DEWITT, N.Y. (AP) ---- The backyard bunker where a serial rapist kept five women and girls as his sex slaves over a 15-year period was demolished Tuesday.
Destruction of the two underground rooms, at the defendant's expense, was part of the plea agreement under which 68-year-old John Jamelske was sentenced last month to 18 years to life in prison.
"The demolition is out of the ordinary, but it's not a typical crime scene," said prosecutor William Fitzpatrick.
"We thought it would give some comfort to the victims and the community. We also wanted to make sure it didn't attract any curiosity seekers," he said.
At his sentencing, Jamelske admitted keeping five people as sex slaves from 1988 to 2003 in the concrete bunker he built behind his home in the Syracuse suburb of DeWitt. His victims ranged in age from 13 to 53 and were held captive for periods ranging from two months to three years.
The bunker, which Jamelske referred to as his "party room," consisted of two 12-by-12-foot rooms with 7-foot ceilings. It was accessible only through a steel door in his basement wall.
The demolition was being paid for by Jamelske, defense attorney J. Michael Forsyth told WSTM-TV. He did not know the cost.
His plea agreement also called for Jamelske to liquidate his assets and distribute the proceeds among his five victims. Forsyth said he would be putting Jamelske's house up for sale.
Fleiss testifies that Sizemore abused her
LOS ANGELES (AP) ---- Former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss sobbed on the witness stand Tuesday as she told a jury how her love affair with "Blackhawk Down" actor Tom Sizemore turned into a violent, abusive relationship.
Fleiss said one of the most violent incidents occurred in May 2002 after Sizemore returned from filming a movie in Canada.
Tabloids were reporting that he was cheating on her with prostitutes, and a number of them called Fleiss to say Sizemore owed them money, she testified at the start of his domestic abuse trial.
"I confronted Tom and we had a horrible fight," Fleiss said. "He hit me in the bedroom and dragged me across the room by my hair. He hit me with his hands ... I had a black eye."
Fleiss left with a friend of Sizemore. When she later returned for her property, she said, she found Sizemore had broken everything that belonged to her.
Sizemore, 41, has pleaded innocent to 16 misdemeanor counts of hitting, harassing and threatening Fleiss, his ex-fiancee.
The charges include counts for making about 100 harassing telephone calls to her in a one-year period, vandalism, threatening to inflict injury to a person or property, and corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition.
Sizemore is free on $100,000 bail. He faces up to 13 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.
In court, Fleiss wore a gray suit jacket over a black miniskirt and stiletto heels. She began to weep almost as soon as she sat down then testified all morning. Sizemore sat across the courtroom and avoided eye contact with her as he took notes.
Fleiss previously served 21 months in prison for tax evasion and attempted pandering. She said she met Sizemore shortly after being released in 1999, fell in love with him and moved into his home in fashionable Benedict Canyon.
"I loved him a lot and I trusted him," she said at the outset of her testimony.
She said she was not dependent on him for money and knew he had a volatile temper. She said Sizemore's manager actually wrote up an agreement in which the actor promised not to abuse her or to break any of her property.
Things began to deteriorate in November 2001 when they went to New York to promote "Blackhawk Down."
"We did the Howard Stern show and he asked me if I liked the movie," Fleiss testified. "I said I didn't like it because it was too violent. I like things like 'Bambi."'
When they went back to their hotel room, Fleiss said, Sizemore hit her so badly they couldn't go to the premier of the film.
Asked why she didn't call the police, she said, "I was on parole, the convicted criminal, and he was the all-American guy and could send me back to prison, which was the worst thing that could happen to me."
In his opening statement, Assistant City Attorney Robert Cha told jurors they would hear numerous tape recordings of Sizemore's threatening phone calls and "you will hear that this case is about jealousy, control and manipulation. The victim is Heidi Fleiss."
Sizemore's attorney, Michael Fitzgerald, said the account by Fleiss is fiction.
"Tom Sizemore is innocent. Heidi Fleiss is a liar," he said. "You will hear evidence that contradicts Heidi Fleiss. There are no crimes here, just tragedies. There are two people who fell in love, tried to make their relationship work and it didn't."
Villanova professor accused of killing baby
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ---- A Villanova University history professor accused of fatally slitting her 6-month-old daughter's throat was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder.
The girl, Raya Donagi, was found bleeding and unconscious Monday after her grandmother called 911 about 9 a.m.
Police said the girl's mother, Mine An Ener, gave the infant her morning feeding and then carried her to the bathroom, pausing in the kitchen to get a knife. Police said she told them she laid the baby on her back and then leaned over, pressing the 12-inch knife's blade twice across Raya's throat.
"I killed my baby with a knife," authorities said Ener, 38, told medics when they arrived.
Police said Ener sat with her hands crossed in front of her chest, her mother holding her from behind as the medics tried to revive the child, who was pronounced dead at the grandmother's St. Paul home.
Ener, a professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, had recently returned to Minnesota with her daughter to be with family as she struggled with depression, police and relatives said.
Ener, 38, told police she suffered from postpartum depression and was on medication. The child was born with Down syndrome and at one point needed to be fed through a tube. She told police she wanted to give the baby relief.
"She felt the baby was suffering," said police Sgt. Bruce Wynkoop.
Ener, who was being held at the Ramsey County adult detention center, also told police she had thought about killing herself for several weeks.
A preliminary autopsy showed the baby bled to death from two neck wounds.
Nobody answered the door Tuesday at the family's St. Paul home.
Wyncoop said relatives told police the child's father was attending a conference in California on Monday when she was injured. He added that he didn't know when the father would come to Minnesota.
Ener, who grew up in St. Paul, graduated from St. Paul Central High School and went on to St. Paul's Macalester College. She earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan and took a job at Villanova in 1996. She worked in the university's Center for Arab and Islamic Studies.
"She's had a very good and strong record here," said John Johannes, vice president of academic affairs at Villanova. "She's being published and she's a good scholar. She is very accomplished."
Michael Bonner, who met Ener in the 1980s when she was attending graduate school at the University of Michigan, where he currently teaches, said the allegations were "not remotely in her character."
"I always thought she was a highly motivated but balanced person," said Bonner, who edited a book with Ener.
Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay contributed to this report.
Public can tour Prince Charles' house
LONDON (AP) ---- Prince Charles is letting the public tour his new digs at Clarence House ---- a stately home for him and his sons, with a room reserved for longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles.
The early 19th century house was the home of Charles' grandmother, the Queen Mother Elizabeth, for nearly 50 years. The public paid $7 million to refurbish the home, with the prince chipping in another $2.6 million for decorations.
Parts of Clarence House open to the public for the first time on Wednesday, while the family is away for the summer holiday. Small tour groups will be guided around five rooms on the ground floor until Oct. 17, when it becomes a private home again for Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry.
Parker Bowles will have a room and bath there ---- as she did at their previous home in York House at St. James's Palace.
The move from York House on Monday couldn't have been much easier. The brick palace adjoins Clarence House, and the family wouldn't even have had to leave the grounds to get from one home to the next. Just yards from the bustling traffic that swirls around Buckingham Palace, the house has a tranquil air in its brick-walled setting of lush green lawn and flower borders. Huge plane trees rise beside the gravel drive.
Clarence House, though never a tourist attraction like Buckingham Palace, was a favorite gathering place for the legions of admirers of the queen mother, who died last year at 101. It was a familiar place to her grandchildren, especially Charles.
The graceful, cream-colored building remains very much a home, and is not at all palatial, despite the antique furniture and the many paintings that adorn the walls.
Prince Charles' offices for his charity work are there, and the ground floor will be used to receive official guests, hold seminars, receptions and dinners. York House was small, without enough room for official entertaining, so the prince used Highgrove, his country house in western England, for receptions. But that involved a long trip out of London for guests.
Memories of a much-loved grandparent are everywhere at Clarence House, from the pale blue morning room with its French doors into the garden and its family portraits, to the Horse Corridor, where equine paintings and racing memorabilia are reminders the queen mother was an avid racehorse owner.
A framed painting of her favorite corgi dogs is on a table in the morning room beneath an oil portrait of her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, as a child. On the library shelves among books on art and history are P.G. Wodehouse's novels, and thrillers by Dick Francis, who once was a jockey for the queen mother's racing stables.
The house has happy memories. It was the first real home of the newly married Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth before she became queen in 1952. Prince Charles was a toddler there, and Princess Anne was born in the house in 1950.
Built in the 1820s, the house got its name from the Duke of Clarence, third son of King George III. The duke was so happy there that when he became King William IV in 1830 he decided not to move into newly built Buckingham Palace.
For the next hundred or so years, royal relatives lived in Clarence House. During World War II, it was used as headquarters for the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance Brigade and suffered bomb damage.
Much of the substantial work on the house, including plumbing, electricity, fire protection and basic decoration were paid by the taxpayer -- $7 million in all, a St. James's Palace spokesman said. Prince Charles paid $2.6 million for carpeting, curtains, lighting and to reupholster furniture, the spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.
The cost of Parker Bowles' room and bath, he said, was shared. The basic decoration -- to "guest room level"-- was paid out of public funds, like the rest of the rooms. Prince Charles paid for additional decoration.
Prince William, 21, and Prince Harry, 18, had a say in the decoration of their own rooms, and they're likely to be more up-to-date than the rest of the house.
The private apartments in the upper floors will remain strictly off the tour route.
All 46,000 of the tickets for the summer opening had been sold by Tuesday afternoon.
Firefighters, soldiers battle fires still spreading in western Canada
KAMLOOPS, British Columbia (AP) -- Gusting winds from approaching thunderstorms Tuesday spread some wildfires in western Canada, where a provincial leader warned of a long battle to contain the blazes.
More than 300 fires burning in British Columbia and others in Alberta have forced the evacuation of 11,000 people. Army soldiers have joined the firefighters and volunteers digging break lines, dumping water and taking other measures to bring the blazes under control.
No deaths have been reported, but flames have torched dozens of homes and businesses in some British Columbia communities.
With thunderstorms forecast in the province, authorities worry the accompanying winds and lightning strikes will worsen the situation.
"We still haven't managed to contain even 50 percent of the fires we're dealing with," Premier Gordon Campbell said before touring some of the worst-hit areas. "It's going to be a long time, a long-haul process."
