Gruesome attacks on women seen as perverse attempts at motherhood

By: Associated Press - | Monday, September 25, 2006 8:23 PM PDT ∞

It's a crime so monstrous as to surpass comprehension. Yet its passion takes root in some of the most tender ground of human experience: pregnancy and motherhood.

What drives a handful of women to slice open the bellies of others to steal their newborns?

Researchers have uncovered hints. "You can describe it as sort of the maternal instinct run amok," says psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick, who had written about this kind of crime.

In East St. Louis, Ill., an innocent plea was entered Monday for Tiffany Hall, a 24-year-old woman charged with killing a woman and her fetus; investigators believe she cut the mother open with a pair of scissors. Authorities say Hall also told police she drowned the woman's three other children.

Such crimes are exceedingly rare in a country with more than 4 million births a year. Previously, only eight similar cases have been documented since 1987 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Yet they are frequent enough to have acquired a clinical-sounding name: newborn kidnapping by Caesarean section.

It is a variety of the more common crime of simply snatching an infant, experts say. Attackers are women of childbearing age who typically have lost a baby or can't have one, mental health professionals say. They feel empty and fiercely long for a child -- or another child -- to cement a shaky love relationship.

"They look at these pregnant woman and say, `Look at all the attention they're getting. They're complete,"' says N.G. Berrill, a New York-based legal psychologist. The attackers often fake their own pregnancy, take part in baby showers, and prepare nurseries at home.

However, at some moment they cross a boundary and descend almost to Shakespearean depths of tragedy. "The meaning of being barren for some women is just extraordinary," says Resnick.

Fashioning elaborate cons, they may trick a stranger into letting down her guard, or they may set upon a close friend without warning. The raw violence may vent a gusher of rage or jealousy directed at the pregnant victim.

In 2004, a Kansas woman allegedly drove to Missouri, strangled a pregnant woman with a rope, then cut out her baby with a kitchen knife. She awaits trial.

In 1987, in New Mexico, a married woman kidnapped a pregnant woman leaving a prenatal clinic, forced her into a car with a fake gun, strangled her, and delivered the baby with a set of car keys. She was sent to prison for at least 30 years when found guilty but mentally ill.

The assaulted women nearly always die, sometimes bleeding to death. The attackers then claim the newborns as their own, even if only as stillborns to be buried. However, the newborns often live and eventually return to surviving family when the crime is solved. At least two attackers later killed themselves.

Experts believe that the macabre surgery is strangely meant to fulfill a fantasy of really giving birth to the child. Sometimes it takes on the trappings of full-blown psychosis -- a delusion of being the birth mother.

More often, though, the crime grows out of a less profound disturbance, known as a personality disorder, experts say. While still in the realm of mental illness, such impulses may fail to meet the legal standard of insanity -- a failure to grasp right and wrong. The attackers often hide the mother's body afterward, seemingly aware they have done wrong.

Cathy Nahirny, who tracks such cases for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, still can't fathom them after 16 years there. She favors a simpler explanation.

"Are they evil? Yeah, I guess you could call them evil: They want what they want -- and they will stop at nothing," she says.

New Orleans football team plays first home game since Hurricane Katrina; Superdome reopens

NEW ORLEANS -- Clara Donate lost her home and all her possessions to Hurricane Katrina. In the storm's aftermath, she fled to Atlanta and spent months staying with a son before returning to live in a government-issued trailer.

Donate, 58, tried to put those troubles behind her Monday night for at least a few hours, joining thousands of other New Orleans residents for a Mardi Gras-like celebration of the Saints' first home game since Katrina.

"This is exactly what the city needs," said Donate, a City Hall worker and season ticket holder. "We all need something else to think about."

Jubilant crowds swamped the area around the Louisiana Superdome in a human sea, creating a huge traffic jam for the team's emotional return and the reopening of the stadium, which underwent $185 million in repairs to erase damage done during and after Katrina.

The Saints and the Atlanta Falcons were both undefeated at 2-0 early in the NFL season, and the game received Super Bowl buildup. The Goo Goo Dolls played to the crowd outside the dome. Green Day and U2 performed for the crowd of more than 68,000 inside.

Harold Johnson couldn't get into the Superdome, but he planned to sit with his neighbors outside his government-issued trailer and watch the game on television.

"I don't want to talk about Katrina. I don't want to talk about insurance. I don't want to talk about anything but kicking Falcon butt," Johnson said as he stocked up on beer at a grocery store for the cookout with his neighbors.

Even with its gleaming new cover, the Superdome remained a symbol of Katrina's misery. Tens of thousands of storm victims suffered there in withering heat after last summer's hurricane filled the city with stinking floodwaters.

The Saints have not played a regular-season home game since 2004. They last played in the Superdome in a 2005 preseason game a few days before Katrina.

After the storm, the Saints became the NFL's traveling show, establishing a base in San Antonio and playing every game on the road amid speculation that owner Tom Benson might not bring them back to New Orleans.

