Actor Woody Harrelson's dad dies in prison; was convicted of killing federal judge in Texas

By: Associated Press | Wednesday, March 21, 2007 7:14 PM PDT ∞

DENVER -- Actor Woody Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, died of a heart attack in the Supermax federal prison where he was serving two life sentences for the murder of a federal judge, officials said Wednesday.

Charles Harrelson, 69, was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of March 15, said Felicia Ponce, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman in Washington.

Fremont County Coroner Dorothy Twellman said an autopsy showed Harrelson had severe coronary artery disease. She said he probably died in his sleep. "It appears it was very sudden."

Charles Harrelson was convicted of murder in the May 29, 1979, slaying of U.S. District Judge John Wood Jr. outside his San Antonio, Texas, home. Prosecutors said a drug dealer hired him to kill Wood because he did not want the judge to preside at his upcoming trial.

Charles Harrelson denied the killing, saying he was in Dallas, 270 miles away, at the time.

Wood, known as "Maximum John" for the sentences he gave in drug cases, was the first federal judge to be killed in the 20th century.

Charles Harrelson was transferred to Supermax, the highest-security federal prison, after attempting to break out of an Atlanta federal prison in 1995. Other inmates at Supermax, about 90 miles south of Denver, include Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bombing coconspirator Terry Nichols and Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph.

His son got his start in acting as Woody the bartender on "Cheers" beginning in 1985 and went on to star in films including "Natural Born Killers," "White Men Can't Jump" and "The People vs. Larry Flynt."

Woody Harrelson's publicist did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

The actor was just 7 when his father was first sent to prison, for murdering a Texas businessman. He was in college when his father was convicted of the judge's assassination.

Virginia harbor city's brand new fire boat sinks before going on its first run

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) -- The city's $385,000, state-of-the-art fire boat sank Wednesday, still tied up at a dock and without ever being put to use.

The boat, moored at a marina by the James River Bridge, was discovered with its stern sitting on the river bottom and the bow sticking up out of the water. Investigators had not yet determined the cause of the sinking.

The fire department had not even taken ownership of the 33-foot boat because it was waiting for the manufacturer, MetalCraft Marine of Canada, to finish installing electronic equipment, department spokeswoman Dana Perry said.

Perry said the department has two other boats that can be used to fight fires on the water, but they don't have the capabilities or technology of the new vessel.

70 reported killed in Guinea truck crash

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) -- A bridge collapsed under an overloaded truck in Guinea, throwing scores of passengers into a river and killing at least 70, witnesses and the West African country's state radio said Wednesday.

The truck was ferrying merchandise and people from a market near the southeastern town of Gueckedou when the accident happened Sunday, state-run RTG radio reported.

The 50-year-old rock and concrete bridge collapsed as the truck was crossing, tipping the vehicle and sending people as well as bags of cement and sacks of rice crashing into the river. Many of the passengers drowned, trapped under the cargo, RTG said.

A taxi driver who saw the accident said there were about 80 people in the truck.

The bridge, which joins two villages, "just gave out under the weight of a (large truck) full of merchandise: rice sacks, cement bags, jugs of palm oil," Ibrahima Balde said by telephone. "It's usually pedestrians that take that bridge, and sometimes small cars. But never loaded trucks."

At least 20 people were injured and taken to the hospital, where some later died, the radio station reported. The death toll rose from 65 overnight to 70, the radio said, citing hospital sources.

Red Cross volunteer Idiatou Camara said the hospital was overwhelmed.

"The hospital is under-equipped and the personnel insufficient to manage this crisis," Camara said by telephone.

Guinea, a country of 10 million on Africa's West Coast, is deeply impoverished despite having half the world's supply of bauxite -- the raw material used to make aluminum -- as well as iron ore, gold and diamonds.

Longtime President Lansana Conte has been accused of using Guinea's riches to live lavishly while doing little to improve the lives of the people, who have taken to deadly anti-government protests in recent months.

Michel Koundouno, a legislative representative for the regional hub of N'Zerekore, said the accident was proof of the way the country's crumbling infrastructure has been neglected.

"It's the dilapidated roads in Guinea's forest region that you see in this accident. We have there tracks and 50-year-old bridges," he said in the capital, Conakry. "Often, the villagers reinforce them with a little cement and some big stones."