Any rainfall from the storms would be welcome in a region that has received just over 1.24 inches of precipitation in the past 60 days, creating the tinder-dry conditions that help the fires spread.
A major fire north of Kamloops, about 180 miles northeast of Vancouver, spread another 7,400 acres overnight to increase the burn to more than 27,170 acres, authorities said.
While a few hundred evacuees have been allowed to return to their homes, authorities are preventing most from going back because the threat of further fire remained too great.
"The only thing I can tell you that makes this disaster different than the other ones we've ever dealt with is the volatility of it, the size of it and the explosiveness of it," said Rod Salem, regional manager of British Columbia's provincial emergency program.
British Columbia has declared a state of emergency to hasten federal help, with more than 100 soldiers along with firefighters from Alberta and Ontario provinces arriving to help battle the fires.
In Kamloops, the city of 80,000 that serves as administrative center and gateway to smaller resort towns of the province's interior, smoke from fires on surrounding mountains was so heavy Tuesday that authorities warned people with respiratory problems to stay indoors.
One fire caused heavy damage in Barriere, 40 miles to the north, and other communities. The Barriere fire was apparently started by a discarded cigarette, authorities said.
About 5,000 people who fled to Kamloops from surrounding areas were staying in hotels, houses and the local hockey arena, officials said.
In southern Alberta, forest fires forced the evacuation of 500 people from Maligne Lake, a popular tourist destination in the Canadian Rockies. Other Alberta fires caused authorities to evacuate communities in the mountains within 30 miles of the U.S. border at Montana.
Officials also reported 80 forest fires in the prairie province of Saskatchewan and 14 fires in neighboring Manitoba, including a 98,000-acre blaze near Thompson in the remote north.
Judge suspends decision on neglected dogs' fate
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A judge suspended his decision Tuesday to place nearly 200 Chihuahuas and small mixed-breed dogs with an animal rescue agency after their owner refused to give up the dogs.
The judge will decide Friday whether to approve transferring the neglected animals to Chihuahua Rescue, said Deputy District Attorney Steven Heller. If the judge decides against the move, the dogs will remain with their current handler, the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control.
The decision was delayed after breeder Emma Harter backed out of an agreement to place the dogs in the animal sanctuary. Harter, who pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges of animal cruelty, wants the county to waive the cost of caring for them since they were seized.
The animals were impounded last November from Harter's home in Acton. They are being held at a county shelter in Baldwin Park, where some puppies have been born. It has cost the county more than $500,000 to care for the animals, said Marcia Mayeda, director of the county animal control department.
Animal control officials said most of the dogs started attacking one another after being packed in tight quarters. They said most of the dogs were not fit for adoption but could be housed in an animal sanctuary where people can have limited contact with them.
China shuts down fireworks factores
BEIJING (AP) ---- China has shut down 830 fireworks factories in a southern province for fear that a summer heat wave could set off explosions, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.
Small chemical plants and factories making cigarette lighters in Jiangxi province also were ordered to close, according to Xinhua. It didn't say when the facilities would reopen.
The order came a week after an explosion in the northern province of Hebei that killed 29 people. The blast was blamed on hot weather that authorities said caused gunpowder to combust spontaneously.
Jiangxi is the center of China's fireworks industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of people.
Cuba releases men who stole boat to reach U.S.
HAVANA (AP) ---- Six of 12 men implicated in the hijacking of a government boat last month were immediately freed upon their return to Cuba, one of the men said Tuesday.
Fermin Suarez said Cuban authorities let him walk free, but his 27-year-old son was among the six still in custody in the provincial capital of Camaguey pending trial on robbery charges.
Suarez, 51, was the captain of the boat that U.S. officials intercepted in the Florida Straits.
"I was only doing them a favor. Besides, my son was with them," he said from a neighbor's telephone in the central-eastern town of Nuevitas, about 340 miles east of Havana.
There was no independent confirmation of the men's release from either Cuban or American officials, who have not commented on the case since soon after the July 21 repatriation.
U.S. officials sent the 12 men back to Cuba, along with three guards taken hostage by the would-be migrants, after intercepting them at sea as they tried to reach Florida. The Bush administration agreed to the repatriation after Havana promised those who stole the boat would serve no longer than 10 years in prison.
The agreement angered many in the Cuban exile community in the United States, who feared the men would be executed and didn't want the U.S. government negotiating with the Castro regime.
Washington is under increasing pressure from Cuban exiles to reconsider rules that allow Cubans to stay in the United States only if they reach land.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took issue with the decision of his brother's administration, citing concerns for the men based on a recent human rights crackdown on the island and the quick execution of three men who hijacked a ferry and tried to reach the United States.
Suarez said he did not know why some men were freed while others were held. He insisted he was not complicit in the robbery of the boat owned by Geocuba, a government company that does geological exploration and mapping.
Although U.S. officials based in Cuba regularly visit repatriated migrants to ensure they are not being mistreated, Suarez said no American official had visited him in the two weeks since his return. He said he had not been harassed by Cuban authorities.
The Cuban government has said it promised Washington that prosecutors here would seek no more than 10 years in prison for the people accused of commandeering the craft.
In announcing last month's repatriation, Havana called the move "a valuable contribution by American authorities in the fight against the hijacking of planes and boats for illegal migration."
U.S. officials said the Cubans were deemed ineligible for amnesty because they had committed acts of violence in Cuba as well as against Coast Guard personnel who boarded the 36-foot boat in the Florida Straits.
Under U.S. policy, most Cuban migrants intercepted at sea are repatriated and those who reach land are generally allowed to stay and apply for American residency after a year.
Disabled woman pregnant
MADISON, Wis. (AP) ---- A developmentally and physically disabled woman became pregnant while living at a state facility and may have been a victim of sexual assault, police said.
Police have no suspects, said Det. Vicki Anderson.
The pregnancy was discovered last week when the woman developed medical complications and was taken to a hospital, police said. The fetus was about six weeks old, they said.
The Department of Health and Family Services was also investigating.
The woman lives at the Central Wisconsin Center for the Developmentally Disabled in Madison. Most of the center's 350 residents can't walk, bathe, dress or feed themselves, and about half are fed by tube.
A former worker at the home was convicted in 1996 of battery and abuse for mistreating eight disabled patients.
In Florida, a developmentally disabled woman was raped and became pregnant while living in an Orlando group home, and a legal battle has erupted over whether the fetus should have a legal guardian.
GE to pay $1.4M in suit
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ---- A judge has ordered General Electric Co. to pay $1.4 million to settle a state lawsuit claiming the company deceived owners of defective dishwashers, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday.
The company will pay a $650,000 penalty and $780,000 to New York consumers who purchased GE dishwashers that were recalled in 1999, Spitzer said.
Legal actions over the dishwasher recall also have begun in other states, said Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Pritchard. She said a national settlement in a California court recovered $20 settlements for consumers outside New York, which was carved out of the case. That settlement, approved by a court in September, is under appeal.
GE spokeswoman Kim Freeman said there was never a finding of intentional deception.
"Throughout the dishwasher recall, GE intended to provide clear and accurate information regarding the options available to consumers," Freeman said. "While we disagree with the court's decision, we have agreed to resolve the case and move on."
Nearly 2,260 New York consumers will get refunds averaging $346 under the consent order GE agreed to Monday, Spitzer said.
Assistant Attorney General Joy Feigenbaum said the dishwashers were blamed for as many as 90 fires nationwide, including a house fire in Connecticut.
Because of a fire hazard, GE announced a voluntary recall in 1999 of the dishwashers, which were manufactured mostly in the 1980s.
Spitzer filed suit in March 2000 accusing GE of persuading residential consumers to buy new dishwashers to replace the recalled models by concealing the availability of a quick, inexpensive repair.
A 2001 trial court verdict, upheld in March by an appellate court, found that GE told residential customers the fire hazard, caused by wiring in a switch, could not be repaired, at the same time it told commercial customers how to fix the dishwashers.
General Electric has sent out 1,756 checks to New Yorkers so far and the rest should be mailed within three weeks, Feigenbaum said.
On the Net:
State Attorney General's Office http://www.oag.state.ny.us.
Distillery fire contained
BARDSTOWN, Ky. (AP) ---- The smell of burning whiskey lingered in the air Tuesday as the remnants of a fire that destroyed a warehouse that had held 800,000 gallons of Jim Beam bourbon continued to burn.
The fire was contained, but was expected to burn until at least Thursday. "There's a lot of lumber in there," Fire Chief Anthony Mattingly said.
Emergency officials said a small amount of bourbon found its way into a creek that runs near the charred warehouse, but the environmental effects were expected to be minimal.
About 90 minutes after firefighters arrived Monday, bulldozers were brought in to dam the creek, halting the downstream flow of bourbon, officials said.
"We got some (bourbon) in the river, I'm sure," said Joe Osborne, the director of emergency management for Nelson County. "We think it's very minimal, but we'll have to wait and see."
Agents from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms checked Tuesday for any environmental damage from the fire.
The company said Tuesday that "all initial indications suggest" the fire was caused by lightning. Thunderstorms swept through the area Monday afternoon.
The wooden warehouse, built in 1945, contained 19,000 barrels of aging bourbon. The warehouse is one of four at the site and among 64 owned by Jim Beam. It is one of the company's older warehouses, said Jeff Conder, a plant manager for Jim Beam.
All four warehouses at the site had lightning rods and metal roofs -- a change from the original tar roofs many had when first built, Conder said.
None of the other three warehouses at the site was significantly damaged, and the company said the fire destroyed about 2 percent of its aging bourbon inventory.
Conder said the amount of bourbon lost represented less than two weeks worth of production and that the company was fully insured.
The fire was the third in the last seven years at a bourbon warehouse in Kentucky, where more than 95 percent of the world's bourbon is produced.
Death toll rises as Europe sizzles
MADRID, Spain (AP) ---- Blistering heat caused four more deaths in Spain on Tuesday as Europe baked in relentless weather that has disrupted travel and cooked the Mediterranean enough for one scientist to warn of a proliferation of jellyfish.
Temperatures soared above 100 degrees across the continent and forecasters in France and Britain predicted record highs on Wednesday.
