Brain-dead Virginia woman dies after giving birth

By: Associated Press | Wednesday, August 3, 2005 7:20 PM PDT ∞

ARLINGTON, Va. -- A brain-dead woman who was kept alive for three months so she could deliver the child she was carrying was removed from life support Wednesday and died, a day after giving birth.

"This is obviously a bittersweet time for our family," Justin Torres, the woman's brother-in-law, said in a statement.

Susan Torres, a cancer-stricken, 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, suffered a stroke in May after the melanoma spread to her brain.

Her family decided to keep her alive to give her fetus a chance. It became a race between the fetus' development and the cancer that was ravaging the woman's body.

Doctors said that Torres' health was deteriorating and that the risk of harm to the fetus finally outweighed the benefits of extending the pregnancy.

Torres gave birth to a daughter, Susan Anne Catherine Torres, by Caesarean section on Tuesday at Virginia Hospital Center. The baby was about two months premature and weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces. She was in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Dr. Donna Tilden-Archer, the hospital's director of neonatology, described the child as "very vigorous." She said the baby had responded when she received stimulation, indicating she was healthy.

Doctors removed Torres from life support early Wednesday with the consent of her husband, Jason Torres, after she received the final sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church.

"We thank all of those who prayed and provided support for Susan, the baby and our family," Jason Torres said in a statement. "We especially thank God for giving us little Susan. My wife's courage will never be forgotten."

English-language medical literature contains at least 11 cases since 1979 of irreversibly brain-damaged women whose lives were prolonged for the benefit of the developing fetus, according to the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Dr. Christopher McManus, who coordinated care for Susan Torres, put the infant's chances of developing cancer at less than 25 percent. He said 19 women who have had the same aggressive form of melanoma as Torres have given birth, and five of their babies contracted the disease.

A Web site was set up to help raise money for the family's mounting medical bills, and as of two weeks ago, people from around the world had donated around $400,000. The family said it must pay tens of thousands of dollars each week that insurance does not cover.

Jason Torres had quit his job to be by his wife's side, spending each night sleeping in a reclining chair next to her bed.

The couple have one other child -- 2-year-old Peter, who has been staying with his grandparents.

Associated Press writer Kristen Gelineau in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

On the Net:

Susan Torres Fund: http://www.susantorresfund.org

Storm warning issued in Bermuda as new Tropical Storm Harvey approaches

MIAMI (AP) -- A depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Harvey on Wednesday as it slowly approached Bermuda, forecasters said.

Harvey, the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, had top sustained winds of about 60 mph, up from 40 mph earlier Wednesday.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said there was a small chance Harvey could become a hurricane -- with sustained winds of at least 74 mph -- when its center passes near Bermuda on Thursday morning.

A tropical storm warning was posted for Bermuda, meaning tropical storm conditions were expected within 24 hours. Two to 4 inches of rain were possible for the islands that sit about 1,000 miles northeast of Miami, meteorologists said.

At 8 p.m. EDT, the tropical storm was centered 130 miles west-southwest of Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center said. It was moving toward the north-northeast at about 10 mph.

Harvey is the earliest eighth named storm on record for the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.

The government on Tuesday sharply boosted its forecast for hurricanes this season, predicting the season total would reach 18 to 21 named storms. That was up from a forecast in May of 12 to 15 named storms.

In years that have seen at least eight named storms, the eighth storm develops, on average, on Sept. 29, said hurricane specialist James Franklin.

"In about half the years, we don't even get that far," Franklin said.

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Lightning kills Utah Boy Scout, injures three others in log shelter

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A bolt of lightning killed a 15-year-old Boy Scout and injured three others while they slept in a log shelter during a violent storm.

"There was a big flash and a big boom," said Dr. Stephen Morris, a trauma surgeon at the University of Utah's burn unit who was with the troop. "Somebody came running down the trails saying, 'Help, we need help."'

Morris said he tried in vain for 90 minutes to revive the boy, who had no heartbeat and wasn't breathing after the strike Tuesday night.

The family of the victim, Paul Ostler, released a statement thanking leaders and doctors at the scout camp "who tried so valiantly to save Paul's life."

"I just sat on the bed and cried. I couldn't go to sleep. I was just sitting there thinking 'this poor guy,"' Morris told Salt Lake television station KUTV.

Two of the injured boys were flown to the University of Utah burn unit. One 13-year-old boy was in good condition and the family of the other asked that no information be released by the hospital. The third boy, also 13, was released Wednesday after being treated for minor burns, said his father, Doug Edwards.

