Young woman held for 8 years says she didn't miss out on much in captivity

By: VERONIKA OLEKSYN - Associated Press | Monday, August 28, 2006 11:05 PM PDT ∞

VIENNA, Austria -- The Austrian teenager held in an underground cell for more than eight years insisted Monday she didn't miss out on much in captivity and was even spared some temptations and torments of adolescence, such as smoking, drinking and dealing with "bad friends."

On her fifth full day of freedom, 18-year-old Natascha Kampusch broke her silence in a statement that appeared to lend credence to the theory she may have suffered from "Stockholm Syndrome," where victims cope by identifying with their captors.

Kampusch, who was 10 when she was snatched off a street on her way to school and imprisoned in a cramped, windowless cell, described what she went through at the hands of Wolfgang Priklopil, 44, who killed himself within hours of her escape by throwing himself beneath a commuter train.

Kampusch refused to discuss allegations of abuse but indicated that Priklopil at times treated her well, but at other times very badly.

"I don't want to, and won't, answer any questions about intimate or personal details," she said. "I will punish breaches of personal boundaries, whoever crosses voyeuristic boundaries. Whoever tries that better prepare themselves for something."

She described the man who enslaved her as "a part of my life," adding "that's why I also mourn for him in a certain way."

Kampusch also said she refused to comply with Priklopil's requests to call him "master."

"He was not my master. I was just as strong," she said in the statement, read to reporters by a psychologist.

Police said Monday they have only just begun to question Kampusch about her March 1998 abduction and many questions remain unanswered about the case, which until her escape last Wednesday was one of Austria's greatest unsolved criminal mysteries.

Police Maj. Gen. Gerhard Lang of the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau said investigators continued to follow every lead and had intensified their search for clues.

Lang said Kampusch knew from the first day of her captivity that she was in Strasshof, a peaceful community north of Vienna, where children play freely on the streets and houses with flower pots are close together.

Because construction plans to the house where Kampusch was held were missing, investigators could not say for certain that it had no other hidden rooms, Lang said.

Kampusch said she slipped to safety while Priklopil was busy with a cell phone call and she was cleaning his car in the garden with a vacuum cleaner. She has been at an undisclosed location since.

At the time of her escape, she weighed just 92.5 pounds -- exactly her weight when she vanished as a freckle-faced 10-year-old, the news magazine Profil reported.

"In principle, I don't have the feeling that I missed out on something," Kampusch said in the statement, reflecting on her youth, which she acknowledged was different to those of others.

Still, she said, "I was spared some things -- didn't start smoking and drinking and didn't have any bad friends."

On a typical day, she said, she would have breakfast with Priklopil, a communications technician who she said usually didn't work. The rest of the day would be spent doing various things around the house.

"Housework, reading, watching television, talking, cooking. That was it, for years. Everything tied to the fear of loneliness," she said.

Although authorities have released photographs and video footage of the cramped, windowless basement cell where Kampusch was kept, she referred to it simply as "my room" in her statement, which was read by criminal psychologist Max Friedrich.

Police images showed the room contained, among other things, books, clothes, a television, a bed, a toilet and a sink. Investigators say she also was allowed to listen to the radio and watch some videos, and with the help of a book, taught herself how to knit.

Police were in contact with Priklopil after Kampusch's disappearance because he owned a white van -- the type of vehicle a witness said the girl was dragged into. But investigators believed him when he said he was alone at home working on construction at the time of the abduction.

"He was convincing, friendly, cooperative. One didn't see any reason to doubt his statements," Lang told the Austria Press Agency. At the time, a photo was taken of the van, which contained building materials and construction waste.

Austrian television reported Monday that Priklopil sought medical attention the day after the kidnapping for an almost-severed finger he claimed got shut in the door of a safe. It said he wound up back in the hospital about a year later for bruises he said he suffered while digging a ditch.

In her statement, Kampusch said she understood the curiosity about what she endured and how she is faring, but she pleaded: "Please leave me alone for the coming while."

"Everyone always wants to ask me intimate questions. That's nobody's business," she said. "Maybe I'll tell a therapist one day or someone when I feel the need to. Or maybe never. The intimacy only belongs to me."

"Many people are taking care of me," she added, saying that she has been in telephone contact with her family. "Give me time until I can give my own account."

Death penalty phase begins in Aryan Brotherhood trial

SANTA ANA -- Federal prosecutors seeking the death penalty against two alleged ringleaders of the notorious Aryan Brotherhood prison gang portrayed the men for jurors Monday as remorseless killers who entered the prison system in childhood and committed some of their worst crimes there. - Assistant U.S. Attorney Joey Blanch reminded jurors in the first day of the trial's death penalty phase that they had already convicted Barry "The Baron" Mills and Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham of murder, conspiracy and racketeering. The federal case aims to dismantle the violent white supremacist gang.