In Spain, temperatures peaked at 106 degrees Tuesday in the southern cities of Seville and Cordoba, and reached 104 degrees in Madrid, the capital.
Three elderly women died in the southern Andalusian region and one died in Ciudad Real in central Castille, raising the overall death toll in Spain to 14 in a week of suffocating temperatures.
Doctors said the latest victims had heart or respiratory conditions that were worsened by the heat as Europeans suffer from one of the worst heat waves and dry spells in years.
In Paris, tourists sought relief in public fountains and in the shade near the Eiffel Tower.
"It's too hot to wait in line," said Karen Kauffmann, 54, a New Yorker visiting the French capital, where Tuesday's temperature of 100 degrees set a new record for August, according to the national weather service.
"We're drinking a lot of Coke -- and water, stopping at cafes and hiding from the heat in the air-conditioned hotel," she said.
Temperatures also were high in Italy, even in the mountains. It was nearly 90 degrees in Cortina d'Ampezzo, one of Italy's most popular resorts in the Dolomites. Tour operators on the nearby Marmolada glacier kept skiers from the glacier runs that usually remain open during summer because of fears of landslides from melting ice.
At least 25 people have been treated for heat exhaustion, heat stroke and dehydration in the usually cool, northeastern city of Trieste, said Dr. Sergio Gregorutti of the Cattinara Hospital.
Workers in the Netherlands flooded a labor union with queries as to whether they could stay home because of the heat. They were told no, but they could wear shorts and take longer breaks.
Four nuclear power plants in Germany cut production drastically to avoid overheating water in cooling towers that empty into rivers.
Normally cool Britain also sweated as temperatures rose to 86 in London and Manchester, a northern city.
Bettors wagered on how much hotter it would get, the government warned about health dangers and trains ran slower for a second straight day out of fear the tracks might buckle.
It was so hot off Spain's Mediterranean coast that water temperatures were up by as many as three degrees from last summer, said Jorge Olcina of the Climatology Laboratory of the University of Alicante. In one stretch between Tarragona and Murcia, the sea temperature was 84 degrees on Monday.
The higher temperatures could cause the jellyfish population to flourish because heat accelerates their reproductive cycle, Olcina told the Spanish national news agency Efe. However, it would only be a passing phenomenon, he said.
The heat has exacerbated forest fires in Spain and neighboring Portugal, where two more bodies were found, raising the death toll from the worst wildfires in decades to 11.
Forest fires in the foothills of the French Riviera last week killed four people, and another man died on the French island of Corsica when he tried to put out a fire on his property. In Spain, firefighters have been battling intense fires since Thursday.
Back in Spain, an association of poultry producers warned of higher chicken prices because of lower supply: the heat causes chicks to take as many as 50 days to mature, compared with 45 normally.
Mother arrested for alleged kidnapping
BLYTHE (AP) ---- A Texas woman accused of kidnapping her children 16 years ago, allegedly with help from an underground network, has been arrested, authorities said Tuesday.
Catherine Walker, 48, was arrested over the weekend during a routine traffic stop after authorities discovered an outstanding parental abduction warrant, Riverside County sheriff's Deputy John Kaiser said.
She has been jailed without bail pending an extradition hearing to return her to Texas, he said.
Walker allegedly kidnapped her two daughters in August 1987 from their home in Gilmer, Texas, about 130 miles east of Dallas, after she was found in contempt of court for violating child visitation orders and falsely accusing her ex-husband, Doug Harwood, of failing to pay child support, according to Upshur County, Texas, court records.
Harwood, who had custody of the girls at the time of the abduction, said he was relieved at news of Walker's arrest.
"Closure will come when justice is served. Closure will come when she's been convicted," he told The Associated Press by phone from his upstate New York home.
Attempts to find Walker and her daughters, Rebekah and Elizabeth Harwood, had yielded few clues over the years.
"For 15 years, I had no idea if they were alive or dead. Every Christmas, every birthday, you wondered. It was tough," Harwood said.
He was reunited with his daughters, now 22 and 19, in February after the two girls found their birth certificates and tracked him down.
"They told me they knew I existed and they decided to contact me," he said.
Harwood said he hired a private investigator who did pick up Walker's trail in the late 1980s.
Private investigator Tim Mullis claimed she had joined an underground Atlanta-based Christian network, according to a 1990 report posted on a Web site set up by the girls' father and their half-sister, Theresa DeNatale.
Mullis said he tracked Walker to South Carolina where her sister, Tandy Collier, told him Walker was on the run and had joined the network.
"These people are very sincere in their belief in this group or network, and would do almost anything to protect it," his report said.
"Tandy told us that she expected the police to be out to put her in jail anytime. She also told us that she would go to jail before she would give up her sister."
The report did not identify the network. A telephone call by the AP to Collier was not immediately returned.
Using the alias Lyn Johnson, Walker turned up in Blythe, some 220 miles southeast of Los Angeles, about two years ago, Riverside County sheriff's Deputy Jim Carney said. She worked at the Palo Verde Valley Times as a reporter and editor.
A telephone call to Debbie White, publisher of the twice-weekly newspaper, was not immediately returned.
Walker was arrested Saturday after being pulled over for driving on expired Colorado license plates, Kaiser said. A check of her name turned up several aliases and later her real identity, he said.
Harwood said he did not know what, if anything, his daughters' mother had told them about him.
He said they did tell him that in the years after they left they lived in a motor home, traveling from state to state and lived on Indian reservations where his ex-wife did missionary work.
Harwood said Walker was aware their daughters had contacted him. He said he planned to attend his oldest daughter's wedding later this month
"We'll just go from there. We're going to get to know each other," he said.
On the Net: http://www.beckywalker.com
Groups find high pesticide levels in drinks
NEW DELHI, India (AP) ---- The Indian arms of PepsiCo Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. are selling soft drinks in India containing dangerous levels of pesticide residue, an independent research group said Tuesday. The companies defended the quality of their products.
Sunita Narain, chief of the independent New Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment, told reporters the levels of pesticides in the PepsiCo brands tested were 36 times higher than European Union standards.
The average for all Coca-Cola products was 30 times higher than guidelines used by the European Union, she said, noting the residue was apparently coming from groundwater polluted by toxic pesticides.
The top executives of the two rival companies held a rare joint news conference denying the allegations and demanding to know what laboratories did the testing, and how the research was conducted.
The Center acknowledged that Indian brands also have high pesticide levels, because agricultural pesticides are in the country's ground water, but said the focus was on Coke and Pepsi because they account for more than three-fourths of the bottled soft drinks consumed in India.
"We tested the two soft drink brands sold in the United States to see if these contained pesticides. They didn't," Narain said.
The toxins found in the soft drinks could, if consumed over a long period, cause cancer, damage to the nervous system, birth defects and disruption of the immune system, Narain said. She noted that India has no laws banning pesticides in soft drinks.
Sanjeev Gupta, president and chief executive of Coca-Cola India, challenged the assertion that the soft drink sold in India is different than in other countries. "Our product is ... the same product, which we sell in America, in Europe and India," he said.
Calling the report "baseless," Rajeev Bakshi, head of PepsiCo India Holdings Private Ltd., demanded the claims made by the research body be verified by an independent and accredited laboratory that is capable of conducting sophisticated tests for pesticides.
Twelve samples of Pepsi and Coke purchased in and around the Indian capital contained toxic pesticides and insecticides, including lindane, DDT and malathion, the Center said its researchers found.
It did not say which laboratories were used, but a similar report by the Center in February on bottled water sold by Coke, Pepsi and other companies was accepted by the companies. Gupta, in fact, said that Coke had checked all its processes and established new testing procedures on the basis of the previous report.
Those earlier findings on bottled water prompted the Indian government to withdraw quality certificates given to some of India's most popular brands of bottled water and issue strict guidelines.
Considered one India's leading research centers on environment issues, the Center for Science and Environment receives funds from the Indian government as well as domestic and overseas private agencies.
Kennedy Center honors 5 artists
WASHINGTON (AP) ---- James Brown, Carol Burnett, Loretta Lynn, Mike Nichols and Itzhak Perlman have been chosen for the 26th annual Kennedy Center Honors.
James A. Johnson, chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said Tuesday that all five are being honored "for the unique and extremely valuable contributions they have made to the cultural life of our nation."
n Brown, described by Johnson as "one of the most influential musicians of the past 50 years," is the legendary soul singer whose hits include "Please, Please, Please," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)."
n Burnett, "a nationally treasured icon of television comedy," starred on "The Carol Burnett Show" on CBS from 1967-78.
n Lynn, "a singer whose name is synonymous with the heartbreak and joy of country music," recorded such classics as "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "Woman of the World" and the autobiographical "Coal Miner's Daughter."
n Nichols, "an extraordinary director equally brilliant in the theater and on film," directed the original Broadway productions of "Barefoot in the Park" and "The Odd Couple" as well as the movies "The Graduate" and "Carnal Knowledge."
n Perlman, "a classical superstar of unsurpassed artistic achievement," is an Israeli violinist who has performed with orchestras all over the world.
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush will hold a White House reception for the honorees on Dec. 7, followed by a gala performance at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Stars from around the world take part in the performance, but the five winners traditionally remain in the audience.
The show will reopen the Opera House, which has been closed for refurbishing since last fall. For many years television newsman Walter Cronkite has been master of ceremonies, but this year's choice has not been announced.
CBS will present the show as a two-hour prime-time special later in December.
Man gets life in kidnapping
MIAMI (AP) ---- A man was sentenced to life in federal prison Tuesday for kidnapping a mail carrier and forcing her at gunpoint into a slow-speed chase.
Nevia Abraham was convicted in May by jurors who rejected his defense that his actions were legally justified because he was trying to get two of his children away from a former girlfriend, who he claimed threatened to kill herself and the youngsters.
Attorneys said an appeal is planned.
Abraham, 38, was convicted of kidnapping, assault and weapons charges for abducting postal carrier Tonya Mitchell during her rounds on Jan. 31 and forcing her back into her truck.
He admitted firing one shot into the air from each of his two handguns. He said he wanted to use Mitchell in a ploy to get into his girlfriend's house.
Police and news crews tracked the mail truck during an aimless 90-minute pursuit, until officers punctured the truck's tires with spikes.
