Killer claims responsibility for 48 slayings

BY: Associated Press | Friday, July 28, 2006 6:58 AM PDT ∞

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. ---- A man serving a life sentence in Colorado for murdering a teenage girl has claimed responsibility for as many as 48 slayings across the country dating back more than three decades, authorities said Thursday.

Robert Charles Browne, 53, told authorities the slayings occurred from 1970 until his arrest in 1995. He was in court Thursday to plead guilty to one of those killings -- the death of another girl in Colorado in 1987.

Authorities so far have been able to corroborate his detailed claims in six slayings -- three in Louisiana, two in Texas and one in Arkansas, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said.

He said Browne's claim of 48 murders could be credible.

"It's possible he's exaggerating, but I don't think you can conduct business assuming he's exaggerating," Maketa said. "We'll continue to pursue leads."

If Browne's claims prove true, he would be one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history.

Gary Ridgway, Seattle's Green River Killer who in 2003 became the nation's deadliest convicted serial killer, admitted to 48 murders but once said he killed as many as 71 women, according to interview transcripts.

Browne's public defender, Bill Schoewe, did not return a call.

Browne claims his killing spree began with a soldier in South Korea in 1970, which Maketa said has not been verified.

The other claims include 17 murders in Louisiana, nine in Colorado, seven in Texas, five in Arkansas, three in Mississippi, two each in California, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and one in Washington state -- 49 in all, the sheriff said.

Browne pleaded guilty in 1995 to kidnapping and murder in the 1991 death of Heather Dawn Church, 13, of Black Forest, a town north of Colorado Springs. He was sentenced to life without parole. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Rocio Sperry, a girl who was about 15 at the time of her death 19 years ago.

The confession came after several years of correspondence and discussion between the killer and cold-case volunteer investigators, authorities said. Browne himself sent the first letter in "cryptic and poetic prose" in March 2000 to El Paso County prosecutors, officials said.

"Seven sacred virgins, entombed side by side, those less worthy, are scattered wide," the letter says. "The score is you 1, the other team 48. If you were to drive to the end zone in a white Trans Am, the score could be 9 to 48. That would complete your home court sphere."

Authorities responded with letters, but Browne clammed up for a while, then opened a new dialogue with investigators. Investigator Charlie Hess said he believes the killer himself doesn't even know why is confessing.

"Does he have a conscience? Is that what motivated him? I really have no idea and I'm not sure he knows," said Hess, a retired police officer who also worked with the CIA and FBI.

Browne grew up the youngest of nine children in the northern Louisiana town of Coushatta, officials said. He dropped out of high school and served in the Army from 1969 to 1976, when he was dishonorably discharged for drug use, Maketa said. He was married six times, and authorities said all his ex-wives are still alive.

Red River Parish Sheriff Johnny Norman, a schoolteacher in the 1960s, said Browne was in his physical education class in eighth and ninth grades. He recalled Browne as smart but aloof -- and with a short fuse.

"He was a loner, but not somebody you'd expect to do this. But he did have a hot temper," Norman said. "In a pickup basketball game, somebody fouled him or hit him, he'd fly off the handle."

The Browne family ran a dairy in the 1960s and had hard times, Norman said.

Browne's father, Ronald, was a deputy sheriff at the time the department was investigating the death of Wanda Hudson, a woman in her 20s, the sheriff said. Browne has confessed to that slaying, authorities told The Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs, which first reported Browne's claims.

Norman said he has spoken with Colorado investigators and the Louisiana State Police about Hudson's death and Browne's possible involvement.

"We never close a case," he said.

Improving weather helps in battle against California wildfires

LAKE MORENA (AP) ---- People ordered to flee a small town in eastern San Diego County were allowed to return Thursday as a wildfire that burned more than 25 square miles slowed to a crawl.

The mandatory evacuation of Carveacre was lifted Wednesday night.

Lessening heat and calmer winds helped firefighters on the six-day-old Horse Fire in the Cleveland National Forest about 50 miles east of San Diego. The 16,455-acre fire was 25 percent contained.

"It's creeping and smoldering, It's not spreading actively at all right now," said Roxanne Provaznik of the California Department of Forestry.

However, there was concern about potential thunderstorms in the region.

"The rain part is good," Provaznik said. "The humidity and winds are usually bad. And the lightning is bad."

High humidity keeps firefighters from sweating in warm weather, which increases the chance of heat exhaustion, she said.

About 1,839 firefighters from several states worked the fire. Seventeen firefighters had to be treated for heat exhaustion and other minor injuries.

Not far away, firefighters reached 80 percent containment on a 300-acre wildfire at Camp Pendleton.

Elsewhere, a blaze ignited by lightning on ranch land east of San Ardo in southeastern Monterey County grew to 14,000 acres, equal to about 21 square miles. It was 85 percent contained and was expected to be fully corralled by evening.

A lightning strike started the fire Saturday morning. About 800 firefighters joined the battle against the blaze, which damaged an unoccupied cabin but no other structures.

Thirteen firefighters suffered heat exhaustion and minor injuries.

Temperatures remained hot throughout Southern California on Thursday, but were generally a little cooler than earlier this week when many areas were reporting over 110 degrees.

Meanwhile, about 40 firefighters battled a remaining portion of a 23,917-acre fire in the San Bernardino Mountains. The Millard-Heart complex, which was 62 percent contained, has scorched 37 square miles. Fire officials have yet to set a containment date.

"The biggest factor has been difficult terrain," said fire spokesman Rob Deyerberg.

Firefighters also were battling fires in Los Padres National Forest, which sprawls through counties northwest of Los Angeles.

The 4,500-acre Bald Fire was only 5 percent contained but showed little growth, said Joe Pasinato of the U.S. Forest Service. The fire was being fought by air, but ground crews were to try to hike in Thursday at a spot on the northeast corner in front of the flames.

Closer in it was "almost impossible to even hike through ... almost a solid wall of vegetation," Pasinato said.

"Very old growth, very dense sage and chaparral" in the are apparently had not burned for decades, he said.

The fire was one of at least two dozen caused by lightning in the past week in the forest. The Mount Pinos complex of seven fires had burned about 3,179 acres, or about five square miles. That included the Ridge fire, which was contained after burning 2,418 acres, or nearly four square miles. All the other fires were contained except for a 736-acre blaze near Frazier Park that was 70 percent surrounded, Pasinato said.

In Death Valley National Park, a 2,800-acre fire continued to burn 15 miles west of Shoshone and a 2,000-acre fire was burning near Beatty, Nev., park spokesman Terry Baldino said.

The area is habitat for the endangered desert tortoise but both fires were not making much progress and there were few firefighters on the line.

"It's pretty much burning itself out" he said.

The fires were sparked last week and on Tuesday by lightning.

On the Net:

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Fire threatens major Northwest power lines into California

SACRAMENTO (AP) ---- A wind-driven wildfire near the Oregon border is threatening the major power transmission lines between California and the Pacific Northwest, though grid operators said Thursday they can reroute electricity if the lines go dead.

State and federal air tankers, ground crews and equipment are being diverted from other areas to fight the fire, which is burning between three transmission lines located about 1 1/2 miles apart. The fire is paralleling the lines, which together carry about 4,200 megawatts between Washington's Bonneville Power Administration and California.

The lightening-sparked fire was detected Tuesday and grew to more than 400 acres by Thursday. It is now a national priority because it threatens the power lines running through a remote area of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest about 26 miles northeast of McCloud in Siskiyou County, said Ed Hollenshead, director of fire and aviation operations for the U.S. Forest Service's California region.

The California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's power grid, has contingency plans to reroute electricity around the transmission lines if one or more fail or have to be shut down, said Jim Detmers, the system's vice president for operations.

Because of cooling temperatures, the state would likely seek only voluntary conservation by citizens or ask industries to voluntarily cut back on their electricity use even if all three lines are shut down, Detmers said. No rolling blackouts or interruptions are likely unless other transmission lines or power plants coincidentally also shut down, he said.

"It would impact all of California if there was something beyond all of our present planning, and right now we're not foreseeing that," Detmers said. Diminished power from the Pacific Northwest contributed to state's pwer crisis in 2001.

