Participant at KKK initiation wounded after shots are fired into sky

By: North County Times - | Monday, November 24, 2003 10:07 PM PST ∞

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) -- A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head, critically injuring him, authorities said.

Gregory Allen Freeman, 45, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the Saturday night incident that wounded Jeffery S. Murr, 24.

About 10 people, including two children, had gathered for the ceremony. The man who was being initiated was blindfolded, tied with a noose to a tree and shot with paintball guns as Freeman fired a pistol in the air to provide the sound of real gunfire, Sheriff Ed Graybeal said.

A bullet struck Murr on the top of the head and exited at the bottom of his skull, authorities said.

Freeman fled the ceremony but was arrested near his home, authorities said. He was released on $7,500 bail.

Newspaper agrees not to publish further revelations about royal family

LONDON (AP) -- A British tabloid newspaper agreed Monday not to publish any more details of life at Buckingham Palace gathered by a reporter working as a royal footman.

Queen Elizabeth II obtained a temporary legal ban last week after The Daily Mirror ran a series of stories by journalist Ryan Parry, who obtained a job at the palace using a false reference. The injunction was due to expire Monday afternoon.

Lawyers for the two sides said the newspaper agreed not to run any more stories based on Parry's work and not to "syndicate further" information already published.

The Mirror published the stories while President Bush was a guest at the palace during his state visit to Britain last week.

They included details about the queen's breakfast arrangements, photos of royal bedrooms and accounts of Parry's duties, which reportedly included delivering chocolates to the guest quarters of Bush and his wife, Laura.

The queen's lawyer, Jonathan Sumption, said the articles were a "highly objectionable invasion of privacy, devoid of any legitimate interest." Parry, who got the job under his real name but by supplying a false reference alongside a genuine one, signed an agreement of confidentiality when he went to work at the palace.

Richard Spearman, the lawyer representing Parry and the newspaper, defended the stories as a "classic piece of investigative journalism" that exposed serious security lapses. But, he said, "The Mirror is pleased to resolve matters. It did not want a long, drawn-out legal battle with Her Majesty."

Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan said he hoped the royal family "will in time come to thank Ryan Parry for doing them a favor by exposing very serious lapses in the security system at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle."

"It would also be fair to say that we did not have much more material to publish which would have added greatly to our investigation in any case," he added.

The Mirror also agreed to hand over unpublished photos and documents collected by Parry during his two months of service in the royal household, and to pay $42,000 toward the queen's legal costs.

Sumption said the royal family "are entitled to a proper measure of privacy in their personal lives" and would take legal action against anyone who did not respect the "principles of ordinary human courtesy."

The palace said it had tightened its hiring procedures in the wake of the revelations, and the government launched an investigation into royal security.

Authorities seek help to find boy abducted by parents in Illinois

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Authorities issued a statewide alert Monday asking the public to be on the lookout for a 4-year-old boy allegedly abducted by his abusive biological parents in Illinois.

Tashon Phillips, who is 3 feet 7 inches and weighs about 60 pounds, was snatched Nov. 18 about 1:18 a.m. from his grandmother's home in Hoffman Estates, Ill., said Sgt. Joe Perritano of the city's police department.

Authorities believe the boy was abducted by his mother, Angela Gerontakis, 22, and Willie Phillips, 25, who lost custody of the boy due to severe physical abuse against him, Perritano said.

"We are worried about the boy's safety," he said. "We are basing it not on the actual incident of child abduction, but the past history of domestic abuse in that family."

The suspects' vehicle was described as a 1992 white or gray Chevrolet van with Illinois plate number "5634733" or Illinois temporary plate of "666T370."

The boy was last seen wearing gray jogging pants with red, white and blue stripes down the side.

The suspects made a call Monday about 1 p.m. from a pay phone in Los Angeles, authorities said.

Gerontakis and Phillips are wanted on local child abduction warrants that each carry a $1 million bond and federal warrants also have been issued for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, Perritano said.

Hoffman Estates is about 25 miles northwest of Chicago.

Former Nazi concentration camp guard to be deported

DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered the deportation of a former Nazi concentration camp guard found living in the United States, immigration officials said Monday.

Johann Leprich, a 78-year-old retired machinist, will be sent to his native Romania or possibly Germany or Hungary, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Immigration Review.

Leprich came to the United States in 1952 and became a citizen in 1958. But the Justice Department later discovered his Nazi past and moved to revoke his citizenship in 1986.