Mitchell was released a few minutes later, and Abraham surrendered five hours after the kidnapping began.
Malawi bans popular reality show
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) ---- Malawi lawmakers voted to ban the popular reality program Big Brother Africa from the nation's airwaves Tuesday, declaring it immoral.
The show, which locked 12 petulant housemates from across the continent in a house in South Africa, has been praised for bridging the cultural gaps that separate many on the continent and exploding some of the myths they share about their fellow Africans.
The show also includes risque interactions between young adults, apparently what prompted the ban.
"People are subjected to horrible pictures, which are corrupting the morals of our children," said Taylor Nothale, chairman of Parliament's media committee.
Nothale said he has received a chain of complaints about the show, particularly from parents. "We want the government to stop that nonsense on TV," said opposition leader Gwanda Chakuamba.
The show is beamed 24 hours a day to Africans with satellite dishes, but the highlights of the show are broadcast on local stations in many African countries. The state-run Television Malawi broadcasts the half-hour highlights every evening.
Benson Tembo, director general of the public broadcaster, said he would abide by the vote.
Last week, Namibian President Sam Nujoma also criticized the program, saying his country's national broadcaster should be showing programs on the history of Namibia instead.
Big Brother organizers said they were perplexed at the Malawi decision, pointing out that the highlight show was cleaned up for family viewing.
"If (Big Brother Africa) didn't generate any controversy, the project would be a failure," Carl Fischer, a producer of the show, said in an e-mail.
Malawi's representative in the Big Brother House, Zein Dudah, was voted off the show about a month ago.
Seizure of 70 pounds of crystal methamphetamine as two arrested
SAN GABRIEL (AP) ---- More than 70 pounds of crystal methamphetamine with an estimated $3 million street value was recovered in the nation's largest-ever seizure of so-called Asian methamphetamine, federal and local law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
The drug known as Asian methamphetamine is characterized by its purity, shiny appearance, and potency, said DEA Special Agent Jose Martinez.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents displayed some of the white meth crystals at a news conference Tuesday. The chunky crystals resemble "ice" -- the common street name of the illegal drug chemically known as methamphetamine hydrochloride, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Sunday's raid east of Los Angeles was the largest amount of Asian crystal meth ever seized in the United States, said DEA Special Agent Jose Martinez. The drug known as Asian methamphetamine is characterized by its purity, shiny appearance, and potency, Martinez said.
Arrested for investigation of manufacturing methamphetamine for sale and conspiracy were Thai Tung Luong, 42, of San Gabriel, and Chun Yin Jao, 61, a resident of Thailand who had been staying at a hotel in Monterey Park.
Both men were jailed without bail being set prior to arraignments to be held Tuesday for Luong in Alhambra Superior Court and for Jao in Los Angeles Superior Court.
DEA agents had received information Jao was involved in making crystal methamphetamine, the federal agency said. The raid in San Gabriel involved federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents and police from Monterey Park and San Gabriel.
After following the two men from a Monterey Park hotel, officers obtained a search warrant and found an operational methamphetamine lab in a garage at a San Gabriel residence near a school. They later found the large cache of the drug at a storage unit in San Gabriel, said Monterey Park police Sgt. Larry Giannone.
Tobago fisherman spends 33 days lost at sea
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) ---- Mexican authorities who discovered three fishermen from Tobago who wandered lost at sea for 33 days before turning up near the Yucatan coast thought the men were Colombians transporting narcotics, one of the fishermen said Tuesday.
"They came in an army boat, with big guns, they thought that we were from Colombia," Joseph Ramkissun said in an interview from a migration office in Cancun, where he and two of his countrymen are waiting to be deported to their homeland.
"Our hands were up asking for help and water," the 30-year-old said.
Trinidad and Tobago, just off the northeast coast of Venezuela, is about 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometers) east of the nearest coastline in Mexico.
Ramkissun, 28-year-old Andy White and Anil Ramsook, 26, disappeared after leaving Tobago on June 26 aboard the 31-foot (9.3-meter) skiff "Sea Eagle" to fish the northern coast.
The men were rescued by the Mexican military on July 27 at Punta Allen on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, 115 miles (180 kilometers) from Cancun.
Ramkissun said he and the others quickly ran out food and water, but managed to stay alive by catching fish and drinking rain water that fell when Tropical Storm Claudette passed over them on a course that eventually took it near Cancun.
"We had to eat raw fish, and put it in the sun trying to cook it. We had to drink sea water," he said. "(It was) 33 days with nothing, only sun."
He said the group was "happy to have the storm Claudette. It was the only time that we had water."
Ramkissun said by the morning of the day they were discovered, the men had gone so long without food or water that they had lost the will to live. He said they felt a glimmer of hope when they spotted a Mexican navy plane overhead, but quickly slipped back into depression during the several hours it took for a military ship to find them.
Once the were finally discovered, they were taken to a hospital in Tulum to be treated for severe dehydration, malnutrition and burns.
Oscar Paulino Lugo, deputy director of migration for Cancun, said authorities planned to deport the trio to Tobago on Wednesday.
Ramkissun said he couldn't wait to return home, where his wife and three children already had mistakenly held a funeral for him.
"It was not really a funeral because they had no body," he said. "When we call, they were surprised, they couldn't believe it."
Thieves steal $545K from Powerball winner
CROSS LANES, W.Va. (AP) ---- A Powerball winner who has donated more than $3 million of his record winnings to churches was drinking at a strip club when $545,000 was stolen from his sport utility vehicle, police said Tuesday.
Jack Whittaker said he hopes the incident will not affect the Jack Whittaker Foundation, which he established to help charities operated by the Church of God and other causes. He also said he wanted to remind the media and the public that he is a private citizen.
"I'm simply a businessman who has seen his share of failures and successes," Whittaker said. "My personal life is my own and I make no excuses for my actions."
Someone broke the driver's side window and took a briefcase containing $245,000 in cash and three $100,000 cashier's checks belonging to Whittaker, who hit Powerball's richest jackpot on Christmas Day, police said. The briefcase, cash and checks were found behind a nearby trash bin.
"It's a known fact that Mr. Whittaker does carry a lot of money around with him, because he does frequent not only that club, but several other establishments ... and he does gamble," said Kanawha County Sheriff Dave Tucker.
Authorities believe the thief has close ties to the Pink Pony strip club in Cross Lanes, but no arrests have been made.
Whittaker first arrived at the Pink Pony on Monday evening. He left shortly after midnight, returning at 2:30 a.m. and leaving his vehicle's motor running, Tucker said.
Whittaker discovered the broken window about 5 a.m. and tried to go back inside to call police, but club employees initially refused to let him in.
Whittaker called deputies at 5:20 a.m. and also called his private investigator, who found the stolen money behind the trash bin less than an hour later, police said.
Club employees declined to comment to The Associated Press. Kanawha County Chief Deputy Phil Morris said they told deputies Whittaker was allowed to stay at the club until after 5 a.m. because he had drunk too much alcohol. The club closes at 3 a.m.
Whittaker told deputies that he was drugged after his return to the Pink Pony, and he provided police with a urine sample for analysis, Morris said.
"There's no confusion on the fact that he didn't have all his faculties," Morris said.
A compact disc player and several CDs stolen from a vehicle belonging to club owners were recovered along with the briefcase, he said.
Whittaker, a building contractor, was already a millionaire Christmas Day when he claimed a $113 million cash option after winning a record $314.9 million jackpot. He promised to donate a tenth of his winnings to charity.
Woman accused in hoax has many personalities
YUBA CITY (AP) ---- A former Yuba City woman accused of tricking an Indiana couple into believing she was their long-lost daughter has exhibited at least seven personalities, according to FBI documents and published reports.
Donna Lynette Walker, 35, cooperated with the FBI by tracking pedophiles' Internet solicitations from her Yuba City home.
But Walker also had an alter ego: Allison, the personality of a 19-year-old who had trouble with men and the law.
Walker is being held in Topeka, Kansas, on $100,000 bond on Indiana charges of felony identity deception and misdemeanor false reporting. Prosecutors say she tried to convince the Indiana couple that she was their daughter, missing since 1986. A hearing is set for Wednesday on Walker's motion for a reduction in her bail to $10,000.
Court records and interviews indicate she has had brushes with the law in California, Kansas, Virginia and Nebraska involving such offenses as making crank calls, reporting a false fire alarm, writing bad checks, making a bomb threat and using stolen credit cards to run up long-distance charges, according to an Indiana State Police affidavit.
In a hearing last week, Indiana State Police Lt. Jeff Heck said a 1992 homicide investigation report from Virginia Beach, Va., indicated Walker might have "multiple personalities and is capable of talking in a male voice."
Chico-based FBI Special Agent Rich Davidson, in an affidavit last year, said Walker "identifies herself variously as Kara Michaels, Michelle, Donna, a preteen named Holly, and teenagers named Heather, Leslie and Lindsey.... The agents, including me, have been told that she has multiple personalities."
Yet her information had been used in federal cases in California, Arizona, Kentucky and Washington state.
The Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday that in an interview last summer, Walker claimed she was molested from age 4 to 13 by a family member during her childhood in Virginia and Iowa, and that she was molested by a minister after her family sent her to a "bizarre" church in the Midwest. The newspaper said the minister she named in the interview was later arrested for molesting other children, but that no charges were ever filed based on Walker's allegations.
Walker said she was sent to a psychiatric hospital for eight months at age 13, after she told family members about the molestation.
She was convicted of prostitution in Sacramento in 1991 and 1994, but in the next five years began to provide the FBI with information about pedophiles she tracked on the Internet while pretending to be Holly, an 11-year-old California girl. While some of that information was valid, investigators found she made up some of her information.
During 21 months Walker lived in Yuba City from 2000-2002, she had contact with Yuba City police an unusual 16 times, including twice when friends reported her missing, reported the Bee and the Appeal-Democrat of Marysville and Yuba City.
The Bee quoted an unidentified close friend as saying Walker on four occasions disappeared for days, before resurfacing disoriented and with unexplained injuries.
"I don't know how much of it was real and how much of it was her imagination," the friend told the Bee. "She threw in enough truth to make you think it was all real."
