Judge: Cancer-stricken girl whose parents initially refused her treatment will remain in state custody

By: Associated Press - | Thursday, June 16, 2005 10:13 PM PDT ∞

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- A judge ruled Thursday that the state will retain custody of a 13-year-old girl who was taken from her parents after they refused to continue her cancer treatments and the cancer, which appeared to have been eliminated, returned.

Katie Wernecke, who has Hodgkin's disease, will remain with Child Protective Services pending another hearing late next month, juvenile court Judge Carl Lewis ruled. Katie was scheduled to see doctors at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on Thursday.

Katie's parents tried to convince Lewis during a custody hearing that they would not resist efforts to resume her treatment. But he refused to return the girl to their care, noting that Katie's mother had previously fled with Katie and her father had rejected several doctors' findings.

"I really don't have a parent that I can say I can return the child to without putting that child in danger of her health," Lewis said.

The girl was diagnosed in January after she was taken to an emergency room with what her parents thought was pneumonia. She received chemotherapy, and doctors recommended it be followed with radiation.

Her parents refused though. Edward Wernecke said he feared the radiation would put Katie at a heightened risk for breast cancer, stunt her growth and cause learning problems.

Earlier this month, Child Protective Services officials took custody of Katie after doctors said the Werneckes were risking their daughter's life by refusing the radiation therapy. A scan last week revealed the cancer had returned, and Katie's former doctor testified he thought its return was linked to the family's refusal to go forward with the radiation.

Attorneys for the Werneckes said it was never the family's intention to deny necessary medical treatment. Michele Wernecke testified she was willing to follow doctors' recommendations, and her husband testified that Katie needed to be with her family.

The case has drawn national attention as a battle between parental rights and the state's charge to protect children from abuse or neglect.

"This is a disappointing ruling," said Daniel Horne, a family attorney. "The parents love their child. This is just a situation where the parents weren't neglecting the child -- maybe they were doing too much."

Edward Wernecke said he had been "hoping that the judge would return her to our care." But, he said, "I am glad that they did allow her to go to M.D. Anderson and to get a full evaluation."

Edward Wernecke had said the dispute was simply a misunderstanding. He said Dr. Nejemie Alter, who diagnosed Katie's illness and testified at the hearing, had led him to believe four rounds of chemotherapy were enough.

"After we finished with the four chemos, we thought that's all there was," he said.

Darrell Azar, a spokesman for CPS, said Katie would remain with a foster family and that the goal was to eventually reunite her with her family.

"The department is very pleased with the ruling primarily because it's a win for Katie," Azar said. "We have to do the prudent thing and make sure we see through this treatment."

Aruban helicopter search fails to find body of missing American girl

By: Associated Press

ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- A helicopter searched for the body of an Alabama teenager as investigators sifted through items seized from the island home of a justice official whose son was with the young woman the same night she disappeared, officials said Thursday.

A Thursdsay, judge considered a petition from the justice official, Paul van der Sloot, to see his jailed 17-year-old son, Joran. The judge was also expected to rule on a request from lawyers defending the youth and his two Surinamese friends to see any evidence authorities have gathered. Van der Sloot, from Holland, is training to be a judge in Aruba, which is a Dutch protectorate in the Caribbean.

More than two weeks after the 18-year-old Natalee Holloway went missing, searches by authorities, volunteer islanders and tourists have led nowhere, and no one has been charged in the case. Authorities were refusing to say if they thought Holloway was dead.

On Thursday, however, Police Superintendent Jan van der Straaten told The Associated Press that used a helicopter "to search for possible remains -- but found nothing." He declined to say where the helicopter searched.

On Wednesday, investigators brought in from Holland and police using a German Shepherd searched the van der Sloots' one-story, yellow-beige home, where Joran lived in an attached apartment. Agents were seen carrying two white garbage bags filled with items from the house, while authorities towed away a blue sport utility vehicle and a red Jeep from the property in Noord, outside the capital, Oranjestad.

Van der Straaten declined to give details on what they found. "We are still busy with the investigation and interrogations of suspects," he said Thursday.

Following the approximately four-hour search, Attorney General Caren Janssen clarified that Paul van der Sloot was not under investigation.

Asked why it took investigators more than two weeks after Holloway's disappearance to search the van der Sloot home, Janssen said Thursday, "You have to build up an investigation. You can't just go in there like a cowboy, you have to give certain direction to investigators."

Joran remains in police custody along with Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, of Suriname. The three were questioned and released shortly after Holloway's May 30 disappearance. They were formally arrested last Thursday.

The two brothers have told police that they and Joran were with Holloway and that she and the Dutch youth were petting in the back seat of their car. The detainees initially said they took Holloway to a beach on the northern part of the island then dropped her off at her Holiday Inn hotel, where they claimed she was approached by a security guard.