The accident marked the second deadly lightning strike to hit a Boy Scout camp in the last week. Last Thursday, an assistant Scoutmaster and a 13-year-old Scout were killed by a lightning strike in California's Sequoia National Park.

Four Scout leaders at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia were electrocuted July 25 in front of several Scouts after they lost control of a metal pole at the center of a large dining tent, sending it toppling into nearby power lines.

During the Utah strike, all four boys were bedding down in a corner of the cabin during the storm, said Edwards, a troop leader.

"From what we can tell, it appears the lightning hit a tree next to us, came down and came out of the tree and just into some nails that were driven into the cabin to hold the logs together," Edwards said.

Two other boys and another scout leader in the log structure were not injured, Edwards said. All six boys belong to the same Salt Lake troop.

Camp Steiner is the highest Boy Scout camp in the country at 10,400 feet elevation in the Uinta Mountains, a magnet for thunderstorms on summer afternoons about 60 miles east of Salt Lake City.

The victim's parents, Brent and Teresa Ostler of Salt Lake City, said Paul was an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in scouting, usually attained at an older age of 17 or 18. But in Utah, the Mormon Church advances its scouts more quickly so they can prepare for a proselytizing mission.

Man held in Idaho abduction-murders probed in '97 California murder

RIVERSIDE (AP) -- Eight years after a stranger with a story about a lost cat lured 10-year-old Anthony Martinez to a car and eventual death in a remote desert rockpile, authorities Wednesday said they have linked the killing to a convicted sex offender arrested last month in an Idaho multiple murder and child abduction case.

"This is huge," Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle told reporters. "We followed up 15,000 leads over eight years. You can imagine the elation that everybody has."

Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, is linked by a single fingerprint to the scene of the Beaumont boy's killing in 1997, Doyle said. The case will soon be presented to the district attorney for prosecution, the sheriff said.

"We're pretty confident that he's our suspect," Doyle said.

Duncan was arrested in Idaho for investigation of the May 16 bludgeoning deaths of three people at a home near Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and the kidnapping of Shasta Groene, 8, and her brother Dylan, 9, from there. Duncan was seized when people at a restaurant recognized the girl with him. Dylan's body was later found in Montana.

FBI agents involved in the Idaho investigation contacted Riverside authorities on July 14, and said Duncan mentioned the name Martinez and the general area.

"So they called us to say, 'hey, you guys have a case?"' Doyle said.

Investigators flew to Idaho to fingerprint Duncan. They tried to interview him but he refused to talk.

On April 4, 1997, Anthony was forced into a white car in the town of Beaumont as his friends watched. The children were playing when a stranger offered them a dollar to help find his lost cat. Sixteen days later a forest ranger found the boy's nude, bound body in a desert area about 70 miles to the east.

The kidnapper was described at the time as blue-eyed and mustachioed, but efforts to track him down proved fruitless despite the extremely high profile of the case. Before the end of that April, authorities had evaluated more than 100 people as suspects.

Anthony's kidnapping united Beaumont, a small town on Interstate 10 in the inland region east of Los Angeles. Yellow ribbons were tied to trees and thousands of fliers with sketches of the suspect were handed out.

After circling vultures led a ranger to Anthony's remains in Berdoo Canyon in the Indio Hills, residents of Beaumont wept and prayed, and authorities vowed to capture the killer.

"I know we're going to get this guy," then-Sheriff Larry Smith pledged at the time.

Duncan has been charged in Idaho with kidnapping and murdering Shasta's mother, Brenda Groene, 40, as well as the woman's son Slade, 13, and her boyfriend Mark McKenzie, 37, at their home outside Coeur d'Alene.

Idaho had charged Duncan with kidnapping Shasta and Dylan from the home, but the state dropped those counts in anticipation of the federal government charging him with kidnapping the two children and with killing Dylan.

Federal prosecutors have said they will file charges in the abduction of the children and Dylan's death.

Authorities have also said Shasta and Dylan were sexually assaulted.

While it is The Associated Press' policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault in most cases, the search for Shasta and her brother was so heavily publicized that their names are widely known.

Duncan was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Tacoma, Wash., in 1980. The term was suspended and he was put into sex offender treatment at a state hospital, but 22 months later officials said the treatment wasn't working. He was resentenced in 1982

Authorities said Duncan was paroled in September 1994 and moved into a halfway house in Seattle.

