(AP) — Omaha police have honored a 12-year-old girl who kept her cool when a burglar broke into her house while she was home alone.

Police gave Katelyn Allen an award for bravery and courage during an all-school assembly before 450 students at Westbrook Elementary.

Katelyn, a sixth grader, was home on spring break April 15 when she heard a bang at the back door. She took a cellphone into a bathroom, locked the door and called 911. When the burglar tried to break into the bathroom, she climbed out a window.

Officer Brian Vanderheiden, who responded to Katelyn’s call, says she responded perfectly. He called her the calmest person he’s come across when responding to a burglary call.

The burglar managed to run off.

(AP) — A horse in northeast Kansas has tested positive for equine herpes virus after participating in a barrel racing event in Nebraska.

Kansas Animal Health Commissioner Bill Brown said Tuesday the horse was euthanized and samples were sent to a laboratory, where tests showed lesions consistent with EHV-1. Additional testing in Kentucky confirmed the horse had the virus.

The horse participated in a competition in Lincoln, Neb., in mid-April. A few days later a Wisconsin horse also was confirmed with the virus and euthanized.

The virus is easily spread by airborne transmission, horse-to-horse contact and contact with nasal secretions on equipment, tack, feed and other surfaces.

Kansas agriculture officials are not imposing any restrictions on equine events but encourage horse owners to take precautionary measures.

(AP) — A 40-year-old Lincoln man has been sent to prison for sexually assaulting a child.

Online court records say Jose Martinez on Tuesday was given 25 to 40 years in prison and credited for 275 days served. Martinez had pleaded no contest to sexual assault of a minor.

Court documents say a girl was 15 a year ago when her mother told officers that she’d caught Martinez assaulting her daughter. The girl reported that Martinez started assaulting her when she was 11.

(AP) — Omaha police are investigating an armed bank robbery in northwest Omaha.

Police say in a news release that officers were called to a US Bank branch at 89th and Maple streets late Wednesday morning.

Bank employees told police that three people entered the bank, displayed firearms and demanded money. Witnesses say one of the suspects assaulted two bank employees during the robbery. Police say after getting an undetermined amount of cash, the suspects fled on foot to the south.

No arrests have been made.

Omaha Crime Stoppers, in partnership with the local bankers association, offers up to a $25,000 cash reward for information leading to the arrest of bank robbery suspects.

(AP) — A 41-year-old suburban Omaha woman has been accused of embezzling nearly $136,000 while working at a bank.

Federal records say Amy Fisher, of Papillion, is accused of thefts that occurred from September 2012 through March this year. Prosecutors say in court documents that Fisher took the money from several customers’ Bank of the West accounts.

Fisher didn’t immediately respond to a call Wednesday from The Associated Press. Online court records don’t list an attorney for her.

Her initial court appearance is scheduled for May 28.

(AP) — Omaha police bomb experts have found nothing alarming on a truck that was halted at nearby Offutt Air Force Base.

A news release from the 55th Wing Public Affairs office says a military dog checking vehicles around 4:15 a.m. Wednesday at the base’s south gate alerted its handler to the possible presence of explosives. The base requested aid from Omaha police and closed the gate. The base sits on the south side of the southern Omaha suburb of Bellevue.

The Air Force says the Omaha bomb unit found no explosives on the commercial delivery truck, and the gate was reopened.

(AP) — A Minnesota homeowner who shot and killed two teenagers during a break-in has been convicted of premeditated murder.

Byron Smith had claimed he was simply defending himself during the break-in at his home in the small city of Little Falls on Thanksgiving Day 2012.

Smith’s attorney said the 65-year-old was fearful after previous burglaries.

But prosecutors argued that Smith waited in his basement and intended to kill the teens. A total of nine shots were fired at 17-year-old Nick Brady and 18-year-old Haile (HAY’-lee) Kifer.

Minnesota law allows a person to use deadly force for defense, but that action must be considered reasonable. Jurors found him guilty of both first-degree and second-degree murder charges.

(AP) — A Canadian mining firm is preparing to resume drilling samples from beneath southeast Nebraska to determine if it will be feasible to build a mine to harvest a valuable and rare heat-resistant element.

NioCorp Developments said Tuesday it has requested bids from drilling companies for this summer’s exploration of the niobium deposit near Elk Creek.

NioCorp said last month it had raised $5.5 million to pay for this next phase of drilling and assessment.

The U.S. currently imports nearly all the niobium that’s used in this country to harden steel and make it more heat-resistant for industrial uses.

NioCorp previously estimated that more than 100 tons of niobium rests several hundred feet below the ground, but it’s not yet clear whether a mine will be built.

Elk Creek is about 45 miles east of Beatrice.