Even now, a high-rise hotel, an office tower and an upscale shopping center stand empty just a few hundred feet from the stadium, with white boards covering blown-out windows. A few miles away, entire neighborhoods are wastelands of decaying houses.

Johnson and his neighbors were holding the party outdoors because none of them had room inside their trailers.

Amid the desolation, some residents could not bring themselves to celebrate the team's return.

Irma Warner, 71, and her husband, Pascal Warner, 80, live in an apartment in suburban Metairie while working six days a week to restore a home flooded by 7 feet of water in New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood.

"We rode around through the Ninth Ward yesterday," Irma Warner said. "When I saw that, I thought, how can they spend $185 million on the Superdome. What about all these poor people?"

But she appeared to be in the minority. Downtown offices and City Hall shut down early in anticipation of crowds at the Superdome. Teachers promised to assign little Monday night homework so students could watch the game on television.

Tanyha Brown of Metairie said her husband was leaving work early so they could attend the festivities outside the Superdome. With no tickets to the game, they planned to watch from a nearby bar.

"This is the best holiday since Mardi Gras," Brown said.

American man reaches celebrity status in Spanish town

Three years ago, the 16-year-old put a message in a bottle that eventually washed up on a beach near Malpica.

Now, thanks to an article about the bottle published in a Spanish newspaper Aug. 26, the whole town knows more about the American who lives more than 4,000 miles away than he knows about them.

The bottle was part of a project at Oak Ridge Middle School. Teachers there had students bring glass bottles with cork tops to class. On one side of a paper, the teachers wrote a note about themselves, with contact information.

On the other side, students wrote things about themselves, including their ages, where they went to school and what their lives in Naples were like.

Dennis would like to read the Spanish article that features him. But before he can understand it, the teen needs to finish the Spanish I class he's enrolled in this year.

"I thought it was kind of weird that I've never been there, and I see my name in their newspaper," Dennis said. "It's like I'm famous in another country."

Man arrested while allegedly carrying poit plants through downtown Des Moines

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Aaron Janssen apparently made it way too easy for police.

Janssen, 36, was arrested on marijuana charges Thursday after he was spotted taking a leisurely stroll through downtown, carrying his recently harvested pot plants, police said.

Polk County Chief Deputy Mark Burdock said he did a double-take when he looked out his office window at the county jail and saw Janssen walking down the sidewalk with the stalks.

"He was carrying it like you'd carry a bundle of presents. It was tall enough where he was looking over the top of them, and he's just walking like nothing's going on," Burdock said.

Burdock said he went outside and yelled at Janssen, who walked right over to him, still carrying the plants.

Janssen said the plants were part of his marijuana grown near the Des Moines River, but wouldn't say exactly where, Burdock said.

Deputies also found two two-pound bags of processed marijuana strapped to each of Janssen's legs, and a third wrapped in a sweater.

"He didn't seem intoxicated or anything of that nature," Burdock said. "He was just kind of proud of his grow."

Accused asks for higher bond

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- A man accused of stealing from his mother had a bone to pick with the prosecutor seeking $30,000 bond -- it simply wasn't high enough.

"I stole from my mother. I don't think that bond's high enough," Cedric Criswell, 34, told District Judge Don Bourne on Wednesday.

Bourne seemed to agree, setting bond for $50,000 for Criswell, who is accused of stealing his mother's car and checkbook. Criswell remained jailed in lieu of bond.

Detective David Virden said that Criswell and two others -- Amanda Garis, 19, and Ashley James, 21 -- used forged checks to buy surveillance equipment, cell phones and stereo equipment.

Pet Python skips class at Long Island School

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (AP) -- Students at a Long Island school have more than the three R's to deal with these days. They're hunting for a reptile running loose.

Slithering, actually.

The 2-foot serpent's name is Slim, a ball python who escaped from its tank in the sixth-grade science room it had occupied for five years at the Hauppauge Middle School.

On Tuesday, teachers were putting Slim and another snake named Otis back into their containers when a student with a problem in the hall distracted them for a few moments.

"The calculating snakes took this as an opportunity to make a break for it," principal Maryann Fletcher explained to parents in a letter.

Otis was caught. Slim was not.

Pythons -- cold-blooded serpents native to West Africa -- are not generally dangerous. If afraid, they usually roll themselves into a ball.

Still, the principal promised that the school is "making every effort to locate the snake." To entice the critter, the school has set up heating lamps and traps filled with crickets.

Jury acquits, deadlocks in trial tied to Hollywood private-eye wiretapping case

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A former phone company employee was acquitted Monday on four perjury charges related to the wiretapping case against Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano, and the jury deadlocked on the fifth count. - Joann Wiggan, 52, was one of three SBC employees who were alleged to have supplied a former co-worker with information from confidential databases. She was accused of lying to a grand jury about her activities.

Wiggan's attorney, David Reed, described his client as a "soccer mom who's never been in trouble." He said the verdict "is akin to David beating Goliath."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Saunders said the verdict would have no impact on the Pellicano case.