Documents show he got a job as a phone solicitor for a publishing company; went to counseling and later got a second job with a small software company.

In September 1996, Duncan tested positive for marijuana during a routine urine test, and he was arrested, then released on parole again, records show. In March 1997, he again tested positive for marijuana use, records show. He disappeared with his girlfriend's car, according to parole reports.

He was captured and returned to prison in October 1997 and finally released in 2000.

At the time of his arrest, Duncan was a fugitive charged with molesting a 6-year-old boy in Minnesota.

Duncan's most recent address was a Fargo, N.D., apartment.

DNA frees Florida man a quarter-century after he is convicted in a string of rapes

MIAMI (AP) -- A man who spent 26 years behind bars as Florida's "Bird Road Rapist" was released from prison Wednesday after DNA evidence cleared him in two of the attacks and cast doubt on whether he was responsible for any of the crimes.

"Victory," 67-year-old Luis Diaz said as he walked out of the courthouse a free man. He said he planned to spend time with his family, was not bitter about the time he lost and didn't blame prosecutors.

"They did their job. You have to respect that," he said later at a news conference. Payment for his years in prison also wasn't on his or his family's mind -- for now.

"He is our compensation right now," said son Jose Diaz, 40, who was flanked by his brother and sister.

Circuit Judge Cristina Pereya-Shuminer threw out his five rape convictions at the request of both Miami-Dade County's chief prosecutor and lawyers for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that works to get inmates exonerated via DNA.

About 30 relatives and friends in the courtroom stood and applauded after the judge said he was free to go. A handcuffed Diaz, dressed in a red jail jumpsuit, waved to his family and wiped his eyes with tissues.

Prosecutors stopped short of declaring Diaz innocent in all the rapes, instead citing the difficulty of retrying him after a quarter-century.

"It is impossible to ignore the difficulties inherent in retrying five very old cases even under the best of circumstances. Police investigators retire, memories fade, and victims move on with their lives," the dismissal request said.

Diaz was convicted in 1980 and sentenced to life in prison for seven of 25 sexual assaults that occurred between 1977 and 1979 in the Bird Road area of Coral Gables, south of downtown Miami.

The Bird Road Rapist would attack young women drivers, signaling them to pull over by flashing his headlights and then forcing them to have sex at gunpoint.

Diaz was arrested after a victim who worked as a gas station attendant spotted a driver she said looked like her attacker. She gave police the license plate number, which led them to Diaz.

The convictions were based on identifications made by eight victims in all, even though some of them initially described a much heavier and taller Hispanic who spoke English. Diaz, a Cuban-American, spoke little English and, because of his work as a fry cook, smelled of onions -- something no victim mentioned.

In 1993, two victims recanted their identification of Diaz, and those two convictions were thrown out. But five other convictions remained, until lawyers asked for DNA testing.

Evidence gathered from the two of the rape victims was discovered, and DNA testing of the semen conclusively excluded Diaz as the attacker in both cases. That, in turn, cast doubt on his other convictions.

Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who was the county prosecutor when Diaz was convicted, did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

Defense attorney Roy Black, who represented Diaz at his trial, said he was thrilled.

"That Luis' innocence has finally been admitted is cause for celebration, but nothing can erase the 26 years he spent in prison, in horrible condition, separated from his family," Black said in statement.

Barry Scheck, executive director of the Innocence Project, said the Diaz case demonstrates anew the need for police to improve the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.

He said three-quarters of the 160 prisoners who have been exonerated by post-conviction DNA in the United States had been convicted based on mistaken identification.

"This should be a landmark case in the history of eyewitness reform," Scheck said. "There are reforms police and prosecutors are using across the country that reduce error, protect the innocent and help apprehend the guilty."

Case of missing U.S. teen in Aruba produces one false lead after another

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) -- Police have drained a pond, picked through landfill, scoured beaches and sent strands of blond hair overseas for genetic testing -- often chasing false leads in the investigation into U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway's disappearance.

The mystery baffles and frustrates investigators more than two months after the 18-year-old Alabama honors student was last seen leaving a nightclub with three young men.

"We thought we could solve this in a couple of days, but it turned out to be very difficult," said Lt. Roy Tromp, the lead investigator. "In my 30 years as a police officer, I've never had a case like this."

The most recent leads suggested something grisly happened to Holloway, but investigators say they have no proof she is dead.

The strands of hair were found on duct tape that washed up on Aruba's northern shore. DNA testing by the FBI determined the hair didn't come from Holloway.