By late last year, the friend said Walker occasionally would assume the voices and mannerisms of much younger women. After Walker disappeared, the friend told the Bee she received strange telephone calls from "Brian," who said he was Walker's friend. FBI agents told the (Portland) Oregonian newspaper Brian apparently is another of Walker's personalities.
The FBI believes it was Walker who called Portland authorities and the Oregonian in January 2002, pretending to be a missing Michigan child who had been brought to Oregon by her abductor. In fact, the missing 13-year-old was found in West Virginia.
The next month, Indiana FBI agents used information supplied by Walker to charge 40-year-old Charles Steers with child pornography, including photographs of Steers raping a toddler, according to FBI reports obtained by the Bee.
In April 2002, a tip from Walker prompted federal officials in Phoenix to arrest Gregory Allen Harris. The FBI says Harris' computer had numerous child pornography images.
In May 2002, the FBI arrested Donald Keffler of Washington state as he got off a bus in Marysville, expecting to meet the fictional Holly. Authorities said Keffler's laptop computer had photographs of Keffler engaged in sexual activity with young children.
"Like all criminal informants, you've got the wheat from the chaff," FBI agent Davidson told the Appeal-Democrat. "You know what issues she's got, but she does have some good information - or has in the past."
In July 2002, Walker disappeared, leaving behind a ransacked apartment. Days later, the Bee said it received a call from "Brian," who said Walker had been kidnapped by a Portland man she had been tracking online. But Portland authorities said Walker flew to Oregon voluntarily to meet her alleged abductor.
Walker called the Bee again in August 2002, this time from Des Moines, Iowa, and suggested she might end her life. She moved to Topeka, Kan., in April, and since has been treated for mental illness both as an inpatient and outpatient.
Walker has said she was only trying to help in the search for Shannon Marie Sherrill, who was 6 years old when she disappeared while playing hide-and-seek near her mother's home in Thorntown, Ind., about 30 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
Associated Press writer John Hanna contributed to this report from Topeka, Kan.
State wants court-ordered medication for man
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) ---- A man accused of killing three people and eating the flesh of one of them may be forcibly medicated to make him competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.
The case is among the first in the country under new standards set by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on when a state can forcibly medicate a defendant.
The ruling by Wyandotte County District Judge J. Dexter Burdette on Tuesday clears the way for Marc V. Sappington to stand trial on three counts of first-degree murder, possibly as early as mid-September.
Sappington, 24, is charged with killing two men and a teenage boy in April 2001. Police have testified that when he was arrested Sappington claimed he had heard voices telling him to eat flesh and drink blood.
Police also said Sappington cut up the teenager's body, then cooked and ate a small amount of his flesh. Sappington had planned to freeze the rest of the body and eat it later, a detective testified.
At a hearing, psychiatrist William Logan testified that Sappington is a danger to himself and others when he does not take his anti-psychotic medication.
Logan said Sappington complains that the medication makes him tired, but that when he stops taking it he becomes delusional.
Based on Logan's testimony, Burdette authorized the county sheriff's department to force-medicate Sappington if necessary.
Sappington was to have been tried earlier this year. But in January, with jury selection about to start, the judge ruled Sappington was not competent for trial and ordered him sent to a state hospital for evaluation and treatment.
Hospital staff determined in May that he was fit to stand trial, but Logan said Sappington suffered a relapse about two weeks ago and was no longer ready to go to court.
Defense attorney Patricia Aylward Kalb said her client refused medication at least 11 times in July. She said in court Monday that Sappington would take his medication voluntarily, but that wasn't enough assurance for prosecutors.
"This has happened twice as we were set to go to trial," Assistant District Attorney Jerry Gorman said. "I want the order to force him to take the medicine, just in case."
Kalb said she was pleased with the judge's ruling because it established protocol for administering Sappington's drugs.
"Marc wanted to be back on the medication," Kalb said. "Without the medication, he can't function, but it has to be the proper medication. Mark obviously has a problem."
In the U.S. Supreme Court case, the justices ruled 6-3 in June that a state may involuntarily medicate a defendant to make him competent to stand trial, but several conditions must be met.
Odds and ends
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, N.J. (AP) -- Paul Alexander's 15 minutes of fame have turned into a year in prison.
Alexander bragged on television that he dumped his girlfriend while a guest on "The Jerry Springer Show."
After receiving a tip, Cape May County prosecutors watched as Alexander and his 22-year-old girlfriend spoke of their 7-year-old child.
Authorities did the math and determined that the couple's sexual relationship began when the woman was 13, according to prosecutor Marian Ragusa.
Prosecutors charged Alexander, 29, with endangering the welfare of a child and second-degree sexual assault for having sex with the woman when she was underage.
The woman, who was identified only as Rita, told the court she didn't want Alexander sent to jail, but prosecutors and the judge were adamant that prison time was required.
"Once a person goes on national television and acknowledges committing a crime, I can't imagine a state -- any state -- standing idly by," said Judge Carmen Alvarez.
SPARKS, Nev. (AP) -- A fictitious traffic accident wrecked a court reporter's chance to beat an 81-year-old stenographic record.
Taking dictation at speeds rivaling an auctioneer's chant, Mark Kislingbury set out Friday to establish a new speed record during the National Court Reporters Association' annual convention.
But in a simulated question-and-answer session about a collision at an intersection, Kislingbury fell behind the staccato delivery in a section describing the traffic light.
"I had to drop (words) to catch up to where they were at," he said. "That one spot was a little harder than I thought it would be. On any given day, anyone can write poorly, including myself."
The dictation consisted of 360 words delivered in one minute. Kislingbury's goal was 95 percent accuracy, or 18 errors. He had 27 for 92.5 percent.
His intention was to exceed the 350 words a minute set in 1922 by Nat Behren, with some differences. Behren used a pen and shorthand, and there is no record of his accuracy.
DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Lexington's skyline isn't known for its scenic view from the Ohio River -- mainly because the central Kentucky city is nowhere near it.
But a Danville Cracker Barrel restaurant has been unwittingly selling postcards of Louisville's skyline, emblazoned with "Lexington."
The company that designed and printed the postcards, Pages of Time-Seek Publishing, acknowledge they made a mistake.
"Boy, don't know how, but those pictures got swapped in the press run," said Wanda McClendon, of the Goodlettsville, Tenn., company.
Seek Publishing has recalled the postcards, McClendon said.
Jason Riggs, who works in the postcard department at the company, said the company has designed 4,000 different cards for cities across the country and "had only three or four mistakes."
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- After more than a year on the road, the Gall family can boast an accomplishment few others can: the couple and their three sons have visited all 50 state capitols.
The family finished Friday, when Ed and Ginger Gall and their sons -- 13-year-old Samuel, 11-year-old James and 6-year-old Benjamin -- went inside the Missouri State Capitol rotunda.
Visiting roughly one state each week, the journey, made in a recreational vehicle, took about 48,000 miles and over a year to complete.
"I'm glad we did it. I have no regrets. I'm just uncertain about re-entering 'real life,"' Ginger Gall said.
The Galls began their trip July 15, 2002. It wasn't a stunt to raise money. Instead, it was a chance to teach their sons about American history.
The Galls chose to homeschool their sons for the year. They mined each state's science, cultural and history museums to boost the boys' education.
"Our friends from another country had seen more of the country than we had," Ginger Gall said. "There was something wrong with that picture."
Man who put fake bomb in mailbox sentenced to 16 months in prison
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ---- A mentally ill man responsible for a series of bomb scares was sentenced Tuesday to 16 months in prison, most of which he has already served.
Preston Lit, who barked like a dog and overturned a table during previous court appearances, was calm and contrite during his sentencing. Acquaintances said Lit was back on the psychiatric drugs he needs.
U.S. District Judge James T. Giles said Lit deserved leniency for his remorse but has shown he can't handle life without daily medication. He ordered Lit, who has been in jail for more than a year, placed on probation for three years after his release from prison in about a month.
Lit, 54, an unemployed electrician, said he was delusional in May 2002 when he fabricated a fake bomb containing nails, screws, wires, a battery and a note that read "Free Palestine," and dropped it in a mailbox.
Lit left a note with a vague reference to the al-Qaida terrorist network at another mailbox. A day later he dumped debris containing another note on a neighbor's lawn.
Man drowns in Merced River in Yosemite National Park
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) -- A 20-year-old man drowned in the Merced River while swimming with friends at Emerald Pool, Yosemite National Park officials said Tuesday.
Melvin L. Paballa, of Milpitas, attempted to swim across the river at Emerald Pool above Vernal Fall when he went under Monday. Paballa's friends pulled him from the river. Bystanders and park rangers performed CPR on the man, but he died at the scene.
Carly Simon to tell who's 'So Vain'
EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) ---- Carly Simon will finally reveal who's so vain to a man with major connections in the media world ---- should he ever decide to break his vow of secrecy.
But Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC sports and NBC Olympics, said he'll never tell once Simon divulges to him the subject of her 1972 song "You're So Vain" after a private performance in about two weeks. Ebersol won the information with a $50,000 bid in a charity auction; he also gets a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
"It won't be hard to keep a secret," he said on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday morning.
Ebersol said Simon gave him one clue about the man's identity that she said he could reveal: He has the letter "e" in his name.
That could be any of the chief suspects: actor Warren Beatty, whom Simon dated; Mick Jagger, who sang backup on the song; and her ex-husband, James Taylor.
Ebersol said he was happy to put up the cash for a secret he can't tell.
"It's a great cause and I wanted to make sure Carly didn't have to tell a total stranger," Ebersol said.
The auction Monday raised $500,000 to benefit Martha's Vineyard Community Services, which provides child care, counseling, substance abuse treatment services and visiting nurses to the community.
Other celebrities offered dinner, lunch or golf, including actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen; newswoman Diane Sawyer and her husband, director Mike Nichols; and veteran newsman Walter Cronkite.
The annual event has raised nearly $4 million for Community Services since it began in 1979.
Etta James to be honored in Temecula
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) ---- Blues singer Etta James won't have to travel far from home to pick up her latest award.
The 65-year-old vocalist, nicknamed Matriarch of the Blues, will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming Temecula Valley International Film & Music Festival.
James will accept the award in September in Temecula. She has lived in nearby Riverside for the past 10 years.