"The charges against Ms. Wiggan are completely different from those contained in the separate indictment against Anthony Pellicano," said Saunders.

The government claimed that Wiggan helped Ray Turner, a retired SBC employee, with information that aided Pellicano's alleged criminal enterprise. Wiggan, who pleaded not guilty and testified in her own defense, said whatever calls she made to or received from Turner had nothing to do with accessing private phone records for Pellicano.

Prosecutors contend that Pellicano illegally wiretapped the phones of Hollywood stars such as Sylvester Stallone and bribed police officers to run the names of more than 60 people, including comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through government databases. The information gathered was used to get dirt for threats, blackmail and in some cases to secure a tactical advantage in litigation, court documents allege.

Fourteen people have been charged in the case, with six pleading guilty to a variety of charges, including conspiracy and wire fraud. Pellicano has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and wiretapping charges and is scheduled to face trial in February.

Second earthquake in less than a week shakes Marlboro County, S.C.; no injuries reported

BLENHEIM, S.C. (AP) -- A minor earthquake awakened residents early Monday in northeastern South Carolina, the second quake to hit the area in several days. - The magnitude 3.7 quake hit at 1:44 a.m. and was centered near Society Hill, about 90 miles southeast of Charlotte, N.C., according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Roy Allison, director of emergency management for Marlboro County, said he and other residents were woken up by their shaking houses.

At a furniture and appliance store in Wallace, about 10 miles north of the epicenter, "the windows sounded like they were about to bust out," said Valerie Perhealth, daughter of the store's owner. "It scared me so bad."

A magnitude 3.5 quake shook the area Friday. The centers of the two quakes were about 10 miles apart.

Jessica Sigala, a geophysicist with the earthquake center, said the area gets small earthquakes now and then because of faults connected to the Appalachians.

"There's no fear of a bigger earthquake. These (small tremors) just happen," Sigala said.

There were no reports of damage from Friday's quake but there were reports of windows cracking and dishes rattling.

South Carolina each year has, on average, 10 to 15 earthquakes that register below magnitude 3. An earthquake between 3 and 4 normally is recorded about once every 18 months.

The area's most devastating quake on record was a magnitude 7.3 that rumbled near Charleston on Aug. 31, 1886, killing more than 100 people.

White powder, threatening notes prompt scare at 4 Colorado buildings

DENVER (AP) -- White powder accompanied by threatening notes prompted evacuations Monday at four Denver-area buildings that house state agencies, including a state police call center. - The substances in all four cases turned out to be harmless, authorities said.

State Patrol spokesman Lance Clem said at least one of the envelopes had information that will make it "interesting and easy to investigate," but he did not elaborate.

Envelopes sent to three downtown buildings contained sugar or a sugar substitute, said Fire Department spokesman Phil Champagne.

In Lakewood, about 7 miles west of downtown Denver, an employee opening a letter sent to the state Department of Agriculture came into contact with a powder, forcing the evacuation of the four-story building that houses the state patrol's Denver dispatch center, said trooper Eric Wynn, a spokesman for the state patrol.

The employee was decontaminated as a precaution.

Champagne said two Monday incidents appeared to be related but investigators don't believe there is any connection to an incident on Sunday, when workers at a Denver bank found five capsules containing a yellow powder in an envelope.

Initial tests indicated the powder was a protein and not anthrax, authorities said.

Bank employees, who were processing commercial bill payments, were scrubbed down in a decontamination tent. No injuries were reported.

Judge orders deportation of 3 Egyptian students who disappeared from exchange program

OMAHA, Neb. -- Three Egyptian college students who sparked a nationwide search when they failed to show up for a college exchange program last month were ordered deported Monday.

The students -- Mohamed Ibrahim El Sayed El Moghazy, 20; Ahmed Refaat Saad El Moghazi El Laket, 19; and Moustafa Wagdy Moustafa El Gafary, 18 -- had admitted they violated immigration laws and asked Judge James Fujimoto to allow them to return home voluntarily.

Fujimoto, who presided over the hearing via teleconference from Chicago, denied the request and ordered the three deported, citing their brief time in the United States, lack of long-term and family ties here and decision to flee immediately upon entering the country.

In the future, the three will need special permission to ever re-enter the U.S., which they would not have needed if they were allowed to leave voluntarily.

"Voluntary departure has been granted in thousands of other cases, and this one is not unique," the students' lawyer, Amy Peck, said after the decision was announced.

Peck has said the three said they feared they would be sent home if anyone in the group did not show up to the exchange program. She said when some students left the group after arriving in New York, her clients decided to go sightseeing in San Francisco. They then took a bus to Des Moines, Iowa, and used fake names, she said.

Peck did not know if they would appeal the decision.

The three were among 17 students from Mansoura University in Egypt invited to a monthlong exchange program at Montana State University in Bozeman. Only six students showed up to the program, prompting U.S. authorities to issue a nationwide search for the remaining 11 students. All were detained, but none were considered a terrorism risk.

