SACRAMENTO - Gripped by a 10th straight day of 100-degree heat, California sweated out the possibility of more blackouts Tuesday as the number of suspected heat-related deaths climbed to at least 56 and the rotting carcasses of thousands of dairy cows and other livestock baked in the sun.
Some communities faced their third day without electricity as the record-breaking temperatures strained transmission equipment.
"We're asking people for one more day of conservation," said Gregg Fishman, the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's power grid. "We're not out of the woods yet."
The stretch of 100-plus degree scorchers that descended on the state last week marks the first time in 57 years that both Northern and Southern California have experienced extended heat waves simultaneously, California Undersecretary for Energy Affairs Joe Desmond said.
In the Central Valley, where most of the deaths have occurred, temperatures were expected to reach 100 to 105 degrees on Tuesday, down from 110 to 115 in previous days. Truly cooler weather was not expected until Wednesday, when the system was forecast to move east into Nevada and Utah.
Coroners in 14 counties were investigating deaths that appeared heat-related. Most of the victims were elderly. Among the dead was a nursing home patient in Stockton who died after the air conditioning gave out in 115-degree weather. A gardener collapsed on the job and died. A woman was found dead along a bike path.
On Tuesday, three elderly residents of single-room occupancy hotels within four blocks of the state Capitol were found dead. The rooms had no air conditioning.
The heat has been hard on livestock as well, causing thousands of deaths and a dip in milk production in California, the No. 1 dairy state, according to agriculture officials.
In the San Joaquin Valley, a combination of the searing heat, bigger dairies and fewer plants to properly dispose of dead animals created a backlog of rotting carcasses.
"They're just sitting out there in the sun, drawing flies," said Fresno County dairy farmer Brian Pacheco.
Tens of thousands of customers in Northern and Southern California had no electricity. About 1,700 San Jose customers faced their third day without power, and some residents slept in backyards and hotel rooms to escape the stifling heat.
Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Brian Swanson said most outages were caused by equipment failures and not a shortage of electricity.
In St. Louis, about 145,000 homes and businesses still without power after two storms last week knocked out electricity to nearly 600,000 customers. A utility worker was electrocuted Tuesday and another was injured while trying to restore power.
Many grew frustrated with Ameren Corp.'s handling of the crisis. The Rev. Al Sharpton led a protest Tuesday in front of Ameren headquarters, saying the company was not doing enough to help poor and working-class people. The civil rights activist also called for a 10 percent rate cut to help the community recover.
Ameren officials have said the company responded within 15 minutes after the storm hit.
In New York City, a blackout that left about 100,000 people without electricity during some of the hottest days of the year all but ended Tuesday, allowing weary residents who endured nine days of rotting food and sweltering homes to begin getting back to normal.
Consolidated Edison said fewer than 500 people remained without electricity in the borough of Queens as of Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, the first lawsuit against the utility over the blackout emerged Tuesday, and the City Council said it would hold its first hearing on the outages Thursday. Utility spokesman Chris Olert declined to comment on the suit.
In the suit, Sandra Boyle said her 2-year-old child became ill and she couldn't get in touch with a doctor for hours because she had no power. She is seeking unspecified damages for emotional and physical distress.
"If it was only me and my husband, I wouldn't be here," she said. "I'm very fed up with the whole thing. In this day and age - it's not a third-world country that we live in."
Elswhere, a 51-year-old woman collapsed and died of heat stroke Monday while walking on a dirt road near her home in Lindsay, Okla., authorities said Tuesday. The temperature there had reached 95 degrees, and an autopsy showed the woman's body temperature was 112.
- Associated Press Writers Marcus Wohlsen, Rachel Konrad and Juliana Barbassa in San Francisco, Olivia Munoz in Fresno, Samantha Young in Sacramento, Colleen Long in New York and Christopher Leonard in St. Louis contributed to this report.
Firefighters, equipment stretched thin across California
ALPINE -- Fire officials were seeking additional manpower Tuesday to battle a 15,400-acre wildfire near the U.S.-Mexico border, while elsewhere in Southern California, a new fire broke out among expensive canyon homes in Los Angeles. - The Horse Fire had burned 24 square miles of brush and chaparral in the Cleveland National Forest in southern San Diego County. About 780 firefighters have been assigned to the blaze, which was only 5 percent contained Tuesday and burning in a largely unpopulated area.
The new fire erupted in Benedict Canyon above Beverly Hills and Bel Air Estates. Los Angeles firefighters working by backyard pools and patios directed streams of water onto smoking slopes, and helicopters made drops on flames in heavy brush on the steep south flank of the eastern Santa Monica Mountains.
"The terrain's so rugged they can't get up there," said resident Mike Kosdon, 34.
"We're hitting it real hard from the air," Assistant Chief Lou Roupoli told KABC-TV. "This area here has a lot of fuel, it's very hot. … A lot of this has not burned for many years."
Several lightning-sparked wildfires have scorched the state in recent weeks, straining resources. Firefighters trying to contain the Horse Fire were awaiting relief from crews and equipment tied up elsewhere.
"We're really strapped right now," said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jake Rodriguez. "We're putting in orders for more men and more air support, and we're just waiting for them to be released."
Authorities were still investigating the cause of the blaze, which may have been started Saturday by an abandoned campfire set by illegal immigrants.
Forest Service spokeswoman Anabele Cornejo said investigators found food containers and bottles off a park trail, where the fire began.
"Based on collected evidence, we're making an educated guess that it was probably started by immigrants," Cornejo said. She said she did not immediately know whether anyone was detained in connection with the fire.
About 80 homes were evacuated in the town of Carveacre and a voluntary order was issued for about 1,500 homes in Lake Morena, Portrero, Pine Valley and Guatay, said Roxanne Provaznik of the California Department of Forestry.
The fire was burning in a hilly area with few roads, forcing crews to hike in to cut 23 miles of fire line. Mild yet erratic winds kept the flames unpredictable, Provaznik said.
Fire crews have had to work through the 10th straight day of a heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring above 100 degrees through much of the state. At least five firefighters statewide have suffered heat-related illnesses in recent days, officials said.
"If you get behind on drinking water, you can't catch up," said firefighter Jon Sanchioli, 46, who was protecting structures from the forest fire. "We had one guy go down yesterday. We know you've got to be careful. If you keep on pushing, your body shuts down."
Temperatures near the Horse Fire were expected to reach 100 degrees Tuesday.
In Joshua Tree National Park -- where another blaze had consumed dense, desert vegetation -- fire supervisors asked crews to remove their helmets every hour to make sure they were still sweating, fire spokesman Dennis Cross said.
No sweat, he said, could mean a firefighter had "dried up" -- a sign of heat exhaustion.
"It probably feels like it's 150 up there," Cross said, adding that crews were drinking about the twice the amount of water and Gatorade they might otherwise consume.
"When you have this humidity and this heat, it really takes a toll on your body," he said.
The blaze, which was sparked by lightning Friday, was burning across 1.6 square miles near the Riverside-San Bernardino county line and destroyed a park-owned cabin. It was 96 percent contained Tuesday.
Despite the efforts of nearly 750 firefighters, a blaze on ranch land east of San Ardo in southeastern Monterey County grew to more than 12,000 acres, or nearly 19 square miles, by Tuesday morning.
A lightning strike late Saturday sparked the fire and erratic winds generated by thunderstorms caused it to spread, officials said.
Off the coast of Los Angeles County, a lightning-sparked fire on Santa Catalina Island was 80 percent contained at 1,094 acres, or 1.7 square miles Tuesday with full containment expected by evening, fire Inspector Edward Osorio said.
"Pretty much the fire has died down … just a few hot spots," he said.
Crews had to struggle over poor dirt roads to reach the fire but higher humidity and a lack of wind helped their firefighting efforts, he said.
L.A. officials search for 50 women connected to death-row inmate in photos
By:LOS ANGELES (AP) - Investigators are trying to find about 50 women who were photographed decades ago by a man now on death row for murdering two aspiring models in the early 1980s, authorities said Tuesday. - Detectives are investigating whether the women were raped or killed between 1975 and 1984 by William Richard Bradford, said Los Angeles County sheriff's officials, who posted photos of the women on a department Web site in the hope that the public could help account for them.
One, No. 28 on the display, was identified as Donnalee Campbell Duhamel, whose decapitated body was found in a Malibu canyon in 1978, a few days after she met Bradford at a bar, said sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy.
"Some of these women we … identified," Peavy said. "Several of them were his wives, ex-wives. But for the most part the majority of these folks we do not know who they are, who they were.
