Reporter who was with '60 Minutes' newsman found guilty of trespassing at a chemical plant

By: Associated Press - | Monday, June 18, 2007 12:01 PM PDT ∞

PITTSBURGH ---- A newspaper reporter was convicted of trespassing at a chemical plant while apparently working on a story on security with a CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent and a freelance cameraman.

District Justice Carla Swearingen in Robinson, just east of Pittsburgh, found Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Carl Prine guilty on Monday. The charge carries a $25 fine.

Attorneys for the Tribune-Review said they planned to appeal.

Also arrested Sept. 22 at the chemical plant on Neville Island, on the Monongahela River, were Steve Kroft, an investigative reporter for "60 Minutes," and Gregory E. Andracke, a longtime freelance contributor to the program.

CBS officials have declined to comment on the story Kroft was working on. Prine earlier this year wrote a series of stories for the newspaper on the dangers of lax security at chemical plants.

No hearing has been set for Kroft. Andracke pleaded guilty.

Pornographer says he bought nude Jessica Lynch photos but won't publish them

NEW YORK -- Pornographer Larry Flynt says he bought nude photos of Pfc. Jessica Lynch to publish in Hustler magazine, but changed his mind because she's a "good kid" who became "a pawn for the government."

Flynt told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he bought the photos last month from the men who purportedly participated in the amateur shoot with the Army supply clerk. The soldiers "wanted to let it be known that she's not all apple pie," Flynt said.

"My first intention was to publish them, but I don't think it was the best, positive move I could make," Flynt said in a telephone interview. "She's very much a pawn for the government. They force-fed us a Joan of Arc."

In an interview with the AP on Tuesday, Lynch declined to comment on any aspect of the matter, including whether such photos exist.

Her attorney, Stephen Goodwin, said in a statement: "It's incredulous that anyone would think it appropriate in any way to attempt to publish unauthorized photos of Jessica -- photos taken before she was deployed to Iraq and before her capture and rescue."

The interview with Lynch was scheduled to publicize her biography, "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," which was released Tuesday. It covers the days between March 23, when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah, and April 1, when she was evacuated from a hospital by U.S. commandos.

After her rescue, the young soldier from Palestine, W.Va., was celebrated as a hero prisoner of war.

Goodwin also said Lynch had never claimed to be a hero, saving that description for her rescuers.

"She is and will remain -- not a Joan of Arc, not a hero -- but a young woman honestly and openly dealing with the high price she has paid for proud service to her country," he said.

Flynt said the photographs appeared to be taken in an Army barracks, and showed Lynch topless and fully nude, frolicking with the soldiers.

He would not say what he paid for the photographs, which he said he'd lock in a vault.

"Some things are more important than money," he said. "You gotta do the right thing."

Flynt has been paralyzed from the waist down since an assassination attempt in 1978. His magazine won a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1988 that held that even pornographic spoofs enjoy First Amendment protection.

AP Interview: Rescued POW disturbed by exaggerated early reports of her ordeal

NEW YORK -- Pfc. Jessica Lynch said Tuesday she is disturbed that the military seemed to overdramatize her rescue by U.S. troops and spread false stories that she went down shooting in an Iraqi ambush.

"That wasn't me. I wasn't about to take credit for something I didn't do," she told The Associated Press. "I'm not that person."

The 20-year-old former Army supply clerk -- twig-thin and weary, one crutch close at hand -- described her ordeal in a Veterans Day interview seven months after the rescue made her a national hero.

Reports circulated by the U.S. military early in the war said Lynch waged a fierce gunbattle with Iraqi fighters who ambushed her 507th Maintenance Company on March 23 at Nasiriyah. She has since said her rifle jammed, and she did not get off a shot.

And Lynch's new book points out that, despite the "tension and drama" of the military videotape showing gun-toting U.S. soldiers rushing into an Iraqi hospital to rescue her, the hospital staff never resisted, and even offered the troops a key.

"It disturbed me," Lynch said. "I knew that it wasn't the truth."

Still, the ex-prisoner of war from rural West Virginia took pains to say that she does not care why the military may have exaggerated her story, and that she considers the soldiers who rescued her April 1 to be heroes.

"No matter what it was, the point is that they got in there, they rescued me, and they took me home safe," she said.

Lynch, who has fair skin and fine blond hair that falls to her shoulders, physically recoils when she recounts her time in the hospital, a time when her hope dwindled each day that she would see home again -- or even survive.

But she said that as she lay in a bed at Saddam Hussein General Hospital, her body wracked, she decided: "I wasn't going to let myself die there."

"I was determined," she said. "In my mind, I was thinking, `I've got family to get back to, I've got a boyfriend, I've got all these things to see and do when I get home."'

Lynch spoke with the AP as her biography, "I Am a Soldier, Too," hit bookstores nationwide. It was written by Rick Bragg, who resigned from The New York Times after a free-lancer helped him with a story without receiving credit. Bragg was present during the AP interview with Lynch.

The book describes the Iraqi doctors and nurses who cared for her as thoughtful and gentle people who repeatedly and secretly tried to see her to freedom.

Lynch "lost" -- or cannot remember -- three hours between the ambush, when Iraqi troops swarmed her convoy after it missed a turn, and waking up in an Iraqi military hospital, according to the book.