Sexual assault case against Naval Academy midshipman dropped; new charges could be filed

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The sexual assault case against a U.S. Naval Academy football player was dropped Monday, a day before it was to go to trial, but school officials said new charges could be filed.

Kenny Ray Morrison, a senior from Kingwood, Texas, who was accused of taking advantage of a drunken female midshipman on Feb. 4 in a Washington hotel room, was to face a special court martial Tuesday at the Washington Navy Yard. Morrison had pleaded not guilty.

His attorney said he first learned the case was dropped when his witnesses were informed they were no longer needed.

Navy prosecutors then confirmed the charges of indecent assault and conduct unbecoming an officer against Morrison were dropped, but gave few details why, defense attorney William Ferris said.

"The way this was handled was outrageous," Ferris said.

Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Rodney Rempt ordered the charges be dropped without prejudice because "the Naval Academy anticipates proffering new charges," said academy spokesman Cmdr. Ed Austin.

He would not say what those charges may be or give details about the new information that has "recently become available" to Navy investigators. Any new charges would likely be referred to an Article 32 hearing, the military's form of a grand jury, Austin said.

According to the case against him, Morrison was accused of removing the woman's clothes in a Washington hotel after a night of drinking. Charging documents state he pressured her "to engage in multiple acts of sexual intercourse." A Navy investigator testified during a preliminary hearing that Morrison's DNA was recovered from a rape kit conducted on the woman.

Despite the allegations, Morrison was not charged with rape and faced a special court martial, a lesser form of military trial than a general court martial. If convicted, he likely would not have faced prison time.

Earlier this month, a military judge ruled that evidence the woman was given a date rape drug near the time of the alleged assault could not be used during the trial. Marine Lt. Col. Paul McConnell ruled the GHB found in a toxicology report could not be linked to Morrison.

Morrison is one of three people at the Naval Academy accused of sexual misconduct this year, including the football team's star quarterback. The cases come as closer scrutiny is cast on the nation's military schools following numerous claims of sexual assault.

The academy has taken several steps to curb abuse, such as tightening its alcohol policies and encouraging midshipman to report it, but a Pentagon report last year said the school was not doing enough.

Murder, kidnap charges filed in Colo. dragging death, suspect accused of killing girlfriend

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (AP) -- Prosecutors filed murder and kidnapping charges Monday against a man accused in the gruesome dragging death of his 49-year-old girlfriend.

Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 36, faces charged of first-degree murder after deliberation and second-degree kidnapping. He also faces charges of forging and possessing a government-issued document. He was being held without bail and has not yet entered a plea.

The battered and disfigured body of Luz Marie Franco Fierros was found Sept. 18 in a normally quiet subdivision about 20 miles south of Denver.

Investigators say Franco Fierros had been dragged behind a vehicle for more than a mile, leaving a bloody trail. Preliminary autopsy results said she suffered fatal head injuries and was strangled as she was dragged.

She was identified by matching her fingerprints to Mexican voter registration records.

Rubi-Nava could face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted of the murder count, and between one and eight years on each of the lesser charges. Prosecutors have not said what kind of sentence they would seek.

Court documents remained sealed in the case, and it was not clear what documents Rubi-Nava was accused of forging. District attorney's spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh declined comment. Public defender Kathleen McGuire did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Immigration officials have said they believe Rubi-Nava is an illegal immigrant.

A judge scheduled another hearing for Thursday to hear motions in the case.

Judge in bus-safety case limits testimony on Texas wreck that prompted investigation

McALLEN, Texas (AP) -- The judge in the trial of a bus company president accused of safety violations indicated Monday that he will greatly restrict the evidence prosecutors present about the catalyst for the safety investigation: a fiery bus wreck that killed 23 nursing home residents fleeing Hurricane Rita.

"I do not plan to bring up the issue of the accident," U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa said. "I don't know if you can bootstrap that into this case."

A jury was selected Monday in the trial of James H. Maples, president and director of Global Limo Inc., who along with his company is accused of conspiring to falsify driver time records and failing to inspect buses to ensure their safety.

Thirty-seven nursing home residents were on the bus evacuating Houston ahead of the Rita when the vehicle caught fire Sept. 23, 2005, on a freeway near Dallas. Many were disabled and unable to escape.

The accident is believed to have been caused by an overheated bearing in the rear wheel well, probably the result of poor maintenance. The tire ignited and the fire engulfed the bus, then probably caused oxygen canisters to explode, investigators said.

Hinojosa said prosecutors would not be allowed to use evidence about the crash itself without approaching the bench and proving it was relevant to the case at hand.

About a dozen prospective jurors said they had seen, heard or read media reports of Global's involvement in the wreck. Several were excluded for having been bus drivers or working in the industry.

"The charges aren't related to the bus accident," defense attorney Charles Banker said outside the courtroom.