"Many of them could have likely been homicide victims themselves. Many of them may have just been women that he met in bars and took home and took photographs of."
In the penalty phase of his trial, Bradford asked the jury to sentence him to death, saying, "Think of how many you don't even know about."
After a televised press conference Tuesday where the photos were shown, calls poured in from people claiming to be women in the photos or having information about them, said sheriff's Sgt. Alfredo Castro.
"The phone hasn't stopped ringing," he said. "I'm pretty sure we're going to identify a lot of them soon."
Other local law enforcement agencies were also looking into possible connections to unsolved homicide cases from 1975 and 1982.
The Santa Monica Police Department was investigating whether Bradford was involved in the slaying of Patricia Dulong, 33, who was last seen there. And the Los Angeles Police Department may have linked him to the death of 23-year-old Mischa Stewart, Peavy said.
It was unclear whether Bradford had an attorney. A message left with an attorney who represented him in the past, Robert R. Bryan, was not immediately returned.
In the 1970s and '80s, Bradford, now 60, posed as a freelance photographer in the West Los Angeles area, taking photos of women he met at bars and "car race events," according to information on the department Web site, which showed photos of women striking poses.
The photos and film were seized from Bradford's home when he was arrested in 1984, Peavy said. They went into a case file and remained largely untouched until now.
"I have a number of detectives that I have hired back to look at old cases for DNA evidence and stuff like that," he said. "One of those detectives came forward with these photographs and said, 'You know, this is something that I think we should take a look at.' And obviously we all agreed that it should have been looked at - probably looked at before now."
The case has generated leads in Michigan and Florida, where Bradford once lived or traveled, Lt. Debra Lenhart said.
Bradford was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder in the stranglings of Shari Miller, 21, whom he met in a bar, and Tracey Campbell, 15, a neighbor. Prosecutors said he lured them into accompanying him with promises to help their modeling careers.
Miller's body was found in a West Los Angeles parking lot in July 1984, while Campbell's decomposed body was found in August 1984 at a campsite in the high desert north of Los Angeles.
The unaccounted-for women were believed to have lived in West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City, Inglewood and other beach cities.
Shortly after his arrest in the two killings in 1984, Bradford pleaded no contest to an unrelated charge of rape and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Peavy said it was possible the remaining unidentified women are alive and well, though he was not optimistic.
"My gut instinct," he said, alluding to a collage of the women's photos at the sheriff's homicide office, "is that there are probably a substantial number of victims on that board."
On the Net:
Photographs of missing women: http://lacountymurders.com/wanted/LADIES1.html
Boy killed with lawmaker's gun; police unsure if suicide, accident or something else
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A 14-year-old boy who had been taking care of a state lawmaker's pets was shot to death with the man's handgun, and authorities were investigating whether the death was a suicide, an accident or something else.
The boy was found dead by his father Saturday in the woods behind his own home in Hempfield, not far from the lawmaker's house, state police said.
A 9 mm handgun found nearby was registered to state Sen. Bob Regola, according to Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck and Regola's attorney, Mark A. Rush.
Peck said Tuesday that Regola likely won't face charges. Rush said the senator was cooperating in the investigation.
The gun was not locked away, but it also "wasn't left out in an area where anyone would normally see it," Peck said. Investigators would not say where the gun was stored, but said they found another handgun in the residence during a search. The state does not require gun locks or locked gun cabinets, Peck said.
The boy had access to Regola's home because he was "letting the dogs out of the house and feeding them" while the lawmaker was out of town, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Regola, 43, had been in Harrisburg with his wife on Friday evening and Saturday morning to receive a Legislator of the Year Award from the Pennsylvania Sheriffs' Association, said Tom Hower, Regola's spokesman.
Regola's son had stopped by the senator's home at some point that evening, but police said they do not know if he crossed paths with the boy.
"This is a very difficult time with the tragic loss of an outstanding young man," Regola said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."
Jury convicts 3 men of killing 6 people over Xbox video game system
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) -- Three men were convicted of murder Tuesday in the slayings of six people who authorities said were bludgeoned with baseball bats in a dispute over an Xbox video game system.
The jury will return later in the week to decide whether the men should receive life in prison or death by lethal injection.
Jurors deliberated about six hours before returning its verdict against Troy Victorino, 29, and Michael Salas and Jerone Hunter, both 20.
Prosecutors said Victorino was angry with victim Erin Belanger, 22, who had him evicted when she found him living in her grandmother's home in Deltona. She kept some of his belongings, including some clothing and the video game system.
Victorino had no reaction as the verdict was read. Salas dropped his head as the first count was read.
During closing arguments, defense attorneys tried to shift the blame from their clients. Attorneys for Hunter and Salas said their clients were intimidated by the 6-foot-7-inch, 270-pound Victorino, and wouldn't have entered the house if they had not been threatened and coerced.
Salas and Hunter testified that they hit some of the victims, but they denied inflicting any fatal blows.
"Victorino is kind of a Charles Manson," said Hunter attorney Frank Bankowitz. "He had power over them. He could tell them what do. He could tell them when to be, where to be, how to be."
Jeff Dowdy, one of Victorino's attorneys, said his client was being unfairly blamed by the two other defendants.
"Their defense is: it's all Troy's fault," Dowdy said. "This is feeding frenzy, blame everything on Troy."
State Attorney John Tanner said it was unimportant who killed which person at the Deltona home. He also disputed the claims by Salas and Hunter about fearing Victorino.
Victorino denied being at the home when the 2004 killings occurred. He testified he was drinking with friends at a restaurant at the time, and denied involvement in the slayings.
He also testified he had permission to be at the home of Belanger's grandmother, and said he was not angry with Belanger.
Crime analysts said DNA evidence showed a pair of boots stained with the blood of several victims belonged to Victorino. Bloody prints matching the boots also were found at the crime scene.
In addition to Belanger, the victims were Francisco Ayo-Roman; Michelle Nathan, 19; Anthony Vega, 34; Roberto Gonzalez, 28, and Jonathan Gleason, 17.
A fourth defendant, Robert Cannon, 20, pleaded guilty in October to all the charges. But when he took the stand early in the trial, he refused to testify and said he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea because he was innocent. Chief Circuit Judge Bill Parsons hasn't decided whether he will allow the change.
Electrical worker killed restoring power to St. Louis, another severely burned
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A utility worker was electrocuted Tuesday and another severely burned as crews tried to restore power to more than 150,000 homes and businesses that have been without air conditioning for nearly a week.
Officials with Ameren Corp. said a 56-year-old utility worker died when he stepped on branches covering a live wire in suburban Ladue.
The utility identified him as Robert Tackett, of St. Charles, and said he had worked for Ameren for 13 years.
"We are heartbroken that we have lost a valued employee and friend, who was both highly dedicated and experienced," said Thomas Voss, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Ameren.
The other worker, a contract worker employed by Kansas City-based Par Electric, had been brought in to help the recovery effort. He was hospitalized with electrical burns after he was shocked by 7,000 volts of electricity while climbing a pole in the town of Spanish Lake, Voss said. He said the worker was expected to recover.
More than half a million homes lost power when thunderstorms swept through the area last Wednesday evening, and more went down when another storm hit on Friday. Ameren officials said most of the remaining customers still without power should have their electricity restored today.
High temperatures in the low 90s were forecast for Tuesday.
The death Tuesday was the fifth in the region attributed to the storms or heat and the first of an electrical worker.
About 4,000 Ameren employees and independent contractors are working 16-hour shifts to restore power, according to Ameren.
On the Net:
Ameren Corp.: http://www.ameren.com
Judge lifts order requiring treatment for Virginia teen cancer patient
ACCOMAC, Va. (AP) -- A judge ruled Tuesday that a 16-year-old cancer patient who has refused conventional medical treatment does not have to report to a hospital as previously ordered and scheduled a trial to settle the dispute.
Starchild Abraham Cherrix, who is battling Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system, refused a second round of chemotherapy when he learned early this year that the cancer had returned.
Abraham chose to instead go on a sugar-free, organic diet and take herbal supplements under the supervision of a clinic in Mexico.
A social worker asked a juvenile court judge to require the teen to continue conventional treatment, and the judge on Friday ordered Abraham to report to a hospital Tuesday. But Accomack County Circuit Court Judge Glen A. Tyler suspended the judge's order.
"I feel free today. I was let off the leash," Abraham said after Tyler agreed to a stay and set a trial date of Aug. 16.