But Antonius "Mickey" John, a former hotel security guard released from custody on Sunday, told reporters that Deepak Kalpoe told him during a chat in jail that he and his brother actually dropped the young van der Sloot and Holloway off together near the Marriott, about 10 blocks north of the Holiday Inn. John said he passed the information on to police.

Kalpoe's lawyer would not comment on John's statement Wednesday, but said his client maintained his innocence.

Van der Straaten declined to give a timeline Thursday on when the investigation could conclude, or when Joran and the Kalpoe brothers might either be released or formally charged.

He dismissed rumors that police may investigate coastal waters on the north side of the island known to have sharks. "Sure, we have shark places on the northern side, but they have nothing to do with the investigation," he said.

Holloway was celebrating her graduation from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Alabama, with 124 other students and seven chaperones when she vanished during the early hours of May 30. Her U.S. passport and packed bags were found in her room.

The law says authorities can hold detainees for up to 116 days without filing formal charges. The three young men have been in custody since June 9.

Performance artist stages 'falls' from museum roof, recalling Sept. 11 horror

By: Associated Press

CHICAGO -- A performance artist wearing a business suit and safety harnesses jumped repeatedly from a museum roof to create photographs that recall scenes from the World Trade Center attack, but his spectacle was scorned by some onlookers and victims' relatives.

Collaborating photographers snapped away as Kerry Skarbakka fell more than 30 times from the five-story Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday. The photographs will be retouched to erase the pulleys and wires that kept Skarbakka from hitting the pavement.

Skarbakka, 34, said he started thinking about falling after watching on television as workers jumped to their deaths from the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

"I was so distraught, I needed some way to find an artistic response," he told the Chicago Sun-Times. Now, he says he sees falling as a metaphor for life.

"Mentally, physically and emotionally, from day to day, we fall. Even walking is falling: You take a step, fall and catch yourself," he said.

Skarbakka, who lives in New York and was named by ArtReview magazine last fall as an outstanding young photographer, has exhibited similar images of previous jumps.

His antics on Tuesday attracted a crowd of gawkers, who became sidewalk critics.

"It was fabulous," said Darlene Schuff, 56. "I just wanted to be a part of it. It's a happening."

Others in the crowd said Skarbakka's effort was too staged to have meaning.

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it "nauseatingly offensive," and some who lost family and friends at the trade center agreed.

"What kind of a sick individual is he? Tell him to go jump off the Empire State Building and see how it feels," Rosemarie Giallombardo, whose son Paul Salvio died in the terrorist attack, told the (New York) Daily News. "He's an artist? Go paint a bowl of fruit or something."

Jewish graves in London vandalized, sprayed with Nazi swastikas

By: Associated Press

LONDON -- Vandals desecrated 86 tombstones dating to the 1870s in a Jewish cemetery in London, spraying some of them with Nazi swastikas and racial slurs while knocking them over, police said Thursday.

The attack was reported a day after Hungarian authorities said about 130 tombstones were knocked down and broken at the Kozma Street Jewish Cemetery in Budapest. Culture Minister Andras Bozoki said the government would "provide all assistance" necessary to repair the tombstones.

London police said a large hole was made in the heavy wooden doors of a mausoleum building in West Ham Jewish Cemetery, and the structure was sprayed with swastikas. The mausoleum contained members of the wealthy Rothschild banking dynasty.

Dozens of headstones around the mausoleum lay on the ground, some of them cracked or caved in. Jagged knee-high bases stood over the broken fragments of the stones, which previously stood about 5 feet tall. The barely legible inscriptions were mostly in Hebrew.

"This was a despicable racist attack," detective Steve Lane said.

Two of the damaged graves belonged to children aged 4 and 13 and had stood undisturbed since the 1870s, said Melvyn Hartog, head of burials for the United Synagogue, which maintains the cemetery and 10 others in the London area.

"It's the lowest of the low," Hartog said of the vandals.

The caretaker at the burial site, which opened in the mid-19th century, discovered the vandalism Sunday. By Thursday, cemetery workers had removed the swastikas and racial slurs from the mausoleum and graves.

Daniel Stockdale, a 21-year-old mason who works for the United Synagogue, said the toppled headstones would be put upright but the broken ones would not be replaced with new stones.

"It's so bad," Stockdale said. "These stones are irreplaceable."

The attack is the third desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Britain this year. The first involved the painting of swastikas and SS signs on 12 gravestones in a Hampshire cemetery.

Earlier this month, staff at a Jewish cemetery in Manchester, northern England, discovered that at least 96 graves had been toppled or smashed. Some of the stones, which are up to 70 years old, may have marked the graves of Holocaust survivors who came to Britain after the war, Jewish community leaders said.

Earlier this week, Europe's top human rights watchdog expressed concern at the "considerable and steady rise of anti-Semitic incidents" in Britain.