In rural areas where buses are rare, large open-backed trucks are often a main form of transport -- carrying grain sacks, sheep, bicycles and people. Trucks are often piled high with merchandise, and then passengers climb on top, or hang onto the sides.

Convicted child molester, man's parents charged with murder in 6-year-old Georgia boy's death

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- A convicted child molester and his parents were indicted Wednesday on charges they molested and then murdered a 6-year-old neighbor boy, whose body was found last week in a trash bag dumped by a roadside.

Glynn County District Attorney Stephen D. Kelley said he will seek the death penalty against George David Edenfield, 32, who has a prior child molestation conviction from 1997, and his parents, David and Peggy Edenfield.

A friend of the Edenfield family, Donald Dale, was indicted on charges of concealing a body and tampering with evidence.

The boy, Christopher Michael Barrios, was missing for a week before police found his body last Thursday. The body was in a black trash bag dumped near a roadside about three miles from his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, a port city in southeastern Georgia.

"They deserve the worst, for them to torture my son like that, every last one of them," said Mike Barrios, Christopher's father.

Authorities have not released many details about the case, including how the child was killed or how long his abductors might have kept him alive. Other charges against the Edenfields include false imprisonment, cruelty to children and enticing a child for indecent purposes.

Police have described George David Edenfield as mentally slow, but not retarded and capable of understanding right from wrong.

Edenfield had to register as a sex offender in Georgia. He and his parents lived across the street from Christopher's grandmother and less than 600 feet from where the kindergartner met his school bus.

A Georgia law passed last year prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop. That would have barred the younger Edenfield from living so close, but a pending lawsuit prompted a federal judge last year to block that provision from taking effect.

George David Edenfield pleaded guilty in 1997 to molesting two boys, ages 7 and 9. Prosecutors said he rubbed his clothed body "in a sexual manner" against the boys, who also were fully dressed. He was sentenced then to 10 years on probation.

His father pleaded guilty to incest in 1994. He was accused of having sex with an adult relative; the relatives was not his son.

Settlement for Ind. students expelled over movie in which teddy bears attacked teacher

KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind. (AP) -- Three students expelled for making a movie in which evil teddy bears attack a teacher will share $69,000 in a settlement of their civil rights lawsuit.

The board of the Charles A. Beard School Corp. voted 5-2 on Tuesday to approve the lawsuit, which stemmed from the school's response to a movie called "The Teddy Bear Master."

The expulsions will be erased from the record and the students will be allowed to make up for missed work. Two of them still must write letters of apology to a teacher named in the movie and his wife.

In the movie, the "teddy bear master" orders stuffed animals to kill a teacher who had embarrassed him, but students battle the toy beasts, according to documents filed in court.

School officials last year expelled the four students who made the film, arguing that it was disruptive and they saw it as a threat to Knightstown Intermediate School teacher Dan Clevenger.

Two of the students sued, claiming their free-speech rights were violated. A federal judge in December ordered that school officials allow them back into class, saying that although the students should apologize for the "humiliating" and "obscene" movie, district officials had not proven that the work disrupted school.

A third student joined the lawsuit after it was filed, and the fourth student did not challenge the expulsion.

Superintendent David McGuire said the school district's insurance company will cover the cost of the $69,000 settlement that will be split among the plaintiffs.

The Associated Press on Wednesday left a message seeking comment from one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Mark Sullivan.

Knightstown is about 35 miles east of Indianapolis.

Pennsylvania family charged with holding woman captive, treating her as their 'slave'

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A couple and their three teenage children held a woman captive for six months, referring to her as their "slave" as they beat her, forced her to do chores and threatened her life and the lives of her relatives, police said Wednesday.

All five members of the family, ranging in age from 43 to 16, were arrested on charges of kidnapping and making terroristic threats. They had not yet entered pleas Wednesday but denied wrongdoing.

The accuser, Emily Nicely, 19, said she went to live with the family voluntarily but alleges that she had been forced to stay with them since September, authorities said.

Police were called March 10 after a man whose newspaper was delivered by the family reported seeing bruises on the young woman.

"She had injuries on every part of her body," said police Capt. George Seranko. A hospital examination also revealed that she had a concussion.