"Mills is a six-time, multi-murderer and if he'd had his way he would have been responsible for 12 murders. Prison sentences did nothing to deter him from his criminal behavior," said Blanch. "Every time these men made a choice, people died. At some point, somebody has to stand up and say, 'That's enough.' For Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham, today's the day. We're standing up and saying enough."

Mills' attorney, H. Dean Steward, said that the defense team would show the defendants were goodhearted people who acted as they did to survive as white inmates in a violent prison system where they were the minorities. He also said that Allen Benton, another man involved in the death penalty-eligible murders, received nine years in prison for his role and could see his sentence reduced further.

"If Allen Benton is going to hit the streets in a couple of years, how can you possibly put these guys to death?" Steward said.

Mills, Bingham and two other men were all convicted last month under Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, and offenses known as Violent Crime in Aid of Racketeering -- laws originally passed to target the Mafia. The so-called VICAR verdicts make Mills and Bingham eligible for the death penalty.

The penalty phase, which is expected to last about a week, is the last phase of a trial that has lasted nearly six months and included testimony from a parade of former gang members, jailhouse informants and self-admitted killers.

The trial in Santa Ana is part of a larger indictment that experts say is one of the largest federal capitol punishment cases in U.S. history, with more than a dozen people potentially facing the death penalty. More defendants face trials in Los Angeles later this year.

The government's indictment, which lists 32 murders and attempted murders, laid out a sweeping case of plots to kill rivals and even fellow brotherhood members to control drug dealing and other criminal enterprises behind bars.

Mills, 58, and Bingham, 59, were convicted of a count of murder for the killing of Arva Lee Ray, a prisoner slain at the Lompoc, Calif., penitentiary in 1989. The two were also convicted of counts of racketeering that included acts of murder and attempted murder.

The latter included the deaths of two black gang members during a 1997 riot at a prison in Lewisburg, Pa., crimes which made them eligible for the death penalty. The government said the two defendants incited the riot through secret messages to Aryan Brotherhood members.

Since its founding in 1964 at San Quentin in California, the Aryan Brotherhood has infiltrated nearly every federal and state prison and devised a number of means for members to stay in touch.

In the guilt phase of the current trial, government witnesses testified about a secret note, written in invisible ink made from urine, that was passed from Bingham's high-security cell in Florence, Colo., to Lewisburg, Pa., where the race war occurred. The note read: "War with DC Blacks, TD."

Prosecutors argued that it was an order to incite a race war at the Pennsylvania facility. Defense attorneys said the note was merely a warning to other gang members after tension between the brotherhood and the D.C. Blacks at a prison in Marion, Ill.

Some witnesses also testified about a plot to kill an inmate who had assaulted mob leader John Gotti in prison. Testimony indicated Gotti had paid the brotherhood for protection.

One witness said Gotti offered to pay $500,000 for the hit; another testified that he had been passed bullets to hide until the gang could fashion a zip gun with which to shoot Gotti's attacker. The hit never occurred. Gotti died in prison in 2002.

Mills is currently serving two life terms for murder after nearly decapitating an inmate in 1979. Bingham is behind bars on robbery and drug charges and would have been released in 2010.

Tropical Storm John strengthening off Mexico's Pacific Coast

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Tropical Storm John formed in the Pacific on Monday and was picking up strength as it churned toward the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, prompting Mexico to issue a tropical storm watch. - With sustained winds near 65 mph, John was expected to become a hurricane by Tuesday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It was 270 miles southeast of the resort city of Acapulco and was moving west-northwest at 7 mph.

Mexico issued a tropical storm watch from Lagunas de Chacahua to the Pacific port city of Lazaro Cardenas.

Extended forecasts showed the storm moving adjacent to Mexico's Pacific Coast, but said it could move ashore near the Baja Peninsula resort city of Los Cabos later in the week.

In the meantime, John was expected to bring heavy rains to a swath of Pacific coastline stretching from Puerto Angel north to Acapulco.

The downpours "could cause life-threatening flash floods over regions of mountainous terrain," the hurricane center said.

Small plane carrying 7 crashes in Kentucky mountains; no survivors found

JACKSON, Ky. (AP) -- A small plane carrying seven people crashed in a wooded, mountainous area of southeastern Kentucky on Monday, and authorities said no survivors had been found.

The crash site is so remote rescue workers on all-terrain vehicles needed help from a helicopter to find it, said Buddy Rogers, a spokesman for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.

"At this time, no survivors have been located," said Kentucky State Police Trooper Jody Sims. He did not have further details on the crash site or any bodies found.

Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta, said seven people were aboard the twin-engine Cessna that departed from Kickapoo Downtown Airport near Wichita Falls, Texas. She said she didn't know the destination because the pilot did not file a flight plan.

The crash happened Monday afternoon in Breathitt County, 100 miles southeast of Lexington and about 10 miles from an airport near Hazard, Sims said.

There was rain, thunder and light fog in the area for much of the afternoon, said Tom Johnstone, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson.

The county coroner was at the scene Monday, and Sims said federal aviation investigators and officials from the state medical examiner's office probably would arrive Tuesday morning.

The crash occurred one day after Comair Flight 5191 crashed shortly after takeoff in Lexington, about 70 miles northwest of Jackson, killing 49 of 50 people aboard.

Hundreds of thousands pack west London streets for Notting Hill Carnival

LONDON (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of people packed the streets of west London Monday for the colorful, calypso-filled Notting Hill Carnival, billed as Europe's largest street festival. - Police put the crowd at 500,000, but organizers said 750,000 people attended, including 50,000 who performed in the music and dance parade.

"There's a real feel-good atmosphere and I'm enjoying it," said James Carmichael, 41, a computer scientist.

Police said they arrested 106 people Monday, the second of two days of partying in celebration of Caribbean cultures. Most of the arrests were for drug offenses, theft and public order violations and the event was generally peaceful. Police arrested 107 people on Sunday.

Partygoers lined the streets as performers in brightly colored, sparkling costumes paraded. Many rode atop 84 floats, playing calypso and samba music through occasional downpours.

Launched in 1964 with a few Trinidadian steel bands, the street carnival has grown into a major event that lures partygoers from all over the world.

Security at the event has been high since two people were killed and several assaulted in 2000 and a man was stabbed on the fringes of the festivities in 2001.

SS Minnow from 'Gilligan's Island' restored on Vancouver Island

PARKSVILLE, British Columbia (AP) -- If you're interested in a three-hour tour, George Schultz of Parksville has just the boat for you. - For about $89,000 (U.S.), you can buy the boat famous for setting aground on an uncharted desert isle to set the stage for the 1960s television classic "Gilligan's Island."

The S.S. Minnow was supposedly off for a three-hour tour when, as the theme song explained, "The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost."

The real-life Minnow also ran aground.

The twin-diesel, 36-foot mahogany Wheeler Express Cruiser hit a reef in Hecate Strait as the former owner was taking the vessel down the coast from Alaska. Scotty Taylor of Parksville said the owner sold the 46-year-old boat to him for salvage on condition that he promise to restore it.

Schultz, a boat broker, estimated Sunday that the work cost more than $180,000.

Kind of like the old definition of a boat as a hole in the water into which to pour money?

"You better believe it!" Schultz said with a laugh.

Taylor is selling the storied vessel because he's tired of it.

"He's going on 70 now and doesn't want to bother with it anymore," Schultz said. "It would make a great investment for a three-hour tour."

According to the Gilligan's Island Web site, the boat is the third of four vessels used in the show. Taylor's Minnow was used in the opening credits of the second season.

On the Net:

http://www.gilligansisle.com

Woman crashes car while teaching dog to drive in China

BEIJING (AP) -- You can teach a dog new tricks -- but driving isn't one of them. - A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

No injuries were reported although the vehicles involved were slightly damaged, Xinhua said.

The woman, identified only by her surname, Li, said her dog "was fond of crouching on the steering wheel and often watched her drive."

"She thought she would let the dog 'have a try' while she operated the accelerator and brake," the report said. "They did not make it far before crashing into an oncoming car."

Xinhua did not say what kind of dog or vehicles were involved but Li paid for repairs.

Artifacts from 1840s free black household unearthed in renovations on Boston's Beacon Hill

BOSTON (AP) -- Renovators working at a Beacon Hill townhouse uncovered what archaeologists believe are the remnants of a 19th century free black household. - The shoes, doll fragments, hat pins, children's marbles and an empty sarsaparilla bottle, among other items, were found beneath the flooring of what once was thought to be a privy and could provide insight into the lifestyle of free black families in Boston during that time, experts said.

The house was built about 1840 by Robert Roberts, a free black man who was an active abolitionist and worked as a butler for Gov. Christopher Gore. He wrote "The House Servants' Directory" in 1827.

Despite the national influence of Boston's black families in the abolitionist movement, there is almost no record of their daily lives.

"It's a wonderful piece of history," Mary Beaudry, a Boston University archaeology and anthropology professor, who is helping lead the excavation, told The Boston Globe. "To get a look at a free African-American household -- wow!"

Workers doing renovations for property owner Michael Terranova exposed brickwork beneath the floor of an attached shed.