A volunteer rescue group from Texas searched a landfill for a fifth day Wednesday, pursuing a tip from a witness who claimed to have seen men dumping a female body two days after Holloway disappeared. They've found nothing so far.

Last week, Aruban authorities almost completely drained a pond where a witness said he saw Dutch teenager Joran van der Sloot and two brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe -- the three who left the nightclub with Holloway -- driving the night she vanished. The pond yielded up nothing.

Van der Sloot, 17, is the only person still detained in the case. The Kalpoe brothers, of Suriname, and four other men, including van der Sloot's father, were detained in June and released for lack of evidence.

The head investigator said he is convinced van der Sloot was involved in Holloway's May 30 disappearance. Tromp said the teenager, who has maintained his innocence, has changed his account of what happened that night more than 10 times.

Three behavior specialists from the Netherlands questioned van der Sloot for a second day Wednesday, hoping to glean clues from his body language or version of events. An FBI observer was also present.

No one has been charged in the case. Searches throughout the Dutch Caribbean island have produced no trace of Holloway.

"We are still fighting. We are still positive we are going to break this thing," said Tromp.

But how long could it take?

"I don't have a crystal ball," he said. "And as the days pass by, it's becoming more difficult."

Many Arubans, who say they take pride in their efficient police force, have become resigned to the possibility that there may never be a resolution.

"If she is alive, she isn't here, and if she's dead, they are not going to find her," said Istela Inesia, 38, who runs a deli.

American lawyers and police experts, in a stream of appearances on U.S. cable television shows, have suggested Aruban authorities have bungled the investigation. Some have suggested there was a cover-up because van der Sloot's father, Paul van der Sloot, is a Dutch judge in training.

Aruban police and citizens bristle at such speculation.

"Not Joran, not Paul, not anybody has had special treatment in this case," Tromp said.

The missing teen's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has kept the case in the spotlight with frequent media appearances, vowing not to let the investigation go cold.

The 44-year-old speech pathologist left Aruba last weekend for the first time since her daughter vanished, going home to Birmingham, Ala.

But she was returning Wednesday, determined to step up pressure on authorities.

"I'll be here at least another month, unless we find Natalee sooner," Holloway Twitty said.

Nearly 5,000 evacuees allowed to return home in Hawaii although fire remains out of control

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii (AP) -- Nearly 5,000 people ordered to flee their homes because of a huge brush fire on Hawaii's Big Island were allowed to return Wednesday, officials said.

However, the fire remained out of control after charring more than 25,000 acres along the Kohala Coast on the west side of the island.

Hawaii County fire officials said no injuries or damage to buildings were reported, but a condominium complex remained threatened. The fire did not threaten hotels in Waikoloa Resort, about six miles away.

The evacuation order had affected 75 percent of the town's 6,500 residents, Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency acting administrator Lanny Nakano said. Officials turned a community center and elementary school into evacuation centers, a resort opened its ballroom to evacuees and another school offered dorm rooms.

Linda Harlow told The Honolulu Advertiser that she had little warning.

"We back up to a natural area and it was burning right outside our home," she said. "People were trying to grab what they could. We had like five minutes."

The only road connecting the village to the rest of the island was closed Tuesday and parents were told to pick up their children from school because buses weren't allowed through the area. Schools outside the town were told to keep students from Waikoloa until it was safe for them to return.

The blaze started Monday as a small brush fire, Battalion Chief Curtis Matsui said.

On the mainland, officials in Washington state said residents of about 75 homes who had evacuated Monday when a wildfire closed in were allowed to return home Wednesday.

However, the returnees and residents of 70 other homes were under notice that they might have to evacuate again in the area near Lake Wenatchee in central Washington. The blaze had charred nearly 1,000 acres and was only 20 percent contained.

Large fires also were active Wednesday in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Utah, the National Interagency Fire Center reported. So far this year, wildfires have charred 4.7 million acres, compared with 5.5 million at the same time last year, the center said.

On the Net:

National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/

Martha Stewart's home confinement extended 3 weeks

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Martha Stewart's release from home confinement and her electronic anklet has been delayed three weeks to the end of the month, her lawyer said Wednesday.

Attorney Walter Dellinger said in a one-sentence letter that the home-and-hearth marketing queen "has agreed to an extension of the terms of her home confinement until Aug. 31."