In that time, according to medical records cited in the biography, Lynch suffered spinal fractures and other broken bones and was sodomized. Iraqi doctors have disputed the sexual assault allegations.

Today, Lynch walks with the help of a single crutch or is shuttled around in a wheelchair. She undergoes two hours of physical therapy a day. "It's getting better every day," she said. "It's a long process, but it's going OK."

Lynch said she tries to avoid news coverage of the fighting in Iraq because her memories are too painful. She said the almost-daily reports of U.S. troop deaths deeply sadden her.

"It's horrible," she said. "It seems like it's getting worse every day. It's just something that, you know, doesn't seem to get any better." She said all the slain Americans are heroes to her.

She would not discuss claims Tuesday by Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt that he bought nude photos of Lynch last month and intended to run them, but changed his mind because she is a "good kid."

Flynt said he got the photos from male soliders who posed with Lynch. The soldiers "wanted to let it be known that she's not all apple pie," Flynt said.

Lynch attorney Stephen Goodwin said: "It's incredulous that anyone would think it appropriate in any way to attempt to publish unauthorized photos of Jessica -- photos taken before she was deployed to Iraq and before her capture and rescue."

Lynch and Bragg are splitting a $1 million advance from publisher Alfred A. Knopf, which ordered a first run of 500,000 copies. Publicity surrounding the release has included an unauthorized NBC movie and a prime-time ABC interview.

Bragg said he sometimes felt guilty during long interviews with Lynch at her home in Palestine, W.Va., and by telephone.

"Sometimes, I'd stop asking questions because it was painful to hear," he said. "There are parts of the book that I won't read again because I look at the chapter and I think about Jessi having to talk about it, and it's very hard."

Lynch plans to marry Army Sgt. Ruben Contreras in June. Lynch, who is on disability, said she is still deciding her future.

"I want to get walking first," she said. "But I want a family. I want kids. I guess that's kind of everyone's dream."

On the Net:

Publisher: http://www.aaknopf.com

Girl Scouts in Alaska trap and skin beavers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Let other Girl Scouts make bird feeders out of Clorox bottles and glue together little birch-bark canoes -- Troop 34 in Alaska is learning to trap and skin beavers.

In a practice that has angered animal rights activists, the girls are killing the beavers as part of a state flood-management program.

"We think it sends a very, very bad message that when animals cause a problem you kill them," said Stephanie Boyles of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She said the Girl Scouts should want girls to become "stewards of wildlife, not abusers."

Last spring, about 10 members of the Fairbanks troop and their families helped catch two beavers using snare and lethal traps. The girls were taught how to find the animals' dens and how to lay the traps. Working under close supervision, the girls used knives to skin the beavers.

The troop had the pelts tanned and plans to make hats and mittens once a dozen hides are collected. The girls also want to cook beaver meat.

They plan to begin setting traps out again this month.

Alaska Girl Scout leaders said they know of no other troop in the country to take part in such a program.

Officials at the Girl Scouts' New York headquarters did not return repeated calls. But in a Sept. 16 letter to PETA, spokeswoman Courtney Shore said the organization does not promote trapping or hunting and does not offer merit badges for those activities.

Shore noted that Troop 34, made up of 13 girls ages 10 to 12, participated after an invitation from the state Department of Fish and Game.

"It is understandable why the troop responded positively when approached by a state authority to conduct an activity that is commonplace in that area of the country," Shore wrote.

The state-run Take a Kid Trapping program is aimed at controlling flooding and other damage caused by an increasing number of beavers along the lower Chena River in Fairbanks. It is open to kids as young as 7.

Alaska scout leaders said the program is a "nonissue" in Fairbanks, where trapping has a long history.

Troop 34 leader Dona Boylan said she wanted to impart lessons in responsible game management to Troop 34's members, who are city girls, at least by Alaska's standards. Fairbanks is a city of nearly 30,000.

"Trapping may not be pretty, but the girls understand the seriousness and huge responsibility of taking a life," Boylan said. "They understand that when humans impact their environment, they become ultimately responsible for maintaining a healthy population of the animals they have to coexist with in these urban centers."

Girl Scout leaders said none of the girls would talk to The Associated Press.

"I feel like PETA doesn't have a concept that trapping is considered a heritage here in Alaska," said Mike McDougall, a trapper who worked with the scouts. "These kids are learning more than just how to take an animal. They're learning about ecology. They also got a definite sense of respect for the animals."

The program is helping to curb a burgeoning population of the large rodents, which in Alaska can weigh up to 70 pounds. Their growing numbers are attributed to recent warm winters and a drop in commercial trapping.

"Beavers are a valuable source of education for our young people," said Tom Seaton, a Fish and Game biologist. "Their carcasses can used in many ways -- for food, for warm garments. Almost everything about beavers is good except when they flood your yard or knock down live trees."

On the Net:

www.peta.org

www.girlscouts.org

www.state.ak.us/adfg/

Ex-cop blames "Dr. Phil" show for injuries that led to amputation

LOS ANGELES -- A former police officer trying to prove her innocence in a 20-year-old murder case sued the "Dr. Phil" show, claiming false imprisonment before the taping of a show led to injuries and the amputation of her leg.

The suit filed Monday in Superior Court claims Laurie Bembenek was hurt in 2002 when she tried to escape from an apartment where she was taken and kept by producers.