Prosecutors have said the trial will focus on the company's management leading up to the accident. The witness list includes bus drivers and several safety inspectors, but no survivors, rescue workers or others involved in the accident.

The most serious of the charges in the three-count indictment against Maples is the conspiracy charge, which carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If the company is convicted on that charge, it could be fined $500,000.

The conspiracy charge alleges that drivers operated in pairs, with one driving and the other resting in the passenger seat. There was no sleeper berth for the resting driver as required by law and indicated in driver logs.

The other charges allege that Maples and his company knowingly and willingly failed to inspect and maintain the buses.

Maples, a former NFL player, appeared in good spirits, even making a mock golf swing after the pretrial motions were argued. The 67-year-old has spent the last year free on $75,000 bond.

Global Limo was shut down two weeks after the accident. In May, victims reached an $11 million settlement with Global and with BusBank, the travel broker that hired the bus.

Since the wreck, the U.S. Department of Transportation has issued new guidelines for carrying medical oxygen, recommending that tanks be secured in an upright position and limited to one canister per patient in the passenger compartment.

$600M lawsuit blames 'Grand Theft Auto' game for teen killing family at Donaldson's N.M. ranch

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Family members of three people slain by a 14-year-old on newsman Sam Donaldson's New Mexico ranch sued the makers of the video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" on Monday, claiming the crimes would not have occurred had the teenager never played the violent game.

The $600 million lawsuit names several companies and Cody Posey, who it alleges played the game "obsessively" for several months before he shot his father, stepmother and stepsister in July 2004. Posey, now 16, was sentenced earlier this year to state custody until he is 21.

The games and others in the "Grand Theft Auto" series depict police killings and other acts of violence. The lawsuit calls various editions of the game "virtual reality murder simulators."

"But for Posey's use of these products ... he would not have killed," the lawsuit claims.

The game trained him "how to point and shoot a gun in a fashion making him an extraordinarily effective killer without teaching him any of the constraints or responsibilities needed to inhibit such a killing capacity," according to the suit.

According to the suit, plaintiffs' lawyer Jack Thompson was told by a sheriff's deputy that the game and a Sony PlayStation 2 were found at the ranch.

Posey had told police he shot his family after his father, the ranch foreman, slapped him for not cleaning horse stalls fast enough. Prosecutors described Posey as a ruthless killer, but his lawyers claimed his father had abused him for years.

The plaintiffs accuse the corporate defendants -- Sony Corporation of America, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and its subsidiary, Rockstar Games -- of a "civil conspiracy," saying they should have foreseen their entertainment "would spawn such copycat violence."

"We believe the suit is without merit and we will strongly defend the company," Take-Two spokesman Jim Ankner said.

The Associated Press left a message Monday at Sony's New York headquarters seeking comment.

The lawsuit was filed by Verlin Posey of Texline, Texas, representing the estate of the teen's father, Delbert Posey; and Pat and Leona Basham of Elephant Butte, parents of Tryone Posey and grandparents of Marilea Schmid.

Thompson also is the attorney in a $600 million Alabama lawsuit against Rockstar, Take-Two and Sony that blames "Grand Theft Auto" for the 2003 murders of two police officers and a dispatcher at a rural police department. Devin Moore, now 20, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in that case.

Family of co-pilot who survived Kentucky crash says he does not remember accident

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- Doctors have amputated the left leg of a co-pilot whose plane crashed on takeoff after turning onto the wrong runway, and he does not remember the accident that killed 49 people, his family said Monday.

James Polehinke, the lone survivor of the Aug. 27 crash at the Blue Grass Airport, faces several additional surgeries to repair fractures, one involving his spinal cord, the family said.

Polehinke "does not remember anything," the family said in a statement. He is asking about his family and dogs and wants to go home.

"He is more wakeful at times and more communicative, but is still not completely lucid and currently has no recollection of the accident," the statement said.

Polehinke remains in serious condition at University of Kentucky Hospital.

The family said he should be able to begin rehabilitation after the surgeries, but he is not expected to be released for several weeks, university spokesman Jay Blanton said.

A police officer pulled Polehinke from the charred wreckage of ComAir Flight 5191 after the plane struggled to get airborne and crashed into a field.

According to federal investigators, the flight's captain, Jeffrey Clay, taxied the jet onto the wrong runway, which was too short, before Polehinke took the controls for takeoff.

The sole air traffic controller on duty had cleared the plane to takeoff from the longer runway, then turned away to perform other duties and did not see the crash.

Also Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board said toxicology testing on both pilots detected no traces of alcohol or illegal drugs.

A low level of an over-the-counter decongestant was detected in Polehinke's blood, it said. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the substance was not on the agency's banned list.

The NTSB also said a review of the wreckage turned up no evidence of engine failure before the commuter jet plowed through a perimeter fence.

The flight data recorder indicates the plane stopped near the shorter runway for about 45 seconds before the flight was cleared for takeoff, the NTSB said.