Leprich acknowledged serving during World War II in the Death's Head Battalion, a branch of the Nazi SS. He worked as a guard at Austria's Mauthausen concentration camp, where 119,000 people were executed or worked to death.

Leprich relocated to Windsor, Ontario. But evidence surfaced that he continued to live secretly in the United States.

On July 1, authorities found him hiding behind a panel under the basement stairs at his family's home about 25 miles northeast of Detroit.

He has been jailed since, and judge Larry Dean granted the government's request to deport him in a ruling Friday. A date for the deportation had not been set.

Leprich's attorney, Joseph McGinness, had argued that his client remained a U.S. citizen because the government failed to complete revocation of his citizenship. McGinness did not immediately return a call Monday seeking comment.

French inmates hold three prison staff members hostage

PARIS (AP) -- Inmates armed with tools from a prison workshop took three staff members hostage Monday, administrators said. A fourth hostage was released after being slightly wounded.

Thirty-three prisoners at the small Moulins-Yzeure prison in central France attacked the staff in the prison workshop, administrators said.

The demands of the hostage-takers, who moved into action at about 10:30 a.m., were not immediately known.

Further information was not immediately available.

The prison, located in the central Allier region, holds 118 prisoners.

Suspect in Oklahoma shootings shot, apprehended in Texas; manhunt lasted five weeks

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) -- A man suspected of killing an elderly Oklahoma couple was caught after five weeks on the lam when he kidnapped another couple and then was shot and wounded by one of his captives.

Scott J. Eizember, 42, had eluded one of the longest manhunts in Oklahoma history.

Law enforcement agencies picked up his trail after Eizember was spotted at a church food bank Sunday morning and drove off in a volunteer's car.

Authorities said he then drove to Arkansas and abducted an emergency room doctor and his wife. The doctor shot Eizember at least three times at a road stop in East Texas with a gun he had hidden in his van.

Doctors expect Eizember could leave the hospital as early as Friday to face murder and other charges, said Capt. James Galloway of the Angelina County Sheriff's Department.

Eizember is accused of killing A.J. Cantrell, 76, and his wife, Patsy Cantrell, 70, on Oct. 18 in Depew, Okla., in the northeastern part of the state.

He is also accused of beating Carla Wright, a neighbor of the Cantrells, and wounding her grandson, 16-year-old Tyler Montgomery, that same day.

Wright's daughter Kathy Biggs, Tyler's mother, is Eizember's former girlfriend, and authorities believe he had been stalking her.

Angelina County Sheriff Kent Henson said Eizember confessed to the slayings and to the abduction. He allegedly told the abducted pair, "I've killed a couple in Oklahoma and I don't mind killing you all," Henson said.

As the manhunt proceeded, Eizember told authorities he hid in some straw in the woods in Creek County, Okla. He then hid in a Depew church for several weeks, eating from a food bank and watching television, Henson said.

On Sunday, a volunteer at the food bank, Doyce Pitre, saw Eizember step out of a closet and told deputies she was so frightened that she left her keys as she fled.

Eizember took the keys and drove her car about 200 miles east to Arkansas, where he apparently ran out of gas, officials said.

Dr. Samuel Peebles, 54, and his wife, Suzanne, 50, a registered nurse, came upon Eizember there.

The couple's son, Samuel Peebles Jr., said Eizember feigned an injury by "lying in the road or along the road" to get into the couple's van. Once inside, the younger Peebles said, he produced a gun and told the couple he wanted to go to Mexico.

After driving south about 300 miles, the couple persuaded the suspect to pull over so they could use the restroom, officials said.

During the stop, the doctor managed to grab a pistol concealed in his van and shot Eizember, authorities said.

Eizember allegedly hit the couple in the head with the pistol before fleeing in their van and driving about 10 miles to Corrigan, Texas, where he stopped at a food store and asked for help with his wounds.

He had left by the time police arrived, but armed with a description provided by the store clerk, authorities stopped Eizember and took him to a hospital, where authorities learned he was wanted.

"He acted somewhat relieved the ordeal was over with," said Galloway, who questioned Eizember at the hospital.

Peebles said his father broke his thumb during the ordeal. The couple received medical treatment and were resting at a hotel before returning home to Arkansas, their son said.

Peebles said it was common for his parents to stop and help people in need.

"The entire family considers them heroes," he said.

