fay died yesterday morning. Fay, 58, had prostate cancer and was serving a three-year sentence at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina after being convicted in December 2007.

Fay set up secret bank accounts and spent the money on international travel, expensive gifts and a Florida condominium.

TAIWAN TYPHOON DEATHS GROW TO 650

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The death toll from Typhoon Morakot was raised to at least 650 today after the worst weather disaster to hit Taiwan in half a century.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said 160 were confirmed killed with 490 people listed as missing and presumed dead. DNA tests will be conducted on battered bodies that authorities have not been able to identify, Liu said.

The storm triggered landslides and widespread flooding that trapped thousands of people in remote southern villages for days.

Television footage today showed soldiers and students scrubbing homes and streets in the southern city of Linbien in Pingtung county, which was still flooded in knee-deep waters because drainage ditches were blocked by debris.

AMERICAN PILOT DIES IN CRASH AT AIR SHOW

LONDON — A leading U.S. stunt pilot was killed yesterday when her light aircraft crashed at an aerobatic show in central England.

Vicki Cruse, 40, from Santa Paula, Calif., died in an accident during the World Aerobatic Championships at Britain's Silverstone motor racing circuit.

Cruse, who was president of the International Aerobatics Club, is a former member of the U.S. national aerobatics team and was the first woman to qualify to race in her class at the Reno National Championship Air Races.

Team manager Norm DeWitt said Cruse had been carrying out a qualifying flight in her Edge 540 plane when she lost control of her aircraft.

TUSCAN LOTTO TICKET TO PAY OUT $211.8M

ROME — A lucky lotto player in Tuscany won Italy's record $211.8 million state lottery yesterday, pocketing what has been billed as Europe's biggest jackpot.

The winning ticket was purchased in the Sisal Biffi coffee shop in Bagnone, a town of about 2,000 in the province of Massa Carrara near the Tuscan coast, lottery officials said. In Italy, lotto winners rarely come forward.

The winning combination — 11, 27, 10, 79, 45, 88 — was selected after weeks of mounting lotto fever that prompted tourists from around Europe to visit and play the Suprenalotto game. No one had won the top prize since Jan. 31.

REWARD SET UP TO CATCH GRIZZLY'S KILLER

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering an undisclosed reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever illegally shot and killed what officials say was one of Montana's largest grizzly bears.

The carcass of the big grizzly, called Maximus because he stood 7 1/2 feet tall and weighed about 800 pounds, was found Aug. 12 on a ranch in northern Montana. The bear had been dead about a month.

In 2007, the 9 1/2-year-old bear, officially identified by authorities as No. 4273, was captured accidentally by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. At the time, the department had set out to catch females for a study.

A remote camera snapped a picture of the same bear in the fall of 2008, and Mike Madel, a grizzly bear management specialist with the department, said it looked as if the bear had grown to more than 800 pounds.