Tyler also ended joint custody of Abraham between his parents and social services officials.
Carl Bundick, an attorney for the department, told the judge the department would not object, provided a new trial takes place quickly.
"What the department is interested in is this young man being cured of cancer," Bundick said.
In a similar case last year, the parents of 13-year-old Hodgkin's disease patient Katie Wernecke won the right in November to make all her medical decisions after a court fight with Texas child welfare officials. Doctors had recommended chemotherapy and radiation; her father favored a program of intravenous vitamin C.
On the Net:
Abraham Cherrix: http://www.abrahamsjourney.com
Police find severed human hand at nude dancer's New Jersey home
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- A severed hand was found at the home of an exotic dancer who decorated her home with skulls, and she was charged with improper disposition of human remains, authorities said.
Friends said the hand had been given to the woman by a medical student.
Police responding to a report of a suicidal person at the home of 31-year-old Linda Kay discovered the large, roughly severed hand in a jar of formaldehyde on a bedroom dresser, according to the police report. The subject of the suicidal person report was not located, authorities said.
Six skulls were found in another room, and the Middlesex County medical examiner determined that all are human.
Kay was arrested Friday and freed on $100,000 bail pending arraignment today. No lawyer had filed papers on her behalf Tuesday, a court administrator said.
No telephone number was listed for Kay and there was no immediate comment from her.
Two people who knew Kay told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the hand, which Kay nicknamed "Freddy," was a gift from a medical student who frequented an all-nude juice bar where she dances.
Kay's mother, Patricia Ann Kay, told the newspaper that her daughter bought the skulls from a mail-order catalog. She said her daughter has always been fascinated with the macabre, and when she was a girl, she collected animal skulls and snake skeletons.
"She has a flair for the dramatic," Patricia Ann Kay said. "I have never tried to stop my children from doing whatever they want. As long as they are happy, aren't hurting anyone, and it's keeping them out of the poor house."
Steely Dan demands apology from Owen Wilson over 'Dupree'
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Paging Owen Wilson. Jazz-rock band Steely Dan wants an apology.
The veteran group behind such hits as "Rikki Don't Lose that Number" says Wilson ripped off its 2000 Grammy-winning tune "Cousin Dupree" for his title role as a slacker in the new comedy "You, Me and Dupree."
In a 10-paragraph letter posted July 17 on Steely Dan's Web site and addressed to Wilson's brother Luke, band leaders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen ask that Owen Wilson appear at a July 19 show in Irvine to apologize to the band's fans.
Wilson, in return, would get Steely Dan merchandise and a chance to party with the group.
"He would have to cop to the fact that what he and his Hollywood gangster pals did was wrong and that he wishes he had never agreed to get involved with this turkey in the first place," says the pair.
Becker and Fagen claim that "some hack writer or producer" heard Steely Dan's "Cousin Dupree," about a hormonal houseguest, and "when it came time to change the character's name or whatever so people wouldn't know what a rip the whole (insert explicative) thing was, they didn't even bother to think up a new (insert explicative) name for the guy!"
They go on to trash the movie (a "summer stinkbomb") and Wilson.
"Instant karma is a fact, Jack," the pair writes.
If karma doesn't get the actor, they say, then an apparent tough guy they know might.
"One time we saw this guy, with his bare hands, do something so unspeakable, that -- but, hey man, let's not even let it get that way, you know?" say Becker and Fagen.
Larry Solters, a spokesman for the band's management company, declined to comment on any details beyond the letter, including whether Wilson showed up to the show or if legal action would be taken.
In 2000, "Cousin Dupree" landed a Grammy for best pop performance by a duo or group from Steely Dan's album "Two Against Nature," which also snagged album of the year.
The group, known for a string of '70s hits, has been on tour since July 7 with Michael McDonald.
"You, Me and Dupree" co-stars Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon as a couple annoyed by Wilson's Dupree, a partier who crashes out on their couch.
Owen Wilson's publicist Ina Treciokas and Luke Wilson's publicist Mara Buxbaum both declined to comment.
Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, weds aboard yacht
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Scott Adams called his weekend wedding aboard a yacht in the San Francisco Bay "tremendous," but said he doesn't expect to win a dance competition anytime soon.
Adams, 49, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, and Shelly Miles, 37, were married Saturday evening on the Commodore Galaxy yacht by the ship's captain. About 150 guests attended.
It's the first marriage for Adams and the second for Miles. They met at his health club four years ago.
Miles has two children, a 6-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter, and both participated in the ceremony, Adams said.
"We included the kids in the vows because we're making a new family unit," Adams said Tuesday, reached by phone at his home in Dublin. "The kids had to promise to pretend to enjoy my jokes."
Adams said he and Miles exchanged rings and gave the children family medallions.
The couple also took dance lessons in the months leading up to the wedding, Adams said. He chronicled his anxiety on his Web journal.
"This wedding has taken more planning than the invasion of Iraq. And yet there is still one guaranteed failure built into the plan: the first dance," he wrote in an entry dated Saturday.
The first song was Keith Urban's "You're the Only One," and it was "not as embarrassing as I thought it would be," he said Tuesday. "We had actual moves."
On Friday, the couple, Miles' children and both sets of parents will head to the western Caribbean for a Disney cruise honeymoon, Adams said.
There will be no vacation for Dilbert, though. Adams said he has a week's worth of comic strips ready.
On the Net:
Brinkley's estrangerd husb and apologizes for affair
NEW YORK (AP) -- Christie Brinkley's estranged husband has been silent about recent reports that he had an affair with an 18-year-old employee while married to the supermodel. Now, his reportedly desperate apology is receiving a very public airing.
"This is an aberration," Peter Cook, 47, said through a lawyer, according to a column by Cindy Adams published Tuesday in the New York Post. "I'm sorry. I'm contrite. I'm stupid. Foolish. No excuse."
Adams wrote that Cook's words were provided to her by his attorney, Norman Sheresky.
"I love my wife. … For a lifetime, I've tried to prove how much I love her," Cook said, according to the article.
Sheresky said Cook, the model's fourth husband, is hoping for a reconciliation with Brinkley, 52. He defended Cook as a "man who loves his wife and who loves his children."
The couple, who were married in 1996, have an 8-year-old daughter, Sailor. Cook adopted Brinkley's son, Jack, now 11, from her marriage to Richard Taubman.
Brinkley's publicist, Elliot Mintz, told The Associated Press early Tuesday that he didn't believe she would issue a response.
The couple's separation exploded in scandal earlier this month when Diana Bianchi, now 19, claimed Cook had seduced her shortly after hiring her to work at his architecture firm.
Her lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, described the relationship as consensual, but claimed Cook's role as employer and his gifts of a car, money and jewelry could possibly constitute sexual harassment.
According to the report, Sheresky said Cook would respect Brinkley's wishes, whatever the result.
"He hopes there's no divorce. IF she wants one, and he certainly hopes this doesn't happen, but IF -- it will not be nasty," Sheresky said, according to the Post. "She can have whatever she wants."
Anna Netrebko given Austrian citizenship
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- The government has granted Austrian citizenship to Russian diva Anna Netrebko, citing "her special merits" as one of the world's most sought-after opera stars.
Netrebko, who will retain her Russian passport, was given Austrian citizenship under special provisions that put athletes, entertainers, artists and other celebrities on the fast track. She formally applied in March.
Deputy Chancellor Hubert Gorbach described the decision Tuesday as a "confirmation of Austria's status as a nation of culture."
The decision was made just a day before Netrebko, 34, was to take the stage as Susanna in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)" -- the much-awaited production that opens the opera performances at the Salzburg Festival.
Netrebko has been described by critics as "the new Callas" and "Audrey Hepburn with a voice." Since her triumphant 1995 San Francisco Opera debut, she has starred with opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world.
Gaining citizenship generally takes at least 10 years and involves language and other tests designed to prove the applicant's suitability to living in Austria and results in loss of the original citizenship.
The musical portion of this year's festival -- the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth -- is focused on Austria's favorite son, with all 22 of his stage works being performed.
On the Net:
http://www.salzburgfestival.at/home-e.php?lang
Rod Stewart back to rock with new album
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rod Stewart returns to rock with his new album, "Still the Same … Great Rock Classics of Our Time," set for release this fall.
"Still the Same" -- Stewart's first rock album in more than eight years -- follows four volumes of his "Great American Songbook" series of standards albums, J Records announced Monday.