The fire is about 15 percent contained, but increasing winds this weekend are expected to thwart efforts to control the blaze, said Joe Millar, the national forest's fire management officer and the incident commander. The fire is burning through grass, brush and pockets of trees into an area where lava beds make access difficult for ground crews, though equipment has been able to reach the fire.

It is one of numerous fires burning in Northern California, many sparked by lightening.

More than 100 residents were temporarily evacuated as a 1,200-acre fire southwest of Lake Shastina threatened homes Wednesday evening. A 200-acre fire threatening 50 homes near Shasta Lake is 65 percent contained, with full containment expected by Friday.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on Thursday that two 17-year-old male juveniles and 19-year-old Kathryn Jane Scott, all of Yreka, were arrested last week on allegations that they started a wildfire there by burning paper along a roadway.

Grenade launcher, 100 other weapons seized in New York

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (AP) ---- Two men were arrested after investigators uncovered a stockpile of 100 weapons at their homes that included assault rifles, submachine guns and a grenade launcher. - John Acompora, 46, and Gregory Brozski, 57, were charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. They both pleaded not guilty and were released until later court dates.

"Simply put, there is absolutely no legitimate purpose to possess any of these weapons, no legitimate purpose at all," said prosecutor Thomas Spota.

Acting on a tip, investigators searched Acompora's home Sunday in West Islip on Long Island and seized about 50 weapons, they said.

Investigators searched Brozski's New York City home Tuesday and seized approximately 50 more weapons, including four Uzi submachine guns and a grenade launcher, prosecutors said.

Acompora's attorney, Frank Panetta, said his client has cooperated and did not believe he was doing anything wrong.

Brozski did not have an attorney at his arraignment, prosecutors said.

Man killed while trying to fix family generator

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) ---- A man trying to fix a generator during the St. Louis area's weeklong blackout was killed when flames from a lantern ignited gasoline on his clothes, authorities said.

More than half a million customers in the St. Louis area lost power amid the heat and severe thunderstorms last week, and about 46,000 were still without power Thursday morning, utility company Ameren Corp. said.

The man killed, James Eddie Fleming, had been trying to fix a generator that relatives were using to light and cool their home.

Fleming was draining gas from the clogged machine when some got onto his clothes and was ignited by flames from the lantern, authorities said. Fleming, 41, was declared dead Wednesday, the St. Clair County Coroner's Office said.

A day earlier, a utility worker trying restore power to the St. Louis suburb of Ladue was electrocuted when he stepped on branches covering a live wire.

The near 100-degree heat has been blamed for nine deaths in the St. Louis area since the power outage began.

Border Patrol rescues 34 from flooded drainage tunnel

NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) ---- Nearly three dozen illegal immigrants spotted clinging to the sides of a flooded drainage tunnel were rescued Thursday morning by U.S. Border Patrol agents and police, but at least two others are believed to have been swept away, officials said.

A search was on Thursday for two to four people believed to have washed into the Santa Cruz River on the American side of the border, said Border Patrol spokesman Jesus "Chuy" Rodriguez.

The immigrants were trying to enter the U.S. through the Grand Tunnel, which runs from Nogales, Mexico, into Nogales, Ariz., when they were discovered at 5:30 a.m., Rodriguez said.

The water flow at that point is north into the U.S., and the area was being hit by a rainstorm.

Heavy summer rain frequently fills flood channels and dry washes in Arizona and northern Mexico, and rain was falling across much of the area Thursday. The drainage tunnel empties into the Santa Cruz River, which runs north.

Rare disease reported in transplant recipients

ATLANTA (AP) ---- Two U.S. heart transplant patients who died earlier this year had contracted a parasitic tropical disease from their new organs, health officials reported Thursday.

The two California men are the fourth and fifth U.S. patients believed to have been infected with Chagas' disease through organ transplants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Organ donors are screened for Chagas' in South America, where the disease is much more common. No screening test for Chagas' is licensed in the United States.

The two men, ages 64 and 73, died at separate Los Angeles hospitals after being treated with Chagas'-fighting drugs from a special CDC stockpile of medicines not available in this country.

The infected organs came from one person born in Central America and another who had traveled to Mexico, the CDC reported.

One of the transplant patients died of something other than Chagas' disease, CDC officials said. No autopsy was done on the second man, so the role of Chagas' in his death is not known, said Heather Kun, a CDC epidemiologist who led the investigation.

Chagas' disease can cause high fever, swelling, enlargement of the spleen, liver and lymph nodes, and inflammation of the heart.

Most people infected do not get sick, but the disease can be fatal in some cases and can be especially dangerous to people with suppressed immune systems. Transplant patients receive immune-suppressing drugs to prevent organ rejection.

"We think physicians need to look out for this" in patients taking medication that suppresses the immune system, said Dr. Anne Moore, a CDC epidemiologist.

In 2001, the CDC reported three cases of Chagas' in three U.S. women who had received organs from an immigrant from Central America. Doctors presumed the donor was infected, but no specimens were available for testing.

Chagas' is spread by reduviid bugs, which live in the cracks and holes of substandard housing. They are called "kissing bugs" because they often bite people in the face. The bugs' feces contain a single-celled parasite that can get pushed beneath the skin when people scratch themselves or rub their eyes.

About 12 million people in Central and South America are infected with Chagas', but only 100,000 U.S. residents have it, according to rough estimates.

Girl on roller coaster hurt by falling board

ALTOONA, Iowa (AP) ---- A board used by an amusement park's maintenance inspectors fell onto a roller coaster car, sending an 11-year-old girl to the hospital, officials said.

No medical information about the girl was released following Monday's accident on the Tornado ride at the Adventureland amusement park in suburban Des Moines, park spokewoman Molly Vincent said. Two other people had minor injuries, officials said.

The wood was left behind near the tracks after a routine check, Vincent said.

No structural problems were found on the ride, and the state will not take any action against Adventureland or its inspectors, said Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, which oversees amusement park rides.

\On the Net:

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Pit bull kills 71-year-old woman in Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) ---- A pit bull leaped over a fence and killed a 71-year-old woman who was gardening in her yard, police said Thursday.

Jimmie May McConnell was in her yard about 11:30 a.m. when the dog jumped the fence and attacked her. Firefighters had to pull the dog off McConnell, who was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.

Pit bulls are banned in Kansas City. The dog was tranquilized and taken into animal custody for investigation.

War protester Cindy Sheehan's group buys land in Crawford, Texas

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) ---- War protesters will have a new and bigger gathering place when they return in August to President Bush's adopted hometown: a 5-acre lot bought with insurance money Cindy Sheehan received after her son was killed in Iraq.

Gerry Fonseca, a fellow war protester who acted as Sheehan's agent, said he recently bought the vacant lot about a mile from downtown Crawford -- and about 7 miles from Bush's ranch -- for $52,500. About half the land is pasture, and the other half is woods, he said.

"If Cindy Sheehan came to town, I don't think anybody would have sold her any property," Fonseca, of Eagle Rock, Mo., told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Sheehan, of Berkeley, Calif., reinvigorated the anti-war movement last summer with her peace vigil, which started in ditches off the road to Bush's ranch. As it grew, the group also set up its protests on a private, 1-acre lot closer to the ranch.

Sheehan told the AP in an e-mail Thursday that the group wanted more space.

"We decided to buy property in Crawford to use until George's resignation or impeachment, which we all hope is soon for the sake of the world," Sheehan, whose oldest son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, said in a newsletter set to be sent to supporters Thursday. "I can't think of a better way to use Casey's insurance money than for peace, and I am sure that Casey approves."

The anti-war gathering in Crawford was scheduled Aug. 16 through early September, but it will begin several days earlier because Bush is expected to be at his ranch the first two weeks of August.

Neighbor charged with murder, kidnapping in death of 5-year-old Utah girl

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ---- Prosecutors on Thursday charged a man with kidnapping and aggravated murder in the death of a 5-year-old girl, saying he confessed to smothering the girl, then sexually assaulting her ---- a crime that could bring the death penalty.

Destiny Norton had been missing for eight days when police found her body Monday night stuffed in a plastic storage box in a cellar at the man's house just two doors away, prosecutor Bob Stott said at a news conference to announce the charges Thursday.

The neighbor, Craig Roger Gregerson, 20, will be appointed a defense lawyer at a court appearance scheduled for Friday, he said.

Destiny's parents, Rich and Rachael Norton, were in seclusion Thursday and making funeral plans for their daughter, but a close friend speaking on their behalf said Gregerson should be executed.