During a panic attack, she tied bed sheets together as a rope but fell from the second floor after they unraveled. The drop caused several severe fractures and the loss of her right leg, the suit said.

Bembenek was to appear on the "Dr. Phil" show to get the results of DNA testing on evidence in the murder case that was paid for by the show.

"By having more concern for television ratings and advertising dollars than for the safety and well being of their guests, the 'Dr. Phil' show acted recklessly, carelessly and in a grossly unethical manner," Bembenek's attorney, Stephen Bernard, said in a prepared statement.

A spokesman for Paramount Pictures, which produces the "Dr. Phil" show, had no comment.

The suit also claims negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It seeks unspecified damages.

Bembenek, 45, is a former Milwaukee police officer and one-time Playboy Club waitress who was convicted in 1982 of murdering Christine Schultz, her husband's ex-wife.

Eight years later she escaped to Canada and fought extradition before reaching a deal with prosecutors that set aside her conviction and allowed her to plead no contest to second-degree murder. She was released because of time served.

Birders see fewer crows, chickadees in West Nile-stricken areas

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Backyard sightings of crows and chickadees were at a 15-year low last winter in areas of the country afflicted by West Nile virus, according to the reports of 16,000 volunteer "citizen scientists."

Scientists have previously confirmed that the virus is killing crows. They say more research is needed before they can definitively link the virus to the decline in other birds.

Scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology reported declines in crows and chickadees, as well as increases in other species, after analyzing data collected during the winter of 2002-03 in the 16th annual Project FeederWatch.

The Midwest had the most dramatic drop in chickadee numbers and had a high number of human cases of West Nile virus last year.

However, Wesley Hochachka, a data analyst for FeederWatch, said chickadee declines were not limited to states with West Nile outbreaks, so the drop might have been caused by other factors.

David Bonter, who directs Project FeederWatch, said it may turn out that the decline is simply part of a natural cycle of rising and falling numbers of birds.

"It may not be anything to be concerned about, but it's something we'll be looking at," he said.

The crow count also fell to a 15-year-low in the Midwest, Bonter said.

Birds carry the West Nile virus, which first surfaced in the United States in New York City in 1999 and has moved westward across the country. Mosquitoes bite infected birds and can then transmit the virus to humans.

West Nile is now carried by at least 100 species of birds, including the bald eagle and the endangered Mississippi sandhill crane. Crows and blue jays are the hardest hit.

On the Web: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw

Court date postponed for mooning theater director in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Avant-garde theater director Gerald Thomas is going to have wait a little longer to learn the price of a moon.

On Tuesday, prosecutors asked a Rio judge to postpone a hearing on whether or not Thomas would face indecent exposure charges for mooning the audience following an opera performance in August.

Following a performance of Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde at Rio de Janeiro's municipal theater, Thomas shocked audience members and much of the cast by taking down his pants and displaying his buttocks in response to jeers at the curtain call.

The over-top-production featured sashaying fashion models and an actor playing Sigmund Freud who threw around a white powder meant to be cocaine.

Thomas, who is Jewish, claims he mooned the audience in response to anti-Semitic catcalls from the crowd.

Thomas apologized for his actions on a nationally televised talk show, but prosecutors insist he be charged.

The hearing was postponed until Feb. 17 because a key witness failed to appear, a press officer for the court explained.

The 49-year-old director who grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Berlin and London has collaborated with the late Irish playwright Samuel Beckett and the American composer Philip Glass.

If convicted, Thomas faces between three months and a year in prison or a fine.

Dispute over fate of aging ships

HARTLEPOOL, England ---- The first ship of an aging U.S. Navy flotilla neared port Tuesday, where the rusting vessels face a legal and political tempest over whether they can be scrapped on British soil.

Protesters and the ship-breaking yard geared up to greet the 58-year-old Caloosahatchee, due Wednesday, with the equally aged tanker Canisteo a day behind. Many locals are concerned that the ships contain toxic asbestos and PCBs.

"America is so big. Why can't they get rid of their own waste?" asked Graham Gove, a 45-year-old taxi driver.

The two ships are to dock in this northern English town despite a court order barring a British company from fulfilling its contract to scrap them and 11 others from the U.S. "ghost fleet" in the James River in Virginia.

The British government last week said the Caloosahatchee and Canisteo would be given temporary shelter in Hartlepool for the winter, but they would have to go back to the United States eventually.

Two other ships, the 1965-vintage submarine tender Canopus and the cargo ship Compass Island (1953), would not be allowed to dock, British Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said. However, they were still being towed toward Britain.

Peter Stephenson, managing director of ABLE U.K. Ltd., which won the contract to scrap 13 ships from the fleet, confirmed Tuesday the vessels did contain asbestos but said the level of banned PCBs was not significant.

"We are not sure what is on these ships and this is not being made plain by ABLE U.K. That is worrying, and it is worrying the people here," said Carl Richardson, chairman of the local council.

Gove was unimpressed by claims that dismantling the ships in Hartlepool, part of a region already scarred by heavy industry, will create hundreds of jobs for the local community.

"People here are sick of all the rubbish being dumped here," he said. "What use are a few jobs if we are all going to be dead in a few years' time from the chemicals anyway?"

Stephenson also said he was confident of resolving the dispute in the company's favor.

"We have got a number of legal advisers and at the moment everything we are hearing is fully supportive of our position," he told a news conference Tuesday. "We feel very comfortable."