Festival organizer Jo Moulton said James was chosen because in part because she overcame personal setbacks during her musical career, including a drug addiction.
"She's a legend in jazz and everything," Moulton said.
James this year was awarded her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and lifetime achievement honors from the Grammy organization. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Born Jamesetta Hawkins, the singer was discovered in San Francisco in 1954 by bandleader Johnny Otis. She is best known for her 1960 version of "At Last," and is considered an influence on such singers as Diana Ross, Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt.
Others to be honored at the Temecula Valley festival include actress Diane Ladd and director Penelope Spheeris.
Lynyrd Skynyrd cancels tour
LOS ANGELES (AP) ---- The southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd canceled the remainder of its co-headline tour with Sammy Hagar because of founding lead guitarist Gary Rossington's health woes.
Rossington, who underwent successful open heart surgery in February, was given permission to head out on the "Party of Lifetime" concert tour with Hagar beginning July 19. Lynyrd Skynyrd's own "Vicious Cycle Tour" was set to begin Aug. 23 in Omaha, Neb.
Rossington, 51, underwent quintuple bypass surgery on Feb. 25 at an Atlanta area hospital. But last week, Rossington's doctor ordered the guitarist to rest because of fatigue, band spokesman Lathum Nelson said Tuesday.
Further tests by Dr. Matthew W. Gwynn determined Rossington suffered a mild seizure. Rossington, who was released from the Atlanta area hospital on Monday, will need at least three weeks of house rest before touring, the doctor said.
There were no details about the seizure, Nelson said.
"We're hopeful that Gary will have a speedy recovery and look forward to performing in the near future," Johnny Van Zant, the band's lead singer, said in a statement, adding, "Lynyrd Skynyrd encourages all of the fans to head out and see Sammy carry the torch.
"Sammy's an excellent artist. Great music and hot babes. What more could you ask for?"
Lynyrd Skynyrd hopes to make performances at a later date in cities where concerts were canceled, Nelson said.
The band's hits the past 30 years include "Gimme Three Steps," "Simple Man," "Freebird," "'Sweet Home Alabama," "Saturday Night Special," "Gimme Back My Bullets," "What's Your Name?" and "That Smell."
On The Net: http://www.lynyrdskynyrd.com.
Raquel Welch splits from restaurateur husband
LOS ANGELES (AP) ---- Raquel Welch has separated from restaurant-owner husband Richard Palmer, her publicist said Tuesday.
The "Fantastic Voyage" actress married Palmer, her fourth husband, in 1999 at her Beverly Hills home. Palmer is owner of Mulberry Street Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills and Richie's Neighborhood Pizza stores.
In announcing their separation in a joint press release, Palmer and Welch said there was no third party involved and that the separation was amicable.
Divorce papers had not been filed, according to Welch publicist Jill Bushinsky, who said she also spoke on behalf of Palmer.
Welch, who won a Golden Globe for her work in 1973's "The Three Musketeers," has also appeared in the films "Bedazzled" (1967), "Tortilla Soup" (2001) and "One Million Years B.C." (1966), which featured a poster of her in a revealing animal-skin outfit that became a pin-up favorite.
Jay to get makeover from 'Fab 5'
NEW YORK (AP) ---- "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" is turning its gaze toward Jay Leno.
The host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" will undergo a makeover at the hands of the "Fab 5" ---- the five gay stylists who give a straight man a new look each week on the hit reality show.
They're scheduled to appear on Leno's late-night talk show Aug. 14 ---- the same night NBC will re-air the second installment of the Bravo series. Then they'll come back the next night to show off the results of their work.
The trade paper Variety reported Tuesday that Leno's set also will get a new look. The New York-based cast is expected to travel to Los Angeles next week to begin shopping for furniture and other fashionable goodies.
Stones suspend concert
MADRID, Spain (AP) ---- The Rolling Stones suspended a concert in the Spanish tourist resort town of Benidorm after 60-year-old lead singer Mick Jagger fell ill with laryngitis, organizers said Tuesday.
The concert set for later in the day was part of the Stones' "Forty Licks" tour and had been expected to attract some 30,000 spectators at the Foeits Sports Stadium.
Spain's private news agency Europa Press said the concert would be rescheduled for Sept. 19. It wasn't immediately possible to confirm the date with organizers.
The Stones already have played sold-out shows in Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao in Spain as part of the tour.
King gets column
BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- When he was in college at the University of Maine in the 1960s, best-selling author Stephen King had a column, "King's Garbage Truck," that ran in the student newspaper.
Now the Bangor novelist has a column again, this time in Entertainment Weekly magazine. It marks the first time King has written a regularly scheduled column since his university days.
His monthly piece, called "The Pop of King," debuts in the Aug. 8 issue. In it, he gives his opinions on books, movies, television, music and more.
In the introduction to his first column, the 55-year-old explains that he wrote a review of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" for the magazine a few months ago. The editors came back to him, he says, because they either liked the review or the fact that it was written in longhand.
"For all I know, they might have thought it would be good to have at least one writer on tap who could turn in copy even after a nuclear pulse wiped out the hard drives on all the laptops," King writes.
King also says he loved the third "Terminator" movie ("Arnold is still the perfect machine," he writes) and slams Celine Dion.
"Steve King thinks 'Who Let the Dogs Out' is better than all the songs Ms. Dion has recorded, put together," he writes.
Diaz photos sealed
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) -- A judge ordered that photographs of Cameron Diaz taken at a private modeling session about a decade ago, before she was a star, should be sealed.
Judge Alan Haber ordered the photos and a videotape sealed Monday, saying Diaz has a right to privacy of her own body. He set a Sept. 12 hearing in Superior Court on her request for an injunction against photographer John Rutter.
Diaz, who co-starred in the two "Charlie's Angels" movies, wasn't present at the hearing. Afterward, lawyers for the 30-year-old actress and Rutter wouldn't discuss the contents of the videotape.
Diaz didn't sign a photo release, and a release produced by Rutter is a forgery, her publicist, Brad Cafarelli, said last month.
No criminal charge has been filed against Rutter.
Rutter's lawyer, Michael H. Weiss, declined comment Monday. Diaz's lawyer, Paul Berra, didn't return a phone call for comment.
The photographer told the syndicated news program "Inside Edition" in mid-July that he'd contacted Diaz's lawyers to offer them the photos before he sold them to any media outlets.
"This was a negotiation for a right of first refusal with Cameron Diaz's lawyers," Rutter said. "A few hours after her lawyers offered to buy the photos my place was raided."
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office confirmed that Rutter's apartment had been searched. The warrant was issued in an investigation "involving an incident where Cameron Diaz is the alleged victim," said spokeswoman Jane Robison.
NEW YORK (AP) -- She has advised millions of loyal fans on what to read, how to manage relationships and how to lose weight. Next, Oprah Winfrey will be serving up advice on furniture and bedspreads.
Encouraged by the popularity of a previous issue devoted to home decorating, O, The Oprah Magazine will publish a 48-page home-design supplement next month, magazine spokeswoman Elizabeth Dye said Monday. The story first was reported in The New York Times.
O at Home will be bundled with the October issue and mailed to the magazine's 1.6 million subscribers, Dye said. She said the magazine also planned to do two more such supplements next year.
Dye said the supplement was an extension of home-related articles that O, The Oprah Magazine had been publishing in a section called Comfort Zone. She said an issue in December with a home design theme had sold a hefty 850,000 copies on newsstands.
O, The Oprah Magazine is co-owned by Winfrey and Hearst Corp., a major publisher of women's magazines including Cosmopolitan.
HONG KONG (AP) -- Ricky Martin has vowed to keep singing until his last breath.
"I love what I do. I don't know how to do anything else. I want to die on stage," Martin said at a news conference Sunday to promote his latest album, "Almas del Silencio."
Dressed in a striped shirt unbuttoned to reveal a jade Buddha pendant, the 31-year-old singer said he was particularly glad to be touring the region -- with stops in Shanghai, Singapore and Bangkok -- because it lets him try to touch people's hearts after the recent SARS outbreak.
Martin said he wanted people to "enjoy life as it comes," despite "this pain that we all went through, not only the people here in Hong Kong, or the people in some parts of Asia. The entire planet suffered this."
"We know about today. We don't know about tomorrow. So just let's embrace each other with love and peace and freedom and let's just be," he said.
Martin also talked about his new charity project: helping crack down on child pornography and child prostitution.
"It's a very, very difficult task. But it's part of my mission in life," he said. "I'll do anything I can to protect the children that are being violated in many ways."
Police shoot man at traffic stop
MILWAUKEE (AP) ---- A police officer shot and wounded a man during a traffic stop, the fifth time in 13 months that a motorist was shot by Milwaukee police.
The man, Timothy Nabors, 26, was shot Monday afternoon and was expected to survive, police said.
Nabors' grandmother, Lenora Carter, said four bullets hit him in the torso and arm. One bullet lodged in his spine, paralyzing him. He was in a coma Tuesday at a suburban Milwaukee hospital, she said.
Witnesses said Nabors was unarmed, but officers at the scene said he picked up a gun, said Police Chief Arthur Jones on Tuesday.
The shooting happened after Officer Michael W. Lutz and his partner pulled over the sport utility vehicle Nabors was driving.
Witnesses said Nabors immediately raised his hands when police asked him to get out, and also held up his shirt to show he was unarmed.
But a gun belonging to Nabors' passenger skidded across the pavement toward Nabors, and officers said he then picked up the gun.
Lutz shot him from just a few feet away, witnesses said.
Lutz, a 12-year veteran of the department, was placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.
The Justice Department's civil rights division was already investigating the four prior police shootings of unarmed motorists before Nabors was shot. Department spokesman Jorge Martinez said officials will decide later whether to include the most recent shooting.
Auction suspended amid criticism of LA explorer's treasure find
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An auction featuring thousands of antiquities recovered off the coast of the Philippines has been suspended during an investigation into whether deep sea explorer Phil Greco had the right to excavate there, auction officials said Tuesday.
The collection, which includes pieces of Chinese porcelain and pottery 2,000 years old, was to be auctioned off next month at Guernsey's in New York.
Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey's, said the auction house decided to suspend the event after receiving letters questioning whether Greco had the necessary permits from the Philippine National Museum in Manila.
