Father of Madonna's adopted son hits out at critics

By: Associated Press | Wednesday, October 18, 2006 6:26 PM PDT ∞

MCHINJI, Malawi -- The father of the 13-month-old boy Madonna wants to make part of her family criticized human rights groups who have challenged how the adoption is being handled and said his child should stay with the pop star.

Yohane Banda told The Associated Press on Wednesday he had entrusted his son to a Malawian orphanage after his wife died of childbirth complications, saying he was too poor to raise him alone. Now, he says, Madonna has given the boy a chance to have a family.

"Where were these people when David was struggling in the orphanage? These so-called human rights groups should leave my baby alone," he said. "As father I have OKed this, I have no problem. The village has no problem. Who are they to cause trouble? Please let them stop."

The Human Rights Consultative Committee, a coalition of 67 organizations, launched a legal challenge Tuesday, noting that Malawian regulations require prospective parents to stay with a child in Malawi for 18 to 24 months for assessment before the adoption is formalized. Madonna, though, was allowed to take the boy to England, where she has a home, and Malawian officials have said the family would be monitored there.

Children's advocates in Malawi have stressed they are not opposed to Madonna adopting David, but want to ensure rules meant to protect children aren't ignored.

Madonna and British film director husband Guy Ritchie spent eight days in Malawi and last Thursday signed adoption papers for David Banda. The boy's father countersigned the papers and High Court Justice Andrew Nyirenda issued the couple an "interim order" allowing them custody, a step toward adoption. The boy was flown to London on Monday.

Penston Kilembe, director of Child Welfare Services in Malawi's Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services, told the AP the laws to which the civil rights groups referred in their challenge are "archaic." He said his government took into account the rights of children and families in allowing Madonna to pursue adoption.

"Madonna and her husband has broken no laws as far as government is concerned. They have followed all the legal steps," he said.

Madonna's attempt to adopt David has sparked a debate about how best to care for the millions of orphans in places like Malawi, a desperately poor country beset by drought and AIDS. Some children's advocates say children are best raised close to home, but AIDS has killed many of those in extended families who might once have cared for children in Malawi and elsewhere in Africa, leaving orphans in the hands of elderly grandparents, older siblings, strained orphanages -- or on the streets.

The case has drawn international attention.

The Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema compared Madonna's taking custody of David to a "kidnapping" and called for clearer international rules, according to his spokesman, confirming accounts of his remarks in Italian media.

In a statement last week, the British development group ActionAid lauded Madonna for helping David and her wider projects for AIDS orphans in Malawi. It also called on rich Western nations to make good on promises to get AIDS drugs to patients in poor countries, and said individuals could make donations to help communities care for AIDS orphans, so that children could "grow up in their own culture, and if orphaned, with any remaining family they have left."

Madonna, rejecting the criticism of recent days, said in a statement Tuesday: "We have gone about the adoption procedure according to the law like anyone else who adopts a child. Reports to the contrary are totally inaccurate."

Banda's wife, Marita, 28, died a week after giving birth to David. The couple, who had been married for over 10 years, had two other sons who died in infancy from malaria.

"I was alone with a baby. I had no money. I couldn't buy him milk. That's why I surrendered him to the orphanage," said Banda.

Madonna found David at the Home of Hope Orphanage, which looks after more than 500 children who have lost one or both parents.

"Orphanage life is no good. We leave kids there because we can't look after them properly ourselves. Now my son has been taken by a kindhearted woman, these people want to bring him back to the orphanage," said Banda, standing in his small garden of onions and tomatoes.

He said Madonna and Ritchie promised him nothing apart from "love and care for my David."

Lawyers for Paul McCartney say he will "vigorously" defend himself against divorce claims

LONDON -- Lawyers for Paul McCartney said Wednesday that the former Beatle will "vigorously" defend himself against allegations made by his estranged wife, Heather Mills McCartney. - Britain's Daily Mail newspaper on Wednesday reported details of an alleged court document containing accounts of acrimony and mistreatment during their four-year marriage.

"Our client will be defending these allegations vigorously and appropriately," the law firm Payne Hicks Beach said in a statement.

The 64-year-old rocker and 38-year-old anti-land mine campaigner announced their separation in May and have begun divorce proceedings in an increasingly acrimonious split. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.