Neil Marley, a member of the local environmental group Impact, said there were plans for a bonfire and protest vigil by the yard Wednesday.

"We have to make our stand, and I think there will be plenty of people there," Marley said.

A U.S. judge has blocked nine other ships in the ABLE U.K. contract from leaving their moorings.

While four ships were headed to Britain, three others have gone to breakers' yards in the United States with no reports of disputes.

On Oct. 29, the 1967-vintage cargo ship Santa Elena was towed from Newport News, Va., headed for the International Shipbreaking Ltd. yard in Brownsville, Texas, the U.S. Maritime Agency said.

The 1945-vintage cargo ship Marine Fiddler left a day later for dismantling at Bay Bridge Enterprises in Chesapeake, Va.

On Nov. 7, the Mormacdawn, a freighter built in 1946, departed for the ESCO Marine facility in Brownsville.

Police apologize for delayed ambulance for Countess of Wessex

LONDON -- Police apologized Tuesday for a mistake that delayed the arrival of an ambulance to take the Countess of Wessex, wife of Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son, to the hospital to give birth.

Royal staff called police late Saturday after Prince Edward's wife complained of severe stomach cramps, Surrey Police said. A duty police officer initiated a planned security operation but didn't call an ambulance, mistakenly believing once already had been requested, the police statement said.

"Surrey Police recognizes we got it wrong and are apologizing to the royal couple for any distress the Countess of Wessex suffered due to the delay," the statement said. It did not say how long the delay lasted.

The 38-year-old countess, the former Sophie Rhys-Jones, gave birth by emergency Caesearean section to a baby girl weighing 4 lbs. 9 oz. just before midnight Saturday. The couple's first baby -- who has yet to be named -- is eighth in line to the British throne.

The countess was not expected to leave Firmley Park Hospital south of London before Thursday or Friday, Buckingham Palace said. Her daughter was transferred to St. George's Hospital in London, was expected to stay there for two to three weeks.

Colorado's 'Make my day' law shields man in shooting death over dog dispute

AULT, Colo. -- A man accused of killing a neighbor in a dispute that started with a barking dog will not be charged with a crime because of Colorado's "make my day" law, which protects residents protecting themselves from intruders.

Weld County District Attorney Al Dominguez said Monday he had no choice.

"I have a dead human being and that death was caused by someone shooting a shotgun at him. Under normal circumstances, that kind of behavior demands a consequence," Dominguez said. The decision "was very difficult. I struggled with it all weekend."

Eric Griffin, 33, upset by the barking of a dog belonging to neighbor Richard Hammock, allegedly wounded the animal with a pellet gun Nov. 2. Hammock, 48, then went to Griffin's home carrying a 3-foot board, authorities said.

Griffin's girlfriend told police she heard breaking glass and a shotgun blast. Dominguez said the woman reported Griffin told her he fired when Hammock tried to enter the house.

Griffin has an unlisted phone number and couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

One formerly conjoined twin's condition upgraded

DALLAS -- Formerly conjoined twin Ahmed Ibrahim has been upgraded to good condition, joining his brother Mohamed Ibrahim at that level, according to a hospital statement.

The 2-year-old Egyptian boys, who were joined at the top of their heads, were separated a month ago in 34 hours of surgery.

"They have been visiting each other daily," Dr. James Thomas, chief of critical care services at Children's Medical Center, said in statement released Tuesday.

"Mohamed's back and neck muscles are getting stronger, and he has taught himself to say 'Uh-oh' with that sing-song voice toddlers use to announce an accident," Thomas said. "When adults laugh and imitate him, he breaks out in giggles."

Ahmed appears much more comfortable after his shunt surgery Nov. 5, according to the statement. His condition had been downgraded to guarded after placement of the shunt to drain spinal fluid from his lower back.

Ahmed is making progress in his neurologic recovery but is improving more slowly than his brother, the statement said.

Both are being fitted for protective headgear this week. Neither shows signs of infection or other problems, the hospital said.

Millionaire found innocent of murder in dismemberment of Texas neighbor

GALVESTON, Texas ---- New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who said he accidentally killed a hotheaded neighbor in self-defense and then chopped up the body because he feared no one would believe him, was found innocent Tuesday of murder.

The jury took five days to reach the verdict, bringing a startling end to a grisly case that began to unfold when trash bags containing pieces of 71-year-old Morris Black started washing up along Galveston Bay in 2001.

Durst appeared stunned when he heard the verdict, his mouth hanging slightly open and his eyes filling with tears. The 60-year-old millionaire hugged his attorneys, saying: "Thank you so much."

Durst, who has been estranged from his family since the early 1990s, remains under suspicion in the 1982 disappearance of his first wife and the 2000 shooting death of her friend Susan Berman, a Los Angeles writer who was set to be questioned about the missing woman. He has not been charged in either case.

Prosecutor Kurt Sistrunk said he was dismayed and disappointed with the verdict.

If he had been convicted, Durst could have gotten five to 99 years in prison.

Durst met Black after moving from New York to Galveston, where the millionaire initially posed as a mute woman to escape attention in the two other deaths. He later dropped the masquerade and became friends with Black, who lived across the hall from him in a low-rent apartment building.