"While these incidents usually mirror tensions in the Middle East, representatives of the Jewish communities report that there now seems to be a higher level of background violence against these communities," said the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the Council of Europe's body on combating racism.

There were 532 anti-Semitic incidents in Britain last year, the highest figure in 20 years, said Michael Whine, a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, a Jewish group that works against anti-Semitism.

Those incidents included life-threatening assaults, criminal damage to property, hate mail and abusive behavior.

The CST did not yet have figures for this year.

Tough-talking defense attorney admits trying to hire hit man

By: Associated Press

AKRON, Ohio -- Defense attorney Maridee Costanzo made a reputation for herself as one aggressive, tough-talking and remarkably profane lawyer.

She once called a judge a "sick, twisted old man" in a voice mail message. Another time, she told a client who was considering a divorce to max out her husband's credit cards. The woman did, going on a $14,000 shopping spree.

But all of that was nothing compared with what she said in federal court in Thursday: She admitted trying to have her estranged husband killed.

Costanzo, 47, is accused of making a $1,100 downpayment in April toward a $5,000 hit on her husband, Roger Bauer. Prosecutors did not offer a motive, and Costanzo did not explain in court. She could get up to 10 years in prison at sentencing Aug. 4.

She pleaded guilty in the murder-for-hire plot before a judge could even finish stating the charge against her.

"I've heard it. I've read it, ad nauseam," she said.

U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd Jr. asked her if she knew she had a right to a jury trial.

"Been there. Done that. Understand thoroughly," Costanzo replied.

A psychological evaluation of Costanzo concluded that she has manic depression. She also acknowledged a drug problem, specifically with OxyContin.

The one-time congressional candidate, whose past clients include a member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, often proved to be more colorful than her clients in the Youngstown and Warren areas.

The FBI said agents learned about the plot from William Cindea, the middleman who was supposed to hire the hit man. After police stopped his car in March for having a suspended license, Cindea volunteered the information about the scheme and agreed to record conversations with Costanzo.

"I'm not joking around. I've had it with the (expletive). He's f----- my entire life up," she said in a recorded conversation, according to the FBI.

Costanzo was also heard suggesting that the hit man kill Bauer in St. Petersburg, Fla., as he left a favorite restaurant.

"Are you gonna be able to live with yourself?" Cindea asked.

"Yeah, happily, the rest of my life. I'm gonna tinkle on his grave every year," she said.

Three years earlier, Costanzo boasted between drags on a cigarette in her smoke-saturated law office that she would become a member of Congress, winning the seat that formerly belonged to Jim Traficant, who had been convicted of racketeering. Costanzo called her opponents in the Democratic primary "barking goats."

For all her bravado, Costanzo got just 8 percent of the vote in a crowded primary field.

In 1997, Costanzo was accused of three counts of legal misconduct: for the "twisted old man" remark, for the credit card advice, and for calling a police officer a "silver-tongued devil bastard" after he testified against her client.

She kept her law license, but it was suspended after she was charged in the murder-for-hire case.

Costanzo still faces weapons charges resulting from the traffic stop in which Cindea was pulled over. Police said they found a loaded gun in her blue jeans and a pistol under the passenger seat.

Bauer, 57, did not immediately return a phone call Thursday.

A year ago, Costanzo represented one of 14 members of the Outlaws motorcycle club at a trial in Toledo. Her client was convicted of conspiracy. Defense attorney John Thebes sat next to Costanzo during the three-month trial and had trouble hearing witnesses because of her chatter.

"She talked a lot like a sailor. She was very opinionated. Very passionate about her client," Thebes said.

Yet she had a sweet side. "She would always bring the gum and suckers," Thebes said.

Man shoots granddaughter over disliked boyfriend, then apparently kills himself

By: Associated Press

COOPER CITY, Fla. -- A 74-year-old man shot his teenage granddaughter as she spoke on the phone with a boyfriend he disliked, then barricaded himself in the house and was found dead hours later, sheriff's deputies said.

Nicole Riley, 14, was flown to a hospital and was expected to survive, Broward County Sheriff's Office spokesman Hugh Graf said. Her grandfather, Hans Bechold, apparently killed himself, Graf said.

The two were alone at the house Wednesday night when Bechold opened fire because he disapproved of the teen's relationship, Graf said. The girl ran outside, but Bechold shot her again at close range as a neighbor tried to help her.

Bechold continued firing as the teen and the neighbor fled.

Authorities rushed the girl to the hospital. Bechold, meanwhile, barricaded himself in the house. After he did not respond for several hours, deputies searched the house early Thursday with a robot. Using its camera, they spotted Bechold's body, Graf said.

Crystal Soto, a friend of the wounded girl, said Bechold had recently moved into the family's home.

"He always seemed like a nice guy," she said. "He's not the type to shoot anybody."

