OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha has joined efforts with two other U.S. zoos to save 18 elephants living in a southern Africa park from being slaughtered.

The elephants live in a Swaziland park with 15 other elephants, some endangered black rhinos and other animals. The country is enduring its worst-ever drought, and officials there had to make a decision to either cull the elephants or put a black rhino population already on the brink of extinction at further risk.

The Omaha zoo, which had been searching for elephants for the zoo’s new African Grasslands exhibit, last year partnered with the Dallas Zoo and the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, on the problem. Each zoo is taking six of the park’s elephants.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Douglas County jury has awarded Omaha software developer Baldwin Hackett & Meeks Inc. $43.8 million in a lawsuit against a rival software firm.

Thursday’s award was the second time a jury has ruled against ACI Worldwide, which was founded in Omaha but now has its headquarters in Naples, Florida.

The conflict came to a head in 2011, when ACI accused Baldwin Hackett & Meeks, commonly called BHMI, in a lawsuit of pirating ACI’s software to process debit and credit card transactions. BHMI won that case last year.

In a countersuit, BHMI accused ACI of violating antitrust laws and breaching a nondisclosure agreement. ACI had signed that agreement when it was allowed to see parts of BHMI’s business software in an effort by BHMI to ward off accusations of piracy.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman whose backyard chickens ruffled her neighbors’ feathers plans to continue fighting to keep her domesticated fowl.

A judge ruled Wednesday that Stacy Williams must get rid of the chickens because they violate 40-year-old neighborhood covenants banning livestock and poultry.

Williams and her attorney plan to appeal or challenge the ruling and collect signatures on a petition seeking to abolish the covenants.

Williams has been raising backyard chickens since 2014. She says her six hens serve as “therapy chickens” for her 17-year-old son and help him cope with depression and anxiety.

Her neighbors complained after Williams expanded her garden from a small plot to a 2,000-square-foot area. The chickens stay in a coop.

gVNEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — A 17-year-old girl accused of running her pickup over a woman in the Nebraska City library parking lot now is charged with murder.

Otoe County Attorney David Partsch said in a news release Wednesday that the woman, 20-year-old Amber Shipley, was declared brain dead on Monday and that an autopsy showed she died of blunt force head injuries. The teenage girl also has been charged with use of a weapon and leaving the scene of an injury accident. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.

Her attorney, Jerry Sena (SEE’-nuh), said Thursday that “when the facts come out my client will be found innocent.”

Partsch has said the girl and Shipley had gotten into an altercation outside the Morton-James Public Library about 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 14.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been injured and a horse has died after a car and a horse-drawn carriage collided east of Pawnee City.

The car and carriage collided around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. According to a news release from the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office, the two people were transported to a hospital. Their conditions were not immediately known.

Police say the horse died at the scene.

An investigation is ongoing.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Police have been investigating how a 5-month-old Council Bluffs girl suffered severe head injuries.

Authorities say officers and medics were sent to a Council Bluffs apartment around 1:20 a.m. Sunday to help the girl, who was having trouble breathing. She was taken to a local hospital and then was transferred to Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.

Doctors say the girl suffered a skull fracture and had bleeding on the brain.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man injured in a Grand Island apartment fire has died.

37-year-old Jason Jensen died at a Grand Island hospital Tuesday. He had been inside his Holiday Garden Townhouses apartment late Sunday night when the fire broke out.

Deputy Hall County Attorney Tara Nagel says Jensen died as a result of the fire.

Firefighters found Jensen near the doorway to his apartment shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday.

Deputy State Fire Marshal Ray Nance says the fire was kitchen-related. Grand Island fire officials say the fire was mostly contained to the kitchen area in Jensen’s apartment, but that smoke reached other apartments as well, temporarily displacing the tenants.

A dog also died in the fire.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha Fire Department has changed its policy of providing local school districts with ambulances at high school football games.

Fire Chief Bernie Kanger said Tuesday that the department will end the free standby ambulance service that it’s offered for the past decade at varsity games and other events on Jan. 1. He said he’s trying to make the fire department more efficient and needs to prioritize 911 calls over the standby service.

If a district wants to continue having ambulances at games, it will have to enter into a contract with the fire department or with a private ambulance company.

The Omaha World-Herald (https://bit.ly/1L4RvxX ) reports that the policy change will affect the Millard, Omaha, Elkhorn and Westside districts.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — The Beatrice City Council has written off $880,000 in outstanding balances on three loans with companies that are no longer operating.

Council members wrote off the balances Monday night after city auditors expressed concern over the debt. The Beatrice Sun (https://bit.ly/1QZ0uQg ) reports that the city wrote off a $250,000 loan for Store Kraft, $330,000 of a $600,000 loan for Store Kraft subsidiary 5Stat, and a $300,000 loan for Blue Valley Automation.

City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says the city will continue to collect the money owed on the Community Development Block Grant loans.

Community Development Block Grant loans are meant to support business and activities that stimulate job creation and economic expansion.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Texas man has pleaded no contest in an assault that left a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student critically injured.

22-year-old Stelson Curry of Cedar Hill pleaded no contest to first-degree assault.

According to authorities, 22-year-old Patrick Pantoja and 27-year-old Emmanuel Nartey were walking from an apartment to the school campus on Oct. 3, 2014, when they were approached by two men who demanded cash. Police say the men were attacked even though they said they did not have any money, and a wallet and smartphone were stolen.

Pantoja was taken to the hospital with severe head trauma.

Curry was arrested in February near Natchitoches, Louisiana. Another suspect faces charges of aiding and abetting in connection to the assault.