"Let him fry," Peter Brooks said. "He took an innocent child out of her own backyard. Your own backyard. That's where we send our children. Lured her into his house, and did the unspeakable act that he performed on this child. ... No human being deserves to walk on this planet after doing that."

Brooks and other friends said Gregerson had volunteered to help search for the girl and lighted a candle in a vigil outside the family's home before he led police to her body.

Authorities added a few details about the girl's disappearance and why police couldn't find her body the first time they searched Gregerson's tiny row house unit. The storage box had been hidden in a "tight, confined basement with a lot of material down there," Stott said.

Gregerson told police he lured Destiny into his home the night of July 16, and that she protested. "Destiny wanted to leave and became very vocal," Stott said.

Stott said Gregerson covered the girl's mouth, then carried the limp body into his cellar. An autopsy determined Destiny was smothered to death, then sexually assaulted.

The aggravating circumstances in the murder charge come from kidnapping the girl and desecrating her body, said Stott, who added he hadn't decided whether to seek the death penalty.

"Before any sentence can be given we have to get a conviction," Stott said.

Doctor charged in drive-by shooting of bicyclist

DICKINSON, Texas (AP) ---- A doctor has been charged in the drive-by shooting of a bicyclist, who was hit in the chest and shoulder and is now recovering at the same hospital where the physician works.

Dr. Wameeth Fadhli, a doctor at the University of Texas Medical Branch hospital in Galveston, was jailed Thursday on $60,000 bond after being accused of firing numerous shots at the 22-year-old man on Tuesday.

According to witnesses, the victim was riding his bicycle when a sport utility vehicle pulled alongside and began firing what they described as a pistol. The witnesses told police the shooter was alone and wearing what appeared to be surgical scrubs, said Galveston County Sheriff's Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo.

The bicyclist, whose name was not released, was in guarded condition after surgery for bullet wounds in his chest and left shoulder, officials said.

Investigators found a vehicle matching witness descriptions in front of a home where they found Fadhli and took him into custody. Fadhli, 33, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Police had not found the gun by Thursday, and officials said they had no evidence that the two men knew each other.

"At this point, this looks like it could have been just a random shooting, and that makes it a pretty scary crime," Assistant District Attorney Xochitl Vandiver said.

Fadhli will not perform any clinical work while the investigation is under way, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Reynolds-Sanchez said.

Son of NYC philanthropist Brooke Astor, 104, denies abusing her

NEW YORK (AP) ---- The son of philanthropist Brooke Astor on Thursday denied accusations from his own son that he has abused his ailing 104-year-old mother by penny-pinching on her health care and allowing the millionaire socialite to live in squalor.

"I love my mother, and no one cares more about her than I do," Anthony Marshall, 82, said in a statement.

In court papers filed last week, Marshall's son accused him of denying Astor the usual luxuries of a wealthy woman "while enriching himself with millions of dollars" as her legal guardian.

Astor has been admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital, the Daily News reported in Thursday's editions. Dr. Sandra Gelbard, a specialist at the hospital's internal medicine and critical care unit, told the paper that Astor's "condition has improved, and we are hopeful that she is going to go home in the very near future."

Marshall, a former diplomat and Broadway producer, claimed the family spends more than $2.5 million a year to care for Astor at her Park Avenue duplex. His mother, he said, "has a staff of eight with instructions to provide her with whatever she needs and whatever they think she should have."

His son, Philip Marshall, claims in an affidavit that his father denied Astor hair bonnets and no-skid socks -- forcing nurses to spend their own money on the items -- and left her with an "unmotivated cook" serving pureed peas, liver, carrots and oatmeal.

"Her bedroom is so cold in the winter that my grandmother is forced to sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine," Philip Marshall said in an affidavit.

Anthony Marshall said he is "shocked and deeply hurt by the allegations against me, which are completely untrue."

The papers seek the removal of Anthony Marshall as his mother's guardian and his replacement with Annette de la Renta, the wife of Oscar de la Renta, and J.P. Morgan Chase bank. A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 8.

Fraser Seitel, a spokesman for Annette de la Renta, Astor's close friend, confirmed on Thursday that Astor was at Lenox Hill Hospital in stable condition but declined to give further information.

Astor ran the Astor Foundation after the death of her third husband, Vincent Astor, in 1959. The foundation gave away approximately $200 million by the time it closed at the end of 1997.

Vincent Astor was the great-great-grandson of patriarch John Jacob Astor, who made a fortune in fur trading and real estate and was the wealthiest man in America by 1840.

Brooke Astor gave millions of dollars to the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall and the Museum of Natural History. But she also funded smaller projects such as new windows for a nursing home and was noted for visiting the places she helped.

Poker losers have to jump from plane

JEAN, Nev. (AP) ---- In the skies over the desert outside Las Vegas, three amateur players and a would-be pro tried to keep their poker faces at 15,000 feet.

The rules: whoever won didn't have to parachute out of a plane. The losers did.

The Wednesday event was part of InterPoker.com's Extreme Poker series and was scheduled during the World Series of Poker tournament, which began June 25.

In Extreme Poker, novice players battle in online tournaments for the right to play Texas Hold 'em in strange locations. The first was played underwater. The second was played on a polar ice cap in Finland.

This time Patrick Neary, 23, from Prince Edward Island, Canada, Jamie Glasser, 24, from Chicago and Fraser Linkleter, 28, from London and Nick "Stoxtrader" Grudzien, 29, from New York, piled into a Short's Skivan plane to try their hand against Phil "the Unabomber" Laak.

Grudzien was the lucky player who didn't have to hit the silk. But Grudzien wasn't about to fold 'em. No stranger to risk, he went back up for a free jump.

Beer guzzling pigs center of animal cruelty debate

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- A pair of beer-swilling pigs embroiled an Australian pub in an animal cruelty debate.

Visitors to "Pub in the Paddock" in the island-state of Tasmania are invited to pour bottles of beer down the willing throats of resident pigs Priscilla and P.B.

Pub owner Anne Free said Wednesday she was outraged that the tourist attraction had been attacked as cruel in the latest edition of a magazine published by animal welfare group Choose Cruelty Free.

Free said the pigs liked beer. She also watered the beer down to ensure they never got drunk.

"When it's very, very quiet, I often actually have to go over and give them a couple of drinks because, yeah, they do look forward to it," Free told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"I get quite irate when people come in and say: 'Oh, is the pig inebriated?' There's no way that these pigs are being mistreated like that," she added.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals often investigates complaints about the pigs' drinking but has found the animals unharmed.

"Whilst it is a difficult pill to swallow ... it's certainly not cruelty, unfortunately," RSPCA state chief executive Rick Butler told the ABC.

Choose Cruelty Free office manager Liz Jackson disagreed.

"It's not natural to give a pig beer," Jackson told The Mercury newspaper.

Pot packaged in gumballs

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) -- Federal drug agents aren't laughing about marijuana packaged in yellow, smiley-faced gumballs.

The "Greenades" gumballs were found in January at Howard High School in Ellicott City. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency recently released an intelligence bulletin about them.

"It's a new idea and it's new to the DEA," Gregory Lee, a retired supervisory special agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency, told The Baltimore Examiner. "When it comes to drug dealing, you're only limited by your imagination."

Police charged three 17-year-old students after a teacher alerted a school resource officer. She told the officer that she saw a student give a plastic bag that the teacher believed contained drugs to another student.

The officer seized the bag, which contained two "candy balls" wrapped in foil, police said. Instructions on the foil told users to chew for 30 minutes to 1 hour before they wanted to be high and to "chew for as long as possible, then swallow."

Officers charged two students with distribution of drugs on school property and a third with possession of marijuana.

Lawyers head to the surf in Honolulu

HONOLULU (AP) -- These lawyers apparently have no fear of sharks -- unless they're the kind that file lawsuits.

About 40 lawyers from across the country have signed up for the National Lawyers on Longboards Surfing Contest scheduled during the Aug. 3-8 American Bar Association convention in Honolulu.

But the ABA has pulled out of sponsoring the surfing competition. The event organizer says the lawyers are afraid of being sued.

"It's really funny -- the ABA won't officially sponsor it for liability reasons," said Lea Hong, a Honolulu environmental lawyer and surfer.