Those conditions include staying inside her home north of New York City except for 48 hours a week of employment, food shopping, doctor appointments and church. And Stewart must always wear the anklet, about which she has repeatedly complained, saying it irritates her skin.

"I am not allowed to take it off at any time, and I am not allowed, while in my home, to have any padding under the strap," she once told fans during an Internet chat. "I hope none of you ever has to wear one."

Stewart even boasted once that she had learned from the Internet how to remove the transmitter, although probation officials said she never did.

It wasn't revealed what Stewart did to earn the extra three weeks of confinement. Dellinger's assistant, Ann Kienlen, said he would not elaborate beyond his one-sentence announcement.

The chief U.S. probation officer in New York, Chris Stanton, would not confirm or deny the extension of Stewart's confinement. Stewart's company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., issued a brief statement saying it "will be so happy to have Martha working without restriction at the end of the month."

The New York Post reported Sunday that Stewart was seen riding an off-road vehicle on her estate and attended a yoga class nearby. Stanton would not say if those were probation violations or if they constituted part of her employment.

Stewart's release from the anklet and home confinement had been expected Aug. 10. Her original five-month confinement sentence followed a five-month prison term for lying about a stock sale.

Tribal court dismisses challenge to same-sex Cherokee marriage

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) -- A Cherokee Nation court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the tribe from giving its legal blessing to a lesbian couple's marriage.

The Judicial Appeals Tribunal in its ruling Wednesday said that tribe member and attorney Todd Hembree had no standing to sue and could not show that he suffered any harm by legal recognition of the same-sex marriage.

Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds haven't decided whether they will try again to file their tribal marriage certificate. Since the tribe is sovereign, Cherokee Nation marriage certificates are recognized just like Oklahoma marriage licenses.

The couple, who are both members of the tribe, exchanged vows in Cherokee in May 2004 after the tribe gave them the certificate without protest. But Hembree sued and won an injunction that kept it from being filed.

After the couple wed, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council unanimously approved language defining a union as between one man and one woman.

Previously, tribal laws governing marriages used Cherokee terms for "husband" and "wife" that Hembree claimed were gender-specific. The couple contended the terms were not gender specific, and that the Cherokee words used in the marriage ceremony are "cooker" for wife and "companion" for husband.

The court would still have to accept the certificate before it is filed.

"We're excited, we're happy," Reynolds said. "We're determining what our next step is going to be."

Hembree, who serves as counsel to the tribe's legislative body, said the court's decision ends the case for him: "That is a decision by the highest court in our land."

Testimony: Robert Blake allegedly wanted first wife killed

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Robert Blake, who was acquitted of murdering his second wife earlier this year, sought to have his first wife killed after the couple separated, according to testimony in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought against the actor.

Sondra Kerr Blake, who was married to Blake for more than 20 years, said in a deposition that several people told her in the mid-1970s the actor took out a "contract" to kill her and her boyfriend. Blake planned to blame the killings on followers of mass murderer Charles Manson, his ex-wife testified.

"He had put a contract out on me and the other man that I was seeing at the time," a transcript of Kerr Blake's testimony quoted her as saying. "He set up to kill me and him."

Blake's attorney, Peter Ezzell, did not immediately return a message left Wednesday.

Kerr Blake's deposition, given last May in a Los Angeles law office, is part of a civil case filed against Blake by four children of his second wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. The 71-year-old "Baretta" star was acquitted March 16 of charges of murder and solicitation of murder in the shooting death of Bakley.

Kerr Blake testified at Blake's criminal case, but never mentioned the alleged murder contract.

She testified in the civil case that she was told Blake wanted her and her then-boyfriend, actor Steve Railsback, killed in the Beverly Hills mansion where Manson's followers had killed actress Sharon Tate and four others in 1969.

At the time, Kerr Blake and Railsback were filming the 1976 television movie "Helter Skelter" about Manson and his band of killers.

By having her and Railsback killed at the estate, Blake hoped to make their deaths look like retribution for making the film, Kerr Blake testified. She played an inmate in the movie and Railsback starred as Manson.

Kerr Blake testified that she was told of Blake's plans by director Bernard Kowalski and his wife, Helen, and also by a friend of Blake's manager at the time. She said she never asked them how they learned of the plot.

Attorney Eric Dubin, who represents the siblings suing Blake, claimed the actor didn't seem troubled by his first wife's deposition.

"He winked and smiled at me like we were at the beach," Dubin said.