Durst's attorneys said the friendship soured because of the elderly man's increasingly belligerent behavior. Durst and other witnesses testified Black often flew into rages and got into fights.

During nearly four days on the stand, Durst testified that he found Black in his apartment on Sept. 28, 2001, and that Black had Durst's gun. During a struggle, the gun went off, hitting Black in the face, he said.

Durst testified that he panicked and feared police would not believe his story, so he used two saws and an ax to cut up the body and threw the pieces into Galveston Bay. The victim's head has never been found.

He said he could not recall details about dismembering the body, but when pressed by a prosecutor, he said it was "a nightmare with blood everywhere."

Prosecutors called Durst a cold-blooded killer who shot Black to steal his identity. They said the proof was how he meticulously covered up the crime by cutting up the body, cleaning the crime scene, fleeing Galveston and then returning to retrieve the head.

"Is it well-planned and calculated? You bet it is," Sistrunk said.

In a risky, all-or-nothing strategy by both the prosecution and the defense, the jury was allowed to consider only murder, not lesser charges such as manslaughter. For now Durst will remain in jail facing a bail-jumping count, which could bring up to 10 years in prison.

Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin praised the jurors for "their ability to look at this case for what the charge was."

Prosecutor Joel Bennett said many jurors told him after the verdict that one of the problems in the case was that Black's head was never recovered. Prosecutors alleged that Durst made sure the head was never found because it could have proved Black's death was intentional.

Juror Chris Lovell said he was influenced by a lack of consistency in the prosecution's case: "From the very beginning of this trial the defense told us a story and they stuck to their guns all the way through. I did not believe everything they said, but every time they told us a story they were consistent in what was said."

Another juror, Deborah Warren, said the panel made a great effort to figure out what happened. "There were people that cried, there were people that fussed and argued. ... My stomach is still knotted up," she said.

Durst came under suspicion after a receipt with his name on it was found in the trash bags containing Black's remains.

Durst was arrested and posted $300,000 bond, but then fled. It was not until Durst made bail that authorities discovered he was a millionaire heir. He was a fugitive for six weeks before he was caught in Pennsylvania trying to shoplift a $5 sandwich even though he had $500 in his pocket.

Durst is the son of the late Seymour Durst, patriarch of the Durst Organization, a billion-dollar real estate company that owns several New York skyscrapers. The company declined to comment on the verdict.

Durst had moved to Galveston disguised as a woman after a New York investigation was reopened into the disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen.

Health officials confirm at least 300 cases linked to outbreak

PITTSBURGH -- The number of people sickened by a hepatitis A outbreak at a Mexican restaurant continued to climb Tuesday, with state health officials confirming at least 300 cases.

Investigators hoped to pinpoint the source of the outbreak in the next week or so. Of the cases linked to a Chi-Chi's Restaurant about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, 31 were in Ohio, eight in West Virginia, one in Florida, and one in South Carolina.

The outbreak is believed to have begun as early as September, state Health Department spokesman Richard McGarvey said. The restaurant voluntarily closed Nov. 2, and has not reopened.

Seattle lawyer William Marler said his firm has already filed a lawsuit against the restaurant.

Representatives for the Louisville, Ky.-based company declined to comment Tuesday, but planned a news conference on Wednesday.

Hepatitis A causes flu-like symptoms that may include fever, nausea, diarrhea, jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain and loss of appetite. The infectious liver disease usually clears up in about two months.

Gun that killed Jesse James sold

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The gun that killed outlaw Jesse James sold at auction for $350,000.

The .44 caliber Smith & Wesson was purchased Monday by an out-of-state absentee bidder who requested anonymity, said Brian Maize, spokesman for Little John's Antique Arms Inc., which organized the auction.

There were more than 20 bidders for the gun, which had been expected to bring about $300,000.

"It probably went back to Texas," Maize said. "(The price) bounced around, struck at 300 and crawled up to 350."

Maize said the top bid was a record for a Western history firearm, The previous high was the $240,000 paid in 1998 for a pistol used by outlaw "Blackjack" Ketchum.

Little John's owner John R. Gangel acquired the gun about six months ago from a collector who bought it for $160,000 at a 1993 auction in England.

Bob Ford, a late recruit to James' gang of bank, train and stagecoach robbers, killed James on April 3, 1882, in St. Joseph, Mo. The nickel-finished revolver was made about 1875.

Three suspects arrested in Suisun City pipe bombing

FAIRFIELD -- One adult and two teenagers have been arrested in connection with a mailbox pipe bombing at an elementary school in July.

Daryl Tenbrink, 19, of Suisun City, and two 17-year-old boys each face one count of possession of an explosive device on school property and use of an explosive device.

Keith Bloomfield, a Solano County sheriff's spokesman, said the arrests stemmed from a tip the department received after eight pipe bombs were left in Suisun City mailboxes last week.

"Our investigators followed up on leads and identified these guys," Bloomfield said.

The suspects were charged in a pipe bomb incident at Suisun Valley Elementary four months ago. Since Nov. 1, eight pipe bombs, including five that exploded, have been left in mailboxes and near homes in Suisun City.

Bloomfield said investigators don't have enough evidence to charge the suspects in the recent incidents, but have not ruled them out.

"What all the incidents have in common is: all targets were mailboxes, all within proximity of each other and the method used to blow them up where used in each of the events," he said.