"It only seems reasonable that we look into some of these claims and some of these comments that people have been making," Ettinger said. He declined to give further details.
Greco said he followed proper procedures in recovering the relics. His lawyer, David Concannon, said Greco had the necessary permits.
The auction was suspended because of a contract dispute rather than criticism of Greco's excavation, the lawyer said.
The allegations "remain a big issue, but they were not the basis for the termination," Concannon said, adding that he remains hopeful the auction will take place.
One of the letters to Guernsey's came from the Philippine Consulate in New York, according to Concannon. Consulate officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
National Museum deputy director Cecillo Salcedo previously told the Philippine Daily Inquirer the museum planned to join representatives of the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Customs in the Philippines to conduct their own investigation. Museum officials also could not be reached for comment.
Greco and his company, Stallion Recoveries, have retrieved 23,000 artifacts from at least 16 shipwreck sites in the South China Sea since 1997. Some of the items, including seven massive statues, date back to the Ming Dynasty.
Greco, who now lives in Los Angeles, had served in Vietnam during the war and returned to southeast Asia in the 1980s. He said he developed personal bonds with Filipinos and worked with them to excavate the sites.
"We painstakingly had taken the effort and years of time in the countries to try and honor all of their laws -- which we did," Greco said. "I didn't think I would have these types of legal problems."
Greco said he understands some of the criticism directed at him but believes observers are jealous of his huge haul.
"They're still not happy with the aspect that someone who's not a Filipino went into their country and did this and is going to receive a lot of money out of it," he said.
Professional archaeologists follow a code of ethics that prohibits commercial recovery, said Donny L. Hamilton, president of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University.
"When you get a collection like that, it gets scattered to the four corners of the globe," Hamilton said. "Therefore, you can never thoroughly study the material."
Greco hopes to patch things up with Guernsey's and prove that what he did was legitimate.
"Archaeologists can say one thing, but I've done my homework," Greco said. "This is really, truly, an amazing find."
Cosmonaut plans space marriage
MOSCOW (AP) ---- How do pre-wedding jitters feel in zero gravity?
Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko may be about to find out: The International Space Station crewman plans to get married while in orbit this weekend, jilting superiors on Earth who accused him of showboating and advised him to wait.
Malenchenko has retracted a promise to put his wedding off until his scheduled return in October and plans to tie the knot Sunday ---- possibly linking up to the ceremony in Texas with a special phone, Russian Aerospace Agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov said Tuesday.
Malenchenko told officials of his plans to marry Ekaterina Dmitriev after reaching the space station in April, flouting Soviet-era rules requiring military officers to get permission to marry foreigners and angering the air force chief, Col. Gen. Vladimir Mikhailov, who reportedly said a "cosmonaut mustn't behave like a movie star."
After officials told the cosmonaut the wedding would present legal complexities back home, Malenchenko promised to wait, according to Gorbunov. But on Tuesday, Gorbunov said Malenchenko had changed his mind -- and that the space agency was not going to argue.
"He wants it, and he will have it -- that's his problem," Gorbunov told The Associated Press.
Malenchenko will be at the space station during the ceremony and will be represented by a lawyer. The cosmonaut and his fiancee were issued a marriage license last month in her home state of Texas, which allows weddings in which one party is not present.
While the groom won't be at his own wedding -- a circumstance that normally leads to tears -- he intends to call his bride on a special phone from the space station, Gorbunov said.
However, Gorbunov said the call must be placed during time allocated for contacts between the crew and their relatives, and that it was unclear whether a slot would coincide with the wedding. NASA runs the International Space Station.
While the communications system allows in some cases for one-way video communication -- those on Earth can see what is happening on the station but not vice versa -- Gorbunov did not specify whether Malenchenko was planning a video linkup.
There was a hint: Malenchenko, who blasted off to the station in late April with American astronaut Edward Lu, quietly arranged to have his tail coat and wedding ring flown to him aboard a Progress cargo ship that arrived at the station in June.
However, while Dmitriev has been trying to arrange to hold the ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where there are facilities for a video link-up, NASA so far has not given permission.
Malenchenko, a Russian air force colonel, has not given a reason for wanting to get married at such a distance, but some observers believe the couple is seeking publicity.
Gorbunov said the unusual wedding might create problems for registering the marriage with Russian authorities. He would not comment on its potential effect on Malenchenko's career.
Gorbunov said the Russian space agency's chief, Yuri Koptev, had received an invitation to the wedding from Dmitriev, who left Russia for the United States with her parents when she was 3 and lives in Houston. He said Koptev was not planning to attend the reception at a Houston restaurant.
Malenchenko and Dmitriev met at a social gathering five years ago and began dating in 2002.
The bride and her family have denied Malenchenko ever decided to postpone the wedding.
Jury convicts Simi Valley serial rapist of capital murder
VENTURA (AP) ---- Jurors in the murder trial of serial rapist Vincent Sanchez convicted him Tuesday of kidnapping and killing a female college student two years ago during a sexual assault.
He could receive the death penalty during the sentencing phase of the trial, scheduled to begin Monday.
The 32-year-old Simi Valley man was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and attempted rape in the slaying of Megan Barroso, 20. The Moorpark resident's bullet-riddled car was found July 5, 2001, abandoned about a mile from her home. Barroso's remains were found a month later in a ravine near Simi Valley.
As authorities investigated the disappearance, Simi Valley police arrested Sanchez in connection with a string of rapes that occurred in the city between 1996 and 2000. He was later arrested for the Barroso slaying as well.
Sanchez admitted to sexually assaulting a dozen women and pleaded guilty to charges that carried the equivalent of a life prison sentence, but pleaded innocent in the Barroso case.
During arguments this week, prosecutors told jurors the evidence showed Sanchez shot up Barroso's car, then abducted and sexually assaulted her before she died from an abdominal gunshot wound.
Deputy District Attorney Lela Henke-Dobroth said Sanchez attacked Barroso with the intention of raping her.
Barroso's body was so badly decomposed when it was found that the coroner could not tell whether a rape had occurred, but Henke-Dobroth said the fact Barroso was found partly clothed strongly suggested there was a sexual assault.
Deputy Public Defender Neil Quinn conceded his client killed Barroso, but told jurors there was no evidence of a sexual assault.
Quinn said Sanchez was drunk when he recklessly fired on Barroso's car. He urged jurors to find Sanchez guilty of a lesser charge of second-degree murder.
Calls to Sanchez' lawyer and to the district attorney's office Tuesday afternoon were not immediately answered.
Man cited for poking Sesame character
MIDDLETOWN, Pa. (AP) ---- A man who became annoyed with a theme-park worker dressed as Telly from "Sesame Street" shoved an umbrella into the worker's stomach and was cited for disorderly conduct, police said.
The 17-year-old worker complained of minor stomach pain and was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Sgt. Ken Mellus said.
Mellus said Hiram Cruz, of New York City, delivered the poke Friday during a visit to Sesame Place outside Philadelphia because he "felt that Telly was bothering him in some way."
"I don't think he was trying to hurt the kid. He thought the costume had padding," Mellus said.
Cruz was visiting the park with his ex-wife and 3-year-old child, police said. A listed phone number for Hiram Cruz could not be found and he could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Two years ago, a Maryland man was sentenced to a year's probation after kicking and punching a Sesame Place worker dressed as Cookie Monster because she wouldn't pose with his daughter.
Small-town bully sentenced to death
TOULON, Ill. (AP) ---- A retired coal miner who was portrayed as a small-town bully was sentenced to death Tuesday for murdering a sheriff's deputy and a couple he had feuded with for years.
Judge Scott Shore said Curtis Thompson, 61, showed no remorse for his crimes.
"I find from the evidence presented that, provided the opportunity, you would continue right where you left off," Shore told Thompson.
Shore set an execution date of Nov. 1, but an appeal is automatic and there is a moratorium on executions in Illinois.
Thompson's family and attorneys declined to comment.
Thompson killed Adam Streicher in March 2002 when the rookie sheriff's deputy tried to arrest him at his Toulon home on a probation violation. Thompson then stole the officer's gun and squad car, broke into the home of James and Janet Giesenhagen, and shot the couple in front of their 10-year-old daughter.
The rampage ended when Thompson was wounded in a gun battle with police.
Prosecutors, who argued for the death sentence, had said Thompson had long been known as a bully in the farming town of 1,100 people and had carried on a 15-year feud with the Giesenhagens over a dog bite dispute.
They said Thompson's surly behavior included tailgating and swerving at police cars, and that he was nicknamed "The Glare" for his habit of staring at people he considered his enemies.
Defense attorney Matthew Maloney had asked for a life sentence, saying the shooting spree was triggered by Thompson's delusions that people in power were out to get him.
The defense also used that argument in seeking a verdict of innocent by reason of insanity. A jury rejected that defense last week and found Thompson guilty of murder.
Vandals hit several Starbucks in SF
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ---- Police are investigating a coordinated attack on at least 17 Starbucks outlets in downtown San Francisco.
The vandals spread glue and posted official-looking "For Lease" and "Closed" signs on store windows, according to Dewayne Tully, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department. He said the vandalism took place between 11 p.m. Monday night and 4:45 a.m. Tuesday night when the stores were closed.
Starbucks Corp. confirmed that eight stores were vandalized. The Seattle-based company said there were no injuries or serious property damage, and all the stores are open for business as usual.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the vandalism, but police believe it was a carefully planned attack by a group, Tully said.
"The motive is unclear at this point," Tully said. "It could be an anti-franchise group."
Police are questioning one possible witness and are encouraging others to report any information.
Judge orders Ten Commandments monument removed from Alabama judicial building
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) ---- A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state's Judicial Building within 15 days.
The federal judge, who has ruled the 5,300-pound monument violates the constitutional ban on government promotion of religion, lifted a stay he had previously issued while Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore appealed.
Moore, whose stand was rejected by an appeals court, has said he will turn next to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ruling by Judge Myron Thompson came a day after Moore filed a brief claiming Thompson did not have the authority to make him remove the black granite monument from the building's rotunda. Moore contends Alabama's constitution permits the acknowledgment of God by the state and that the federal court has no jurisdiction to order the state to act otherwise.