Terranova consulted the staff at the 19th-century African Meeting House, the free-black church and community center whose Beacon Hill site is now affiliated with the National Park Service. They pointed him to Beaudry and Ellen Berkland, archaeologist for the city of Boston.

"I hadn't thought it was possible to get archeologists here," said Terranova, who was not legally obligated to report the discovery of historical artifacts on his property.

Beaudry and Berkland and a group of volunteers started digging Thursday, turning up several thousand artifacts. The work was expected to wrap up Monday.

"These people were poor, but they did great things," Terranova said. "They fought for integration in transportation, theaters, and the schools."

On the Net:

African Meeting House: http://www.afroammuseum.org/afmbeaconhill.htm

Milwaukee dubbed 'America's Drunkest City'

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Cheers, Milwaukee: Your city has been ranked by Forbes.com as "America's Drunkest City" on a list of 35 major metropolitan areas ranked for their drinking habits.

Forbes said last week it used numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank cities in five areas: state laws, number of drinkers, number of heavy drinkers, number of binge drinkers and alcoholism.

Minneapolis-St. Paul was ranked second overall; followed by Columbus, Ohio; Boston; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Cleveland; Pittsburgh and then Philadelphia and Providence, R.I., in a tie for ninth.

Rick DeMeyer, 28, said Wednesday as he was celebrating his birthday at a bar that he could understand Milwaukee's ranking.

"I have had people stay with me from London and Chicago, and they can't get over how much we drink," he said. "I guess we do."

But officials at Visit Milwaukee, the area's convention and visitors bureau, contend that the city has come a long way in ridding itself of its beer-guzzling image.

Milwaukeeans have plenty of other ways to entertain themselves, said Dave Fantle, a spokesman for the group. He noted a new convention center and baseball park had been built and the Milwaukee Art Museum expanded in recent years.

"We've gone from Brew City to new city," he said.

World's oldest person, Maria Esther de Capovilla, dead at 116

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) -- Maria Esther de Capovilla, the oldest person on Earth according to Guinness World Records, was laid to rest Monday in a simple ceremony after dying from pneumonia at the age of 116.

Capovilla died Sunday in a hospital in the coastal city of Guayaquil two days after getting sick, said her granddaughter Catherine Capovilla. She was interred in a family tomb in a marble-columned mausoleum within the city limits.

Born on Sept. 14, 1889 -- the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler -- Capovilla traced her lineage to Spanish nobility, but enjoyed drinking donkey milk in her youth. She was married in 1917 to an Austrian sailor who visited Ecuador, and was widowed in 1949.

Shortly before she died, she kept repeating, "I want to be young again" and at times called to a dead daughter, asking her "to come, take me with you," another granddaughter Cecilia Icaza said.

"My dear grandmother came down with a small cold" last week, she said. "She spent most of her time in bed. She was very weak. We checked her into the military hospital in Guayaquil, where she got worse and died."

Robert Young, senior consultant for Gerontology for Guinness World Records, said Elizabeth Bolden, of Memphis, Tenn., is the likely successor as the oldest person.

"Guinness World Records will have to make an official announcement from London," he said. "For all practical purposes, the next oldest person is going to be presumed to be Elizabeth Bolden. She is 116, but she was born 11 months after Capovilla."

Capovilla was confirmed as the oldest living person on Dec. 9, 2005, after her family sent details of her birth and marriage certificates to the British-based publisher. Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, of Puerto Rico, retains the title as oldest man. He turned 115 last Monday.

Capovilla was from a well-to-do Ecuadorean family, which "has a heraldic shield from the Spanish ancestry," Young said.

Her father was a colonel in Ecuador's army. In her youth, Capovilla liked to embroider, paint, play piano and dance the waltz at parties, the family said. She also visited a nearby plantation, where she would drink fresh milk from donkeys as well as cows. Later, she wed Antonio Capovilla.

Three of their five children -- Irma, 79, Hilda, 81, and son Anibal, 78 -- are still alive, along with about a dozen grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren, the two granddaughters told The Associated Press. They disagreed, however, on the number of great-great grandchildren -- with one saying there are two and the other saying five.

Capovilla always ate three meals a day and never smoked or drank hard liquor -- "Only a small cup of wine with lunch and nothing more," Irma told AP last December.

For the past 20 years, Capovilla had lived with her elder daughter, Hilda, and son-in-law, Martin.

Soon after celebrating her 100th birthday, Capovilla became bedridden and so weakened from a stomach ailment that a priest administered last rites. But she recovered.

"She was in good shape until she had a bout of pneumonia and she died unexpectedly. Her family was expecting to have a 117th birthday party," said Young, speaking from Atlanta. "They had recently said that she was in good shape."