Tracks include Bob Dylan's "If Not for You," Van Morrison's "Crazy Love," Bob Seger's "Still the Same" and John Fogerty's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain," which will be the first radio single from the album, the record label said.
The album will be released Oct. 10.
Over his 40-year musical career, Stewart has churned out multiple raspy-voiced rock hits including "Maggie May," "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," "Forever Young" and "Tonight's the Night."
The 61-year-old singer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year. His 2004 album, "Stardust … The Great American Songbook Volume III," won Stewart his only Grammy.
On the Net:
Hurley promotes Jordache
NEW YORK (AP) -- Elizabeth Hurley stars in new print ads for Jordache, the company that became famous during the 1970s designer-label jeans craze.
The ads, shot by Michael Thompson, show the 41-year-old model-actress wearing the Jordache Vintage line, sold in high-end retail stores, and the new Jordache Legacy line, launching exclusively at Macy's stores across the country this fall.
Jordache said the first ad will run in national publications beginning in September and will continue through the holiday season.
In one ad, Hurley is shown with the signature Jordache horse. Another shows her with riding gear.
"With success as an actress, model, businesswoman and mother, Liz represents everything the Jordache brand is about," said Liz Berlinger, president of Jordache Enterprises, in a recent statement. "We chose her because she is the true modern woman."
Brittany Murphy, whose movie credits include "Sin City" and "8 Mile," starred in a series of Jordache jeans print ads last year.
On the Net:
Doll collection poses fire hazard
GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) -- Emily Gibbons has been collecting dolls for 15 years, amassing about 200 of them in her small apartment.
They've brought her a lot of joy, at times reminding the 73-year-old woman what it's like to hold a baby in her arms again. Most recently, though, they've gotten her in trouble with the Greenwich Housing Authority.
Housing officials said the doll collection cluttered the public housing apartment and is a fire hazard. The Housing Authority threatened to evict her if she didn't clear the clutter.
"The dolls per se were not the issue -- it was that the apartment was not up to standard," said Terry Mardula, the housing authority's deputy director. "It was cluttered with too much stuff. She has stuff in the closets causing the doors to come out. They could come down on her. She has heaters blocked."
Most of the dolls have had to go. Gibbons packed away all but about 20 and is temporarily storing the rest at her daughter's home.
Housing officials will inspect her apartment every two months. Mardula said Gibbons passed with flying colors at her most recent inspection.
Still, she misses having the dolls.
At the peak of her collecting, they occupied nearly every spot on the floor between her sofa and television. Gibbons said she wants to find them new homes.
"I want them to go to someone who loves them," she said.
Male lawyer dons skirt to protest 'old boys' network
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A bald, mustachioed lawyer turned up at court wearing a skirt and blouse and toting a purse to protest a lack of care and sensitivity among New Zealand's male-dominated judiciary, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Rob Moodie, 67, arrived at Wellington's High Court on Monday in a navy blue woman's suit complete with diamond brooch and lace-topped stockings over his hairy legs, The Dominion Post reported.
"I will now, as a lawyer, be wearing women's clothing," Moodie said. He said he wants the court to address him as "Ms. Alice" -- and that his wife and three children support his protest.
His attire, he insisted, is to highlight the insensitive "old boys' network" of New Zealand's judiciary.
"My confidence in the male ethos is zilch. It's a culture of intimidation, authority, power and control," the high-profile lawyer said.
Moodie said that although he is heterosexual, he was born with an innate understanding of the female gender.
Calls to Moodie's family home rang unanswered Tuesday.
His protest was prompted by frustration over a long-running case involving a farming couple held responsible for a bridge built by the army on their land that collapsed, killing a beekeeper.
He told The Dominion Post that the "last straw" was last month's Court of Appeal ruling that ordered the couple -- who have already sold their farm to fund their legal efforts -- to pay the army 10,000 New Zealand dollars ($6,200 U.S.) in costs.
Courthouse going to the dogs
WACO, Texas (AP) - Is the McLennan County Courthouse going to the dogs? Maybe. Maybe not.
County Commissioner Lester Gibson, who says he has heard complaints from people about animals in the courthouse, has placed an item on the agenda for Tuesday's commissioners meeting to discuss whether a policy is needed on animals in county facilities.
Gibson didn't mention any names, but State District Judge Ralph Strother thinks it is all about Buff, his 13-year-old cocker spaniel and a courthouse regular.
Strother got the dog in 1997 from his mother, who died that year and asked that he take care of her pet. He said the dog, which spends much of the day in a chair in his office, has had a calming influence.
"He is especially valuable in putting young people at ease during adoptions and child-custody fights," the judge said. "He is just a part of my family."
Gibson said people, particularly those allergic to dogs, have complained about animals being brought into the courthouse.
"This is just a suggestion for discussion," Gibson said. "I just wanted to see what everybody's take is on it and whether we need a pet order prohibiting them from the courthouse."
The newspaper reported some people had complained because the judge asks his 82-year-old bailiff to take the dog outside for bathroom breaks.
The bailiff, Clarence Cobb, said he likes the break.
Girl caught in drain pipe rescued
FAIR HAVEN, N.Y. (AP) -- Doctors had to cut away a drain pipe that a 6-year-old girl got her leg stuck in while playing in the bathroom at a state park near Lake Ontario.
Alexyss DeWind stepped into the 4-inch floor drain in a bathroom at Fair Haven Beach State Park on Sunday afternoon and got caught up to her thigh. Firefighters tried to grease the pipe, but finally had to cut the concrete around it to free her.
She was flown by helicopter to a Rochester hospital with her leg still in the cast-iron pipe and doctors, helped again by firefighters, worked overnight to cut it away before discharging her Monday.
Wendy Gibson, spokeswoman for the state Parks Department, said DeWind and her twin brother had removed a grate covering the drain before the girl got stuck. Gibson said Monday that the girl was fully recovered and back at the park, where her family was camping.
Entomologists say they've found a new genus of cricket
HURRICANE, Utah (AP) -- Researchers say they have discovered a new type of cricket in the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, located in a remote strip of land on the Utah-Arizona border.
The cricket was discovered in samples taken from the area last spring by Kyle Voyles, a state of Arizona cave coordinator and a physical science technician with the Bureau of Land Management, and J. Judson Wynne, a Northern Arizona University doctoral candidate.
Voyles and Wynne spent time surveying 24 caves and taking samples from 15.
"Finding a new species is one thing, but finding a new genus is beyond my wildest dream," Kyle Voyles, a state of Arizona cave coordinator said. A genus is a broader category in the classification of animals; it can encompass many related species.
The monument is under joint management of the BLM and the National Park Service and covers more than 1,600 square miles of land on what's known as the Arizona Strip. The area's deep canyons, mountains and red rock buttes are cut off from the rest of Arizona by the Grand Canyon at its south border.
"One thing I love about the Arizona Strip is its untouched, untapped natural resources," Voyles said. "It may not be a big tourist draw, but there are a lot of potentially big important discoveries out there."
The new cricket was found in the first sample bottle. Voyles said Theodore Cohn, an entomologist with San Diego State University, identified the crickets as a new genus.
In addition to the possible new genus of cricket, four new species of crickets have been identified from the spring samples. A barklouse also was found in the caves. Though common in South America, this was the first one discovered in North America, Voyles said.
Previous cave trips yielded two new species of millipedes within three miles of each other.
What makes the yet-to-be-named new genus of cricket special is that it has pincers on its hind end. The pincers are functional, but it is not known why they have them nor what purpose they serve.
The discovery at the monument, which was dedicated in January, may draw attention to caves that are largely overlooked in an area where the inhabitants have to learn to adapt to harsh living conditions.
Jeff Bradybaugh, superintendent of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, said the discoveries are very exciting.
"It points to some of the uniqueness of the area and the undiscovered natural resources," Bradybaugh said. "This might attract funding from nongovernment sources and help develop partnerships with universities to continue the research."
On the Net:
New Monopoly version drops paper money, adds debit card
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- If you're passing Go and want to collect $200, better bring a debit card.
A British version of the classic Monopoly board game released this week substitutes a Visa-imprinted debit card for the stacks of yellow, blue and purple play money long hoarded by children worldwide.
Cheating just got a little tougher.
"We started looking at what Monopoly would look like if we designed it today," said Chris Weatherhead, a Britain.-based spokesman for Hasbro Inc., which makes the best-selling board game. "We noticed consumers are using debit cards, carrying around cash a lot less."
British players might not be the only ones switching to plastic. Officials at Pawtucket-based Hasbro say they're considering a similar change for American versions.