The Daily Mail published extracts from what it said was a court document filed by Mills McCartney in response to the former Beatle's July divorce petition.

The alleged document contains a litany of allegations against the musician.

Mills McCartney's spokesman, Phil Hall, described the divorce proceedings as "highly confidential" and said he could not confirm whether the document was genuine. He said Mills McCartney had been "shocked" by the story in the Daily Mail.

Mishcon de Reya, the law firm representing Mills McCartney in the divorce, said it would not comment on "leaked or allegedly leaked documents."

Paul McCartney's law firm said the musician "would very much like to respond in public and in detail to the allegations made recently against him by his wife and published in the press but he recognizes, on advice, that the only correct forum for his response to the allegations made against him is in the current divorce proceedings."

"Our client is saddened by the breakdown of his marriage and requests that his family is allowed to conduct their personal affairs out of the media spotlight for the sake of everybody involved," the statement added.

Massachusetts elementary school bans playing tag at recess over fears of injuries, lawsuits

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) -- Tag, you're out! - Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, S.C., school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports.

"I think that it's unfortunate that kids' lives are micromanaged and there are social skills they'll never develop on their own," said Debbie Laferriere, who has two children at Willett, about 40 miles south of Boston. "Playing tag is just part of being a kid."

Another Willett parent, Celeste D'Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule. "I've witnessed enough near collisions," she said.

Magnitude 6.2 earthquake strikes near Pacific island of Vanuatu

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rumbled deep below the earth's surface off the Pacific island of Vanuatu on Wednesday, but no damage or injuries were reported.

The quake struck 86 miles below the seabed off the coast of Vanuatu at 9:45 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was centered about 195 miles northwest of the capital, Port Vila. No tsunami warning was issued.

Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides Islands, is made up of 13 main islands located about 1,400 miles east of Australia.

The archipelago nation is part of the Pacific "ring of fire," and earthquakes of this magnitude are common in the region. Earlier this month, another magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck near Vanuatu, but caused no damage or injuries.

On the Net:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

3 dead after storms in Greece; state of emergency declared on 3 islands

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Heavy storms lashed southeastern Greece, leaving three people dead and forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency Wednesday on three islands.

Flood waters swamped hundreds of homes and shops and falling rock and raging torrents disrupted road transport on the three islands, Leros and Astypalaia in the Dodecanese, and areas of western Crete. Authorities declared a state of emergency.

Two swimmers drowned Wednesday in rough waves off the holiday island of Rhodes, officials said.

On Crete, a truck driver was killed late Tuesday in mudslides near the city of Hania, while floodwaters swept parked cars into the sea in coastal areas and heavy rain caused extensive damage to crops. Rescuers were also searching for a man missing since Tuesday night after floodwaters swept his car off the road. The vehicle was located empty on Wednesday.

Island ferry schedules were disrupted by gale-force winds, which reached 10 on the Beaufort scale in parts of the Aegean.

Officials said conditions had improved since Tuesday, though more storms were expected on Thursday. Earlier this month, parts of northern and central Greece also were affected by severe flooding.

Nudist resorts are baring themselves to the outside world, joining chambers of commerce

DAWSONVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- Nudist resorts are dropping the figleaf.

Clothing-free resorts have traditionally been rustic, mom-and-pop campgrounds hidden deep in the woods, away from prying eyes and bluenosed politicians. But now, fancy nude recreation spots are springing up along major highways, and resort owners are joining chambers of commerce, sponsoring charity drives and hosting civic events.

"We're no longer hiding," said Joe Lettelleir, owner of Dawsonville's Paradise Valley Resort, who this summer proved his point by taking a cross-country trip on a bus that dared onlookers to call a toll-free number for more information.

The Dawsonville resort was once so secretive it was called Hidden Valley. It is tucked along a winding country lane, and once consisted of little more than a few RV sites around a foot-deep pond.

But now it is undergoing a major luxury expansion. Neighbors and business owners are encouraged to stop by for a look at the 108-acre property, which was turned into a clothing-optional resort to encourage more visitors. And annual fundraisers for local charities draw hundreds of motorcyclists and joggers to its gates.