Flight 93 memorial jury nearing final decision on design

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) -- Members of the jury that will choose a design for a national memorial to the victims of United Flight 93 met Wednesday for the final day of deliberations.

The 15-member jury, which includes family members and design professionals, is choosing among five finalists and plans to announce the winning design in Washington on Sept. 7 at a meeting of the Flight 93 Federal Advisory Commission.

Thomas Burnett Sr., whose son Thomas Burnett Jr. died on Flight 93, is a member of the jury and said he believes the memorial will be among the greatest in the world.

"I think this memorial will enshrine this area forever," he said

Flight 93 was en route to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., when it was hijacked and ultimately crashed. It was the only of four hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001 that did not take a life on the ground. The official 9/11 Commission report, released last summer, said the hijackers crashed the plane as passengers tried to take control of the cockpit.

Pilot in tiny plane aims to follow butterflies on trek from Canada to Mexico

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- There are thousands of miles (kilometers) ahead and room for only two in the oversized hang-glider with a minuscule motor tacked on the bottom.

But the crew won't be flying alone: Its ultra-light plane will follow millions of Monarch butterflies during every part of their winter migration from the forests of eastern Canada to the central Mexican mountains.

Mexican pilot Francisco "Vico" Gutierrez and a crew including other pilots from Canada, the United States and this country, plan to leave Quebec on Aug. 15 and follow that migration.

The route will take them to Montreal and Toronto in Canada and south across the United States with stops at Niagara Falls, New York; New York City; Washington; Lawrence, Kansas; Oklahoma City; Austin, Texas; and Eagle Pass, on the Mexican border.

The trip is scheduled to come to an end on Nov. 2, in Valle Del Bravo, close to the forests where the butterflies winter in Michoacan state. It is sponsored by the World Wildlife Federation of Mexico, the government of Michoacan and Gutierrez himself.

The annual arrival of Monarch butterflies from across North America to Mexico -- where they winter from October to late March -- is an aesthetic and scientific wonder.

But illegal logging continues to thin and topple the fir forests west of Mexico City that protect butterflies from the rain and cold. Gutierrez said he hopes the flight will raise awareness about the need to better-conserve the Monarchs' fragile habitats.

Its wings painted with giant versions of the orange, black and white wings of the Monarch butterfly, the aircraft is equipped with just an 80-horsepower engine. But that's more than enough to keep up with the butterflies, who travel between 60 and 95 miles (100 and 150 kilometers) daily at average speeds of about 12 mph (20 kph) before landing to rest, Gutierrez said.

He plans to pilot the plane about five times faster than the rate of the butterflies, but only travel the daily distances they travel.

The journey should produce a documentary, and a photographer or cameraman will accompany Gutierrez or other pilots onboard, while the rest of the team follows along in a van.

The project is dubbed Papalotzin, a word from the ancient Nahuatl language spoken by the Aztecs which roughly translates to small butterfly. In all, Gutierrez expects to travel 3,415 miles (5,500 kilometers), using about 205 gallons (780 liters) of gasoline along the way.

Carlos Galindo, forest director for the World Wildlife Fund in Mexico, said no one had followed the butterflies via air for all of their transcontinental journey. Doing so can teach scientists how they cope with changing wind patterns, temperature shifts and difficult weather, he said.

It is also unclear, for instance, at what altitude the butterflies cruise and why those migrating have a life span of eight months while generations that come before and after the trip live only about a month, he said.

But "the object of this trip is not a scientific one, it's a trip aimed to increase awareness," Galindo said.

Watching as crew members assembled the 34-foot (10.5-meter) by 8-foot (2.5-meter) plane for journalists in a crowded but peaceful park in the Mexican capital, Gutierrez said "I'm actually really nervous."

"No, that's not true," he was quick to add as the 400-pound (180-kilogram) plane began to take shape, in a process that resembled campers erecting a tent. "I'm really content, really excited."

Practice of keeping fetuses may be widespread at French hospitals, specialist says

PARIS (AP) -- Investigators probing the shocking discovery of hundreds of fetuses and stillborn babies stored in a Paris hospital morgue are likely to find the practice is widespread in France, a top medical specialist said Wednesday.

A day after officials said 351 stillborn babies and fetuses were kept at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Hospital's morgue -- some for two decades -- more than 100 worried families called a hot line to inquire about their cases, hospital authorities said.

Investigators were probing how such a breach of French law could have happened, and why. But one top geneticist and medical ethicist said he was not surprised.