Nicely said her own family had moved out of Greensburg, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, and that she moved in with Mark and Cynthia Pollard and their children last summer so she could finish high school in the same district.

School district officials said, however, that she was last enrolled in the 2004-05 school year.

Mark Pollard, 43, Cynthia Pollard, 41, and their oldest son, Mark Jr., 18, remained in jail Wednesday, the day after their arrest. The couple's youngest children -- Jonathan, 17, and Tabitha, 16 -- were charged as adults but were released on bail and allowed to stay with relatives.

Cynthia Pollard told investigators that Nicely was bruised because she fell while delivering newspapers. She also said the family had "numerous physical confrontations with Nicely but that it was always in self-defense," according to a police affidavit.

"She's a liar," Cynthia Pollard told reporters after her arraignment Tuesday.

Nicely told police that shortly after she moved in with the Pollards they became physically abusive, forced her to work and never let her leave the house alone.

On numerous occasions, the Pollards punched the victim, kicked her and struck her with objects such as broom handles, a metal pipe, belts and boards, police said in an affidavit. "The Pollard family referred to her as their 'slave."'

"They told her that if she told anyone or tried to leave, they would put wire around her neck and strangle her. They would then go after her family," police said.

Nicely said she was also punished by having to stand with weights, with her hands on her head or in a corner for hours, police said. Cynthia Pollard acknowledged that Nicely was forced to stand in a corner.

Newspaper customer Nelson Williams, 66, and his caretaker called police after seeing Nicely's bruises on March 10.

"Her face, it looked like a baseball bat hit her," Williams told The Associated Press. "She was bad. Boy, she was bruised."

Williams said Cynthia Pollard told him Nicely had mental health problems and injured herself.

Nicely is now living with her mother in another county, authorities said. The Associated Press could not immediately locate Nicely for comment.

Associated Press Writer Joe Mandak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Charged astronaut Lisa Nowak's new duties will be developing Navy training courses

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- The former astronaut fired by NASA after she was charged with trying to kidnap a romantic rival will develop flight lesson plans as part of her new military assignment.

Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak will work on developing curriculum and training programs when she joins the staff of the Chief of Naval Air Training Command in Corpus Christi next month, said a Navy spokesman, Lt. Sean Robertson.

She was originally expected to report for work this week, but Robertson said Nowak will start her new job in April.

Nowak was arrested Feb. 5 on suspicion of confronting a romantic rival in a parking lot at the airport in Orlando, Fla. Police said Nowak pepper-sprayed Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of astronaut Bill Oefelein, and had in her possession a BB gun, steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing.

NASA fired Nowak a month later, and the Navy said she would be transferred to the Corpus Christi command. She is free on bail.

Nowak, a mother of three, could go to trial in late July. Her arraignment was scheduled for Thursday but she is not expected to appear since her attorney already has filed a not guilty plea to the charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary with assault and battery.

Are you hot enough? Dating Web site targets 'fit, good-looking' people

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Jason Pellegrino (an 8.2 on the attractiveness scale) says the problem with Internet dating services is not enough really hot-looking people.

So he and a business partner have created HotEnough.org, a sort of online version of Studio 54, the exclusive '70s disco where gaining admission was a pitiless Darwinian exercise. HotEnough.org is for "fit, good-looking" people.

Prospective members must submit pictures and must be rated an 8 or higher by people already in the club. Once they're in, they are permitted to e-mail other "hotties" for $9.95 a month.

"It's definitely hard to get through that rope, but once you're in, you're in and you're part of the party," Pellegrino said. "But you know there's going to be a lot of people outside waiting."

The 33-year-old Nutley resident said he and his partner, Sean Cohen of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., created the site after concluding that Internet dating sites attract a lot of brave and desperate people but not particularly attractive ones.

A few months after its launch, membership is just under 1,000, Pellegrino said. In the beginning, only 8 percent of those who applied made the grade, but now about 25 percent of applicants do, he said.

Candidates must send in three pictures, including one full-body shot. Active members rate the pictures online without knowing anything else about the people in them.

"People can say that the site is shallow, they can say it's superficial, but I think we're all a bit superficial when it comes to dating," Pellegrino said.