Brown said the information indicates the plane made a rolling takeoff, which means it did not stop once reaching the runway. It was unclear whether the pilots looked at the compass and other navigational instruments while on the runway or prior to takeoff.

"Rolling takeoffs are not against the rules, but normally they're only done when there is a lot of traffic, using the same runway," Brown said. "Usually a pilot would want to line up on the runway and stop before taking off."

Comair spokeswoman Kate Marx said rolling takeoffs are "considered normal and are conducted on a regular basis."

Flight 5191 was the third of three planes scheduled to takeoff from the Lexington airport in the early morning of Aug. 27, the NTSB said. The other two planes departed safely from the longer runway, which is 7,003 feet long. The shorter runway is half that length. Both runways use the same taxiway, which had been slightly altered a week before the crash because of a construction project.

Philadelphia girl killed by stray bullet while in car; possibly caught in crossfire

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A 5-year-old girl riding in the back seat of a car was killed by a stray bullet and police said she may have been caught in the crossfire of a moving gun battle.

Casha'e Rivers died Sunday morning after being struck in the chest while riding in a vehicle driven by her mother.

"All this attention, I really don't want. I just want to find out who did this to my child," the 22-year-old mother, Alisha Corley, said Monday morning as anti-violence activists rallied outside a relative's home.

Many different shell casings were found near the site in the city's Strawberry Mansion section and at a location two blocks away. That, along with statements from residents, led detectives to theorize that the car may have been caught in a shootout between people in other vehicles.

No arrests had been made as of Monday morning.

Three other people were in the car, including the victim's 1-year-old brother.

Corley agreed to go to Harrisburg, the state capital, on Tuesday to help the NAACP lobby for stricter gun-control laws.

"I'm tired of being in places like this," said J. Whyatt Mondesire, local chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The group is raising money to pay for Casha'e's funeral and to offer a reward for information about her killer.

Residents said the violence carried over from a fight that erupted earlier in the weekend.

"But it's been going on a lot longer than that," said Kevin Gooden, 36, a plumber who lives nearby. "There are people here who know what happened, and they need to step up, speak out and help stop this killing."

European geologists say stopping Indonesian mud flow could be impossible

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- European geologists said Monday it may be impossible to stop a massive surge of hot sludge on Indonesia's densely populated island of Java, saying it could be the birth of a new mud volcano. - The mud, which is 16 feet deep in some places, has submerged houses in four villages since it started spewing from a hole four months ago, displacing more than 10,000 people. At least 20 factories and 665 acres of land have been inundated or abandoned due to safety reasons.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported from the mud flow, though some people have complained of breathing difficulties after being near it.

Dr. Grigorii Akhmanov of Moscow State University said there was no way to know what triggered the mud flow -- tectonic activity or drilling by the gas exploration company Lapindo Brantas.

In either case, stopping it would be very difficult if not impossible, he said of efforts by Lapindo to halt the eruption by pumping concrete into shafts alongside the hole. "Once you try to stop this, it will appear from some other side," he said.

The mud has repeatedly washed onto a major toll road, closing it for weeks at a time, and now threatens a rail link in the industrial area just outside Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city.

Adriano Mazzini from the Physics of Geological Processes Research Center of the University of Oslo said the disaster could be the birth of a new mud volcano -- providing a unique opportunity for geologists.

"Nobody has ever studied a mud volcano from day one," he said, adding that it could stop at any time or continue to flow for centuries.

In the meantime, the researchers said, the government should explore the potential economic benefits of the mud flow.

The government may be able to tap the mud flow as a source of geothermal energy to produce electricity or use it as a material for bricks. If the sludge is determined to be nontoxic, it could also be used as a therapeutic skin treatment.

Report: UK Defense Ministry wanted to cover up existence of UFO investigation unit

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Ministry of Defense sought to prevent the public from knowing about the work of a unit that investigated reported sightings of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, a published report said Monday.

The Guardian newspaper reported that documents released under the Freedom of Information Act to two academics showed that ministry officials had hoped to expunge information about the unit, known as DI55, from records routinely released after 30 years.

A defense ministry official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy, said that during the 1970s -- at the height of the Cold War -- officials were concerned about Soviet invasion, not extraterrestrial activity

"The (ministry) examines any UFO sighting reports it receives thoroughly to establish whether there is any evidence to suggest that UK airspace has been compromised by unauthorized air activity," the official said.

The officials said the information is now easily available to the public and dismissed the notion of a cover-up.

The latest files were released following Freedom of Information Act requests by David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and his colleague Andy Roberts.

"These documents don't tell us anything about UFOs but they do show how desperate the (ministry) have been to conceal the interest which the intelligence services had in the subject," Clarke told The Guardian.

A memo sent from the UFO unit to the Defense Ministry's head of security indicated resistance to releasing the files in the 1970s because they were confidential and of "very little of value to a serious scientific investigator."