Young said Capovilla's claim to the title as oldest person was particularly significant because of the wealth of supporting documentation her family provided to prove her age was authentic.

"Many times people claim to be extreme ages, however, often their age is either not verifiable or is fictitious," he said. "Even in the United States, we had a woman who claimed to be 118, and we investigated. It turned out she was 109."

Capovilla "had baptismal records, marriage records, children's birth certificates, she had an ID card, and she had several other records too, including doctors records," Young said. "When the planet Pluto was discovered, she was like 41 years old. She was like 22 years old when the Titanic sank."

Fervently religious, Capovilla took communion every Friday, and always joined the family for meals, often enjoying lentils and chicken for lunch, which she ate unassisted with fork and knife in small bites.

Capovilla liked to watch television, and read newspaper headlines, with some difficulty, but never with glasses. She had not been able to leave the house for nearly two years before Guinness World Records recognized her as the oldest person.

Connecticut Supreme Court overturns mother's conviction in son's suicide

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- The Connecticut Supreme Court on Monday overturned a mother's conviction on charges that she contributed to her 12-year-old son's suicide by keeping a filthy house.

In ordering the trial court to acquit Judith Scruggs of Meriden, the court said the law used to convict her was unconstitutionally vague.

Scruggs was convicted of risk of injury to a minor in 2003, a year and a half after her son, J. Daniel, hanged himself with a necktie in his closet. Legal experts said it was thought to be the first time a parent had been convicted over a child's suicide.

Prosecutors said the boy was miserable because his schoolmates ridiculed his body odor and bad breath, caused by Scruggs' filthy home and her lack of attention to the boy's hygiene. Scruggs said her son killed himself because he was bullied at school, and she filed a federal lawsuit against Meriden school officials contending they should have stopped it.

"It helps, but the damage has already been done," Scruggs told The Associated Press. "It relieves the stigma of being a convicted felon. But all the pain and anguish I've gone through will never go away."

Scruggs said she was shocked when authorities charged her. She said her apartment was cluttered but not filthy.

"I miss him every day," Scruggs said. "The pain is always there."

Writing for the majority, Justice William Sullivan said there were several possible explanations for Daniel's state of mind and behavior, including the relentless bullying.

"In the present case, the state concedes that being messy is not, in and of itself, unlawful, and points to no objective standards for determining the point at which housekeeping becomes so poor that an ordinary person should know that it poses an unacceptable risk to the mental health of a child," Sullivan wrote.

Scruggs' current attorney, G. Douglas Nash, said he was "very pleased" by the ruling.

"That's what we were asking for," Nash said. "It was a tragic event from the beginning to the end. She suffered emotionally as a mother. On top of that, to have this criminal case, just made things very difficult."

A message seeking comment from prosecutors was not immediately returned Monday.

In court three years ago, prosecutors contended that the Scruggs home was so dirty that the medical examiner had to climb over heaps of debris to get to the boy's body. Witnesses described a home where there was barely room to move because of clothes, boxes, papers and debris covering the floor. The air was foul, and the bathroom floor and tub were covered with clothes.

Scruggs' trial defense attorney said her client was a single mother who worked long hours to support her two children, and argued that no psychologist or counselor ever testified that her home was a factor in the boy's death. Scruggs was convicted and sentenced to probation and community service.

Justice David Borden, in a concurring opinion, noted that the state Department of Children and Families had inspected the home days before the boy's suicide and suggested he be kept home until he was transferred to another school.

"Indeed, the department's message was that the defendant should keep Daniel home from school in the very conditions that the same state of Connecticut, through its criminal prosecutorial arm, later charged created an unreasonable risk to his mental health," Borden wrote.

Daniel's death inspired a state law requiring schools to report bullies to authorities, and many school districts have revamped bullying policies.

Three water melons total 677 pounds

CONVERSE, La. (AP) -- A father-son team are leaving the state watermelon record in shreds this summer, with three melons adding up to a total weight of 677 pounds.

The really big buster, at 252.4 pounds, was cut from its vine Friday in front of two witnesses from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

"We babied this thing for 147 days," Donnie Sistrunk Jr. said.

He and 15-year-old Rusty Sistrunk brought their first pair of record-breakers to the Louisiana Watermelon Festival in Farmerville July 27-28.

At 218.8 and 205.8 pounds, their melons took first and second places and beat the record of 202.6 pounds set in 2003.

Rusty's grandmother Katherine Brumley took a 196-pound watermelon to Midway Baptist Church on Sunday night. "We ate and ate and ate, and still had some to go home," she said.