Rescuers reach hiker who fell Saturday in Utah backcountry

EMERY, Utah (AP) -- Rescuers braved bitter cold Monday to retrieve a hiker stranded in a canyon with a broken leg, after his brother hiked for 22 hours to call for help.

The ordeal began Saturday when brothers Justin and Jeremy Harris were hiking in the Baptist Draw area of Shute Canyon. The canyon is located in the heart of the San Rafael Swell, about 20 miles from Interstate 70 and about 100 miles west of Moab.

The men, described by authorities as experienced hikers, were rappelling down an 80 foot cliff around 5 p.m. when Justin, 31, fell about 10 feet to the bottom and broke his leg. Knowing it was impossible for his brother to hike any further, Jeremy, 27, hiked back up the cliff and out of the canyon to get help.

"He left him food, water, and as much heavy clothing as he could," said Emery County Sheriff LaMar Guymon. "The temperatures there have been about zero or below" at night.

During the daylight hours, the hike back to the car's location would have taken roughly five hours, Guymon said. But in the dark and cold, it took 22.

"It was dark, and he took a wrong trail for a ways and had to backtrack," Guymon said.

Complicating the trek out of the canyon was Jeremy's synthetic hip.

He reached his car mid-afternoon Sunday and used his cell phone to call police. Two rescue teams were launched as Jeremy was taken to a hospital for observation.

Using Jeremy's directions, searchers reached Justin late Sunday night, but couldn't remove him from the spot until Monday. The searchers camped out overnight beside Justin.

"They had to wait until the sun came up to see what they were doing and make sure he's OK," Guymon said.

Rescue teams hoisted Justin out of the canyon, and carried him on a stretcher to a clearing several miles away where he was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital.

The area has recently grown in popularity for hikers, Guymon said, and rescues are becoming fairly common. The area can be treacherous for inexperienced hikers.

"We were very, very fortunate to find him in as good a shape as he is," Guymon said.

Rescuers reach hiker who fell Saturday in Utah backcountry

EMERY, Utah (AP) ---- Rescuers braved bitter cold Monday to retrieve a hiker stranded in a canyon with a broken leg, after his brother hiked for 22 hours to call for help.

The ordeal began Saturday when brothers Justin and Jeremy Harris were hiking in the Baptist Draw area of Chute Canyon. The canyon is located in the heart of the San Rafael Swell, about 20 miles from Interstate 70 and about 100 miles west of Moab.

The men, described by authorities as experienced hikers, were rappelling down an 80 foot cliff around 5 p.m. when Justin, 31, fell about 10 feet to the bottom and broke his leg. Knowing it was impossible for his brother to hike any further, Jeremy, 27, hiked back up the cliff and out of the canyon to get help.

"He left him food, water, and as much heavy clothing as he could," said Emery County Sheriff LaMar Guymon. "The temperatures there have been about zero or below" at night.

During the daylight hours, the hike back to the car's location would have taken roughly five hours, Guymon said. But in the dark and cold, it took 22.

"It was dark, and he took a wrong trail for a ways and had to backtrack," Guymon said.

Complicating the trek out of the canyon was Jeremy's synthetic hip.

He reached his car mid-afternoon Sunday and used his cell phone to call police. Two rescue teams were launched as Jeremy was taken to a hospital for observation.

Using Jeremy's directions, searchers reached Justin late Sunday night, but couldn't remove him from the spot until Monday. The searchers camped out overnight beside Justin.

"They had to wait until the sun came up to see what they were doing and make sure he's OK," Guymon said.

Rescue teams hoisted Justin out of the canyon, and carried him on a stretcher to a clearing several miles away where he was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital.

The area has recently grown in popularity for hikers, Guymon said, and rescues are becoming fairly common. The area can be treacherous for inexperienced hikers.

"We were very, very fortunate to find him in as good a shape as he is," Guymon said.

Mexican rights commission finds government negligence in deaths of women

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Official investigations into the slayings of hundreds of women near the U.S. border have been rife with carelessness and neglect, the government's National Human Rights Commission said in a report presented to Mexico's Senate on Monday.

At least 263 women have been killed in Ciudad Juarez since 1993 and more than 4,500 have been reported missing, according to the report, which was to be presented to President Vicente Fox on Tuesday.

The 1,600-page report complained that officials had used falsified evidence, torture and questionable investigative techniques in probing the cases, echoing criticisms made in August by the independent group Amnesty International.