Tenbrink is in the Solano County jail under a $30,000 bail. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. The juveniles are expected to have a probation hearing sometime next week, Bloomfield said.

While no one was injured and the bombs did not appear to be rigged to go off when a mailbox was opened, the Solano County sheriff has urged residents to pick up their mail at the post office rather than use their mailboxes as a precaution.

Suisun City is a rural community about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco.

Family in starvation case says children were fed; seeking to regain custody

TRENTON, N.J. -- The biological children of a couple charged with starving their four adopted sons say the boys, who weighed no more than 45 pounds each, had eating disorders and were never denied food.

Raymond and Vanessa Jackson say they want to regain custody of the boys.

"We want our children back," Raymond Jackson told CBS News in an interview to be aired Wednesday on "60 Minutes II."

The Jacksons were charged with aggravated assault and child endangerment last month after their oldest adopted son was found scrounging through a neighbor's trash looking for food. The boys, ages 9 to 19, each stood no more than 4 feet tall and weighed 45 pounds or less when they were found by authorities.

The case outraged state officials and neighbors, and led to the firing of nine child welfare workers who were supposed to be supervising the children's care.

In the interviews with CBS anchor Dan Rather, family members stood by their claim that the boys were well cared for.

"We would eat together. I mean, we would have, like, the same meals. We'd eat breakfast lunch and dinner together," the Jacksons' biological son, Raymond, said.

One of the couple's biological daughters, 29-year-old Renee, said her parents put an alarm on the refrigerator to stop the 19-year-old adopted boy, Bruce, from gorging himself. She said the eating disorder led Bruce to eat garbage and chew on wallboard in the house.

"I know he used to go through the trash before he even came with us," said Le Rae Jackson, another of the couple's biological daughters.

The Jacksons have said the children were underdeveloped in part because they were born to alcoholics and drug users.

Merriam-Webster to McDonald's: `McJob' is here to stay

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- McDonald's may not be "lovin' it," but the editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary say "McJob" is a word that's here to stay.

The 11th edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, published in June, defines a "McJob" as "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement."

The fast-food giant's chief executive, Jim Cantalupo, called the definition a "slap in the face" to the 12 million people who work in the restaurant industry, and demanded that Merriam-Webster dish up something more flattering.

But the dictionary publisher said Tuesday that it "stands by the accuracy and appropriateness" of its definition.

"For more that 17 years `McJob' has been used as we are defining it in a broad range of publications," the company said, citing everything from The New York Times and Rolling Stone to newspapers in South Africa and Australia.

With more than 55 million copies sold since 1898, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate claims to be the best-selling hardcover dictionary on the market.

"Words qualify for inclusion in the dictionary because they are widely and commonly used in a broad range of carefully edited sources," said Arthur Bicknell, a spokesman for the Springfield-based publisher.

"McJob" is similarly defined in the American Heritage Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's Dictionary, published by Random House.

The OED definition, which cites a 1986 story in The Washington Post, is: "An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector."

On the Net: http://www.Merriam-Webster.com

http://www.mcdonalds.com

Burger King apologizes to woman who claims she was told to stop breast-feeding or leave

OREM, Utah -- Burger King has served up a plain apology to a woman who said she was ordered by a franchise employee to stop breast-feeding her baby in the fast-food restaurant's dining room or leave.

Kate Geary said she was made to "feel like a criminal" for breast-feeding her baby girl Monday and asked the burger chain for an apology.

Miami-based Burger King Corp. issued a generic apology in a prepared release Tuesday.

"Burger King Corporation and our franchisee apologize for any inconvenience any of our guests experienced at our restaurant on November 10, 2003," the release said.

The company said its employee was simply responding to the request of another customer who was uncomfortable with Geary breast-feeding at the eatery. Geary was never asked to leave the restaurant, the statement said.

"The general manager sent a female employee to speak with the woman and asked that she either cover herself or move to the ladies room," the company said in a prepared release. Geary contends she was fully covered.

The restaurant , about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, does not have a policy on breast-feeding.

Utah state law says a woman has a right to breast-feed anywhere.

Wife of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal dies at 95

VIENNA, Austria -- Cyla Wiesenthal, the wife of legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, has died, Vienna's chief rabbi said Tuesday. She was 95.

Cyla Wiesenthal died Monday, Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg told the Austria Press Agency.

Born Cyla Mueller, she and Simon Wiesenthal married in 1936. During World War II, the couple was first sent to the Janwska concentration camp in Lvov, Poland -- where they lived -- and were later transferred to a forced labor camp in the same city, according to a Web page posted by the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Cyla Wiesenthal was able to escape the labor camp in 1942, using fake papers her husband had organized for her.

She lived under the name of "Irene Kowalska" in Warsaw, Poland, for two years, and later worked in Germany's Rhineland as a forced laborer without her true identity being discovered. Her blond hair helped her pass as a non-Jewish Pole.

The couple didn't see each other again until late 1945 after an American armored unit liberated Simon Wiesenthal and other prisoners held in Austria's Mauthausen concentration camp. Both had thought that the other was dead. Together, the two lost 89 of their relatives in the Holocaust.

The Wiesenthals settled in Vienna, Austria. In 1946, they had a daughter, Pauline.

Simon Wiesenthal, who turns 95 on Dec. 31, brought some 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice during his decades hunting down former Nazis. The Simon Wiesenthal Center was established in 1977 to preserve the memory of the Holocaust by fostering tolerance and understanding.