Monster melons became the Sistrunks' hobby two years ago, when they bought a 120-pounder in a hotel lobby during the watermelon festival in Hope, Ark.

Their first goal was to grow a 100-pound melon. "We got 196 pounds," Rusty said.

Dedra Wise, of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry's weights and measures division, certified the latest melon's weight, 38-inch length and 61-inch circumference.

The world record is 268.8 pounds.

"You're just 16 pounds away," said Hubert Brumley, Rusty's grandfather.

Valley Forge National Historical Park offers cell-phone guided audio tour

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (AP) -- Visitors to Valley Forge National Historical Park now just have to reach into their pockets or handbags to hear the site's history -- right through their cell phones.

The park, which served as the Continental Army's encampment during the winter of 1777-78, has joined dozens of attractions around the country in offering self-guided cell phone audio tours.

The free service gives park visitors access to mini-lessons ranging from historian Thomas Fleming's description of Gen. George Washington's political life to park ranger Ajena Roger's tale of life as Washington's slave.

Park spokesman John Golden said last week that 3,613 calls have been placed in the first month to the 24-hour daily service that lets people take in Valley Forge's history at their own pace. That's an average of about 120 calls per day.

To access the tour, visitors simply call into the service and then dial the number of the tour they want, as marked on signs at 11 key points throughout the park.

Cell-phone throwing contestant sends Nokia flying 292 feet

SAVONLINNA, Finland (AP) -- Irate callers got their revenge on cell phones at the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship over the weekend.

Lassi Etelatalo, the men's winner, threw an old Nokia 292 feet on Saturday, during the seventh annual event. The women's winner, Eija Laakso, tossed her phone 167 feet, a new world record according to the organizers.

Though there are no doping tests, a jury monitoring the event can rule out contestants if their mental or physical preparedness "is not adequate for full a performance."

The winners get -- what else? -- new cell phones.

In addition to the "original" competition, which requires an over-the-shoulder throw and is judged solely on distance, there is "freestyle," where "style and aesthetics" count, and a junior competition for kids 12 and younger.

Organizers call the contest "the only sport where you can pay back all the frustrations and disappointments" caused by modern equipment.

Bill would have New Jersey join anti-foie gras campaign

TRENTON, N.J. -- Farmers would be prohibited from force-feeding poultry under legislation being introduced in New Jersey that would alter production of the duck and goose liver delicacy known as foie gras. - Assemblywoman Joan Voss says she crafted the measure, which would ban using a feeding tube to force the birds to eat, because it harms the animals. Such practices have been decried by animal welfare activists.

"It's appalling to me how they do this," said Voss, D-Bergen.

Chicago recently banned foie gras sales, prompting a lawsuit by Illinois restaurateurs. Philadelphia and New York state officials have discussed outlawing production and sales.

Voss said she has no plans to propose outlawing foie gras sales in New Jersey. She said she just wants to ensure producers that might come to the state do so without force-feeding ducks and geese.

"I don't care if people sell it," Voss said. "I don't care if people eat it. My bill just says produce it in a humane way."

The birds are force fed to fatten them and enlarge their livers.

Under the measure, New Jersey would become the first state to outlaw the force-feeding to produce foie gras. While California has banned force-feeding poultry to produce foie gras, its law phases out the practice by 2012. Voss' bill would take effect immediately.

The proposal has Ariane Daguin -- a founding partner of D'Artagnan Inc., a Newark foie gras distributor that does $45 million in annual business and employs 112 people -- worried. With 30 percent of its business tied to foie gras, D'Artagnan is the nation's top foie gras distributor.

Daguin said her company gets foie gras from Canada and two farms in New York that are among only three farms in the nation that produce it. The other farm is in California.

D'Artagnan distributes foie gras to 60 restaurants in New Jersey and many retailers, said Daguin, who noted Voss has proposed outlawing production that doesn't exist in New Jersey. She said the proposal may be a move toward banning sales of the fat-laden livers.

"It's a step in the wrong direction," Daguin said.

More than a dozen countries, mostly in Europe, have banned foie gras production on the grounds of cruelty. France has declared it "part of the cultural and gastronomic patrimony, protected in France."

"It's perfectly humane," Daguin said. "These are farmers who are more concerned about their ducks and geese than 99 percent of the chicken farmers are about their chicken."

The American Veterinary Medical Association last year decided against opposing the force-feeding of ducks and geese to produce foie gras. It found limited information about foie gras production was available and cited observations by members that found "a minimum of adverse effects on the birds involved."

But Voss said she's received 3,500 letters supporting her legislation, which hasn't been scheduled for any hearings.

"I am amazed at how much attention is being paid to this bill," Voss said.