"The report documents and demonstrates what many voices have denounced for some time: the intolerable weight of negligence, lack of attention, omissions and even discrimination and tricks which have characterized the behavior of many agents," said the president of the commission, Jose Luis Soberanes.

He suggested officials had given little attention to the cases because the victims were poor.

"If the women had not been so socially vulnerable, it would have been difficult to show such negligence," he said.

He said that at least 89 witnesses had been tortured to prompt testimony. Representatives of victims say they believe some of those arrested were innocent targets of fraudulent evidence.

Soberanes said it was time for the government "to answer a question asked by national and international society: Who killed them?"

"Either we answer that question or we are making fools of ourselves," he said.

Responding to earlier criticism, Fox in October named a commission to help coordinate and oversee efforts by state and federal agencies.

In an example of the official carelessness, Soberanes said documents about some of the slayings were left in an office that was invaded by homeless people seeking shelter from the winter cold. They burned the papers for heat.

The federal attorney general's office took a role in the case only in April after 10 years of leaving the cases up to Chihuahua state officials. Murder and kidnapping by themselves are state, not federal, crimes.

Officials say that 93 of the murder cases in the city, which is just south of El Paso, Texas, fit into a pattern of women molested, killed and dumped in the desert.

Some independent groups have put the numbers of slayings much higher.

While more than a dozen suspects have been arrested in some of the slayings, only one man has been sentenced so far in the killing of one woman.

Earlier this month, 63 members of the U.S. Congress signed a litter urging Secretary of State Colin Powell to encourage the Mexican government to exert "political will in solving the crimes" and to offer U.S. help.

Odds & Ends

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- The hundreds of deer killed by cars and trucks as they wander onto roads could spur new life -- along the roadside.

Under a new program in Lehigh County, deer carcasses would be taken to a compost facility and turned into raw material for fertilizer to nurture plants along the roads.

The carcasses are now hauled to private landfills or pits on state game lands, and the roadkill recycling plan could save the state money as well as provide fertilizer.

"It's a win-win situation," said Douglas Killough, regional director of the state Game Commission. "The carcasses could be utilized in a more ecological way than by wasting them."

The deer would decompose in three to nine months, creating compost that would be tested for safety before being used, county compost specialist Cary Oshins said.

The state Department of Transportation now hires a contractor for $26,000 a year to haul away 600 to 650 dead deer from state roads in the county. The disposal price per deer has jumped over the years because landfills are requiring more permits from contractors.

"You can compost anything," said environmental engineer Bill Prince of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "You can compost me and you."

OLINDA, Hawaii (AP) -- Nearly a year after the first reports of a mysterious large cat lurking in the hills of Maui prompted an intense and expensive state search, the hunt has been called off -- catless.

Department of Land and Natural Resources chairman Peter Young said the effort involved a "large investment of manpower" and would cease unless new, credible evidence of the animal emerges.

The state has tried everything from on-foot searches to infrared cameras. Three weeks ago, 19 traps were set up, costing about $3,000 a week to monitor. When they were installed, state wildlife biologist Fern Duvall estimated the cat hunt had already cost the state $15,000.

Last December, Maui officials began receiving reports of a dark brown or tan, catlike creature with a big head and a long tail. Since, authorities have tried everything to find the animal.

Velcro strips -- some soaked in the ocelot-favorite "Obsession for Women" perfume, others in the urine of an African wildcat -- failed to collar a fur sample. Technology using an infrared beam to snap a photograph produced no images.

Box traps and snares struck out, too. Even forest broadcasts of an injured animal in hopes of convincing the cat that dinner wasn't far away turned up nothing.

Young said the animal may have moved elsewhere, is being confined by its owner or is dead.

"I believe there was a cat out there," said Peter Baldwin, who said he heard what sounded like a wild cat screaming in the middle of the night about a month ago. "Maybe it will come back again."

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- Border agents last week landed a meaty bust, seizing 756 pounds of bologna arranged into the shape of a car seat and covered with blankets in a man's pickup.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 81 rolls of Mexican bologna Friday at the Paso Del Norte bridge as the pickup entered the United States.

"It puts the ultimate consumer at risk," said customs spokesman Roger Maier. "Who knows how long these products have gone without refrigeration or without proper handling?"

Children were sitting on top of the illegal load before it was discovered, Maier said. The rear seat had been removed from the extended-cab pickup and the bologna was put in its place.

He said the agency plans to pursue civil penalties against the Mexican man driving the truck. Maier said the agency won't release the man's name until the case goes to trial.