Hong is planning to go ahead with the contest and a luau on the convention's last day. She said the ABA overreacted.

"They were freaked out about the liability issue related to a surf contest, even though we had liability insurance and everything," Hong said.

Hong hopes to register 60 surfing lawyers. About 10,700 lawyers in all will be in Honolulu for the ABA conference.

Organizers of the surfing event have required that all participants sign a liability waiver, and lifeguards will be on duty in case anyone gets in trouble, Hong said.

"Lawyers have a reputation for going out and having fun and staying active, but you don't think about lawyers going out there and surfing very often," said Richard Hamar, a Beverly Hills litigator who helped found the 250-member Association of Surfing Lawyers, which has about eight of its members participating in the Honolulu event.

ABA spokesman Dave Jaffe said he couldn't immediately comment.

Fresno County football player charged with sex attack makes bail

FRESNO (AP) ---- A former community college football player charged in the sexual assault of an 11-year-old runaway was bailed out of jail, a Fresno County sheriff's spokesman said.

Mackey Davis, 20, posted $55,000 bail Wednesday. He and another man, Eddie Scott, 19, were arrested July 8 and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a child in an attack that police said involved as many as eight other men.

Scott posted $55,000 bail last week.

The girl said she was attacked while at the apartment rented by Scott and Davis, former Reedley College football players. There may be more arrests, police said.

Davis and Scott pleaded not guilty in Fresno County Superior Court on July 12.

A preliminary hearing scheduled this week was postponed until Aug. 24 so Davis' attorney, Jack Revvill, could gather more information for his defense.

Monument to polygamists jailed in 1953 raid erected

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ---- A marker honoring polygamist families arrested and jailed during a raid on their homes 53 years ago has been erected in a Colorado City, Ariz., park ---- a gift from leader of a Canadian polygamist sect with ties to the community.

The monument is intended both as a symbol of the past and the future, Winston Blackmore said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Blackmore, who runs an independent polygamist sect in Bountiful, British Columbia, dedicated the monument in a short ceremony Wednesday in Colorado City's Cottonwood Park while about 100 people looked on.

"It's really important that the people in Colorado City remember what we stood for, what our old leaders stood for," Blackmore said. "If they could get that back, then maybe some of these families would take the initiative and gather together to get this community back to what it was."

The Short Creek raid of July 26, 1953 was meant to destroy the practice of plural marriage.

The raid scattered families, sent children into foster care and jailed dozens of their polygamist parents, but it failed to alter the faiths belief that plural marriage is essential for exaltation in heaven. And after several years in hiding, families came back to Short Creek -- now known as the twin towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah.

Polygamy remains a central tenet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, whose members have lived along the Utah-Arizona border for more than 100 years.

The monument replaces a similar monument which current church leader Warren Jeffs ordered destroyed in 2003 just days after the 50th anniversary of the raid.

Jeffs took over as head of the church after the death of his father in 2002. On his watch, since 2002, the FLDS church is currently under pressure from authorities that some say is equal to that felt in 1953.

Jeffs is a fugitive on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, wanted for evading felony sexual misconduct charges in Utah and Arizona related to arranging plural marriages between underage girls and older men.

Berlin to return 1913 Kirchner painting of Berlin street scene to Jewish family

BERLIN (AP) ---- A 1913 painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner depicting a lively Berlin street scene will be returned to heirs of the Jewish family that was forced to hand it over to the Nazis before World War II, the state government said Thursday.

Kirchner's oil painting, "Berliner Strassenszene," with an estimated value of over $12.59 million, has hung in the Bruecke Museum in the German capital since 1980. It will remain in the museum until Sunday and will then be returned to heirs of the family that originally owned the work, Berlin's state ministry for culture said in a statement.

No details of the restitution, including the identity of the original owners, or the heirs, were released.

Bernd Schultz, a modern art expert for the Berlin-based auction house Villa Grisebach, said he considers the painting to be one of the most outstanding in Kirchner's series of street scenes.

Kirchner, born in 1880 in the western German town of Aschaffenburg, was one of the most creative artists of "Die Bruecke," or The Bridge," a group of German painters that he co-founded in 1905. After the Nazis seized power, they confiscated 639 of Kirchner's paintings from museums and, in despair, he took his own life in 1938.

The painting "Berliner Strassenszene," which depicts a woman in red within an urban crowd dressed in blue, is characterized by its vibrant colors. In 1933, the painting was taken to Switzerland by its Jewish owners as part of an art collection, where it was exhibited in Basel and Zurich, the ministry said.

Three years later, the Jewish owners sent seven paintings, including Kirchner's "Berliner Strassenszene," to the Art Association of Cologne. An art collector then bought the paintings, but it is uncertain whether the Jewish owners ever saw any of this money, the ministry said.

After World War II, the new owners donated the painting to the Staedel museum in Frankfurt. It was then acquired by the state of Berlin in 1980, "in good faith," the ministry said.

On the Net:

http://www.bruecke-museum.de

Four held on suspicion of murder in officer's crash death

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ---- Four robbery suspects who were allegedly inside a van that crashed and killed a city police officer during a chase are being held on suspicion of murder, police said Thursday.

Steven Wayne Petrilli, 19, of Hayward; Jessica Chamberlain, 20; Carl Lather, 20; and Nicholas Smith, 22; also were being held Thursday on suspicion of robbery and causing injury while evading a police officer, San Francisco police said.

Police are still trying to determine why officer Nick-Tomasito Birco, 39, joined in Wednesday's pursuit of the Dodge van without telling dispatchers.

At least two other cruisers were chasing the van on streets in the city's Portola district when it hit Birco's car, which spun around, hit a curb and landed on its side. The van slammed into a home and hit other parked cars.

At the time of the crash, Petrilli, the alleged driver, was out on bail pending charges in a 2005 burglary and a separate case of lewd conduct with a 13-year-old girl in 2004, police said.

The chase started after the suspects allegedly robbed and assaulted a man at a bus stop, according to police.

Birco's cruiser arrived at an intersection where the fleeing van ran a stop sign and crashed into it, but dispatch records showed Birco did not radio in to say he was taking part in the chase, according to investigators.

Birco had been on the force for five years.

Miss Universe says dress, hot lights caused fainting spell

LOS ANGELES (AP) ---- Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza is back on her feet after being crowned Miss Universe 2006 and fainting under hot lights and the weight of a dress made entirely of metal chains.

"What happened was that it was hard to breathe and the dress was very tight and weighed a lot," Rivera told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

Rivera briefly fainted after posing for pictures and taking questions at a post-pageant news conference Sunday night. She was given liquids and quickly recovered.

Her fainting spell was also caused by the heat, the lights and the emotional rush of winning ---- not from a lack of food, as some had speculated, she said.

"I eat very well," Rivera told the AP. "My nutritionist ordered me to eat six times a day."

The 18-year-old communications student and aspiring actress has been studying English for seven months. She spoke entirely in Spanish at the Miss Universe ceremony, and during the interview.

"Spanish is an extremely romantic language that can make any person fall in love with you," she said. "And that's what I wanted to create with the jury, to be able to make them fall in love through my native language."

Rivera, the fifth winner from Puerto Rico in the pageant's history, described herself as a "boricua" ---- slang for Puerto Rican ---- who doesn't favor statehood or independence for her Caribbean island home, which has been a U.S. Commonwealth since 1952.

"I don't go for either stance," said Rivera, who nonetheless defends Puerto Rico's separate status from the U.S. in the Miss Universe competition.

"If we were to compete as a normal state of the United States you would lose the charm of the beauty of Puerto Rico," she said. "Puerto Rican beauty ... is totally different from American beauty."

Her first planned stop after winning the Miss Universe crown was Japan. Then it's off to Indonesia and South Africa, visits that should be confirmed before September, a representative said.

More than half of women in LA killer's photos now believed alive

LOS ANGELES (AP) ---- More than half of about 50 women seen in photographs taken by a convicted double murderer decades ago are believed to be alive, according to sheriff's investigators who have received numerous calls and e-mails since publicizing the images found by a cold-case detective in an old file.

Investigators initially identified one victim of an unsolved 1978 slaying and several ex-wives of death row inmate William Richard Bradford in the photographs, and have since tentatively identified 28 more women.