Former Capitol Hill press secretary gets more than 12 years for bank robbery

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- A former congressional press secretary who said he robbed banks to pay for golf and rent was sentenced Monday to more than 12 1/2 years in prison. - Thomas C. Springer pleaded guilty to four counts of bank robbery in May. U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow also ordered him to repay the $20,869 he stole during seven bank robberies between November 2004 and November 2005.

Springer, 57, of Garrett Park, worked for three members of Congress, including former Rep. Toby Roth of Wisconsin, before he was sentenced to two years in prison in 1989 for robbing banks in Montgomery County. He went on to work for then-Rep. Michael Forbes of New York before 1996, when he received a 3 1/2-year term for robbing a Vienna, Va.

Prosecutors say that on Nov. 30, 2005, Springer passed a note to a teller at a Kensington bank that read, "Bank Robbery." He fled with $400, but dye packs the teller placed in with the money exploded in his coat pocket as he left. A bank customer followed him, and police eventually arrested him in Wheaton.

In his confession, Stringer explained that he needed the money for golf and to cover his rent, according to the FBI.

Lawyers argue to keep Astor guardianship out of public eye; media groups seek openness

NEW YORK (AP) -- The grandson of 104-year-old philanthropist Brooke Astor and news organizations squared off in court Monday over whether a family feud over her care is of genuine public interest or just fodder for gossip-mongering journalists.

Intimate detail of Astor's declining health "is not the kind of thing that belongs on the front page of the newspaper," attorney Ira Salzman argued on behalf of the grandson at a hearing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. Coverage of the case so far, he added, has been "nothing more than gossip."

Justice John Stackhouse did not immediately rule on a request by The Associated Press, the Daily News, The New York Times and the New York Post to reopen the case file.

It was sealed in July at the request of the grandson, Philip Marshall, after the Daily News reported that he had gone to court to remove his father as her legal guardian.

Astor's charitable efforts through the Vincent Astor Foundation won her a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1998.

Marshall has alleged that his ailing grandmother, for decades a leading member of New York society, was reduced to sleeping on a filthy couch to escape a cold bedroom and subsisting on pureed peas and oatmeal, the News reported. His father, Anthony Marshall, has denied any mistreatment.

Family lawyers say that both records and court hearings need to be kept out of the public eye to protect Astor's privacy -- a position challenged on Monday by Katherine Bolger, an attorney for the news organizations.

Bolger argued that the public had a genuine interest in the well-being of Astor as a "self-described public monument." She also warned against setting a double standard for rich people.

A decision in Philip Marshall's favor "would send the message the people who are wealthy have closed proceedings," she said.

An attorney for Anthony Marshall told the judge his client agrees with his son on one point: that their dispute should be fought behind closed doors. He claimed the publicity had made Anthony Marshall the target of anonymous threats.

"You're dealing with real-world consequences," said the lawyer, Harvey Corn.

Astor's husband, Vincent, a descendant of 19th century tycoon John Jacob Astor, endowed the foundation that bore his name before he died in 1959. It gave away approximately $200 million by the time it closed at the end of 1997.

Anthony Marshall, a Tony-winning Broadway producer, is Brooke Astor's son from a previous marriage.

Second firefighter dies of injuries suffered in store fire in the Bronx

NEW YORK (AP) -- A second firefighter died Monday of injuries suffered when he and others were trapped in the basement of a burning discount store.

Lt. Howard Carpluk, 43, died a day after the blaze that also killed rookie firefighter Michael Reilly, 25, said assistant fire chief of operations Robert Sweeney.

"The loss of these two heroic firefighters will stay with all of us for the rest of our careers and the rest of our lives," Sweeney said.

Scores of firefighters were sent to the one-story building in the Bronx on Sunday and five were trapped in the basement when the ground floor collapsed, authorities said. Two of them remained hospitalized Monday in serious condition; the fifth was released.

Employees at the store had called 911 when smoke billowed from behind a refrigerator and they couldn't stop it with a fire extinguisher, authorities said.

It was the deadliest day for New York City firefighters since three were fatally injured at two separate fires on Jan. 23, 2005.

College student who packed dynamite on plane granted bond

HOUSTON (AP) -- A college student who packed a stick of dynamite on a flight to Houston from Argentina was granted bond Monday on a federal charge of carrying an explosive aboard an aircraft. - No future court appearances were scheduled for Howard MacFarland Fish, a 21-year-old junior majoring in biology at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.

Fish had been in federal custody since early Friday when agents found a stick of dynamite -- as well as a black powder-based fuse and a blasting cap -- in his checked luggage upon his arrival to Houston on a Continental Airlines flight that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His carry-on luggage contained two more fuses.