Maier said the bologna goes for about $1 a roll in Juarez. When it is sold to a customer in the United States, it can go for between $5 and $10 a roll , he said.

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) -- An alleged bank robber identified by witnesses because he forgot to cut eye holes in his disguise has been arrested -- a few blocks from where he pulled off the flawed caper, police said.

Stephen David Walker was spotted Thursday afternoon walking down a Modesto street near the Oak Valley Community Bank branch police say he robbed on Monday.

Walker, 49, was booked at the Stanislaus County Jail on a bank robbery charge, Modesto Police Detective Tom Blake said.

Police said Walker wore a square piece of flannel under a hat and draped over his head during the heist. But, without eyeholes, the bandit was forced to repeatedly lift the front corner of the cloth so he could see where he was walking, Blake said.

Before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash, the suspect bumped into a door headfirst, knocking off his hat, Blake said, and giving witnesses a look at his face.

Fire at Moscow dormitory for foreign students kills 36, injures nearly 200

MOSCOW (AP) -- A pre-dawn fire swept though a rundown Russian dormitory for quarantined foreign students Monday, trapping many behind permanently locked exits and causing some to leap from the five-story building.

Thirty-six students died and nearly 200 were injured, some from frostbite after fleeing half naked into the bitter cold. The students -- from Asia, Africa and Latin America -- had just arrived in Moscow and were being held in the dorm awaiting medical checks before starting classes.

"It was like a horrible nightmare," Abdallah Bong, a student from Chad. "We saw them crying for help and jumping out of the windows, and we could do nothing to save them."

Bong and other witnesses said dozens of fire engines were slow to reach the blaze, jammed into a narrow access road blocked by parked cars.

"Students had to do it all themselves, holding mattresses for those who were jumping out," said Nafafe Tengna, a journalism student from Guinea.

The fire, believed to have been caused by an electrical malfunction, engulfed the building at People's Friendship University. It burned for more than three hours, though Moscow fire safety department spokesman Yevgeny Bobylyov insisted that firefighters arrived on time and did their job well.

Flames gutted most of the dorm above the ground floor. Smoke poured from windows as a wet snow fell in the early morning darkness. The fire left the building's concrete walls streaked with black soot, and nearby trees were caked with ice that had formed from water used to extinguish the blaze.

Once a showpiece of Soviet patronage of the Third World, receiving generous state subsidies, the university declined with the 1991 fall of communism. Still, it continued to draw students from impoverished nations with its low tuition, such as medical school costs of $1,200 a year.

Students said the dead and injured included citizens of China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Tahiti, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Peru and Malaysia.

"A man from Ecuador shattered himself and died when he jumped out of the fifth floor," said Adam Rosales, a 22-year-old Peruvian student, gazing in shock at the blackened shell of the building.

Lubov Zhomova of the Moscow Health Directorate said 36 people died and 197 others were injured -- 57 of them in serious or grave condition.

A preliminary investigation pointed to an electrical problem, Deputy Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told President Vladimir Putin, who inquired about the fire during a Cabinet session. Some bystanders said the fire could have been started by electric heaters, which students use to get warm.

The university was founded in 1960 and named Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University in honor of the postcolonial Congo's first prime minister; its name was changed in 1992. Its aim was to offer a strict Marxist curriculum to students from developing nations.

A 22-year-old student from Mauritius, who identified himself only by his first name, Vashish, described the school's accommodations as "miserable." He and other students said one of the dormitory's two stairways was permanently locked, making an emergency exit more difficult.

With stipends shrinking to almost nothing, many foreign students trade goods to make money, and already cramped dormitories are often packed with bags and bundles.

Russia has a high rate of fire deaths, 18,000 a year. That is nearly five times the number of fire deaths in the United States, which has twice the population. The contrast is even starker with the United Kingdom, where there are 600 fire deaths a year, or one per 100,000 people -- compared to 12.5 per 100,000 in Russia.

Experts say fire fatalities have skyrocketed since the end of the Soviet Union, in part because of lower public vigilance and a disregard for safety standards. The age of Russia's buildings also plays a role: Many older buildings have wood partitions between the floors that help fires spread rapidly.

Two teens charged with conspiracy to commit murder in school shooting plot

ORANGE, Texas (AP) -- Two teenagers were charged Monday with conspiracy to commit murder in an alleged plot to shoot more than 20 students at their high school.

The 16-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl were being held in juvenile detention centers.