Runaway bride enlists company to pitch proposal for TV movie about her life

By: Associated Press

ATLANTA -- Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks made a deal with a company that is pitching a television movie about her life -- annoying officials who spent thousands of dollars searching for her.

ReganMedia has acquired all media rights to the "life stories" of Wilbanks and her fiance, John Mason, the New York multimedia company said Thursday.

The company did not say whether any money had changed hands.

"I am looking forward to developing the scripted project with Wilbanks and Mason," company President Judith Regan said in a statement. "Theirs is an unexpected and compelling story of love and forgiveness that has certainly taught me a thing or two."

The 32-year-old bride-to-be disappeared from her Duluth home on April 26, four days before her high-profile wedding with 600 guests and 28 attendants. After taking a bus to Albuquerque, N.M., she claimed she was abducted and sexually assaulted, but later recanted, saying she fled because of unspecified personal issues.

Wilbanks pleaded no contest earlier this month to making a false statement and was sentenced to two years of probation and 120 hours of community service. She also was ordered to continue mental health treatment and pay the sheriff's office $2,550.

Duluth spent nearly $43,000 to search for her. Wilbanks has repaid $13,249.

News of her deal infuriated local officials.

"I guess that says more about this whole case than anything else that has happened. I'm really sort of disgusted by the whole thing," said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter.

He lamented that anyone would pay "for what is just a silly story," but said Wilbanks had the legal right to make the deal. "I didn't want this to happen but there was no way I could prevent it," he said.

Lydia Sartain, Wilbanks' attorney, did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.

Mason's mother, Vicki Mason, said Thursday: "I haven't had any comment about Jennifer Wilbanks from day one, and I still don't."

Drunken airline pilots to remain jailed until sentencing; terms to be set next month

By: Associated Press

MIAMI -- Two fired America West pilots convicted of operating a jetliner while drunk were denied bail Thursday and must remain in jail until sentencing next month.

Judge David Young ordered pilot Thomas Cloyd, 47, and co-pilot Christopher Hughes, 44, held at least another five weeks and set their sentencing hearing for July 20. He said he would issue his decision the next day.

Their sentences could range from probation to five years in prison. The two had been free on bail for nearly three years while they contested the charges, but went to jail immediately after they were convicted last week.

Evidence showed they had spent a night drinking in a bar hours before a scheduled flight from Miami International Airport to Phoenix in July 2002. Screeners noted alcohol on their breaths and the plane was stopped before takeoff.

Objecting to bail Thursday, prosecutor Hillah Katz argued that the pilots posed an unusual risk of disappearing because they have connections to get to planes and can fly them.

Hughes' wife Debbie told the judge that she wanted her husband free for now so he could help her prepare their two children for his possible imprisonment.

The judge said Hughes "cared more about what he was doing that day than he cared about the children."

Both men were stripped of their commercial licenses and barred from flying private planes while on bail.

Guatemala landslide kills at least 21

By: Associated Press

GUATEMALA CITY -- A rain-sodden hillside gave way and buried houses in seven neighborhoods of a rural Guatemalan town, killing at least 21 people, officials said Thursday.

Another 40 people were injured in the landslide Wednesday night in San Antonio Senahu, about 75 miles northeast of the capital, said Mario Cruz of the local volunteer fire department.

"Sadly, we believe that there are more dead and injured," said Benedicto Giron, spokesman for the national disaster-response agency.

President Oscar Berger canceled all appointments Thursday to fly to the scene of the disaster, according to his office.

At least 80 rescue-equipped firefighters and 60 other emergency workers headed to the town from Guatemala City to participate.

Efforts to reach Senahu were complicated by another slide on the highway leading to the town. The army was using heavy equipment to try to clear it.

The national disaster agency said that it had set up six shelters for evacuees.

A May 2000 mudslide in Senahu buried 21 houses and killed 13 people.

Norwegian Princess Martha's 'Star Wars' child baptized at palace chapel

By: Associated Press

OSLO, Norway -- The youngest member of Norway's royal family, named Leah in part after the "Star Wars" movie princess, was baptized Thursday at a palace chapel.

Princess Martha Louise and writer Ari Behn's second child, Leah Isadora Behn, was born April 8 and is fifth in line for the Norwegian throne, although she has no royal title.

Martha Louise, 33, told the state radio network NRK that the name Leah was partly inspired by the fictional Princess Leia of the "Star Wars" films.

"I must admit that I have always been a big Star Wars fan, and Princess Leia has always been the world's most beautiful," said the Norwegian princess.

Martha Louise said they picked the name Isadora due to her husband's fascination with the life and death of American dancer Isadora Duncan, who died in a 1927 car accident. She said they decided to spell the first name Leah because had often seen it and liked it during his travels in the Middle East.