"My son is a college student and a boy who would not hurt anyone," Howard Fish of Connecticut said after signing his son's $75,000 bond.

Fish told authorities he got the explosive devices during a tour of a mine in Bolivia, an affidavit said.

The case was among seven security incidents that disrupted U.S. flights Friday.

Big Dig officials seek another $12 million for repairs

BOSTON (AP) -- Big Dig officials said Monday they may need another $12 million for repair work after last month's fatal ceiling panel collapse, and warned the price tag could climb higher if more trouble spots are discovered.

The Turnpike Authority board of directors is expected to vote Wednesday on the request $12 million from Big Dig project manager Michael Lewis. The board previously approved $3 million for the first round of repairs.

The request does not include the cost of retrofitting about 3,300 steel brackets holding up ceiling panels in the closed ramps and tunnels. Last week investigators discovered the brackets, which need to support three times the weight of the panels, were designed only to support about twice the panel weight.

Former Turnpike board member Jordan Levy said taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for repairs. He said the Turnpike should go after Big Dig project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and other contractors who worked on the project.

"We paid for it once. We shouldn't have to pay for it again," Levy said.

A spokesman for Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff said the company stands behind its work.

"Since investigators are still gathering tens of thousands of documents it's premature to determine fault, but we will always be here to stand behind our work," said company spokesman Andy Paven.

Several Big Dig tunnels and ramps have been closed to traffic since 12 tons of concrete ceiling panels fell from the I-90 connector onto a vehicle carrying Milena Del Valle, crushing her to death.

The initial price tag for the Big Dig, which replaced a highway network with underground tunnels in and around downtown Boston, was $2.6 billion and it was supposed to be completed in seven years.

Instead, it took nearly 15 years and the cost ballooned to $14.6 billion, making it the most expensive highway project in the nation's history.

Former President Ford discharged from Mayo Clinic, returns home

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) -- Former President Gerald Ford was discharged from the Mayo Clinic on Monday, nearly two weeks after being admitted for tests and undergoing a pair of heart procedures.

Ford, 93, flew home to Rancho Mirage, Calif., with his wife Monday afternoon, Mayo spokesman Lee Aase said.

Ford received an implantable cardiac pacemaker last week to regulate his heartbeat. Later in the week, he underwent angioplasty, with stents in two of his coronary arteries to increase blood flow.

"He's doing well after having had those procedures in the last week," Aase said.

Ford's office issued a statement thanking Mayo staff.

"The Fords also wish to thank the American people for their prayers and countless messages of good wishes," the statement said.

Ford spent a few days in Colorado's Vail Valley Medical Center in July because of shortness of breath. In January, he was hospitalized for 12 days in Rancho Mirage to treat pneumonia. Five years ago, Ford suffered two small strokes and spent about a week in a hospital.

Ford became the nation's oldest living former president after the death of Ronald Reagan in 2004.

He was House minority leader when President Nixon chose him to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned, as vice president in 1973.

Ford became president on Aug. 9, 1974, when Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.

Former Milwaukee officer sentenced to prison for bomb threat

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A fired police officer was sentenced Monday to 4 1/2 years in prison for making a bomb threat at a police station and for violating bail. - Jon Bartlett, 34, was convicted of the bomb threat and bail jumping this month. He was accused of making the threat to his former station in December 2005.

"I find you are a ticking time bomb about to explode at any minute," Circuit Judge David Hansher told Bartlett, who also was fined $10,000.

Bartlett was charged with bail jumping because at the time he had been out on bail on charges in a case that that inflamed racial tensions in the city: the beating of a biracial man at a house party in October 2004.

Bartlett and two other white police officers who were accused of beating Frank Jude Jr. have been fired. Bartlett still faces a state battery charge in that case, and federal officials are considering additional charges, but a state jury in April acquitted the three defendants of all other counts.

Bartlett also faces federal charges for trying to buy two guns, prohibited for anyone charged with a felony.

Florida man gets life sentence in 6 beating deaths linked to dispute over video game system

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A man convicted in the slayings of six people in a dispute over a video game system was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Robert Anthony Cannon, 20, was among four men convicted of breaking into a house wielding baseball bats early on Aug. 6, 2004, in Deltona.

Cannon pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last year after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. He later refused to testify at the trial of his co-defendants and said he wanted to withdraw his plea, but a judge rejected that request Monday.

Three other men were convicted of first-degree murder last month: Troy Victorino, 29, Jerone Hunter, 20, and Michael Salas, 20.

Salas was sentenced Aug. 1 to seven life terms. Victorino and Hunter are awaiting formal sentencing after a jury recommended death for both men.

Victorino was accused of organizing the attack because a girl who lived at the house had an Xbox video game system and other belongings from a house he was squatting in.