"It is undesirable that even a hint of this should become public and we are currently consulting the (Air Historical Branch) on ways of expurgating the official records against the time when they qualify for disclosure," the memo continued.

In May, the Ministry of Defense released a four-volume report on military investigations of UFOs. The report concluded there was no evidence to associate the phenomena with any particular nation, that many reports were based on natural phenomena that observers did not understand, and that less frequently sightings were associated with smoke and dust.

On the Net:

Official report on UFO investigations:

http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/7D2B11E0-EA9F-45EA-8883-A3C00546E752/ 0/uap--exec--summary--dec00.pdf

Heavy rains in Mexico cause two deaths, six injuries

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) -- Heavy rains on Sunday provoked two landslides in the central state of Mexico and caused rivers to overflow in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, leaving at least two people dead and six injured.

A public transportation van was swept away Sunday evening in the current of a river near the Veracruz city of Juchique de Ferrer, killing a 30-year-old woman and her 4-year-old son, state Civil Protection Deputy Director Ranulfo Marquez said. The driver of the van apparently fled, Marquez said.

On Sunday night, two landslides slightly injured at least six people and forced officials to shut down both sides of a major highway between Mexico City and the city of Toluca, capital of neighboring Mexico State, the government news agency Notimex reported. The toll road remained closed on Monday, and traffic was diverted to secondary roads.

In the central state of Hidalgo, hundreds of families from the city of Xochiatipan in the mountainous Huasteca region were cut off after the Garces River overflowed and flooded roadways, while three different highways in the state were blocked by rain-induced mudslides, Notimex reported. No injuries were reported.

No survivors found in wreckage of aid helicopter crash in Nepal

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- Searchers on Monday found the wreckage of a helicopter that disappeared over the weekend while carrying 24 people on a flight chartered by the World Wildlife Fund. No one survived, officials said.

Among those killed in the crash in the mountains 250 miles east of Katmandu were Americans Margaret Alexander, a USAID deputy director in Nepal, and Matthew Preece, a WWF program officer, according to a statement on the conservation group's Web site.

The helicopter was also carrying Nepalese Forestry Minister Gopal Rai, Finnish Embassy Charge d'Affaires Pauli Mustonen and Canadian Jennifer Headley, a coordinator for WWF.

Several Nepali journalists, government officials and four crew members -- two Russians and two Nepalis -- were also on board.

The World Wildlife Fund offered condolences and support to the families of the victims, saying the deaths amounted to the biggest single loss of life in the organization's 45-year history.

"The colleagues we have lost had dedicated their lives to conserving the extraordinary natural resources of Nepal and of the earth. Their deaths are a huge blow to conservation efforts in Nepal, and worldwide. They will be greatly missed," WWF Director General James Leape said in a statement.

Purushottam Shakya, of Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority, said a seven-man search team that reached the wreckage on foot reported there were no survivors. The helicopter had been missing since Saturday.

Shakya said rain and low visibility caused the effort to recover bodies to be suspended Monday night. The operation was to resume early Tuesday.

Also hampering the recovery was the inability of helicopters to land near the wreckage, Nepali officials said. The closest landing spot was a two-hour trek from the crash site.

The helicopter left Ghunsa village, where the passengers visited a WWF project, on Saturday morning, but failed to arrive as planned at Suketar village, a 20-minute flight away. Both villages are in the Taplejung district.

The WWF statement said the helicopter appeared to have hit a rock outcropping on a ridge, causing it to smash down into a nearby clearing.

The search for the helicopter had been hampered by rain and fog in the mountainous area. Mountain guides, soldiers, police and villagers combed the area on foot looking for the aircraft.

The Russian-built Mi-17 helicopter was chartered from Shree Helicopter Co., the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said.

On the Net:

World Wildlife Fund: http://www.panda.org

Watercolor and sketches attributed to Hitler to be sold at auction

LONDON (AP) -- Watercolors and sketches attributed to Adolf Hitler are up for sale Tuesday, forcing a tiny auction house in southwest England to install multiple telephone lines to accommodate an expected crush of bidders from Canada to New Zealand.

The 21 watercolors and two sketches were found in a farmhouse in Belgium, not far from where Hitler -- then an aspiring artist -- was stationed in Flanders during World War I.

The anonymous owners of the works -- mostly landscapes -- had the paper tested to determine its age, confirmed the signature and matched landmarks in the paintings to sites where Hitler was posted, said Chris Walton, a spokesman for Jefferys Auctioneers at Lostwithiel in Cornwall.

Still, it is impossible to say with certainty whether Hitler painted them. The experts who authenticated them in the 1980s are now dead. Even so, the works could sell for up to $8,000 apiece, Walton said.

"Some people would consider the sale somewhat controversial, but the pieces were executed so long ago -- nearly 100 years ago -- that they now just represent something of the past," Walton said. "The paintings are of historical interest rather than artistic merit."

Hitler is thought to have painted hundreds of pieces before becoming Nazi leader. In the past, his paintings have sold for $5,000 to $50,000.