First offered in 1935, Monopoly offered players a form of financial escapism during the country's worst financial depression. Players become pretend real estate magnates who compete for fictitious property named after real places in Atlantic City, N.J. A British version released that same year featured London neighborhoods.
In the new British version of Monopoly Here & Now, players type amounts into a palm-sized scanner and swipe their debit cards to seal the deal.
While the change may startle some Monopoly fans, the game has been revised several times before. Consumers can now buy Monopoly editions inspired by the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies, or even a version featuring SpongeBob SquarePants, an animated TV character.
An earlier version of Monopoly Here & Now was released last year in England and still included paper money, Weatherhead said.
But the game had been modernized in many other ways. Some addresses have changed -- and the game now includes Kensington Palace Gardens, near Buckingham Palace, and Notting Hill Gate, the setting of a 1999 movie starring Julia Roberts.
Cards that once rewarded players for winning a beauty contest now compensate them for winning a reality TV show. Completing a full circuit around the board is worth two million English pounds, not 200.
"Quite a nice bonus," Weatherhead said.
Hasbro no longer sells English retailers the paper-money versions of Monopoly Here & Now, but fans can still purchase the classic edition, which includes fake cash.
At least one Monopoly devotee seemed ambivalent about the potential changes.
Krisi Lee of Antioch owns 19 versions of the game, including the electronic one on her cell phone. She sometimes competes in a Monopoly tournament run by her mother, which usually attracts about 50 players.
She wants her young daughter to learn how to count Monopoly paper money before touching the real stuff, she said. But Lee, 28, isn't a purist.
"That is the here and now," she said. "That's what we do. For a $3 purchase, I use my debit card."
On the Net:
http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/
Police find missing Utah girl's body, arrest neighbor
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The body of a 5-year-old girl missing for more than a week has been found in the basement of a neighbor's home, and the neighbor was arrested, authorities said.
Craig R. Gregerson, 20, was jailed early Tuesday on suspicion of kidnapping and homicide. It was not immediately known whether he had an attorney.
A probable cause statement filed in Gregerson's arrest says he saw Destiny Norton in her backyard the night of July 16 and opened a gate to lure her into his house. When she screamed, he squeezed his hand over her mouth to silence her, authorities said.
Destiny "went limp and suspect Gregerson laid her body on a floor," Officer Catherine Schoney wrote in the statement.
Police and FBI agents would not say Tuesday whether they had previously searched Gregerson's house. Authorities released no information about the cause of death or how long the girl had been dead.
Destiny had just taken a bath, asked to be allowed to go out in the backyard, which has a chain-link fence and gate, when she disappeared, the Nortons' housemates said. She vanished in the five or 10 minutes before her father went to check on her, they said.
Hundreds of people had helped in daily searches for Destiny, including 700 on Saturday. A $30,000 reward was offered for information leading to Destiny's recovery.
The searches drew support from the family of Elizabeth Smart, who, at age 14, was taken from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City home in June 2002 and was found nine months later with two homeless people.
DEA: Coke dealer shipped BMW cross-country to shuttle drugs, cash
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A cocaine wholesaler regularly shipped his BMW stuffed with up to $1 million in cash to Los Angeles and then had it sent back filled with drugs, investigators said.
Federal prosecutors said this week that they hope to keep the more than $1.4 million in cash seized from Tyrone "Tiddy" Smith, who recently pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and gun charges.
Smith had $1.2 million in his trunk and another $218,000 at his North Philadelphia home, authorities said.
An informant told investigators Smith regularly shipped a BMW packed with cash to Los Angeles to buy cocaine, then shipped the vehicle back to the Philadelphia area with the drugs stashed in the tires, according to court documents.
Smith made about $250,000 per trip, buying a kilogram for $15,000 in Los Angeles and selling it for $22,000 back home, the informant said.
On Sept. 5, 2004, state police and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents tailed Smith as he loaded the BMW onto a car carrier in a Philadelphia suburb. A short time later, they stopped the truck on Interstate 95.
They said they found the money wrapped in dryer sheets in a suitcase and gym bag.
Smith pleaded guilty to all charges in June and agreed to forfeit the cash and other seized items, according to an affidavit filed in court on Monday by DEA Special Agent Randy L. Updegraff.
Smith was one of nine people charged in the drug ring, several of whom are awaiting trial. His sentencing is set for early next year.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathy Stark called the scheme unusual, even in the sometimes inventive world of drug trafficking.
"I'm not sure I would want to take my low-profile BMW tires and put kilos of cocaine in them," Stark said. "I guess Mr. Smith wasn't worried about it."
Federal officials drop investigation into border killings, leaving little hope of solution
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Federal officials have quietly closed a three-year inquiry into the rape-strangulation of 14 women and teenagers in the border city of Juarez, leaving relatives with little hope the killings will ever be solved.
The federal Attorney General's Office intervened in 2003, promising it would try to solve cases plagued for years by allegations of state police corruption and incompetence.
Federal prosecutors privately returned the cases to state authorities in June because they didn't find evidence of a federal crime, according to the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office. The federal Attorney General's Office didn't respond to repeated requests from The Associated Press for comment.
The victims' families weren't told the investigation had been closed; they read it in the local newspaper.
"It fills me with rage, with a feeling of impotence, because they never investigated anything," said Josefina Gonzalez, whose 20-year-old daughter's remains were found with those of seven other young women in 2001.
In addition to those eight killings, federal authorities also dropped investigations into the slayings of six teenagers, aged 15 to 18.
They were among about 100 young women who were sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in the desert outside Juarez since 1993. The killings appeared to fit a serial pattern. Most of the victims were young, slim brunettes who worked in foreign-owned assembly plants. Many disappeared walking home on unlit streets in working-class neighborhoods.
Relatives of the victims have long demanded President Vicente Fox do more to solve the killings in the city of about 1.3 million people across the border from El Paso, Texas. Police made many arrests, but the killings continued.
Movie stars like Jane Fonda and Sally Field took part in a 2004 protest to demand justice for the victims. The killings also inspired two as-yet-unreleased movies, including one starring Jennifer Lopez.
Over the years, police have suspected a serial killer, gangs or even organ-smugglers in the deaths. But no strong evidence has emerged to support the theories.
In Mexico, murder is a state, not a federal crime. But after the victims' relatives said state investigators were inept and corrupt, federal officials jumped into the investigation of the 14 killings in 2003 to see if there was evidence of a federal offense, such as organ trafficking or organized crime.
The federal government's involvement in the 14 cases failed to pacify critics, leading Fox to establish a Juarez-based special prosecutor's office in January 2004 to monitor all investigations into the killings and look for possible gaps.
Guadalupe Lopez Urbina, the first special federal prosecutor assigned to Juarez, recommended criminal charges against dozens of current and former law enforcement officers for alleged negligence in handling the cases. However, only two state investigators were charged with negligence, and a judge later threw out the cases.
State officials claimed they solve the majority of female homicides, but contended they lack the resources and training to deal with these killings, which appeared related to one another.
"In these cases, it is evident that state authorities were incapable and unwilling to provide justice," said Eric Olson, a Latin America expert at Amnesty International USA. "It is then the federal authorities' obligation to provide safety, security and justice for their citizens."
In January, the Attorney General's Office created a national prosecutor for crimes against women headquartered in Mexico City. The Juarez office became one of three regional offices.
The same day the national office was announced, federal authorities released a final report saying the slayings of women in Juarez were not serial killings and that the city was not even the most dangerous in Mexico in terms of the killings of women.
Critics say the Fox administration is apparently washing its hands of the matter.
"At this point our best bet is to look for international justice," said Marisela Ortiz of Bring Our Daughters Home, a group of victims' relatives.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights agreed in March to investigate allegations that state officials planted evidence and failed to go after the real killers.
"We're back to square one, but I no longer believe the killers will ever be found," said Gonzalez, one of three mothers who filed the accusations with the commission. "If there is no justice here, there will be divine justice."
On the Net:
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: http://www.www.cidh.org
Our Daughters Back Home: http://www.mujeresdejuarez.org/
Reports: Malaysian princess stabbed to death by her son
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A Malaysian princess was stabbed to death by her son as she tried to stop him from attacking her husband, news reports said Tuesday. The son later died of an apparent drug overdose.
Tengku Puteri Kamariah -- whose brother is Sultan Ahmad Shah, ruler of the eastern state of Pahang -- died Monday afternoon at her home in Pekan town, Pahang, The Malay Mail and The New Straits Times reported.