One of the "hotties" accepted into the club is Jimmy Ziomek, a 29-year-old from New York City who rated an 8.2. Ziomek, who said his job in real estate keeps him from going out much, is 5-foot-11, has blue eyes and light brown hair and goes to the gym four to five times a week.

Using HotEnough.org "saves time and it does the searching for you, narrows it down to the people that you are interested in meeting," he said.

Among those who didn't make the cut was Jeanette Ponder, a 28-year-old Internet blogger from East Orange who considered herself an 8 or 9. She said she applied because she thought it would make a good story.

"I got rated at like 5.7," she said. "When you put yourself out there in any situation, even if it's one which you're not taking seriously, it's going to sting."

But she also reasoned: "You cannot make a relationship by being arm candy."

Like it or not, HotEnough.org operates according to a principle that watchers of the singles scene have long recognized: "People tend to end up with partners who match them in physical attractiveness," said Margaret Clark, a professor of psychology at Yale University.

Pellegrino, whose day job as a project manager for a construction company in Maplewood leaves little time for dating, is 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, has brown eyes and a bright smile, goes to the gym at least three times a week and gets his stylish haircut touched up every two weeks. He was happy to make it onto his own Web site.

"I see myself more in like the 7.5 range," he said.

On the Net:

http://www.hotenough.org

Russia mourns 108 deaths from Siberian mine explosion

NOVOKUZNETSK, Russia (AP) -- Flooded caverns and flammable gas hampered the search Wednesday for two workers missing after an explosion at a Siberian coal mine, as Russia held a day of mourning for the 108 miners killed in the country's worst mining disaster in more than a decade.

Flags flew at half-staff, church services were held nationwide and TV stations took entertainment programs off the air Wednesday to mourn the victims of the mining disaster as well as for two other tragedies -- a nursing home fire that left 63 dead and a weekend plane crash that killed six.

President Vladimir Putin led televised minutes-of-silence with his Cabinet, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church broadcast condolences and lawmakers called for a full investigation of the disasters.

In the Kuzbass regional city of Novokuznetsk, about 1,850 miles east of Moscow, relatives of those killed in the Ulyanovskaya mine lined up to identify the victims, some nearly burned beyond recognition.

About 200 workers were underground at the time of the blast, which occurred early Monday at a depth of around 885 feet. About 93 made it to the surface safely. Regional officials said a British employee of the British-German mining consultancy IMC was among the dead.

Mine brigade leader Vladimir Gunko said just six of the 11 members of his brigade survived the blast.

"The explosion happened. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't breathe. I had sand in my helmet and I pressed it against my mouth. I began shouting 'Guys! Guys!' but no one answered. I couldn't see anything, literally no more than 10 centimeters out. Then I began to search with my feet, maybe to step on somebody, but I couldn't find anyone," Gunko told NTV television. "You wouldn't see anything, like even in a horror movie."

Water, gas and structural damage were slowing the search for two men still missing. Divers sent underground covered 165 feet but were unable to go further because their path was blocked by rubble, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Shoigu also cautioned that it would be impossible to quickly pinpoint the precise cause of the blast, saying it would take at least two weeks to collect data from instruments in the mine.

The explosion highlighted the hazardous state of Russia's mining industry, which fell into disrepair when government subsidies dried up after the Soviet collapse. According to the ITAR-Tass news agency, it was the deadliest mine accident in the Kuzbass region in 60 years.

Nikolai Kultyn, an inspector with federal industrial regulator Rostekhnadzor, said Tuesday there were no gas monitors where the pocket of methane gas had accumulated. He said the high number of deaths was likely due to the fact that many people were in a small area at the time of the blast.

Labor union officials blamed the incident in part on quota systems that encourage miners to work faster and dig more coal, potentially leading to errors. Some government officials in the past have accused private companies of cutting corners on safety measures in order to reduce costs.

Regional authorities and the company that operates the mine, Yuzhkuzbassugol, said it would be repaired and opened again, possibly by the summer.

Russia's economy has surged in recent years, fed mainly by high world prices for oil and other natural resources that have stuffed government coffers and trickled down to bring a sense of prosperity among average people.

The growth has contributed to Putin's wide popularity despite persistent problems like corruption, the declining population and crumbling infrastructure.