Of those 28, one is believed to be a homicide victim, another is a 15-year-old girl who has been missing for years, and the other 26 were believed to be alive, sheriff's homicide Capt. Ray Peavy said Thursday.

The photographs were seized from the home of Bradford, who was convicted of the 1984 murders of a young woman and teenage girl. Authorities say Bradford, now 60, posed as a freelance photographer and shot photos of women he met at bars and elsewhere.

According to Peavy, one of his cold-case detectives located the pictures recently and on Tuesday they were posted on a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Web site Tuesday. Detectives were concerned that some of the women could have been victims of rape or murder between 1975 and 1984.

The Web site has received thousands of hits since Tuesday and calls and e-mails have poured in.

Among the leads were two from women claiming they were among the images and a single e-mail from an unidentified sender listing 12 names.

Bradford's appellate attorney, Darlene Ricker, dismissed the new investigation.

"It's old news," she said Wednesday. "The existence of these photos has been known for 20 years. All of a sudden, for whatever reason, law enforcement has decided to look into them."

Ricker said she hadn't spoken with Bradford, imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison, since sheriff's officials went public with his photos, but she guessed what his response might be.

"I'm sure Bill would say, if he could: 'The man was a photographer. Gee, what a surprise they find photographs in his belongings."'

One woman in the photos was identified Tuesday as Donnalee Campbell Duhamel, a 31-year-old mother of two whose decapitated body was found in a Malibu canyon in 1978. A sheriff's official said Tuesday that the body was found a few days after the woman met Bradford at a bar. Bradford was never charged in that case.

On Wednesday, her daughter questioned why it took so long but was relieved that authorities were investigating.

"My mom just disappeared, and now she's getting the attention I feel she deserves," said Lisa Mora, 36, who was only 7 when her mother vanished. The family got confirmation of the death eight years later, she said.

With Bradford's past whereabouts extending to Illinois, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Oregon and elsewhere, there could be leads across the country. And even with possible names, investigators will have to do lengthy background checks and interviews to match the photos.

"We're trying to put it all together," said sheriff's Lt. Debra Lenhart. "We're hopeful."

Bradford was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder in the stranglings of Shari Miller, 21, who he met in a bar, and Tracey Campbell, 15, a neighbor. Prosecutors said he lured them into accompanying him with promises to help their modeling careers.

Miller's body was found in a West Los Angeles parking lot in July 1984, while Tracey's decomposed body was found in August 1984 at a campsite in the high desert north of Los Angeles.

On the Net:

Photos of the women: http://lacountymurders.com/wanted/LADIES1.html

Children charged with killing 11-year-old boy in Greece

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) ---- Five schoolchildren have been charged with killing an 11-year-old boy who disappeared five months ago, Greek authorities said Thursday.

Alex Mechisvili dropped from sight in the northern town of Veroia. Investigators say they believe he was beaten to death, but his body has not been found.

The five suspects, aged 12 and 13, were charged with "intentional homicide" and "disrespect" to a corpse, prosecutors said. Assistant prosecutor Stephanos Zarkazias also filed charges of negligence against the suspects' parents.

The young suspects, one of whom went to school with Mechisvili, were first questioned in June. Police then launched a large-scale effort to find the boy's body, using divers and dogs in a search that included abandoned buildings and nearby rivers.

Authorities gave few details of the case because the suspects are minors. Greek law prevents them from being detained pending trial, or from serving jail time if convicted.

The boy and his mother moved to Greece from the former Soviet republic of Georgia. His mother made repeated televised appeals for information after his disappearance.

Mechisvili's Greek stepfather, Dimitris Sainis, welcomed the charges.

"This is an important step toward finding the truth," he told private Alter television. "But I do believe other, older, people were involved. I cannot accept that five children committed the perfect crime and managed to hide the body so well."

Late Thursday, several hundred women gathered outside a Veroia hospital, where Mechisvili's mother was being treated. Doctors said she was in stable condition after taking an overdose of sleeping pills.

The women also marched through the center of Veroia, walking in silence and carrying placards in support of the boy's family.

Widow's OC lawsuit says Clark Foam chemicals killed husband

SANTA ANA (AP) ---- The widow of a former $14-an-hour Clark Foam Products worker sued the maker of surfboard blanks claiming her husband died from exposure to deadly chemicals at the factory.

Maria Teresa Barriga's Orange County Superior Court wrongful death suit claimed her 36-year-old husband Martin Barriga handled toxic chemicals at the now-closed Laguna Niguel plant, her attorney John McCarty said Thursday.

Barriga and other employees ran with open buckets of toxic toluene diisocyanate sloshing on their hands, arms, torso, legs and feet, according to the 30-page complaint filed July 20.

Additionally, workers warmed lunches in the same microwave used to heat the chemical, the suit alleged.

Toluene diisocyanate is commonly used to make foam products and paint. When heated, the chemical becomes toxic and can cause severe respiratory, gastrointestinal and central nervous system problems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also said it is a possible carcinogen.

The death certificate listed cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, inflamed and scarred lung sacs and arterial inflammation as causes of Barriga's death in July 2004. He also suffered from a cancerous chest tumor.

The father of two boys quit Clark Foam in 2002 after working at the factory for 16 years.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount for damages.

Clark Foam founder Gordon Clark alluded to the possibility of litigation in a five-page letter addressed to his customers Dec. 5, the day his business closed.

Clark said government regulation and pending lawsuits, including one by a widow of an employee "who died from cancer," forced him to close the 44-year-old factory.

"Our official safety record as an employer is not very good," Clark wrote in his only public statement. "We have three ex-employees on full workman's compensation disability evidently for life. I may be looking at very large fines, civil lawsuits and even time in prison."

Even though Clark Foam has closed, money could be paid from profits or insurance, McCarty said.

Clark couldn't be reached Thursday. The Clark Foam Products telephone was disconnected and there was no telephone listing for Clark.

Newport Beach's landmark faux riverboat looking for a home

NEWPORT BEACH (AP) ---- Need a non-seaworthy Mississippi-style riverboat and have 190 feet of dock?

When the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum moves to dry land in December, the Reuben E. Lee riverboat that it now calls home will have to leave its Newport Bay dock, officials said this week.

The dock's owner, the Irvine Co., has plans for the area that don't involve the boat, officials said.

Local residents said they'll miss the landmark faux paddle-wheeler which began life in 1964 as a floating restaurant and decades later was taken over by the museum.

"It's hard to imagine crossing the bridge and not seeing it there," said Keith Buy, 50, who tended bar on the boat when it was a restaurant.

Museum trustee David La Montagne said he's spoken to more than 50 people about buying the riverboat, but none seemed able to supply a place to park it.

"A hundred-ninety feet of dock space is not an easy thing to come by in California, so that's the biggest challenge, period," he said.

New York hip-hop DJ gets deal to dismiss on-air sex rant charges

NEW YORK (AP) ---- A judge on Thursday agreed to dismiss criminal charges against a former hip-hop radio disc jockey who insulted a rival DJ's wife and young daughter in on-air rants.

Justice Ellen Gesmer adjourned the case against Troi Torain, known as DJ Star, for six months. At that time, charges of endangering a child's welfare and weapon possession will be dropped as long as he has stayed out of further trouble.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Penelope Brady said her office agreed to this resolution "because it serves the best interest of the 4-year-old victim by sparing the victim any further attention."

Torain called the outcome a victory for freedom of speech.

"I never should have been arrested in the first place," he said in a telephone interview. "This was not a crime."

Torain was arrested May 12 amid an uproar over his comments.

During on-air rants beginning May 3, Torain threatened to sexually abuse the rival DJ's daughter and urinate on her. He offered $500 for information about where the girl went to school.

He also called the rival DJ's wife, who's part Asian, a "slant-eyed whore" and his daughter a "little lo mein eater."

The arrest came after he was contacted by police and ordered to surrender a 9mm handgun and target-practice permit.

His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, had argued that he made the comments only after DJs at a competing hip-hop station barraged him with threats and degrading and sexually offensive remarks.

Torain, 42, co-hosted the syndicated "Star & Buc Wild Morning Show" on WWPR-FM (Power 105.1). His remarks, directed at Raashaun Casey, known as DJ Envy on WQHT-FM (Hot 97), led to his firing May 10.

DJ Star's show aired in markets including Philadelphia, Miami and Richmond, Va.