The woman's son, Tunku Rizal Shahzan, 21, ran at his 74-year-old father wielding a screwdriver, the reports said. Puteri Kamariah intervened and was stabbed in the ensuing struggle.
The father, Tunku Ismail Tunku Sulaiman, was hospitalized with slash wounds to the stomach, The Star newspaper reported.
Rizal later died in a hospital from an apparent drug overdose, The Mail said.
Palace officials declined to verify details of the reports but did confirm that family members went Tuesday to the royal burial ground.
Pahang state police chief Razak Buhary was not available for comment, his secretary said. Other police officers were not authorized to discuss the case.
Nine Malaysian states have ceremonial monarchs who carry the titles "raja" or "sultan." Royal family members are usually addressed as "tunku" or "tengku."
Mother and daughter slain in southwest Florida home
LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (AP) -- Two bodies found inside a southwest Florida home where a dehydrated child sat outside in a highchair were identified Tuesday by authorities as a mother and daughter.
The two were found dead Monday afternoon in the midst of a "large amount of blood" in their home, according to a police report. The cause of the deaths of Lorena Stone, 49, and Whitney Mendez, 19, was not released.
Authorities declined to identify the toddler who was found by a relative outside the home Monday. The toddler was treated for dehydration and taken to a safe location, Lee County sheriff's spokeswoman Illena Foell said.
No arrests had been made as of Tuesday afternoon.
Several neighbors said they heard sounds like "fireworks" on Sunday night.
"This neighborhood is so quiet," neighbor Rosa Aponte said. "It's weird that a little kid was outside and nobody knew nothing."
Crews rescue stranded sailors from listing ship off Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Helicopters hoisted 23 crew members from a listing cargo ship to safety overnight, ending a daylong rescue effort as 10-foot waves slapped the ship's tilting deck hundreds of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
Tuesday morning, with the crew safe on Adak Island, the Coast Guard and the ship operators turned their attention to trying to salvage the massive car carrier.
The 654-foot Cougar Ace was floating on its side, unattended until a Coast Guard cutter arrived later in the day to monitor it, said Petty Officer Richard Reichenbach. He said the fate of its cargo of nearly 5,000 cars was unknown, but said officials believe the secured vehicles are still on board.
"It's like a giant parking lot inside," Reichenbach said. "I think the worst thing that could have happened is they broke loose and are all piled up on top of each other."
The Cougar Ace had been carrying cars from Japan to Canada when it began tilting to its port side late Sunday night. The crew sent out an SOS, but the nearest Coast Guard ship was a day's journey away.
By the time a Coast Guard aircraft arrived and was able to drop three life rafts for the crew Monday morning, the ship was at an 80 degree angle, nearly on its side, officials said. The roiling waters shoved the rafts underneath the dipping port side of the ship before the crew could secure them.
Rescuers tossed another raft toward the higher starboard side, but it was a 150-foot drop to the water.
A merchant marine ship crew that was nearby was unable to rig a line to the cargo ship, and the Cougar Ace's crew was losing power in its hand-held radio.
The helicopters appeared to the crew's best chance for survival.
"We made the decision to cram in everybody," said Master Sgt. Sal Provenzano with the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center.
In a daring rescue, the crew members, who had donned survival suits aboard their troubled ship, were hoisted Monday night into two National Guard Pave Hawk helicopters and a Coast Guard helicopter, then flown 230 miles north to Adak Island. One crew member with a broken ankle was to be flown by plane to Anchorage, Provenzano said.
The Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace -- owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines -- was carrying vehicles from Japan to Vancouver, British Columbia, said Greg Beuerman, a spokesman for the ship owner.
He said Tuesday the company was in talks with a salvage company, discussing several options for saving the vessel. It still wasn't clear what had caused the ship to list.
The ship had been caught in rain squalls and 8- to 10-foot seas when it began to list. From Coast Guard aircraft circling overhead, officers spotted a 2-mile oil sheen in the choppy water. The ship had been carrying 430 metric tons of fuel oil or 112 metric tons of diesel fuel, and it wasn't clear how much had spilled into the northern Pacific Ocean.
Early on, the Coast Guard had alerted the clinic at the small town of Adak -- a former Naval air station on the island of the same name -- to gear up for treating at least one broken ankle and possible hypothermia cases.
Nurse practitioner Michael Terry said residents hustled to set up cots and blankets at the community center, prepare food and coffee, gather donations of warm clothing. The clinic rounded up emergency medics and braced for action.
"We actually were preparing to have an air disaster drill at the airport (Tuesday) so we moved it up a day," Terry said.
Ireland construction worker finds 1,200-year-old book of psalms in bog
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker who spotted something while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a bog.
The approximately 20-page book has been dated to the years 800-1000. Trinity College manuscripts expert Bernard Meehan said it was the first discovery of an Irish early medieval document in two centuries.
"This is really a miracle find," said Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, which has the book stored in refrigeration and facing years of painstaking analysis before being put on public display.
"There's two sets of odds that make this discovery really way out. First of all, it's unlikely that something this fragile could survive buried in a bog at all, and then for it to be unearthed and spotted before it was destroyed is incalculably more amazing."
He said an engineer was digging up bogland last week to create commercial potting soil somewhere in Ireland's midlands when, "just beyond the bucket of his bulldozer, he spotted something." Wallace would not specify where the book was found because a team of archaeologists is still exploring the site.
"The owner of the bog has had dealings with us in past and is very much in favor of archaeological discovery and reporting it," Wallace said.
Crucially, he said, the bog owner covered up the book with damp soil. Had it been left exposed overnight, he said, "it could have dried out and just vanished, blown away."
The book was found open to a page describing, in Latin script, Psalm 83, in which God hears complaints of other nations' attempts to wipe out the name of Israel.
Wallace said several experts spent Tuesday analyzing only that page -- the number of letters on each line, lines on each page, size of page -- and the book's binding and cover, which he described as "leather velum, very thick wallet in appearance."
It could take months of study, he said, just to identify the safest way to pry open the pages without damaging or destroying them. He ruled out the use of X-rays to investigate without moving the pages.
Ireland already has several other holy books from the early medieval period, including the ornately illustrated Book of Kells, which has been on display at Trinity College in Dublin since the 19th century.
Authorities: Teen confesses to highway sniper attacks in Indiana
SEYMOUR, Ind. (AP) -- A 17-year-old confessed Tuesday to committing a series of highway shootings that killed one man, wounded another and damaged at least four vehicles, authorities said.
Zachariah Blanton was arrested earlier in the day and was jailed in Jackson County. He faced preliminary charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal recklessness, prosecutor Stephen Pierson said.
Blanton, of Gaston, admitted to the sniper shootings during questioning by investigators, but a motive was unclear, State police Superintendent Paul Whitesell said. It was not immediately known whether Blanton had an attorney.
Blanton came to the attention of investigators late Monday after an acquaintance told a Delaware County deputy that the teen might be involved in the shootings, Whitesell said. Detectives then searched Blanton's home and found a rifle of the same caliber used in the shootings.
"The weapon we obtained was precisely what we were looking for," Whitesell said.
A message seeking comment was left for Blanton's grandparents, who police said where his legal guardians.
Blanton's great-aunt told The Star Press of Muncie that she was shocked by the allegations against him.
"I can't imagine that he would be involved," Denise Blanton said.
The two sniper victims were hit early Sunday as they rode in pickups on Interstate 65 near Seymour, south of Indianapolis.
About two hours later, bullets struck a moving tractor-trailer and a parked sport-utility vehicle on Interstate 69 in Delaware County, about 100 miles to the northeast near Blanton's home. No one was hurt in those shootings.
The FBI joined the investigation Monday as investigators searched fields, overpasses and roads looking for evidence. Detectives from Columbus, Ohio, who helped solve that city's 2003 and 2004 sniper shootings also traveled to Indiana to help.
Gov. Mitch Daniels praised law enforcement officers Tuesday for quickly apprehending a suspect.
"Indiana has been spared the sort of fear, uncertainty and disruption and that has befallen other jurisdictions elsewhere," he said during a news conference in Indianapolis.
Authorities: More than 60 members of violent gang arrested in New Jersey raids
WEST TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Officers arrested dozens of members of a notoriously violent street gang in raids across New Jersey Tuesday, capping 11 months of undercover operations.
Agents also charged four gang leaders who authorities said were directing killings and other crimes from inside state prison.