The new let-it-all-hang-out attitude is reflected right down to the name of the resort, which dropped "Hidden" from its modest welcome sign three years ago.

"Once upon a time, people built walls. And the feeling was, `We've got to have walls. We've got to be obscure,"' said Erich Schuttauf, executive director of the American Association for Nude Recreation. "That really left people wondering what happens behind those walls. Folks didn't realize it was basically just a club, what a swim and tennis club would resemble."

Owners regularly look to one of the oldest nudist spots, the Cypress Cove Nudist Resort and Spa in Kissimmee, Fla., as a pioneer of this openness.

For 20 years, the resort has hosted an annual July open house to welcome neighbors. More recently, it has sponsored a yearly chamber of commerce event and an annual Body of Art show featuring about 25 artists and their nudist artwork.

"By demystifying it, people understand us better -- and people don't think we're a bunch of crackpots," said Dean Hadley, the resort's manager.

One way to do so, a group of residents at Tampa's Paradise Lakes Resort decided five years ago, was to form the world's first nudist Lions Club. Members meet twice a month at the resort's restaurant and raise more than $10,000 each year to buy eye care for the needy and give to the blind.

"We've got to raise money from people who don't have pockets," laughed the civic group's 71-year-old president, Bob Moore. "But when it comes time to give us money, they go home and find the money!"

Big construction projects also reflect the new, not-so-shy attitude. The sprawling Desert Shadows Inn Resort and Villas in Palm Springs, Calif., built a "Bridge of Thighs" that links two parts of the resort across a major road, serving as a very public reminder to passing drivers in the "textile" world.

At Dawsonville's Paradise Valley, contractors are laboring on the first phase of a $30 million project to construct 152 condos and 40 townhouses, mostly for residents of nearby towns looking for a scenic weekend getaway.

The resort has only five full-time residents, but dozens of members gather each Saturday for theme parties at the Bare Cheeks Lodge. On weekends, the Valley's three pools are standing-room only, and the diner (motto: "No top, no shoes, no problem") is packed.

Gary, the Valley's resident pastor, has married at least 25 couples, many of whom met at the resort. He moved to the resort 10 years ago and never looked back.

"I've got safety, contentment and happiness," said Gary, who prefers not to use his last name. "And I've got naked people. Some pretty. Some not."

The resort is a few miles outside the Dawsonville city limits, and Mayor Joe Lane Cox said "people just kind of ignore it."

"They don't cause any problems," said Cox, a 67-year-old lifelong Dawsonville resident. "They come out in the community, attend meetings. And they're just like everybody else when they do -- they blend in."

On the Net:

American Association for Nude Recreation: http://www.aanr.com

Emergency crews called back to N.C. plant where fire forced evacuations 2 weeks ago

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Emergency crews evacuated businesses near a chemical waste plant Wednesday after a chemical reaction sent a toxic plume into the air two weeks after a raging inferno at the same site forced thousands of people from their homes.

Firefighters extinguished the smoldering chemical mix two hours after it began spouting smoke from a 55-gallon barrel amid the plant's ruins in Apex, a Raleigh suburb.

The drum contained a sodium metal solution that can ignite when exposed to water or air, said Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly. Rain had drenched the area Tuesday.

The irritating fumes produced by the reaction reportedly caused burning eyes, Weatherly said.

"It's very frustrating to see something like this happen again," he said. "There's now additional apprehension among our folks, which is unfortunate."

The chemical plant belonging to EQ Industrial Services Co. had erupted in flames on Oct. 5, lighting up the sky with explosions and blanketing parts of town in a yellow-green haze. Town officials had urged as many as 17,000 people to evacuate, citing potentially toxic fumes that had made a few dozen people seek medical attention.

More than 200 residents had packed Apex Town Hall on Tuesday looking for answers about the blaze.

Though company officials have said tests found no harmful levels of toxins in the air after the Oct. 5 fire, residents wanted to know more about their vegetable gardens, their children's health and the quality of their air. Some asked if the company would rebuild at the site -- a prospect town officials said they would try to prevent.

"We cannot tolerate the continued operation of a hazardous-waste storage facility in Apex," Weatherly said. "Let me just say our concern -- and the point we will not forget -- is that EQ has exposed our citizens to an unprecedented level of danger."