The child was carried to the baptismal altar by her grandmother Queen Sonja, the wife of King Harald V. Her godparents include Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands. The couple's first child, Maud Angelica, is 2.

Even though Martha Louise is the king's oldest child, her brother Crown Prince Haakon is first in line for the throne because the constitution did not allow female monarchs. That has since been amended.

On the Net:

www.kongehuset.no

Fight over materials seized from Unabomber's cabin reaches appeals court

By: Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- A legal struggle over writings and other belongings seized from Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's Montana cabin reached a federal appeals panel Thursday, with his lawyers telling the court he wants the items so he can donate them to a university.

The materials -- including Kaczynski's voluminous autobiography, letters, a pipe bomb, a hatchet and copies of books such as George Orwell's "1984" -- rightfully belong to the Unabomber, his lawyers told the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

They said he wants to give them free of charge to the University of Michigan, his alma mater, which has agreed to open them not just to researchers but also to the public. Photocopies the government provided aren't good enough for scholastic research, Kaczynski's lawyers said.

But lawyers for the government said the public has no First Amendment right to view the evidence seized from Kaczynski's cabin in 1996. They said the government owns the materials and Kaczynski is free to donate photocopies.

Responding to suggestions that the government sell the materials at auction and give the proceeds to Unabomber victims, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ana Maria Martel said the government didn't want to participate in such a sale.

"He is a criminal," Martel said. She said the government would sell the materials internally to a government agency -- priced as if Kaczynski were not a celebrity killer -- and use the proceeds to help pay Kaczynski's $15 million in restitution.

The judges questioned that position, saying the logical thing would be to sell the materials to the highest bidder.

"All you're doing is keeping the victims from getting any money," Judge William Canby Jr. said.

Kaczynski, 62, is serving a life term without the possibility of parole for a deadly bombing spree that lasted from 1978 to 1995. He led authorities on the nation's longest and costliest manhunt before his brother tipped off authorities in 1996.

He pleaded guilty in 1998 to killing three people and injuring 23.

A Harvard graduate who holds advanced degrees in mathematics from the University of Michigan, Kaczynski has maintained in his writings that technological advances have reduced human freedom. He has said his attacks were connected to his campaign against what he considered the tyranny of technology.

The government labeled him the Unabomber because many of his attacks were directed at university scholars.

The University of Michigan has told the court it would include the materials in the school's world-renowned research library of social protest. The appeals court did not indicate when it would rule.

Widow of slain civil rights worker testifies in murder trial of former Klansman

By: Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- Rita Schwerner Bender walked up to the witness stand Thursday and took the somber courtroom back to that fateful day four decades ago -- the moment she realized the man she loved, her comrade in championing black voting rights, had died.

She recalled being told that authorities had found the burned-out shell of a blue station wagon in a Mississippi swamp. It was the same car she and her husband had been driving for three months.

"I think it really hit me for the first time that they were dead, that there was really no realistic possibility that they were alive," Bender said, occasionally looking as though she was fighting back tears. A few in the courtroom wiped away tears during the testimony.

Bender, now 63, was the first witness in the trial of a former Klansman who is charged with murder for allegedly masterminding the killings of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman in 1964. Prosecutors allege that Killen helped round up Klansmen to chase down and kill the three, who were beaten and shot to death.

The 80-year-old Killen was taken from court on a stretcher and hospitalized with high blood pressure Thursday.

Dr. Patrick Eakes, director of the intensive care unit at Neshoba County General hospital, described Killen as "alert and pleasant" but said he would remain there overnight. He said Killen arrived at the hospital with elevated blood pressure and complained of a headache and discomfort in his chest.

The trial later went into recess until at least Friday, depending on Killen's ability to attend. The doctor said Killen would be examined early Friday to see if he could be released.

The part-time preacher and sawmill operator has been attending court in a wheelchair while he recovers from broken legs suffered in a woodcutting accident.

Rita and Michael Schwerner had been married just over a year and a half when they moved from New York to Mississippi in January 1964 to work in the civil rights movement. They lived in the homes of several black families in Meridian, moving frequently because the families were threatened.

Michael Schwerner returned that summer to investigate the torching of a black church. Rita Schwerner, then 22, was in Ohio trying to find a flight back to Mississippi when her husband and the two others disappeared in an area of Mississippi known for hostility toward those who challenged the strict social code of segregation.

Schwerner and Goodman, who were white New Yorkers, and Chaney, a black Mississippian, were stopped for speeding, jailed for a few hours, then released, after which they were ambushed by a gang of Klansmen. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam.

Killen's name has been associated with the slayings from the outset, and he stood trial on federal charges in 1967, but the all-white jury could not reach a verdict. One juror reportedly said she could not convict a preacher.

Killen could get life in prison if convicted in the state trial.

