Retired Massachusetts judge defends abortion order

BOSTON (AP) - A retired Massachusetts judge is defending her decision to order a mentally ill woman to have an abortion and be sterilized against her wishes.

Christina Harms is also criticizing Boston University for withdrawing a job offer after her ruling sparked controversy and was overturned by the state Appeals Court.

Boston music school stands by firing of conductor

BOSTON (AP) - Officials at the New England Conservatory say they will not rehire renowned conductor Benjamin Zander - who was fired last month for hiring a convicted sex offender to video record a youth orchestra - despite a long letter urging his reinstatement from Zander's legal scholar brother and a former Harvard University president.

Boston College fights release of secret IRA tapes

BOSTON - Boston College is challenging a federal judge's order to hand over interviews with seven former Irish Republican Army members to U.S. government officials.

Under terms of a treaty, American officials plan to share the interviews with British authorities investigating a 1972 homicide.

US Sen. Scott Brown favors allowing women in combat units

BOSTON - U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is urging top defense officials to let women serve in front line combat, saying barring women from those units could make it harder for them to rise up the military ranks.

The Massachusetts Republican urged U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to adopt the changes in a letter Wednesday.

Parents defend Amy Bishop in brother's shooting

BOSTON (AP) - The parents of an Alabama professor accused of shooting three of her colleagues to death in 2010 say she was a well-adjusted, "family-oriented" girl growing up and didn't deliberately kill her brother in Massachusetts in 1986, according to testimony during a closed-door inquest after the Alabama shootings.

Trial in 1974 Massachusetts slaying gets started

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - The murder trial of Fitchburg man accused of killing a woman nearly four decades ago has started.

A chemist and DNA analyst told a jury in Worcester Superior Court on Tuesday that a partial DNA profile generated from material found under the fingernails of victim Clara Provost matched the DNA of defendant Ronald Dame.

Average Massachusetts gasoline prices rise by four cents this week

BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts gas prices are continuing to rise, up four cents this week.

AAA Southern New England reports this week that self-serve, regular is now averaging $3.60 per gallon. That's 18 cents higher than a month ago, and up for the ninth week in a row.