Second of 2 Ill. judges in DUI wreck sentenced for transporting open container of beer

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- A judge accused of trying to hide a beer after a drunk colleague he was riding with got into a car crash has pleaded guilty to illegally transporting alcohol.

St. Clair County Judge Jan Fiss entered his plea Tuesday and was sentenced to two months under court supervision and ordered to pay a $500 fine.

Fiss, 64, and Circuit Judge Patrick Young, 58, were returning to Belleville from a St. Louis Rams football game in December when Young's sport-utility vehicle collided with a pickup truck, injuring the pickup driver.

Young was convicted earlier this month of drunken driving. He was sentenced to two years of court supervision and ordered to pay $1,500 in fines.

Police said Fiss was seen by an officer dumping out a beer after the crash and trying to hide a beer can. He was charged under an Illinois law barring open containers of alcohol in vehicles.

Under court supervision, available only to first-time offenders, the convictions will be expunged from the record if the defendants successfully complete the monitoring.

Messages left Wednesday with Fiss were not returned. His attorney, Phil Rarick, said Fiss "regrets this matter deeply."

Fiss and Young, both Democrats, continue to serve on the bench.

Fiss stepped down as the county's chief judge after the crash until the case was resolved. Rarick said he could not comment on whether his client will try to regain that post, a move that would require fellow judges to vote.

Mohamed al Fayed's lawyers seek to force police to disclose Princess Diana inquiry papers

LONDON (AP) -- Lawyers for Mohamed al Fayed asked a coroner Wednesday to order the Metropolitan Police to hand over all documents and interviews from the force's three-year investigation into the deaths of his son Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana.

At a preliminary hearing ahead of an inquest into the deaths, al Fayed's lawyer argued that holding back the material could make people suspect there had been a cover-up.

"A lack of disclosure can be counterproductive to the effectiveness of the inquest system, give rise to unfounded suspicion that matters are being deliberately concealed by the police, (and) distract attention from the real issues," said legal documents submitted by al Fayed's lawyer, Michael Mansfield.

Diana, 36, and Dodi Fayed, 42, were killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. Al Fayed, the owner of London's Harrods department store, has long claimed the couple were the victims of a conspiracy.

Former Metropolitan Police chief John Stevens spent three years investigating the deaths, amassing thousands of pages of documents and interviewing scores of people, including Diana's ex-husband, Prince Charles.

Stevens concluded -- as had an earlier French inquiry -- that Paul was drunk and in his efforts to evade photographers lost control of the car, which careened into a column in the tunnel.

Mansfield asked the coroner, Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, to require the police to respond to the request within two weeks and to hand over the material within a month.

Arguments over what will be disclosed -- and when -- are expected to continue at hearings Wednesday and Thursday.

The full inquest is scheduled to open in October, more than a decade after the couple died.

Russia mourns victims of nursing home fire

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- Churches held mourning services and people placed flowers Wednesday outside the blackened walls of a southern Russian nursing home struck by a fire that killed dozens of trapped, helpless residents.

The blaze claimed its 63rd victim when a hospitalized woman died of a heart attack overnight, authorities said.

The 66-year-old woman was one of 30 people hospitalized after the fire early Tuesday in Kamyshevatskaya, a town of 5,000 on the Azov Sea, regional emergency officials said.

People set flowers outside the home and services were held in Russian Orthodox churches nationwide. Flags flew at half-staff and entertainment programming was canceled on an official day of mourning decreed by President Vladimir Putin for three tragedies: the nursing home fire, a Siberian mine blast Monday that killed at least 107, and a weekend plane crash that killed six people.

Nine fire victims were buried at a ceremony attended by about 250 people, local administration chief Vitaly Vorbyov said. One man's family attended, but the other victims had no known surviving relatives.

Officials said a total of 26 such victims were being buried by the government.

It took nearly an hour for firefighters to reach Kamyshevatskaya, whose volunteer fire department was shut last year. Authorities blamed toxic building materials and a fire alarm system that had not been fully installed.

Emergency officials said a night watchman ignored two fire alarms before reporting the blaze in the two-story facility around 1 a.m., only after he saw flames.

Nursing home staff were absent from their posts, slowing efforts to find keys and open an emergency exit, officials said. The officials also said that the nurse and three orderlies on duty weren't enough to quickly evacuate the building.