The defense does not dispute that Killen was a member of the Klan at the time of the slayings, but denies he had anything to do with the attack.

Brain-dead woman kept alive in hopes her unborn baby survives

By: Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va. -- A brain-dead woman is being kept on life support in hopes that her 21-week-old fetus survives, and the woman's husband said he is certain that's what she would have wanted.

Jason Torres said doctors believe the fetus could have a chance if Susan Torres lives another month and her cancer stays away from her uterus.

He said he decided to keep his wife on life support when doctors at Virginia Hospital Center offered him the chance to disconnect the machines after concluding she would not recover.

"I hate seeing her on those darned machines, and I hate using her as a husk, a carrying case, because she herself is worth so much more," Torres said in an interview in Thursday's USA Today. "But Susan really wanted this baby. And she's a very -- how should I put this? -- a willful lady. That's probably why she's made it this far."

Hospital officials are not discussing the case, the newspaper reported.

Susan Torres, a 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, lost consciousness from a stroke May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her brain. Jason Torres said doctors told him his wife's brain functions have stopped.

Torres said the fetus appears to be thriving, but his wife's doctors have told him they know of no cases in which a brain-dead mother with melanoma has delivered a baby.

If his wife and her fetus live until mid-July, or about 25 weeks' gestation, the fetus could survive delivery, though with a heightened risk of brain damage and other problems, Torres said. A full-term pregnancy is about 40 weeks.

"There's not a glimmer of doubt in my mind that this is what she would have wanted," Torres said. "Any chance at all to save the baby, and Susan would have said, 'Let's go for it.' "

Torres quit his job as a printing salesman and has moved into his wife's hospital room. The couple's 2-year-old son, Peter, is staying with grandparents.

Ancient statue stolen during WWII returned to Greece

By: Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece -- Authorities cheered the return Thursday of a tiny, 2,600-year-old statue stolen during World War II, and said the news should offer hope to antiquity officials in Iraq as well.

They also said the statue's return should send a message to the British Museum, which currently has the Parthenon Marbles -- a collection of Greek sculptures taken from the Parthenon in 1811.

A British ancient art dealer returned the tiny statue of a smiling, long-haired youth after realizing the piece had been stolen from the Aegean Sea island of Samos during World War II. Greece was occupied by forces from Germany, Italy and Bulgaria during the war.

James Ede, chairman of the London-based International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art, bought the 4.5-inch bronze figure from the widow of a Greek art collector who lived in Switzerland. He turned it over to the Greek Embassy in London and accompanied the statue on its flight home.

The piece will be displayed at the archaeological museum of Samos.

"I'm very proud to be able to return this little statuette to this museum," Ede said at a ceremony in Athens.

"What you have done is fantastic. Thank you very, very much," said Fani Palli-Petralia, deputy culture minister, who refused to handle the statue for fear of damaging it.

Greece has sought for years to recover other objects, including a series of statues and fragments removed from Athens' Parthenon by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and later sold to the British Museum.

The museum has refused to return the objects -- known as the Elgin Marbles -- even on loan.

"I can't help but draw a comparison with the Parthenon Marbles," said Palli-Petralia. "I hope your example will be followed by others, like the British Museum."

Greece argues the Elgin Marbles are an integral part of the 2,500-year-old Athens monument, but failed in a bid to have them on display here for the Olympics last summer.

"I can't comment on the wider issues of restitution but I think you can feel that my heart is in the right place," Ede said.

He said the tiny statue also carried a message for Iraq.

Thousands of ancient items were stolen from the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad and other sites following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"I think the dispersal of our cultures helps us understand and love each other and is a good thing but this must be a legal process," Ede said. "We will continue to fight the illegal trade. ... With war, civil strife, and upheavals around the world -- not least in Baghdad -- the duty that we have will become greater and greater."

The statue has been valued at about $55,000.

On the Net:

International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art: http://www.iadaa.org

Greek Culture Ministry: http://www.culture.gr

Rare 150-year-old tepee displayed at Nez Perce history park

By: Associated Press

SPALDING, Idaho -- A 150-year-old bison-hide tepee, one of only a few of its kind surviving in the United States, has been displayed at a national historic park in north-central Idaho for the first time in a half-century.

Wearing crisp white gloves, National Park Service employees at the Nez Perce National Historical Park gingerly brought the fragile tepee out of storage Wednesday to be photographed.

The photos were taken for the Park Service "Teaching with Museum Collections" program, which is based on the premise that national park sites keep troves of artifacts in their collections that the public never sees.

The tepee predates the 1,400-mile flight of Chief Joseph in 1877, when the leader of the Nez Perce tribe and a band of some 700 followers fled an advancing U.S. Cavalry before ultimately surrendering in Montana near the Canadian border.