Authorities said they uncovered the plot on Nov. 10, two days before the teenagers planned to shoot more than 20 students and four administrators at Vidor High School in far southeastern Texas.

The two students were immediately taken into custody, and three others were expelled. Those three will not be charged, prosecutor Krispen Walker said.

Officials have not released details of how the plot was discovered or how the three other students were involved.

The names of the students were not released.

At sentencing, two of the Portland seven rail against government

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Two American Muslims who tried to join the Taliban were sentenced to 18 years in prison Monday during a hearing in which they denounced the Bush administration and pleaded in song for freedom.

Patrice Lumumba Ford, 32, and Jeffrey Leon Battle, 33, had pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to levy war against the United States.

Both said that in trying to reach Afghanistan, they were fulfilling their Islamic duty to defend fellow Muslims.

"The attack on Afghanistan killed and maimed thousands of people without achieving its objective," said Ford, who had traveled to China in an unsuccessful attempt to reach Afghanistan. "I refuse to stand passive in the face of such policies."

Ford, once an intern at Portland's City Hall, said he felt obliged to defend his fellow Muslims against "President Bush's cruise-missile diplomacy."

Ford also assailed the crackdown on Muslim radicals after Sept. 11, which he said was calculated more to score political points than pursue justice.

"I don't think that anybody with a conscience could participate in the prosecutions of this country," he said.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones admonished Ford by saying: "You do not represent the Muslim faith. Muslims do not engage in the activities you engaged in. You are an insult to that faith."

Jones also brushed aside Ford's claim that he was motivated by a humanitarian desire to help Afghan civilians, saying Ford had clearly intended to join the Taliban as a foot soldier and would have killed U.S. soldiers if he had a chance.

"If you had been on the firing line, you would have killed an American," Jones said.

Battle, a former Army reservist, also spoke of his obligations as a Muslim and concluded by singing a 10-minute song he said he had written in prison. The courtroom was silent during the song, which ended with the stanza, "Free, free, free, for all humanity, release me."

Battle and Ford were among six people accused of conspiring to travel to Afghanistan in 2001 and fight U.S. troops after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A seventh was charged with providing financial support.

Four of the others pleaded guilty, and a fifth was killed in a shootout in Pakistan.

UNICEF appoints HIV-positive Muppet a 'champion for children'

GENEVA (AP) -- The U.N. Children's Fund has appointed an HIV-positive Muppet starring in the South African version of "Sesame Street" as a "global champion for children," officials said Monday.

Kami, a mustard-colored furry Muppet who appears regularly on "Takalani Sesame," represents a 5-year-old girl orphaned by AIDS. UNICEF said she "has brought levity and compassion to a topic that so often evokes the opposite."

Kami now will help UNICEF promote messages of ending the stigma for HIV/AIDS sufferers across the world in a way that is appropriate to her age group.

Kami will appear in public service ads and as a representative for other joint projects between UNICEF and Sesame Workshop, a U.S.-based, nonprofit organization that makes "Sesame Street."

"The appeal of the partnership is that through characters like Kami we can highlight areas where children are particularly vulnerable -- from illiteracy to disability and abuse -- in ways that are gentle, honest and compassionate," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.

UNICEF's new partnership with Sesame Workshop also will give creative support to the South African makers of "Takalani Sesame," one of several locally produced versions of the children's program.

Kami was created at the urging of the South African government, which helps sponsor the show, to reduce stigma about the disease. Some 4.7 million South Africans -- one in nine -- are HIV positive, more people than in any other country in the world.

The Muppet debuts in her new role Wednesday at the presentation of a new UNICEF report, "Africa's Orphaned Generation," which details the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in Africa.

HIV/AIDS is increasingly affecting the very young, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, UNICEF said.

In 2002, 800,000 children under 15 years old became HIV-positive. The huge majority of those were infected at birth and most will die before the age of 5.

In addition, AIDS among adults is creating a massive orphan crisis. By 2010, there will be 20 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have lost at least one parent to the disease, the U.N. estimates.

UNICEF and Sesame Workshop plan to work together on projects ranging from literacy and health to fostering respect and understanding.

"A partnership between UNICEF and Sesame Workshop couldn't be more natural," Bellamy said. "Our common focus is on children around the world, who all share the same fundamental right to lives of dignity, peace and opportunity."

"Sesame Street" premiered in 1969 and now is broadcast in more than 120 countries.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.