Colorado killer claims 48 slayings, including two in California

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) ---- A man serving a life sentence in Colorado for murdering a teenage girl has claimed responsibility for as many as 48 slayings across the country dating back more than three decades, including two in California, authorities said Thursday.

Robert Charles Browne, 53, told authorities the slayings occurred from 1970 until his arrest in 1995. He was in court Thursday to plead guilty to one of those killings ---- the death of another girl in Colorado in 1987.

Authorities so far have been able to corroborate his detailed claims in seven slayings ---- three in Louisiana, two in Texas, one in Arkansas and the two in Colorado, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said.

He said Browne's claim of 48 murders could be credible.

"It's possible he's exaggerating, but I don't think you can conduct business assuming he's exaggerating," Maketa said. "We'll continue to pursue leads."

If Browne's claims prove true, he would be one of the most prolific killers in U.S. history.

Gary Ridgway, Seattle's Green River Killer who in 2003 became the nation's deadliest convicted serial killer, admitted to 48 murders but once said he killed as many as 71 women, according to interview transcripts.

Browne's public defender, Bill Schoewe, did not return a call.

Browne claims his killing spree began with a soldier in South Korea in 1970, which Maketa said has not been verified.

The other claims include 17 murders in Louisiana, nine in Colorado, seven in Texas, five in Arkansas, three in Mississippi, two each in California, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and one in Washington state -- 49 in all, the sheriff said.

Browne pleaded guilty in 1995 to kidnapping and murder in the 1991 death of Heather Dawn Church, 13, of Black Forest, a town north of Colorado Springs. He was sentenced to life without parole. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Rocio Sperry, a girl who was about 15 at the time of her death 19 years ago.

The sheriff's department said the charge in Sperry's death followed years of correspondence and discussion between the killer and cold-case volunteer investigators, including Lou Smit and Charlie Hess.

Hess said he believes Browne himself doesn't know why he is confessing.

"Does he have a conscience? Is that what motivated him? I really have no idea and I'm not sure he knows," said Hess, a retired police officer who also worked with the CIA and FBI.

Browne grew up as one of 12 children in a hardscrabble family in the northern Louisiana town of Coushatta in Red River Parish, said Johnny Norman, sheriff there.

Norman, a schoolteacher in the 1960s, said Browne was in his physical education class in eighth and ninth grades. He recalled Browne as smart but aloof -- and with a short fuse.

"He was a loner, but not somebody you'd expect to do this. But he did have a hot temper," Norman said. "In a pickup basketball game, somebody fouled him or hit him, he'd fly off the handle."

The Browne family ran a dairy in the 1960s and had hard times.

Browne's father, Ronald, was a deputy sheriff at the time the department was investigating the death of Wanda Hudson, a woman in her 20s, the sheriff said. Browne has confessed to that slaying, authorities told The Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs, which first reported Browne's claims.

Norman said he has spoken with Colorado investigators and the Louisiana State Police about Hudson's death and Browne's possible involvement.

"We never close a case," he said.

Blackout hits downtown London commercial district

LONDON (AP) ---- Blackouts caused by sweltering temperatures struck more than 3,000 businesses in London's major shopping district and part of its transit network on Thursday, officials said.

High energy demand led to outages starting in the city's central Soho district, said James Barber, a spokesman for energy company EDF in southeast England.

Barber said the outages were due to a "highly unusual sequence of faults" at substations and in underground cables.

Temperatures on Thursday reached 86 degrees in central London, the Meteorological Office weather center said.

Part of the Oxford Circus subway station, which serves more than 300 nearby stores, was closed for around an hour and a half, causing severe disruption, said James Simpson, a spokesman for the London Underground. He said an estimated 570,000 passengers ride through the station on weekdays.

Barber said sporadic power outages would likely continue into Friday in the area between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus in central London.

"Prudent use of power by those in the affected area, for example turning off air conditioning where possible, will help this situation," the company said in a statement.

Barber said engineers were patrolling the affected area to provide information and assistance.

"This is bad news for business and bad news for shoppers," said Jace Tyrrell, spokesman for the New West End Company, which represents some of the affected businesses. "We are very disappointed on behalf of businesses. It is even more disappointing for shoppers who turn to stores to escape the heat."

Reaction to 'breast-feeding' cover reflects larger debate on public nursing

NEW YORK (AP) ---- "I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine -- yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains more support from the government and medical community.

Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo -- a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile -- inappropriate.

One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it.

"I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast -- it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

It's the same reason that Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public -- a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: "lactivists," meaning those who advocate for a woman's right to nurse wherever she needs to.

"I'm totally supportive of it -- I just don't like the flashing," she says. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

Another mother, Kelly Wheatley, wrote Babytalk to applaud the cover, precisely because, she says, it helps educate people that breasts are more than sex objects. And yet Wheatley, 40, who's still nursing her 3-year-old daughter, rarely breast-feeds in public, partly because it's more comfortable in the car, and partly because her husband is uncomfortable with other men seeing her breast.

"Men are very visual," says Wheatley, 40, of Amarillo, Texas. "When they see a woman's breast, they see a breast -- regardless of what it's being used for."

Babytalk editor Susan Kane says the mixed response to the cover clearly echoes the larger debate over breast-feeding in public. "There's a huge Puritanical streak in Americans," she says, "and there's a squeamishness about seeing a body part -- even part of a body part."

"It's not like women are whipping them out with tassels on them!" she adds. "Mostly, they are trying to be discreet."

Kane says that since the August issue came out last week, the magazine has received more than 700 letters -- more than for any article in years.

"Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob," wrote Lauren, a mother of a 4-month-old.

The evidence of public discomfort isn't just anecdotal. In a survey published in 2004 by the American Dietetic Association, less than half -- 43 percent -- of 3,719 respondents said women should have the right to breast-feed in public places.

The debate rages at a time when the celebrity-mom phenomenon has made breast-feeding perhaps more public than ever. Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields, Kate Hudson and Kate Beckinsale are only a few of the stars who've talked openly about their nursing experiences.

The celeb factor has even brought a measure of chic to that unsexiest of garments: the nursing bra. Gwen Stefani can be seen on babyrazzi.com -- a site with a self-explanatory name -- sporting a leopard-print version from lingerie line Agent Provocateur. And fellow moms recognized a white one under Angelina Jolie's tank top on the cover of People. (Katie Holmes, meanwhile, suffered a maternity wardrobe malfunction when cameras caught her, nursing bra open and peeking out of her shirt, while on the town with fiance Tom Cruise.)

More seriously, the social and medical debate has intensified. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently concluded a two-year breast-feeding awareness campaign including a TV ad -- criticized as over-the-top even by some breast-feeding advocates -- in which NOT breast-feeding was equated with the recklessness of a pregnant woman riding a mechanical bull.

There have been other measures to promote breast-feeding: in December, for example, Massachusetts banned hospitals from giving new mothers gift bags with free infant formula, a practice opponents said swayed some women away from nursing.

Most states now have laws guaranteeing the right to breast-feed where one chooses, and when a store or restaurant employee denies a woman that right, it has often resulted in public protests known as "nurse-ins": at a Starbucks in Miami, at Victoria's Secret stores in Racine, Wis., and Boston, and, last year, outside ABC headquarters in New York, when Barbara Walters made comments on "The View" seen by some women to denigrate breast-feeding in public.

"It's a new age," says Melinda Johnson, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for ADA. "With the government really getting behind breast-feeding, it's been a jumping-off point for mothers to be politically active. Mommies are organizing. It's a new trend to be a mommy activist."

Ultimately, it seems to be a highly personal matter. Caly Wood says she's "all for breast-feeding in public." She recalls with a shudder the time she sat nursing in a restaurant booth, and another woman walked by, glanced over and said, "Ugh, gross."

"My kid needed to eat," says the 29-year-old from South Abingdon, Mass. And she wasn't going to go hide in a not-so-clean restroom: "I don't send people to the bathroom when THEY want to eat," she says.

But Rebekah Kreutz thinks differently. One of six women who author SisterhoodSix, a blog on mothering issues, Kreutz didn't nurse her two daughters in public, and doesn't really feel comfortable seeing others do it.

"I respect it and think women have the right," says Kreutz, 34, of Bozeman, Mont. "But personally, it makes me really uncomfortable."

"I just think it's one of those moments that should stay between a mother and her child."