Made from 16 to 20 bison hides, the artifact marks a way of life that died with the buffalo in the 1880s. Of the six or seven bison-hide tepees left in the United States, half belong to the Nez Perce Tribe, said Kevin Peters, a park ranger.

"This tepee belonged to my great-grandmother, the wife of Chief Lawyer," said Mylie Lawyer, who entrusted her collection of Nez Perce artifacts to the Park Service. "My father lived in it when he was little. At night, they would roll up the edges, look at the stars and hear the stories of their people."

Nez Perce baskets, fishing tools, flutes, drums, regalia and a canoe also are being photographed for the project. Next week, 16 teachers from the region will create online lesson plans about the Nez Perce artifacts that will be used by schools around the country, said Alyse Cadez, another park ranger.

The Nez Perce collection is the 15th to be photographed by the Park Service, and the fifth site to hold a teaching workshop, said Joan Bacharach, a curator with the National Park Service Museum Management program based at Washington, D.C.

"The Nez Perce collection is magnificent," she said. "The artifacts are absolutely exquisite."

About 40 people watched Wednesday as park rangers gingerly worked the soft hide onto 15 red fir poles, stopping several times to readjust the fraying bottom. Years ago, it sustained significant water damage, requiring about two feet to be cut from the bottom. The edges have holes and are a much lighter shade of tan than the rich brown tip.

"It was a lot bigger and in better shape before," said tribal elder Horace Axtell, who displayed it at the Hotel Lewis-Clark in Lewiston for the National Congress of American Indians during the 1950s -- the last time the tepee was shown publicly.

The tepee stayed up for less than an hour, while people carefully climbed inside and had their pictures snapped standing beside it.

On the Net:

http://www.nps.gov/nepe/

Parents of woman killed by Israeli bulldozer tour nation to raise money

By: Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- When 23-year-old American Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, she was protesting the impending demolition of a Palestinian home. More than two years later, Craig and Cindy Corrie say they are trying to carry on their daughter's work.

In a bid to raise money to rebuild the bulldozed house and others nearby, the Corries have started a seven-state tour with Khaled and Samah Nasrallah -- one of two Palestinian families who lived in the house Rachel died protecting.

On Friday, the tour comes to Rachel Corrie's hometown of Olympia.

"Rachel, when she was in Gaza, wrote to us about her own thinking in terms of making a commitment to that place," Cindy Corrie said. "She didn't want to feel guilty when she left, knowing that she could come and go as she pleased. When she was killed, those words resonated with us."

Rachel Corrie was killed in 2003, after Israel moved to raze a house under a decades-old policy of destroying the homes of Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen. Khaled Nasrallah, an accountant for Palestine Airlines, said his family was not involved with terrorism.

An Israeli army investigation concluded that Corrie's death was accidental. Officials said the driver of the machine could not see the woman -- a claim activists have fiercely disputed and her parents are challenging.

At the time of her death, Craig Corrie was an actuary nearing retirement; his wife was a flutist and vocalist. Now, they travel the country to talk about their daughter and her cause. About a year ago, they joined up with the Rebuilding Alliance, an organization that helps rebuild Palestinian homes and schools.

In March, the Corries sued Caterpillar Inc., the maker of the bulldozer, arguing that the company knew its machines would be used to demolish homes and endanger people. Caterpillar said in its defense: "We have neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment."

The Corries are also pursuing claims in Israel against the Jewish state and its military.

Human rights groups have condemned the demolition of Palestinian homes as a violation of international humanitarian law. In February, Israel abandoned the policy, saying it was ineffective.

Israel has characterized the International Solidarity Movement, the group Rachel Corrie was working with when she was killed, as meddlers whose activism in some cases has amounted to abetting terrorism. Others argue that the young people who join these kinds of groups are naive.

"I think she just made bad decisions for herself," said Keren Bar-nir, with the American Zionist Movement in New York. "I think it's based on really extreme groups persuading people. The kids these days are so disillusioned."

A scholarship has been created in Rachel Corrie's name at her alma mater, Evergreen State College. And a one-woman play called "My Name is Rachel Corrie," based on Rachel's journals, letters and e-mails and directed by actor Alan Rickman, opened in London in April.

The Corries have become friends with the Nasrallahs, who witnessed Rachel's death from a hole in their garden wall. The Corries traveled to the home, which was then still standing, to see the spot where she died. The house has since been demolished.

"Rachel had this relationship with our family and our children, so she stood to defend our children and to protect the principle of staying in your home," Khaled Nasrallah said.

Britain orders investigation after security breach at Prince Harry's military academy

By: Associated Press

LONDON -- Britain's defense minister ordered an investigation Thursday into security at the military school where Prince Harry is training, after a newspaper said one of its journalists, who had a camera and a fake bomb, gained access.

It was the latest security breach involving the royal family in recent years.

The Sun tabloid said one of its reporters posed as a student to get permission to use the library at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey, where Prince Charles' younger son is an officer cadet.