More than 60 people affiliated with the Nine Trey Gangsters, part of the Bloods gang, had been arrested by Tuesday afternoon, and as many as 40 more arrests were expected in cities across the state, including Newark, Trenton and Atlantic City, authorities said.
The targets represent more than a third of the gang's membership in the state, including several top leaders.
"By taking out the top echelon of this gang, we have struck a powerful blow for the people of New Jersey and particularly those communities caught in the crossfire of gang violence," said New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber.
The suspects face racketeering, extortion, money laundering and drug distribution charges.
State police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes called the operation the biggest in state history, both in the number of gang members arrested and the impact on the gang. A similar operation targeting the Latin Kings a couple of years ago took up to 60 gang members off the streets, "and they still haven't recovered," he said.
Fuentes described the Nine Treys, also known as 9-3, as the "most violent and fear-invoking" of the state's street gangs. The gang dealt in narcotics and weapons trafficking, extortion and assault, and its members are believed responsible for an unspecified number of murders and drive-by shootings, he said.
Authorities said David "Duke" Allen, 32, of Newark, allegedly continued to direct gang activity from inside New Jersey State Prison. Authorities said he ordered hits on fellow gang members from prison.
"They found a way of getting information to their intermediaries," Fuentes said. "They were able to continue the information flow."
Investigators had infiltrated the gang during the investigation, though agency representatives would not say how because the investigation is ongoing.
During the raids, police seized heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and guns. The sweep involved 500 state and federal law enforcement officers.
60-plus members of violent gang arrested in New Jersey raids
WEST TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Officers arrested more than 60 members of a notoriously violent street gang in a series of raids across New Jersey early Tuesday that also turned up drugs and guns and led to the arrests of four leaders accused of directing operations from prison.
More than 60 people connected with the Nine Trey Gangsters, part of the Bloods gang, had been arrested by noon Tuesday, and many as 40 more arrests were expected in cities across the state, including Newark, Trenton and Atlantic City, authorities said.
The targets represent more than a third of the gang's membership in the state, including several top leaders.
"The aim was to dismantle this set of the Bloods gang," said Anne Milgram, First Assistant Attorney General.
State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes called the operation the biggest in state history, both in the number of gang members arrested and the impact on the gang. A similar operation targeting the Latin Kings a couple of years ago took up to 60 gang members off the streets, "and they still haven't recovered," Fuentes said.
Fuentes described the Nine Treys, also known as 9-3, as the "most violent and fear-invoking" of the state's street gangs. The gang dealt in narcotics and weapons trafficking, extortion and assault, and its members are believed responsible for an unspecified number of murders and drive-by shootings, he said.
Its so-called godfather, David "Duke" Allen, 32, of Newark, allegedly continued to direct gang activity from inside New Jersey State Prison. Authorities said another incarcerated leader, James "Rell" Pringle, ordered hits on fellow gang members from prison.
"They found a way of getting information to their intermediaries," Fuentes said. "They were able to continue the information flow."
During the raids, police seized heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and guns. The FBI, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Corrections Department, New York police, and federal immigration department were also involved in the raids. Most of the suspects will face racketeering charges.
Investigators had infiltrated the gang during an 11-month investigation, though agency representatives would not say how because the investigation is ongoing.
Kouchner, Lowery, Wonder named Freedom Award recipients
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The French physician who founded Doctors Without Borders, civil rights leader Joseph Lowery and entertainer Stevie Wonder were named Tuesday as recipients of the National Civil Rights Museum's 2006 Freedom Awards.
The annual awards will be given out by the museum at a banquet Oct. 17.
Bernard Kouchner, a former minister of health for France, will receive the museum's International Freedom Award, the museum announced. He founded the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders, which sends volunteer medical personnel to underdeveloped countries and other trouble spots around the world.
Lowery, a co-founder with King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and co-founder of the Black Leadership Forum, will receive the museum's National Freedom Award.
Wonder, a Grammy Award winner and driving force behind the 1985 USA for Africa campaign, will receive the museum's Lifetime Achievement Award.
The awards banquet is a major fundraiser for the museum, built around the former Lorraine Motel where King was assassinated in 1968 while helping lead a strike by Memphis garbage workers.
Cruise line: Ship tilt caused by human error
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Human error caused a cruise ship to abruptly tilt at sea last week, sending furniture and debris flying about the boat and injuring 240 passengers, a cruise line official said.
Though federal investigations continue, Princess Cruises president Alan Buckelow wrote in a letter to passengers that "the incident was due to human error and the appropriate personnel changes have been made."
The letter, dated Monday, was posted on the company's Web site. Phone calls to the company seeking additional comment were not immediately returned.
The Crown Princess unexpectedly heeled to its side last week shortly after departing Port Canaveral, where it had stopped before a scheduled return to New York to complete a nine-day Caribbean cruise.
The ship tilted an estimated 16 to 18 degrees, seriously injuring at least 20 people after passengers and objects tumbled.
The ship immediately returned to Port Canaveral, on Florida's east coast, but departed again for New York two days later and picked up a new load of passengers for a similar, shortened cruise.
"We express our sincerest apologies for this regrettable event, and fully understand that this was a distressing experience for all who were on board," Buckelow wrote in the letter.
Typhoon Kaemi weakens after making landfall in southern China
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Typhoon Kaemi weakened into a severe tropical storm Tuesday after slamming into southern China and Taiwan with strong winds and torrential rains, days after a previous storm killed more than 600 people in the region.
Kaemi, this season's seventh typhoon, roared ashore Tuesday afternoon at Jinjiang in coastal Fujian province, according to state media and the Web site of the provincial Water Resources Commission.
By 7:30 p.m., its winds were gusting at 67 mph. The storm was expected to weaken as it moved northwest at about 12 mph, the Web site said.
Still, forecasters warned of heavy rain and a risk of flooding in the area, about halfway between Hong Kong and Shanghai.
More than two dozen flights out of Fujian's capital, Fuzhou, were canceled Tuesday, and state television showed rivers rising and heavy surf along the coastline.
Fujian had stockpiled food, clothing, tents and medical supplies and evacuated about 430,000 people before the typhoon arrived, said an official from the provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, who refused to give his name.
"We expect the typhoon to start heading inland around nightfall," the official said.
About 44,000 fishing boats were ordered into port before the storm, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. More than 3,000 soldiers were placed on standby for any rescues.
Xinhua earlier quoted Vice Premier Hui Liangyu calling for officials to closely watch rivers and reservoirs for signs of flooding and keep an eye out for potential landslides that could bury mountain villages.
Kaemi -- the Korean word for ant -- comes on the heels of Tropical Storm Bilis, which pounded southern China starting July 14, triggering flooding and mudslides.
State media put Bilis' death toll at 612 on Monday, with another 208 people missing and 3 million forced from their homes. The bulk of the deaths came in Hunan province, about 466 miles inland.
Earlier Tuesday, Kaemi lashed Taiwan with heavy rains and strong winds, causing scattered landslides and swelling several main rivers. No major damage was reported.
Trains resumed service but domestic flights to eastern and southern Taiwan remained halted Tuesday, officials said. Classes and government offices also were shut in large parts of Taiwan outside the capital, Taipei, they said.
More than 20,000 households suffered power outages as Kaemi broke dozens of electricity poles along the eastern coast in Hualien, officials said.
Forecasters said the typhoon's outer band was expected to bring heavy rains across Taiwan over the next two days.
In the northern Philippines, Kaemi forced the closure of schools and government offices. In Manila, school classes were suspended for a second day Tuesday, but the stock exchange reopened.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Pilot removed from flight on suspicion of intoxication
By:HOUSTON (AP) - A Continental Airlines captain removed from a flight because another employee smelled alcohol on his breath was fired Tuesday, the airline said. - The pilot, who was not identified, tested above the legal limit for alcohol for pilots, the company said. He was dismissed two days after being removed from the aircraft on suspicion of intoxication, said Sarah Anthony, a Continental spokeswoman.
The pilot was scheduled for Flight 706, from George Bush Intercontinental Airport to Tampa, Fla., on Sunday. It was his first flight of the day.
He rode on an airport bus to the terminal with another employee, who reported to the airline that he smelled alcohol on the pilot's breath. The pilot was removed from the aircraft before passengers boarded, Continental said in a statement.
Storm may reach Hawaii by Friday
HONOLULU (AP) - A tropical storm that formed in the Pacific Ocean last week could brush through Hawaii by the weekend, but forecasters say it is losing speed and strength.
Tropical Storm Daniel is on track to cross the Big Island and then pass just south of the rest of the state. It had sustained winds Tuesday of 50 mph with gusts to 65 mph.