Cyla Wiesenthal was to be buried in a private ceremony Wednesday in Vienna, APA reported. Besides her husband, she is survived her daughter, who lives in Israel.

Odds and ends

BRISBANE, Australia -- The Australian descendants of a Christian missionary eaten by cannibals 136 years ago will travel to Fiji this week, hoping to help lift a curse on the village where he was killed.

The Rev. Thomas Baker was murdered in 1867 at Nubutautau, a remote community high in the hills of the South Pacific island of Viti Levu.

Residents say their community has had bad luck since Baker was consumed and they blame his avenging spirit.

The village has no electricity and only a jungle logging trail links it to the outside world. They say they have been regularly overlooked for developmental aid.

The clergyman's great-great-great-grandson, Dennis Russell, and 10 other family members plan to trek there and receive a traditional apology at an elaborate ceremony on Thursday.

"They are obviously hurting so we are basically going over there to help them," Russell, 46, a coal miner from Brisbane said Tuesday.

Past apologies haven't helped. The last time the village said sorry was in 1993, when it presented the Methodist Church of Fiji with Baker's boots.

During Thursday's ceremony, Baker's descendants will receive more than 100 sperm whale's teeth -- important and rare gifts in Fijian tribal society. Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is planning to attend.

There are differing accounts of Baker's demise. But a villager told The Associated Press last month that it started when the village chief borrowed Baker's hat. Baker tried to take the hat back not knowing that touching a chief's head was culturally taboo and punishable by death.

REDMOND, Ore. -- Back in 1935, Roy Domigan gave his 16-year-old girlfriend Louise Fowler a gold and diamond engagement ring.

Their romance began as neighbors in the town of Temperance, Mich. Fowler used to climb on the back of Domigan's Harley Davidson and together they would race down the highway.

Then one day, Fowler's family shipped her off to California to keep her from marrying Domigan, who was 23 at the time.

"He didn't know anything about it until I was gone," she said. "He could never find me. My family didn't tell him where I was."

This weekend, Fowler, now 83, rekindled the friendship when Domigan, 90, flew out from Michigan for a two-week visit.

"It's amazing to think after 68 years, he would want to get in touch with me," Fowler said.

When Domigan walked through the airport door, he got a big hug, a kiss and a rose boutonniere from Fowler.

The reunion was made possible by Domigan's chance encounter with Fowler's nephew, who provided her address and telephone number. He called her this past May.

"You could have knocked me over with a feather," she said. "I never did forget him. I always wondered about him."

WOODINVILLE, Wash. -- The aroma wafting from the StockPot soup factory is making neighbors nauseous.

"I can always tell when it's Tuesday," said Stephen Koplan, who lives about three miles north of the Campbell Soup Co. subsidiary plant. "You can wake up on a Tuesday and the stench will be so bad it's nauseating. It's that B.O. smell."

StockPot has paid $18,000 in fines because of the odors, traced mainly to production of onion soup, and has installed equipment to spray an odor-reducing enzyme into the exhaust system, officials said. For a time, that seemed to work.

StockPot president Kathleen Horner blamed the weather for the recent complaints.

"We sit in a valley out here," she said. "It's an inversion zone. Cold air can get trapped, and when it warms up you get an 'odor puff."'

Additional spending doesn't make sense if King County builds a proposed sewage treatment plant on neighboring land, Campbell's officials said. In March the company asked the county to buy out StockPot's lease, which runs through 2012.

"We're not delaying things," Horner said, "but there is the question about how much to invest in this building before we know what King County is going to do."

SALT LAKE CITY -- A 23-year-old woman who tried to sell her extra breast milk through a classified ad says she became the butt of jokes.

The woman, who did not want to be identified because of the potential for more jabs, says she was just trying to help women who have difficulty breast-feeding.

Since having her baby two months ago, she has been producing too much milk, so she placed an ad in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Following doctors' recommendations for pumping and proper storage, she managed to save 400 ounces of breast milk.

The ad, which ran Nov. 1-2, offered the frozen milk for sale at $1 an ounce or $350 for all of it.

Instead, she got prank phone calls, like one from a man wondering if it came in a chocolate flavor and another wanting an endless supply for protein drinks.

Newspaper Agency Corp. classified ad supervisor Barbara Wright said she fielded complaints, including a few from health professionals about concerns over the transmission of disease or drugs.

"We haven't ever had anyone that wanted to place an ad like that before. It's not illegal to sell it. It's not safe, but it's not illegal," Wright said.

Photographer sues rapper 50 Cent for alleged attack by bodyguards

NEW YORK -- 50 Cent and his record label have been sued for $21 million by a New York Post photographer who claims the rapper's bodyguards attacked him.

James Alcorn alleges in a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court that he was "assaulted and battered" by seven bodyguards Aug. 27 while photographing 50 Cent, who was shopping in the diamond district.

With the 27-year-old rapper looking on, the unidentified men allegedly slammed Alcorn down on the sidewalk, then loomed over him as he snapped a photo of them. Alcorn claims he suffered neck and jaw injuries.

The incident was being investigated as a possible misdemeanor assault, a police spokesman, Sgt. Kevin Hayes, said Tuesday. A call to 50 Cent's spokeswoman at Interscope Records wasn't immediately returned.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, accuses 50 Cent and Interscope of "not exercising reasonable care and diligence in the employment" of the bodyguards.