Prosecutor: DNA, symbol, testimony links 17-year-old to murder

MARTINEZ (AP) ---- A prosecutor drew two curious symbols as he made opening statements in the trial of the teenager accused of killing Pamela Vitale.

One, a sideways H, was found carved into the bludgeoned body of Vitale, wife of prominent defense attorney Daniel Horowitz. The other emblem, which bore a resemblance to an H although it was more elaborate, was used as a kind of signature by defendant Scott Dyleski, said prosecutor Harold Jewett.

In a methodical and sometimes dramatic presentation, Jewett laid out an extensive web of evidence he said points to Dyleski's guilt, including DNA evidence linking Dyleski to the murder scene, testimony from people who knew the teenager as well as a note appearing to outline a kidnapping scheme with the chilling coda, "Dispose of evidence. Cut up. Bury."

"It's not any one piece of evidence. It's everything," Jewett said. "You take everything and you add it up."

Dyleski, wearing a crisp shirt and tie, the ponytail he had at the time of his arrest cut short, looked fixedly at Jewett throughout his statement. The teenager, who is being tried as an adult and could face life in prison if convicted, has denied involvement in the killing.

His attorney, Ellen Leonida, spoke briefly Thursday, saying Dyleski may have had a fascination with the macabre but underneath that teenage angst was a kind and conscientious person incapable of murder.

"You're going to hear from the people who knew him best that Scott Dyleski is not a killer, and nothing you hear from the prosecution is going to prove otherwise," Leonida said. The defense lawyer said Dyleski was home when Vitale was killed and also said DNA found inside a glove involved in the attack did not match Dyleski's.

Court adjourned after that and was scheduled to resume Monday.

The case began Oct. 15, when Horowitz returned home to find his wife's body in the trailer they were sharing during construction of their dream home on a hilltop in the San Francisco suburb of Lafayette. Horowitz was devastated, yelling "No. Pamela. No," so loudly his voice echoed down the canyon.

The attorney, a frequent commentator on CNN and other channels, had left home early that morning on business and wasn't considered a suspect, although at first police wondered if the killing might have something to do with one of his cases.

But four days after the killing, police arrested Dyleski, then 16, and a neighbor of Horowitz and Vitale.

Preliminary testimony and police documents indicate Dyleski and a friend had bought marijuana-growing equipment using credit card information and addresses stolen from their neighbors, including Horowitz and Vitale.

According to Dyleski's friend, one company denied a purchase that apparently was to be shipped to Horowitz and Vitale's address and Dyleski had said he would take care of it.

Jewett outlined some previously known information, including a bag of clothing and other evidence found linking Dyleski to Vitale. He also made some revelations, including that Vitale's attacker was wearing a Balaclava-style mask and she had been able to unmask him. Jewett said it appears Vitale kicked her assailant in the mouth.

Jewett bluntly described the killing, including the repeated blows to the head that killed her and the deep incision made in her abdomen after death. He said Vitale "fought as valiantly as she could," but never had a chance.

As for the mark on the body, perhaps the strangest aspect of the case, it was probably made by a sharp knife, cut straight, square and deliberate, Jewett said. That mark resembled a H laid sideways, as Jewett drew it for jurors. The other symbol drawn by the prosecutor, one he said was frequently found on Dyleski's works, looked a bit like a stick figure and included a star inside a circle.

Jewett said Dyleski returned home that morning with a mark on his face and an injured wrist and told his family he had gotten scratched while on a walk. Later, when the credit card scheme started coming to light, Dyleski continued to deny involvement, Jewett said.

Dyleski's mother, Esther Fielding, initially was arrested for destroying evidence, but charges were dropped after she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Jewett said Fielding burned items belonging to her son including a hard drive and pieces of paper with other people's account information on them.

Some of the items were eventually turned over to police. Then in January, a man who had moved into Dyleski's vacated room found some slips of paper that apparently had been hidden in a dresser.

The handwriting was identified as Dyleski's, Jewett said. Four of the pieces of paper had account information on it. The fifth was a sketchy note that, as read by Jewett, said, "Knock out/kidnap? Keep captive to confirm PINs. Dirty work. Dispose of evidence. Cut up. Bury."

Earthquake rattles Hawaiian Islands

HONOLULU (AP) -- Residents of Maui and Oahu felt a rare 4.5-magnitude earthquake Thursday that rattled buildings but caused no injuries or damage. - The quake was too small to generate a tsunami, said Stuart Weinstein, assistant director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in Hawaii, but most are felt only on the Big Island, where the most volcanic activity is.

The temblor shook homes and office buildings for a few seconds around 10 a.m. Blinds rattled and floors vibrated in some Honolulu buildings.

"We're on the ninth floor of the county building, and we got a good jolt from it," said Ellen Pelissero, Maui County spokeswoman. "It was a singular jolt. You knew it was a good one, but fortunately it didn't last."

The quake was centered under the ocean about 45 miles southwest of Maui, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Virginia executes man for slaying of fellow inmate

JARRATT, Va. (AP) -- A man who stabbed a fellow inmate to death during a pagan religious ceremony was executed Thursday night.

Michael Lenz, 42, had no final words before the lethal drugs were injected. He was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center.

Lenz and another inmate, Jeffrey Remington, were sentenced to death in 2000 for stabbing 41-year-old Brent Parker a combined 68 times with makeshift knives at the Augusta Correctional Center.

The three were followers of the Nordic pagan religion, Asatru, and belonged to a group known as the Ironwood Kindred. The group was gathered for a ceremony when Lenz and Remington attacked Parker at the foot of a makeshift altar.

Lenz testified that Parker had not been taking the religion seriously, and to protect the honor of the gods, Parker had to be punished. Lenz also testified he felt threatened by Parker, who was serving a 50-year sentence for murder.

Lenz had been serving a 29-year sentence on a burglary and weapon possession conviction before he was sent to death row.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeals and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied his request for clemency.

Lenz met with his mother and two uncles for two hours Thursday afternoon. He made no last meal request.

Attorney A. Lee Ervin, who prosecuted the Lenz case, said Lenz deserved to die because of the brutality of his attack.

Parker's mother, Bonnie Parker, 71, of Paw Paw, W.Va., said she was ambivalent about the execution and did not attend. She said she misses her son, whom she described as a good person led astray by alcohol.

"It's been so long since he's been gone -- it really hurts me even to talk about him," she said. "He was very good to me."

Remington committed suicide on death row in 2004.

Not to worry, Katharine McPhee will make it to the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Put your worries to rest, Mr. President. Katharine McPhee is well enough to make her Oval Office appointment.

The American Idol runner-up has recovered from a nasty bout of bronchitis and laryngitis just in time for her audience with President Bush on Friday, says Eric Green, a publicist with the Fox network program.

McPhee, champion Taylor Hicks and the rest of last season's Top 10 are the first contestants from the hit show to be invited to the White House.

Sure, dignitaries from Iraq, Romania, Britain, Sudan and Saudi Arabia also got an invite to the Oval Office this week. They may have had issues of war and peace to discuss, but how many of them survived the challenge of performing a Stevie Wonder tune on live TV?

It's unclear how familiar Bush is with their talents. Asked whether he had ever seen the show, the White House responded that he was "aware" of it.

Their tour and photo opportunity with Bush -- with still cameras only, no reporters allowed -- comes during a one-day visit to Washington for their "American Idols Live" tour. McPhee rejoined the group Thursday in Pittsburgh after missing a string of recent performances.

On the Net:

American Idol: http://www.idolonfox.com

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Drifter charged with murder of suburban teen lost in Manhattan after car was towed

NEW YORK (AP) -- A suburban teenager who disappeared after a night of clubbing was found dead in a New Jersey trash bin on Thursday and police later arrested a drifter accused of strangling her in a nearby motel, authorities said.

New York police think Jennifer Moore was lured or forced into a taxi along a major roadway along Manhattan's west side where the 18-year-old was last seen walking alone early Tuesday.

Moore had accompanied a friend to retrieve their car from the city tow pound when Moore's friend passed out and had to be taken by ambulance to a hospital. Moore stayed behind.

She called her boyfriend around 5 a.m. to say she was lost and he told her to call a cab, The New York Post reported. When he called back there was no answer, the newspaper said.