By the time it reaches Hawaii as the state's first storm of the season, it likely will have winds of about 40 mph, gusting to 50 mph, forecasters said.
As much as 10 inches of rain could fall in some parts of the state starting early Friday, said National Weather Service forecaster Norman Hiu. If a rain band crosses Oahu, Honolulu could get between 4 and 6 inches.
On the Net:
National Weather Service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
Judge: Shackling inmate for 5 days was unreasonable search
DENVER (AP) - Shackling an inmate to a chair for 5.5 days to collect evidence that he swallowed bags of drugs constitutes an unreasonable search, a Colorado judge has ruled.
Prison officials allowed Brian Willert, 29, little sleep and only brief breaks until he passed the contraband - methamphetamine-filled balloons - but a judge ruled this month it could not be used against him because Willert had been subjected to an unreasonable search.
Willert slept only about three hours while shackled, District Judge Charles M. Barton said in his July 14 ruling. He was repeatedly searched, monitored constantly, not allowed to lie down and not checked by medical personnel, the judge said.
"Forcing a shackled inmate to sit in a chair for over five days posed, in the court's opinion, an unreasonable risk to the life and health of the inmate," Barton wrote.
The incident occurred in June 2005 after a woman told prison authorities she had transferred four balloons containing drugs into Willert's mouth when she kissed him during a visit.
Willert had been released from prison before Barton's ruling but was arrested on charges of violating bail and attempted escape after he failed to appear at the hearing where the ruling was issued. He was also accused of trying to kick open a patrol car's door.
Horse's head dumped in upstate councilwoman's pool
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. (AP) - A councilwoman found a severed horse's head in her swimming pool Tuesday, state police said.
"We're looking at a threat as a possible angle," Lt. Pierce Gallagher said. "Certainly, we can't rule that out."
There have been some prior instances of harassment directed toward Wawayanda Councilwoman Gail Soro, Gallagher said.
One of the most famous scenes in "The Godfather" showed a movie mogul waking up with a horse head in his bed after he refused to bow to the will of the title character, played by Marlon Brando.
Wawayanda is located 106 miles southwest of Albany.
Woman sues Bacardi after allegedly burned by flaming rum
MIAMI - A woman who was allegedly severely burned by flaming rum during a Bacardi promotion is suing the wine and spirits producer, claiming the product was defective and dangerous.
Danielle Alleyne, of Miami, was injured after she was doused with the flaming rum at a Miami night club in August 2002, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.
"The burning rum stuck to her skin and continued to burn as she fell to the floor and tried to put herself out," the lawsuit said. Alleyne suffered second and third degree burns on her face, neck, chest and back and is permanently disabled and disfigured, according to the lawsuit.
After hours telephone messages left at the Miami-based Bacardi USA Inc., were not immediately returned.
A bartender, who was not identified in the lawsuit, was pouring shots when a customer lit a menu on fire and placed it in the stream of alcohol. A bottle of Bacardi 151 that was being used to pour the shots turned into a flame thrower and sent flaming rum all over Alleyne, the lawsuit said.
A telephone message left after hours at the office of Robert Dickman, Alleyne's attorney, was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit alleges that Bacardi 151 proof rum "emits a high volume of combustible and explosive vapor" which makes it "unreasonably dangerous" and defective.
Jury deliberating in Yates murder trial asks to review evidence from prosecution expert
HOUSTON (AP) - Jurors deliberated for a second day Tuesday without reaching a verdict in Andrea Yates' murder retrial but reviewed evidence, including videotapes of two psychiatrists' interviews with the woman who drowned her five children in the bathtub.
The jury, which was being sequestered again for the night, already has deliberated longer than the four hours it took a first jury to convict her of murder in 2002. An appeals court overturned that conviction because erroneous testimony may have influenced jurors.
Before recessing for the day, jurors asked to review the state's definition of insanity: that someone is so mentally ill, he does not know while committing a crime that it is wrong. Yates has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.
State District Judge Belinda Hill said jurors, who were again sequestered overnight, could see the definition Wednesday morning.
Shortly before a lunch break, jurors asked to review the slide presentation by Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Yates in May and testified that she did not kill her children to save them, as she claims, but because she was overwhelmed and felt inadequate as a mother.
Welner said that although Yates was psychotic on the day of the June 2001 drownings, he found multiple examples that she knew killing 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah was wrong.
Yates, 42, who has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, is charged in only three of the children's deaths, which is common in cases involving multiple slayings.
If the jurors find her innocent by reason of insanity, Yates will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released - though prosecutors weren't allowed to tell that to the jury. If convicted of murder, she will be sentenced to life in prison.
A capital murder conviction in Texas carries either life in prison or the death penalty. Prosecutors could not seek death this time because the first trial's jurors sentenced her to life in prison, and authorities found no new evidence.
The jury also asked to review the videotape of Yates' July 2001 evaluation by Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist who testified she did not know killing the youngsters was wrong because she was trying to save them from hell.
Resnick told jurors that Yates was delusional and believed she had ruined her children so much that they would grow up to be criminals.
Jurors later asked to review Yates' November 2001 videotaped evaluation by Dr. Park Dietz, the state's expert witness whose testimony led an appeals court to overturn Yates' 2002 capital murder conviction.
Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist, testified in her first trial that an episode of the television series "Law & Order" depicted a woman who was acquitted by reason of insanity after drowning her children. But those involved in Yates' case later learned no such episode existed. The judge barred attorneys in this trial from mentioning that issue.
On Tuesday, after jurors also asked for the trial transcript involving defense attorney George Parnham's questioning of Dietz about the definition of an obsession, the judge brought the jury back into the courtroom.
The court reporter then read the transcript in which Dietz said Yates "believed that Satan was at least present. She felt or sensed the presence." Dietz had testified that Yates' thoughts about harming her children were an obsession and a symptom of severe depression - not psychosis.
Bail denied at "Mafia cops" hearing
NEW YORK (AP) - Two decorated former police detectives, bidding for freedom just weeks after their convictions for facilitating eight mob murders were overturned, were instead sent back to prison Tuesday.
Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were denied bail by the same federal judge who overturned their racketeering murder convictions last month and granted them a new trial on money laundering and drug charges.
"The defendants are dangerous criminals with no degree of credibility," U.S. District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein said in denying the men bail while they await retrial. The two ex-detectives sat stoically as the judge handed down his decision.
Weinstein, in a June 30 ruling, said he agreed with an April jury verdict finding the so-called "Mafia Cops" responsible for the eight murders in the 1980s and other crimes - but he said he was compelled to set aside the verdict because the statute of limitations for the racketeering murder counts had passed.
The two were accused of moonlighting the mob, working for both the NYPD and Luchese crime family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.
Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, had both been out on $5 million bail for nine months before their convictions put them behind bars. Their lawyers argue that the similar conditions should apply while they await the outcome of a government appeal of Weinstein's ruling or - if it is upheld - a retrial on the other charges that stemmed from a 2005 drug sting in Las Vegas, where the partners both had retired.
Prosecutors argued the men were too dangerous to go free.
"The fact that these men, who swore to serve and protect, were so willing to betray the public trust by committing unspeakable acts of violence for money is a testament to the serious threat of danger to the community their release constitutes," wrote prosecutor Robert Henoch prior to Tuesday's hearing.
Caracappa retired in 1992 after establishing the police department's unit for mob murder investigations. Eppolito, whose father was part of the Gambino crime family, was a much-praised officer who played a bit part in "GoodFellas" and launch an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter.
Reports: Malaysian princess stabbed to death by her son
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A Malaysian princess was stabbed to death by her son as she tried to stop him from attacking her husband, news reports said Tuesday. The son later died of an apparent drug overdose.
Tengku Puteri Kamariah - whose brother is Sultan Ahmad Shah, ruler of the eastern state of Pahang - died Monday afternoon at her home in Pekan town, Pahang, The Malay Mail and The New Straits Times reported.
The woman's son, Tunku Rizal Shahzan, 21, ran at his 74-year-old father wielding a screwdriver, the reports said. Puteri Kamariah intervened and was stabbed in the ensuing struggle.
The father, Tunku Ismail Tunku Sulaiman, was hospitalized with slash wounds to the stomach, The Star newspaper reported.
Rizal later died in a hospital from an apparent drug overdose, The Mail said.
Posted in Backpage on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 12:00 am Updated: 9:34 am.
© Copyright 2009, North County Times - Californian, Escondido, CA | Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