The Michigan-based company has said a decision about rebuilding in Apex won't be made until cleanup is complete.

State regulators say more tests will be conducted on the ground and water and they expect to release a report on air quality later this week.

Man's suicide note after French Quarter leap leads to girlfriend's dismembered body

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A note found on the body of a suicide jumper led police to a French Quarter apartment where they found his girlfriend's charred head in a pot on the stove, her arms and legs in the oven and her torso in the refrigerator, a law enforcement officer said Wednesday.

New Orleans Police spokesmen confirmed that a 26-year-old woman was found dismembered Tuesday night in her apartment above a voodoo shop.

Details from the kitchen were released by a law enforcement officer close to the investigation who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity and unidentified officials who spoke to the Times-Picayune newspaper and WWL-TV.

A woman who identified herself as Priestess Miriam in the Voodoo Spiritual Temple and Cultural Center below the apartment said Wednesday that the couple had recently moved in.

"You see people and never know what's going on with them," the woman said.

Police said the 28-year-old man leaped from the seventh-floor of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter on Tuesday night. When officers checked his pockets, they found the note, which led them to the apartment and the woman's body.

Officer Garry Flot confirmed the body was dismembered but released no other details. Police and the coroner's office declined to release the identities of the couple, saying family members had not yet been notified.

The apartment's owner, Leo Watermeier, said he last saw the woman Oct. 5, four days after the two put down a deposit on the one-bedroom, $750-a month flat. Later that same day, Watermeier said, the boyfriend called Watermeier, angrily saying the woman was kicking him out.

Watermeier said the woman told him she had caught the boyfriend cheating.

The couple didn't appear to be native New Orleanians, the landlord said. He said the woman worked as a waitress and bartender.

Joy Spaulding, owner of the nearby Nawlin's Flava Cafe said the couple frequented her restaurant. "To be honest, they seemed like a real nice couple. They were good-looking people, young people trying to do something with their lives."

-- Associated Press Writer Mary Foster contributed to this report.

Chicago police raid public housing complex for 37 suspects in sales of deadly heroin mix

CHICAGO (AP) -- Police raided a public housing complex Wednesday in a sweep targeting suspected dealers of deadly fentanyl-laced heroin, authorities said.

Officers were looking for 37 suspects and had arrested about half by Wednesday afternoon, said Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond.

The arrests at the Harold Ickes public housing complex followed a federal bust in June at another housing complex nearby, Bond said. Federal drug agents were not involved in Wednesday's raid, she said.

Hundreds of people have died nationwide from heroin laced with the prescription painkiller fentanyl. In Cook County, more than 200 deaths were attributed to fentanyl-laced heroin from April 2005 through August 2006, said Joanna Zoltay, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg's Lexus carjacked in New Jersey, personal employee beaten

NEW YORK (AP) -- One of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's personal employees was beaten by thieves who then stole the billionaire's car Wednesday morning in New Jersey, authorities said.

The employee was driving the 2001 Lexus in Hackensack on an errand for the mayor shortly before 9 a.m. when he was approached by a woman asking for money, police said. As he declined and began to roll up the window, a man got into the passenger seat and punched him in the face.

"They force him out and take off," said Capt. Frank Lomia of the Hackensack Police Dept. The employee, whose name was not released, was not seriously injured.

The car was found about two hours later, abandoned on the side of the road in Fairlawn. Police were looking for the suspects.

Boy missing for 4 days at Oregon's Crater Lake after wandering off during hike

CRATER LAKE, Ore. (AP) -- Searchers in helicopters and with rappelling equipment spent a fourth day Wednesday scouring the woods and embankments surrounding Crater Lake where an 8-year-old boy wandered off during a weekend hike with his father.

Park officials said they had not given up hope that Sammy Boehlke would be found alive and were expanding the search area.

"We're continuing to search for a live 8-year-old boy, focusing on concealed areas, areas under cover," said Park Service spokesman Rudy Evenson.

During a hike with his father on Saturday, the boy had climbed a rock embankment ahead of his father, Ken Boehlke, and disappeared into the woods, officials said.