The disasters were stark reminders of the negligence and crumbling infrastructure that plague Russia despite economic improvements under Putin, whose presidency has coincided with high world prices for the giant nation's energy resources.

Russia has suffered a number of deadly blazes at schools, dormitories, hospitals and other state-run facilities, revealing rampant violations of fire safety rules.

The latest disasters were unlikely to have major political repercussions, however. While many Russians often lay part of the blame for deadly accidents and terror attacks on the authorities, dismissals are usually limited to local or low-level officials and Putin has retained his popularity despite the persistent problems.

In a show of concern broadcast on the main state-controlled TV networks, Putin ordered the government Tuesday to thoroughly investigate the causes of the disasters.

On Wednesday, lawmakers in the lower house of parliament echoed Putin's call for effective probes.

The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the opposition Communists suggested inviting Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to appear before the State Duma at an upcoming session to face questions about the frequent deadly accidents.

"The question of our citizens' safety is a political question," ITAR-Tass quoted Communist lawmaker Anatoly Lokot as saying.

Snubbed black alderman oversees mass ceremony in Belgium to send message against racism

SINT-NIKLAAS, Belgium (AP) -- Wouter Van Bellingen has the name, the lingo, the clothes and the upbringing of your typical Flemish alderman.

One thing sets him apart: Van Bellingen is black in a mostly white city, and for that reason, three local couples refused to let him conduct their City Hall weddings.

"It was the most primitive form of racism. Nothing but the color of my skin," Van Bellingen said of the snub. The 34-year-old alderman was adopted by a Flemish family at birth and never knew his Rwandan parents.

But instead of lodging a discrimination complaint, he decided to organize a celebration of diversity. On Wednesday night, he is overseeing a ceremony of hundreds of couples vowing eternal love -- and sending a message against racism.

Over 600 couples have agreed to participate, either renewing wedding vows or pledging to marry. The ceremony in Belgium's biggest market square was to include a group hug, a huge photo, a "multicultural dessert buffet" and a dance.

"We have to take away the fear of the unknown. If you are unknown, you are unloved," Van Bellingen said of his decision to hold the ceremony on international anti-racism day.

The initiative came straight from a lifetime of developing defenses against racist abuse.

"I do not feel scarred. It has been an enrichment in a sense," he told The Associated Press. "You create a mechanism to put things in perspective. I do it with humor."

Van Bellingen's call for the ceremony quickly generated a groundswell of support, even though it was not legally binding.

Sabine Van Camp was at work when an e-mail flashed across her screen from her husband Guy: "You want to do it again?" he asked.

It was not the most romantic way to propose a renewal of vows, but the three couples' refusal to allow Van Bellingen to preside over their weddings in January had touched a nerve in this city of 69,000 people some 30 miles north of Brussels.

"It was such a scandal. The gall of it all," Van Camp said.

She accepted her husband's proposal -- also by e-mail. Then the 42-year-old city clerk retrieved her wedding gown from the closet, three years after their summer wedding.

"It will be cold on the market square, though," she said of her gown.

Van Bellingen became the first black alderman elected in Belgium's northern Flanders region, representing a moderate nationalist party. He says his election is symbolic of growing opposition to racism in a city where an anti-immigration party won 26 percent of the vote in elections last year.

A year ago, a teenager with links to extreme right militants went on a rampage with a rifle in nearby Antwerp, searching for anyone who looked foreign. He killed an African woman and the white child in her care and seriously wounded a Turkish woman.

Van Bellingen takes care not to stigmatize his city and region. He calls himself a victim of racism still found all over Europe.

"Like all colored people, I live this on an almost daily basis," he said, recalling catcalls at school, doors being slammed in his face and the amazement expressed by some countrymen that he speaks fluent Dutch.

Amnesty International said racism is a part of everyday life.

"There are citizens who cannot lead a normal life -- find a job, rent a house or simply walk down the street without being stopped and searched -- just because they have the "wrong" color or ethnicity," said the group's European Union office director, Dick Oosting.

Van Bellingen said he has been asked why he didn't lash out in anger at the three couples.

"It is the story of everyone who is discriminated against. If you act impetuously, you stop functioning," he said. "Now, I have achieved a lot more."