The journalist spent some eight hours wandering the grounds and took video of Prince Harry, stills from which were published in the newspaper. He also built what The Sun called a fake bomb, with wires, plasticine, a battery and clock in his car while at the academy, the newspaper said.

But Clarence House, the office of Prince Harry's father, Prince Charles, said the cadet shown in the video was not Prince Harry.

"Having reviewed the footage and spoken to people with Prince Harry, it's our opinion that it's not him," a Clarence House spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity.

The Sun insisted the video showed the prince and said it stood by its report.

A Ministry of Defense spokesman confirmed that The Sun's report was accurate.

Defense Secretary John Reid said he had ordered "an immediate investigation into this serious security breach."

"I have instructed Sandhurst to change their procedures to prevent a recurrence," Reid said in a statement. Reid didn't specify what the changes would be.

Prince Harry, 20, began his training at Sandhurst last month.

The Sun's stunt follows several recent lapses in royal security. In September, a protester disguised as Batman climbed onto a ledge on the front of Buckingham Palace and remained there for several hours.

A comedian dressed as Osama bin Laden crashed Prince William's 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle in 2003. Later that year, a reporter from the Daily Mirror got a job as a servant at Buckingham Palace and took pictures of the royals' living quarters.

Family reaches settlement with postal service regarding misplaced vial

By: Associated Press

SANTA CRUZ -- A family has settled a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service charging that a vial of meningitis was tucked inside a package sent to their home.

Serena Lewis, 22, mailed three boxes from New York to her parents' Santa Cruz County home in May 2001, according to a family attorney. Two packages arrived safely, but her parents discovered a vial tucked between Lewis' socks, shoes and CDs in the third box.

Shaana Rahman, a family lawyer, said the meningitis container came from a damaged package sent in February 2001 from the San Mateo County Health Department to Microbiological Disease Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

She said the package was mishandled and the vial of meningitis somehow ended up in the woman's package.

No one was injured or became ill from the shipment.

The postal service did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement. Further details were not released.

"Unfortunately in this incident, there could have been harm done," said Gus Ruiz, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service. "But we are glad everything turned out OK."

Helicopter crashes on Turin Winter Olympics site, two injured

By:Associated Press

ROME -- A helicopter crashed Thursday on the slalom ski slope for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, injuring the pilot and a worker on the ground, organizers of the games said.

The helicopter was ferrying a load of light poles to illuminate the slope in Sestriere at night during the Feb. 10-26 games, said Claudio Agnese, spokesman for the management arm of the organizing committee.

Neither the pilot nor the worker appeared to be seriously injured and were taken to a hospital in Turin, Agnese said.

"The helicopter was hovering very close to the ground, due to the work required," he said, adding that officials will investigate the crash.

Sestriere's mayor told the ANSA news agency he saw the crash from a window at city hall.

"We saw it spin like a top and then crash to the ground. Then there were flames and a tall column of smoke," Mayor Andrea Maria Colarelli told the agency.

Former sheriff sentenced for trespassing at Schiavo hospice

By: Associated Press

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A former sheriff received six months of probation, a $600 fine and community service after he was convicted of trying to enter Terri Schiavo's hospice to give her water.

Former Lee County Sheriff John J. McDougall, an outspoken Roman Catholic, was arrested March 19 outside the hospice -- the day after Schiavo's feeding tube was removed.

McDougall, 62, could have avoided court by paying a $250 fine. But he demanded a trial and was convicted of trespassing by a jury that deliberated for about 45 minutes.

"I didn't feel I was guilty of trespassing. I was trying to save someone's life," said McDougall, who was sheriff from 1988 to 2000.

McDougall was convicted Wednesday -- the same day that the autopsy into Schiavo's death said she was irreversibly brain-damaged and would not have been able to swallow if she had been given food and water by mouth.

Nancy Reagan falls in London hotel room, examined at hospital

By: Associated Press

LONDON -- Former first lady Nancy Reagan slipped and fell early Thursday in her London hotel room and was taken to a hospital for examination and released, her chief of staff said.

Mrs. Reagan, who turns 84 on July 6, wasn't hurt and doctors sent her back to the hotel for rest, spokeswoman Joanne Drake said from her office at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California.

"She took a fall at the hotel. She had some pain and they took her to the hospital," Drake said, adding Mrs. Reagan was on an approximately 10-day, private vacation to Britain. Mrs. Reagan was released a short time later.

"She will be following her doctor's advice to limit her activities over the next two weeks until the pain subsides and full mobility returns," Cathy Busch, an aide traveling with the former first lady, said in a statement.

Mrs. Reagan plans on continuing her stay but her scheduled will be lightened, Drake said.

The former first lady had already had tea with longtime friend Lady Margaret Thatcher as well as Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House.