"I think that there are fetuses and stillborn infants in all maternity wards at university hospitals," Dr. Axel Kahn, a member of France's national ethics committee, told The Associated Press. "Once, it was the norm ... Researchers who needed them for their work asked obstetricians not to dispose of them."

The law was changed in the mid-1990s to prevent the practice.

Current French law calls for bodies of unclaimed stillborn babies to be cremated within 10 days. Fetuses cannot be used for medical purposes except with the parents' consent. In that case, the bodies must be cremated within six months.

Even after the laws were changed, some specialists at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul may have wanted to keep the remains to do genetic testing on them one day, Kahn said.

At the hospital in southern Paris, some jars in the morgue contained autopsied bodies, and others, dismembered body parts. The oldest remains dated from 1985, and around 20 bodies had been conserved in the last year, Paris hospital officials said.

While most were either aborted fetuses or stillborn babies, at least two had been born alive and died shortly after.

Health officials have launched a wider inquiry to find out if the practice existed at other hospitals.

"There was no reason why those bodies should have been kept," Rosemarie Van Lerberghe, general director of the Paris public hospital system, said at a news conference.

Health Minister Xavier Bertrand described his shock at visiting the morgue, saying the remains were stored in "disgraceful" conditions.

"I still have these disturbing images in my mind, these sacks and bottles of formaldehyde spread out," he told Le Parisien newspaper.

The hospital has not addressed who kept the fetuses, or why. The remains were stored under lock and key in a two-room annex off the morgue's refrigerator room, news reports said. Only a few people had access to the rooms.

Dr. Pierre-Marie Cousin, president of the union of gynecologists and obstetricians, pointed out that Saint-Vincent-de-Paul carries out autopsies on stillborn infants from other hospitals.

"An autopsy for a child takes considerable work, and the delay to obtain one can reach up to six months," he told AP. "The fact that the burial or cremation of these stillborn babies wasn't carried out is perhaps negligence, but not a moral problem."

One woman's search for the remains of a fetus she had aborted in 2002 led to the discovery, Le Parisien reported.

"I wanted to verify that my child was cremated, like they said he would be," 27-year-old Caroline Lemoine was quoted as telling the paper. Following repeated requests for the date of cremation, the hospital acknowledged it had not disposed of the body.

"They told me 'Your son has not been cremated, his body is still here,"' said Lemoine, who had the abortion after doctors said her pregnancy was not viable.

"At last I knew the truth," she said.

Associated Press Writer Jenny Barchfield contributed to this report.

Man holding daughter shot and killed in apparent road rage incident

BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) -- A man lifting his infant daughter out of his car was killed in an apparent case of road rage by a motorist "who obviously exploded" and shot him four times at close range in front of dozens of witnesses, authorities said.

The victim's 10-month-old girl was covered with blood but uninjured when police found her in a car seat on the floor of the vehicle.

Walter R. Bishop, 60, who was taking medication for depression, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Sandro Andrade. He pleaded innocent and was ordered held without bail; a hearing was scheduled for Aug. 26.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said Bishop had made a calculated decision to "shoot a man in cold blood in broad daylight on the streets of Brockton."

Police Chief Paul Studenski described it as a case of road rage.

Bishop's attorney, Kevin Reddington, said Andrade had provoked his client during a traffic altercation.

"We have a homicide that resulted from a circumstance where somebody picked a fight with an individual who obviously exploded," Reddington said. Bishop, a former soldier and security guard, had recently begun taking two medications for depression, he said.

Bishop told investigators he was driving his wife to the train station when Andrade's vehicle backed toward him on Main Street, Cruz said. The two exchanged heated words.

"He said his wife was scared, and he said he was angry at that encounter," Cruz said of Bishop. "He said he made up his mind right there that he had to do something."

After dropping his wife off, he allegedly returned to the scene of the confrontation, pointed a handgun through an open window and fired, police said.

"Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Four shots. It sounded like a cap gun," Louis McPhee, the manager of a car wash across the street, told The Boston Globe. "The guy was lying there in his own blood with a hole in his head and his arm still on the baby."

Bishop left before police arrived, but witnesses gave investigators his license plate number and police found him at his home.

Police said Bishop has a valid handgun license.

Man arrested in Mexican border city accused of sexually assaulting, killing baby

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Police in the border city of Ciudad Juarez arrested a man Wednesday for allegedly sexually assaulting and killing his 4-month-old stepdaughter.