About 48 hours after she vanished, Moore's body was found in West New York, N.J., police said.

Her killer had taken her to a motel in nearby Weehawken, N.J., and strangled the teen, said a law enforcement official, who talked to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Moore died of blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation, the Hudson County medical examiner said.

Draymond Coleman, who has an extensive arrest record and no permanent address, was charged with the slaying. He was arrested at dive hotel in Manhattan.

Hudson County prosecutors and New Jersey state police didn't return messages left after hours Thursday seeking details about what evidence led investigators to Coleman.

Coleman, 35, has done time on a drug charge, and police said he has prior arrests for robbery and assault. It was not known whether he had a lawyer.

The teen's father, Hugh Moore, spoke outside their home in Harrington Park, N.J. "She was someone who was smart and bright and funny," he said. "Wrong place, wrong time. It could happen to anybody."

-- Associated Press writer Wayne Parry in Newark, N.J., contributed to this report.

Polygamist leader's nephew jailed on contempt charge

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A nephew of fugitive Warren Jeffs has been jailed on contempt charges in Arizona -- the sixth person connected to the exiled polygamist church leader to refuse to answer questions before a federal grand jury.

Officials at the Central Arizona Detention Facility in Florence said Thursday that Benjamin Jeffs Nielsen, 25, was booked there July 14.

Patrick Schneider, chief of the criminal investigations division for the U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix, said he could not discuss whether Nielsen was among those subpoenaed by federal authorities over the past seven months. Grand jury proceedings are secret, so the scope of the investigation by federal prosecutors is unclear.

It could not be immediately determined whether Nielsen had an attorney.

Nielsen is a nephew of Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is wanted in Utah and Arizona on suspicion of sexual misconduct for arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.

Since May, Jeffs has been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, with a $100,000 reward offered for information leading to his capture.

Subpoenas were first served in January on a handful of Jeffs supporters at an FLDS meeting in Colorado City, Ariz., which with its twin border town of Hildale, Utah, is home to most church members.

So far, six men have been charged with civil contempt of court for refusing to appear or answer questions before the grand jury.

Until recently, Nielsen had been living in Mancos, Colo., serving as the caretaker of a pair of properties owned there by an associate of Warren Jeffs.

Philadelphia mayor calls on youth to "lay down your weapons"

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The mayor on Thursday promised more police and social services to help stem a surge in the city's homicide rate, while pleading with young people to "lay down your weapons."

Philadelphia's homicide rate is 7 percent higher than last year, with 226 people slain.

"You are the future of this city. Lay down your weapons. Do it now. Choose education over violence," Mayor John F. Street said in an eight-minute speech, televised live. "You will never regret it if you do, and you might not survive if you don't."

Street said the city would hire 200 new police officers, along with a new 46-member police unit deployed on nights and weekends in areas of high gun violence. Surveillance cameras would be installed in some neighborhoods, he said.

The mayor also said "violence is not just a police matter" and promised increased social services for young people.

The homicide rate during the past six years remains significantly lower than during the 1990s, and major crime is also down, Street noted. "That should give citizens confidence that the administration can and will manage the current spike in gun violence," he said.

Wash. Supreme Court says sex abuse files kept by the Boy Scouts can be used in lawsuit

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Decades of files that the Boy Scouts of America compiled on sexual abuse allegations can be used in a lawsuit claiming the organization was ineffective at preventing abuse, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

About 1,000 files, with names redacted, have been given to the lawyers for three men who say their scoutmaster abused them from 1971 to 1983 when they were Boy Scouts. The files are sealed by court order for now but could be made public at trial, plaintiff's attorney Tim Kosnoff said.

The files include court records and news accounts, as well as rumors and tips from parents and others. Names of accusers, their parents and the alleged perpetrators were removed.

The Boy Scouts has kept such files since the group's inception in 1910 but destroyed records when alleged perpetrators either turned 75 or died, plantiff's attorney Mark Honeywell said.

In addition to the 1,000 files from the Washington case, the attorneys have 1,900 files from a separate court case.

A call to the Boy Scouts organization, based in Irving, Texas, was not returned Thursday.

A statement from the organization said it appealed to the high court out of concern that turning over the files could undermine the effectiveness of Scout youth protection programs.

The Boy Scouts organization says it trains boys how to recognize, resist and report abuse, and background checks for new volunteers have been required since 2003.

The national Scouts organization, its local branches and the former scoutmaster, Bruce Phelps, were named as defendants in the sex abuse lawsuit.

Phelps, 53, of Seattle, settled his portion of the lawsuit months ago and admitted to sexual abuse in a deposition, according to the Kosnoff and Honeywell.

Phelps' attorney, Kenneth Kagan, confirmed the settlement but said Phelps did not admit to all of the plaintiffs' allegations.

Seattle police detectives looked into Phelps' case, but no criminal charges were filed, Kagan said. The lawsuit was filed about 20 years after the alleged abuse ended, and the age of the claims played into the police's decision, Kagan said.

On the Net:

Supreme Court of Washington: http://www.courts.wa.gov

Boy Scouts: http://www.scouting.org

California radio station changes format from God to sex

KINGSBURG -- KFYE-FM hasn't budged from the Fresno-area dial, but it's about as far as you can get from the Christian music, sermons and Bible stories it was broadcasting until about a week ago.

Now it calls itself "Porn Radio" -- "all sex radio, all the time," with a suggestion that people under 21 not listen.

Songs with little in common except suggestive titles and lyrics fill the playlist, including "Why Don't We Do It in the Road" by The Beatles, "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye and "Nasty" by Janet Jackson. Tamer songs are heated up by adding recorded moans and groans.

The change, made after the station was sold this month, was met with several non-sexual groans from some residents.

"It would appear this is another of those promotions that are simply designed to create controversy," longtime Fresno radio personality Ed Beckman told The Fresno Bee. "This format belongs on Sirius or XM, not on over-the-air."

The station tries not to cross the line, said owner Jerry Clifton.

KFYE has been playing songs in a continuous one-hour loop without commercials. Clifton wouldn't tell the Bee whether he plans to eventually switch to a more traditional format.

Laos reports H5N1 bird flu outbreak at poultry farm near capital

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Laos has confirmed an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu among chickens at a farm near the capital Vientiane, a foreign ministry spokesman said Friday. - Some 2,580 chickens were found dead last week at the poultry farm in Xaythany district, 15 miles south of Vientiane. Agriculture officials have culled an additional 3,500 chickens at the farm.

"Lab results confirmed that it is H5N1," Laos Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalansy said.

The Vientiane Times said the same farm experienced a bird flu outbreak in 2004.

Bird flu has killed at least 134 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to WHO. Laos has reported no human deaths from the virus, though neighboring Thailand this week reported its 15th human fatality.

In October, the United States announced it was granting $3.4 million in aid for impoverished Laos to fend off the disease.

Thousands evacuated after volcano in Indonesia spews lava

MANADO, Indonesia -- Thousands of villagers were evacuated after a volcano on an island in eastern Indonesia started spewing lava and hot clouds, officials said Friday. There were no reports of casualties.

Mount Karangetang, one of the country's most active mountains, has been rumbling for weeks.

Lava and hot ash avalanched 750 yards down the volcano's slopes on Thursday, its second eruption since July 17, said Saut Simatupang, chief researcher at the government's volcanology agency.

Nearly 4,000 people were evacuated from five villages, said Iskandar Gobel, a North Sulawesi provincial official, and police in the area said more would likely leave in coming days.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Karangetan is on Siau, part of the Sulawesi island chain, which has not been affected by a recent string of natural disasters in the country.

A massive earthquake off Java triggered a tsunami earlier this month that left 600 dead and a temblor on the same island in May killed 5,800. Mount Merapi, also on Java, has seen heightened activity in recent months.

600 subway passengers evacuated after landslide blocks rush-hour train

LONDON (AP) -- A landslide blocked the path of a rush-hour train in London Thursday, forcing the evacuation of 600 subway passengers, transport officials said.

There were no injuries and the train did not derail, Transport for London said.

The train made an emergency stop when tons of earth slipped from an embankment and clogged tracks, it said.

The service was carrying 600 passengers from London's main Heathrow airport and was traveling on an above ground section of London's subway when it made contact with the landslide and came to an abrupt halt.

Three to four tons of debris ended up on the track, Transport for London said.