Dealing with Hitler's work and other items related to the Nazi regime, which systematically killed 6 million Jews, has always been a thorny issue.

In many European countries, including Germany, it is illegal to buy, own or sell Nazi memorabilia. A German auction house in 2001 withdrew a Hitler painting following public protests. The Center of Military History in Washington, D.C., has hundreds of Nazi-related pieces -- including four Hitler paintings -- but they are locked in vaults and not on display.

"It's in very bad taste," said Rhonda Barad with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group. "Most auction houses have steered clear of such sales because it offends a lot of people still alive today."

Despite the sensitivities, items associated with Hitler are still in demand.

In 2004, an auction house was even able to sell for nearly $8,000 a volume of the bogus "Hitler diaries," which were published in the 1980s by a German magazine.

London art dealer Minas Katchadorian is selling a desk and chair that belonged to Hitler; the furniture, which is not being sold at Tuesday's auction, is expected to fetch up to $1 million. Katchadorian said the oak pieces came from Hitler's apartment in Munich, bought for the fuehrer by a wealthy admirer.

Buys of Hitler items are usually private collectors of military memorabilia or World War II enthusiasts, according to art dealers and auction houses.

Jefferys Auctioneers, which normally auctions antiques and farm equipment, has become better known since it sold another Hitler painting last year. The watercolor -- a caricature of a German postman -- was drawn by Hitler in 1924. It sold for $8,500.

That sale attracted the son of the current collection's owners. Jefferys will get a 15 percent commission.

Hitler's works had dramatic skies, detailed architectural structures, muted colors and rudimentary people. He applied to the Vienna School of Fine Arts -- and was rejected.

"The paintings don't distinguish him as an artist but more a competent draftsman," said Terry Charman with the Imperial War Museum in London, which has Hitler's last will and testament.

"No one is buying them for works of art. They're buying them because they were done by one of the most infamous people of the 20th century."

Florida girl, 2, dies after drinking cleaning chemicals from soda bottle found in family vehicle

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) -- A 2-year-old girl died after drinking cleaning chemicals stored in a soda bottle her father had left in the family's vehicle, officials said Monday. - Marily Mosso was pronounced dead Saturday night at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. Her father, Flavio Mosso, works for a company that installs marble and granite countertops, and the chemicals are used to clean them.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office was awaiting the results of toxicology and autopsy reports to determine the exact chemicals involved, spokeswoman Donna Wood said.

Marily's mother, Gloria Mosso, was cleaning their sport utility vehicle Saturday while Marily got the bottle through an open door. The mother saw she had the open bottle and took Marily inside.

The couple rushed the girl to the hospital when she began vomiting.

"It's one of those very painful situations where we just have to remind one another we can't take our eyes off (children)," Wood said.

Coast Guard rescues 7 from life raft off the Delaware coast after their fishing boat sinks

MASSEYS LANDING, Del. (AP) -- The Coast Guard rescued seven men from a life raft about 70 miles off the coast Monday after their fishing boat sank.

A rescue helicopter crew lifted the men from the raft and put them aboard a Coast Guard cutter. They appeared to be in good health, the Coast Guard said.

The men had left on a 50-foot boat Friday. The crew said it abandoned ship after the boat hit a black object around midday Saturday and began taking on water.

The fishing boat, The Chief, was reported missing about noon Sunday. A Coast Guard helicopter, a C-130 airplane and the cutter searched a 10,000-square-mile area.

It's a girl for Zoo Atlanta's panda; 19-day-old cub's gender determined during first checkup

ATLANTA (AP) -- The baby panda born earlier this month at Zoo Atlanta is a girl.

In a statement posted Monday on the zoo's Web site, officials said the female cub appears to be healthy.

Zoo staff members had removed the tiny cub from its birthing den for the first time on Monday, 19 days after panda Lun Lun gave birth, and determined its gender during a 10-minute checkup.

With Lun Lun in an adjacent den, zoo veterinarian Maria Crane gently lifted the baby and began the examination. Because the newborn is so small and Lun Lun often held it close to her body, zoo officials have not known until now whether the newborn was male or female.

Crane also weighed the cub, listened to her heart and checked her pulse. She weighed nearly 1 1/2 pounds and was a little more than 12 inches long.

The 9-year-old Lun Lun gave birth Sept. 6 after a 35-hour labor. It's the fifth giant panda born at a U.S. zoo in the last six years.

The cub is being kept from the public until late December or early January. The zoo will hold a naming ceremony when the panda is 100 days old, as is Chinese tradition. Until then, panda fans have been keeping up with the cub on the zoo's online panda cam.

After trying for three years, the zoo successfully artificially inseminated Lun Lun at the end of March. The father, Yang Yang, and cub are being kept separate, which is normal in the wild. The pandas have been in Atlanta for seven years.

Only three other U.S. zoos have pandas -- San Diego, Memphis and the National Zoo in Washington. Both San Diego and the National Zoo have had successful panda births.

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