Josue Polo Hernandez, 22, was arrested at his house after neighbors saw him carrying the baby's corpse and alerted authorities, said Ramon Valdez, a spokesman with Ciudad Juarez police.

Valdez said the baby showed bruises throughout the body and paramedics called to the scene determined there were signs she had been sexually assaulted.

The baby's mother, Xochitl Castro, was working at a maquiladora assembly plant when her daughter was killed, Valdez said.

Castro, 25, told police that five months ago Polo Hernandez took on the alias Miguel Mora Rios to hide his true identity after a boy he was taking care of drown in the bathtub.

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, has been plagued by a decade-long string of sexually motivated murders of young women.

Earlier this year, the slayings of two girls, ages 7 and 10, stunned the people of Juarez and prompted hundreds to take to the streets to demand authorities find their killers.

1906 earthquake survivor Leonhardt dies

SAN RAMON (AP) -- Paula L. Leonhardt, a 1906 earthquake survivor who was just shy of her 100th birthday, has died.

Leonhardt died July 27 of pneumonia and respiratory failure at San Ramon Regional Medical Center.

Leonhardt was born in San Francisco on Aug. 14, 1905. She later heard stories about how she lived with her family in a tent city after the earthquake, said her daughter, Lois Winters of Danville.

In 1928, she married Walter A. Leonhardt, who worked for Shell Oil. They moved to San Mateo in 1941.

When her husband died in 1996, Leonhardt moved to San Ramon and lived in a retirement community.

Leonhardt is survived by her daughter Lois Winters as well as two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Utah to ask court for delay in naming church trustees

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Attorney General's office will ask a judge on Thursday to delay appointing trustees to manage the funds of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, after dozens of objections have been raised to the list of proposed candidates.

In June, the court permanently removed church leaders from management responsibilities of the United Effort Plan Trust, which has an estimated worth of more than $100 million.

The Utah attorney general sought the removal, saying the trustees, including reclusive church leader Warren Jeffs, had liquidated some trust assets and left others vulnerable by failing to defend lawsuits filed against Jeffs.

Church members formed the trust during the 1940s, willingly turning over their property to the church, so all could share in the community's assets.

Thursday's request to 3rd District Court Judge Denise P. Lindberg stems in part from concerns about who has been proposed to serve as a trustee, Assistant Attorney General Tim Bodily said.

He will ask the court to require each of the 19 candidates to list their potential conflicts of interest and a detailed plan of how they would administer the trust.

And that will take time, Bodily says, adding that the Attorney General's Office has no current opposition to any of the proposed names to fill eight positions.

But plenty of others do.

Of the 19 proposed names, only three southern Utah community leaders who have no connection to the FLDS church faced no written opposition.

However, 25 affidavits have been filed against remaining 16 names: eight suggested by the Arizona-based Child Protection Project and eight recommended by Salt Lake attorney Roger Hoole, who represents a group of boys exiled from the church who are suing Jeffs.

"What we need is people that have no agenda," said Pennie Peterson, a former FLDS church member who now lives in Mesa, Ariz., and independently filed an objection to the 16 nominees.

Peterson, 35, left the church in 1984, refusing to marry a much older man when she was 14. But her parents and sisters remain active in the faith, most of whose 10,000 members live in the twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz. and Hildale, Utah.

Peterson thinks none of the proposed trustees will be acceptable to church members because they are seen as either FLDS dissidents or apostates. Peterson will be in court Thursday and hopes to tell the judge the trust should be run by independent financial and real estate experts.

Hoole agrees that there's a complexity to the task at hand, but believes the trust needs someone who understand the inner-workings of the church.

"This trust is a one-of-a-kind deal," said Hoole. "You cannot approach this without those sensitivities because ultimately, you have to work with people whose lives are tied up in this thing."

Hoole also said he would support the court expanding the role of the independent auditor, Bruce Wisan, and the temporary appointment of nonvoting advisory committee to assist him.

On Tuesday, Wisan filed a report and recommendations to the court, asking for an expansion of his powers, along with an inventory of the trust, which he says, is comprised of real estate parcels in Utah, Arizona and Canada.

An inventory hasn't been completed of the Canadian holdings, but he said the trust has more than 170 properties in Utah and Arizona that are worth more than $90 million.

Bodily said he hopes not to have to take a position for or against anyone proposed as a trustee and acknowledges the competing agendas. Still, he says, it's not unlike other family trust disputes he's seen.

"We're not over concerned with the circus aspect of this," Bodily said.