Thompson's order said the monument must be moved from the public areas of the building by Aug. 20, but could remain in a private area, such as Moore's chambers. The building houses the Supreme Court chamber and offices of appeals court judges.
Thompson said he does not plan to take immediate action to remove the monument if Moore does not comply, but may fine the state each day the monument remains in place.
An attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of three groups that filed suit challenging the monument, said it is time for Moore to remove it.
"The monument is becoming a millstone around the neck of Alabama. It is time to let reason prevail over politics," Ayesha Khan said.
Moore had no immediate comment Tuesday. His spokesman, Tom Parker, issued a statement calling Thompson's order "judicial tyranny."
Parker added that Thompson had no right to fine other state officials if the monument is not removed. "They are not parties to this case," he said.
Moore had the monument moved into the building's rotunda in the middle of the night on July 31, 2001, saying that the Ten Commandments represent the moral foundation of American law.
Last year, Thompson ruled that the monument was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the state. Thompson ordered Moore to remove the monument within 30 days, but stayed that order pending Moore's appeal. A federal appeals panel upheld Thompson's order last month.
Several religious groups have called on Christians across the country to come to Montgomery and kneel around the monument to prevent its removal.
John Giles, president of the Alabama Christian Coalition, said there would be a showdown if Thompson attempts to have the monument removed.
"The encroachment of the federal court on this matter will be met with considerable peaceful intervention," Giles said.
Richard Cohen, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which also joined the lawsuit, urged Attorney General Bill Pryor "to put aside his personal support of the monument and work with Justice Moore to follow the law."
A spokeswoman for Pryor declined to comment.
Court issues restraining order
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ---- A judge has issued a restraining order against two frequent critics of former Gov. Jesse Ventura.
The order prohibits Leslie Davis, an environmental activist, and Bill Dahn, a former political opponent of Ventura's, from harassing or having contact with him. It also prevents them from being near the St. Paul television studio where Ventura works.
The order, issued Monday, is to last two years unless modified or vacated.
Davis said he would seek to have the order lifted.
"I think it was a fascist tactic by Ventura and his legal counsel in conjunction with Ramsey County to get us off of the street," Davis said. "They're eliminating our constitutional right to protest."
Dahn did not immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press.
In asking for the restraining order, Ventura said Davis had been harassing him for years, beginning in the early days of his tenure as governor, which ended in January.
Ventura said Davis and Dahn recently joined forces to harass him at least once a week since May at the television studio.
"As I have passed by, Davis and Dahn have yelled at me, made crude gestures directed at me and waved their signs at me," he wrote the court.
Earlier this year, prosecutors declined to charge Ventura in connection with an encounter with Davis, who told police that the former governor threatened him and tried to smash his sign.
West Nile kills colorado woman
GREELEY, Colo. (AP) ---- The West Nile virus, which has marched steadily toward the Pacific since it first appeared in the United States in 1999, has claimed its first life in Colorado, officials said Tuesday.
The announcement marked a grim milestone: Until now, the virus had not killed anyone west of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and North Dakota.
The victim was not identified by Weld County health officials because of the state's strict medical confidentiality rules, though they said she had chronic medical problems. The Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper, citing anonymous health officials, identified her as 77-year-old Maria Flores and said she died Friday at a Greeley hospital.
The death is at least the nation's fourth from the virus this year, with two victims in Texas and another in Alabama. So far, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming are the westernmost states to report human cases of the disease; of those, only Colorado has had a fatality.
"We are very sorry for the family's loss of their loved one," said Dr. Mark Wallace, director of the Weld County health department. "We had hoped to get through the season without any deaths. We are doing everything we can to protect our citizens."
The county and Greeley have spent more than $700,000 on mosquito control. County Commissioner M.J. Geile said more will be spent if necessary.
Experts are trying to figure out why Colorado is leading the nation in the number of human cases, with 72 confirmed as of Tuesday. The virus first appeared here in August, but none of the 13 human cases last year was fatal.
This year's cool, wet spring and hot summer is partly to blame.
"They were perfect breeding conditions for mosquitos," Wallace said.
John Pape, an epidemiologist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, also said the virus appears to be much stronger during its second year.
"The virus has had the whole year to be here, but there is still is no resistance built up," he said. "Next year, many of the birds who carry the disease will either have died or be immune."
That was small comfort to Scott Cacala, a 28-year-old Milliken man who was among the first people to be infected this year. He thought it was the flu.
"I had never been that sick in my life," he said. "After a couple of weeks, I started throwing up. I went to the emergency room but they sent me home. The next day they put me in the hospital.
"My wife was really freaking out. I really thought I was going to die."
Last year, there were a record 4,156 West Nile cases in the United States, including 284 deaths.The disease is carried by infected birds and then spread locally by mosquitoes that bite them.
Officials expect the virus to eventually spread to every state. In California, 222 flocks of caged "sentinel" chickens are tested regularly for the virus.
The majority of people bitten by an infected mosquito do not become ill. But the virus can cause flu-like symptoms and a swelling of the brain that can be fatal.
Authorities in Colorado and elsewhere have tried to contain the disease by spraying wet areas with pesticides. But Pape warned that there are likely to be hundreds of cases in Colorado by the time fall arrives.
He urged people not to "overflood" the health system.
"Just because you have a headache and a temperature of 99 degrees for one day doesn't mean that you should call your doctor," he said.
Kaiser Permanente of Colorado fielded more than 300 calls Monday from people who thought they might have West Nile fever, said Dr. Gray Houlton of Kaiser. He expected more calls Tuesday.
Two weeks after he was released from the hospital, Cacala said he still feels weak and doesn't have the energy to go out in the summer heat.
"My wife sprays our 5-year-old son head to toe with mosquito repellent before she'll take him outside," he said.
On the Net:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile
Road reopended
WEST GLACIER, Mont. (AP) ---- Visitors were lined up 100 vehicles deep at Glacier National Park's west entrance Tuesday to take advantage of the first opportunity in more than a week of fires to drive across the park.
"It was just good to get back to business," said park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt.
The west side of the popular Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass has been closed since July 23 because of forest fires that also closed the park's west entrance and led to the evacuation of the West Glacier area. While the fires continue to burn, park officials determined it was safe to reopen the road for daytime travel.
In addition to the vehicles lined up at the west side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Vanderbilt said another 20 vehicles were waiting at the top of Logan Pass, having driven up from the east entrance.
Vanderbilt said the road would be open only from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for now and that visitors were asked not to stop between the west entrance and Logan Pass. But that could change.
"We're taking life day by day and we anticipate this schedule will continue for a period of days," Vanderbilt said.
Favorable weather, with moderate temperatures and high humidity, continued to help firefighters in and around Glacier National Park Tuesday.
Fire information officer Andy Williams said firefighters were consolidating their lines around the fire Tuesday, and trying to prevent it from burning north into some prime huckleberry country.
"Grizzly bears eat that stuff," Williams said. "Bears might decide they want to come down and eat something else" if the huckleberries burn.
The weather also helped firefighters with the 25,200-acre Wedge Canyon fire, which was burning about five miles from the Canadian border and had so far burned about 4,000 acres in Glacier. The fire was about 47 percent contained, officials said.
To date, the fire has destroyed seven homes and damaged one. It has also burned 29 outbuildings.
The Trapper Creek Complex of fires, also in Glacier, was estimated at between 20,000 and 20,500 acres and was about 45 percent contained on Tuesday, officials said.
In Washington state, rain was also expected to help firefighters in their battle against the 76,549-acre Farewell Creek fire, burning in wilderness four miles form the Canadian border.
The National Interagency Fire Center said 19 major fires were burning in eight western states. That's down from 41 major fires only a week ago, and the NIFC lowered its alert status from Level 5 -- the highest -- to Level 4 as the wildfire activity dropped.
The agency said 1.86 million acres have burned this season, compared to 2.5 million acres on average to this date, and 4.48 million acres last year.
Injured man uses berries, pill bottle to survive six days in woods
JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) ---- A man who broke his back while riding an all-terrain vehicle survived almost a week alone in the woods by eating berries and crickets and catching rainwater in an aspirin bottle.
Tommy Parker, 59, was hospitalized in stable condition Tuesday with broken ribs, a broken back and a dislocated shoulder.
He was injured on July 26, when his all-terrain vehicle rolled over on him about five miles from his home. Parker was stranded for six days, surviving on berries, crickets and crab apples and had to improvise for water, police and relatives said.
"I had some aspirin for my migraines and took aspirin for two days and caught water ---- rain water ---- in the bottle to keep me going each day," Parker told WTVF-TV in Nashville. He declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
Authorities began searching for Parker two days after his accident when a friend who had been trying to reach him contacted Parker's sons.
They found Parker on Friday after he screamed out in pain while trying to roll over to go to sleep. His son, Curt Parker, and brother, Paul Parker, heard him. Tommy Parker then threw rocks at an aluminum bat he had with him and the sound led his family to him.
"He was banged up pretty bad," Curt Parker said.
Plane crashes in Yellowstone
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) ---- A homebuilt replica of a 1935 racing aircraft crashed north of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, killing the pilot.
James Wright, 53, of Cottage Grove, Ore., was the only person on board when the plane went down Monday, officials said.
The plane was a $1 million replica of the Hughes H-1, a 1935 racer flown by oil and film industry tycoon Howard Hughes. It was en route from Oshkosh, Wis., to Oregon when the crash occurred about 6:30 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Karen Byrd said.
The plane had appeared at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture show in Oshkosh, the largest gathering of homebuilt airplanes in the world, according to the EEA AirVenture Web site.
The airplane burst into flames upon impact, but the fire was quickly extinguished by park staff.
Wright stopped in Gillette to refuel about 90 minutes before the crash, and complained to The Gillette News-Record that he was having mechanical trouble. However, the FAA said the cause of the crash was not known.
Hughes designed the original H-1, which is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In 1935, Hughes flew it to a speed record of 352.322 mph and for a brief period was the fastest person ever to pilot an airplane.
The replica was built from scratch in 2002 by a five-man team in Oregon that included Wright. The Smithsonian magazine Air & Space, which featured the replica on its cover, said the reproduction cost $1 million and took 35,000 hours of work to build.
On the Net:
Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov
Yellowstone National Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell/
EEA AirVenture: http://www.airventure.org/index.html