Workers remove tigers from private sanctuary, years after loose cat was shot

JACKSON, N.J. -- Nearly five years after a tiger found wandering the suburbs triggered a crackdown on a private sanctuary for big cats, animal welfare workers began removing 24 Bengal tigers for shipment to a Texas sanctuary.

The move ends a protracted battle between the cats' owner, Joan Byron-Marasek, who has become known as the "Tiger Lady," and state wildlife officials, who say the animals were being kept in deplorable conditions at the Tigers Only Preservation Society.

"I'm so glad to see this is finally coming to a resolution," said Marty McHugh, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife. "This is the right thing to do."

The strange saga began in January 1999, when a loose tiger was shot and killed by authorities near Byron-Marasek's property. State officials never proved the tiger belonged to Byron-Marasek, but denied the renewal of her permit to keep the tigers.

Her appeals to overturn that decision were exhausted in November 2002.

Most of the cats had been loaded onto trucks by mid-afternoon, lured into rolling cages with meat or sedated with tranquilizer darts for the move to the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio.

Carol Asvestas, director of the Texas sanctuary, said she was appalled at the condition of the tigers, who she said were soaked in urine and caked with mud and feces. One tiger had neurological problems that would not allow it to hold its head straight. Another was severely dehydrated and has sores on its feet.

"I think it's criminal for the government to give permits to facilities like these," she said.

Byron-Marasek was at the compound when animal welfare workers arrived, but she left in a taxi around 7 a.m., crouching down so photographers could not take her picture.

The battle divided neighbors in this rapidly growing community of single-home subdivisions nestled among the scrub pines about halfway between New York and Philadelphia.

"I just don't feel they should be penned up," said neighbor Marge Richmond. "You want a pet? Get a dog."

John Poulos carried a handmade sign outside the compound that read "Let The Tigers Stay." He blamed newcomers to the community for Byron-Marasek's troubles.

New Jersey will pay $120,000 for the move, and the International Animal Welfare Fund is contributing another $120,000. McHugh said the state will try to recoup its costs from Byron-Marasek.

McHugh said Byron-Marasek had obtained a federal court hearing Wednesday to try to seek some sort of relief for the loss. A secretary for her most recent attorney, Darren Gelber, said he was no longer working for Byron-Marasek.

CNN says it went "too far" in framing student's question during debate

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A college student who asked the Democratic presidential candidates at a debate whether they preferred the PC or Mac format for their computers says the question was planted by CNN.

The news network on Tuesday acknowledged that a producer went "too far" in telling Brown University student Alexandra Trustman what to ask.

CNN televised the debate, co-sponsored by the nonprofit Rock the Vote organization, last week. It was billed as an event geared to the interests of young people.

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson said the cable network regrets the producer's actions. She would not identify the employee.

"In an attempt to encourage a lighthearted moment in this debate, a CNN producer working with Ms. Trustman clearly went too far," she said. All of the other questions from the audience originated from the person asking them, she said.

In an editorial written for the Brown Daily Herald, Trustman said she was called the morning of the debate and given the topic of the question CNN producers wanted her to ask.

Trustman said she was "confused by the question's relevance," and constructed her own question "about how, if elected, the candidates would use technology in their administrations."

But when she arrived in Boston for the debate, Trustman wrote, "I was handed a note card with the Macs and PCs version of Clinton's boxers or briefs question" and told she couldn't ask her question "because it wasn't lighthearted enough and they wanted to modulate the event with various types of questions."

She referred to a 1992 student forum where Bill Clinton was asked what kind of underwear he preferred.

A message left Tuesday for Trustman was not immediately returned and she did not respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press. A woman who answered Trustman's phone said Trustman did not want to comment.

Vietnam uncovers citadel dating back to seventh century

HANOI, Vietnam -- Archaeologists announced Tuesday that they have uncovered the ruins of an ancient citadel in Hanoi dating back 1,300 years, describing it as the most important archaeological find in Vietnamese history.

Workers began clearing an area the size of two soccer fields in December 2002 to build government buildings, but archeologists were called in to investigate before construction began because it was believed the site may contain artifacts.

On Tuesday, an archaeological team revealed it had discovered thousands of artifacts, many in good condition, as well as pillar foundations of a structure, graves, a network of drainage systems, water wells and imprints of an ancient river and lake.

"This is the biggest and most important archaeological find in Vietnam's archaeological history," said Tong Trung Tin, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology.

In some places, the team came across artifacts and structures built on top of each other ranging from the 7th to the 19th centuries, he said.

Tin said the excavation site covers only a small part of the western side of the citadel, which was believed to cover an area up to 345 acres under the Le Dynasty from the 15th to 18th centuries.

The team has another acre to clear, and was expected to finish in another four months.

Tin did not say when the discovery was made.

Minister of Culture and Information Pham Quang Nghi said Vietnam will seek UNESCO recognition of the area as a cultural heritage site but the government has not yet decided how to preserve the discovery.

"The find will help the Vietnamese people to better understand their age-old culture and history," he said. "It also would be a major attraction to tourists."

Tin said he will request international assistance for the project.

The new National Assembly Hall and the National Convention Center were originally scheduled to be built on the site.