Snow fell Sunday and Monday, but the weather improved Tuesday, allowing a helicopter to examine the lake's edge and rappelling crews from Yosemite National Park to work their way down the walls of the volcanic basin that forms the lake.

The boy had on a winter coat and has camping experience but no wilderness survival training, officials said. The temperature Tuesday night was in 20s.

About 145 rescue workers continued the search on Wednesday, focusing on wooded areas and looking "under rocks, logs and in small hiding places," Evenson said.

"We are holding out hope he might be in a place like that, where he might have sheltered for a few days."

The terrain varies from nearly flat to gently rolling, with house-size blocks of lava and woods filled with conifers. The crater was formed by the explosion of a Cascades Range volcano about 7,000 years ago. Snow melt supplies the lake with water.

Chief Ranger David Brennan said officials were treating the situation as a missing person case.

"There's absolutely nothing to indicate foul play or criminal activity," he said.

7 funeral home directors connected to N.Y. corpse plundering case plead guilty, will cooperate

NEW YORK (AP) -- Seven funeral home directors linked to a scheme to plunder corpses and sell the body parts for transplants have secretly pleaded guilty to undisclosed charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes also announced that a grand jury had voted to bring a new indictment in the case that adds allegations involving funeral homes in New York City and Rochester.

"It is clear that many more funeral home directors were involved in this enterprise," Hynes said.

The seven unidentified directors all agreed to cooperate in an ongoing investigation into what investigators describe as an enterprise to steal bone and tissue from cadavers and sell the material to biomedical supply companies for profit, Hynes said.

All seven entered their pleas in closed courtrooms and their names were withheld. However, defense attorneys said one of them was the director of a funeral home that took parts from the body of late "Masterpiece Theatre" host Alistair Cooke.

Four original defendants in the case were to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon, and three other men are accused of secretly removed skin, bone and other transplantable parts from hundreds of bodies without the permission of families.

They were charged in February with counts including body stealing, unlawful dissection and forgery in a case a district attorney called "something out of a cheap horror movie."

All the defendants pleaded not guilty before being released on bail.

Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., allegedly made millions of dollars by selling the stolen tissue to biomedical companies that supply material for procedures including dental implants and hip replacements, prosecutors said.

At the time, prosecutors said they had unearthed evidence that death certificates and other paperwork were falsified. In Cooke's case, his age was recorded as 85 rather than 95 and the cause of death was listed as heart attack instead of lung cancer that had spread to his bones.

Over 100,000 customers without power, schools still closed nearly a week after NY storm

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Over 100,000 customers remained without power Wednesday and schools were still closed nearly a week after a record-setting snowstorm, and officials raised the toll of storm-related deaths to 12 people.

Health officials said the deaths include one person hit by a falling tree limb, three killed by carbon monoxide and two who died shoveling snow.

"If you have one death it's bad," Erie County Health Commissioner Anthony Billitier said.

The surprise storm dumped up to two feet of heavy snow on Buffalo and surrounding areas last Thursday and Friday.

With round-the-clock cleanup efforts continuing, about 101,500 homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday and schools in Buffalo and surrounding towns said they would be unable to reopen until next week. About 380,000 people originally lost power in the storm.

U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response as inadequate, saying the agency had offered little guidance on reimbursement and loan programs and snubbed the city of Buffalo during a tour of damage this week.

FEMA officials defended their response, saying they had readied generators and other equipment even before a Sunday disaster declaration that made up to $5 million in cleanup funds immediately available.

Tuesday marked day six without electricity for 85-year-old Helene Lipman, and the water in her basement had crept to the first step, so she moved into a Red Cross shelter at an elementary school.

Lipman said there had been some laughs at shelter, but with her power likely out through the coming weekend, the sense of adventure was wearing thin.

"Absolutely fed up," she said when asked how she was faring. "I'm going to lose my furnace, washer, dryer."

In the West, a wintry storm began to move out of Colorado on Wednesday after dropping more than a foot of snow in the mountains, snarling traffic and hampering the search for two hunters in the northwest corner of the state. One of the missing hunters was found Wednesday in good condition.

Up to 13 inches of snow fell in the mountains and foothills along the Front Range, slowing traffic and downing power lines that sparked tree fires in Colorado Springs.

The storm brought the first significant snow of the season to Denver.

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