North County Times
LONDON (AP) -- About 2,000 ballet-goers were evacuated from a Thursday night performance at the Royal Opera House after a dancer's overcooked potato triggered a fire alarm.
The audience stood in the street for about 20 minutes as firefighters investigated the alarm. A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said a smoldering potato found in a backstage microwave was responsible for the disruption.
"The microwave seemed fine but there wasn't much left of the potato," he said on customary condition of anonymity.
The evacuation occurred during the second interval of a performance by the visiting San Francisco Ballet. A spokeswoman for the troupe said the backstage room was used as a makeshift kitchen by the dancers.
None of the dancers immediately claimed responsibility for the potato, she said. The performance was resumed shortly after the evacuation.
DENVER (AP) -- Two bears have waddled through the city's southwest suburbs in two days, the latest in a series of bear encounters in Colorado.
State wildlife officers and Jefferson County sheriff's deputies searched Thursday for a black bear in a Littleton neighborhood. They gave up the hunt when the bear headed toward the foothills a mile west.
Wildlife officers tranquilized a bear Wednesday that had romped through backyards and crawled over fences in Centennial, about 15 miles south of Denver. Officials said the 125-pound bear probably followed bike paths, trails and gulches from the foothills.
A bear and her cubs showed up at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in Trinidad Aug. 6, and a black bear entered the Aspen home of tennis star Chris Evert and former Olympic ski racer Andy Mill last week.
"I heard rustling in the kitchen and told Andy, 'I think we have a visitor,' " Evert said.
A bear walked into a Durango home on Wednesday, helping itself to buttered popcorn before police chased it out with pepper spray.
Bears have been drawn to neighborhoods because late frosts killed some of their natural food sources and because people leave trash and food outside, Division of Wildlife spokesman Todd Malmsbury said.
"What people need to recognize, no matter where you are, we have bears and wildlife, and people need to take precautions," Malmsbury said.
When a bear is tranquilized, wildlife officials tag it. If it returns to a populated area, it is killed.
A Boy Scout camp near Salida was closed earlier this month after two bear attacks in nine days.
On the Net:
Colorado Division of Wildlife: http://wildlife.state.co.us
MIAMI (AP) -- A cult leader linked to a series of random killings cannot have any contact with followers after his release from prison unless he gets approval from a probation officer first, a judge ruled.
Yahweh Ben Yahweh, convicted of federal racketeering for his connection to the killings, sought an injunction against the U.S. Parole Commission's decision to bar him from communicating with followers.
He is due to be released to a halfway house Friday after 11 years in prison. But his attorneys say the strict conditions of his release are unconstitutional.
Yahweh wants to retake his leadership position with the group, which attracted about 1,000 people to a gathering last year in Montreal.
In his opinion Wednesday, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said the commission was justified in its decision. He said the government "may reach its hand farther into the religious freedoms of a parolee than of an innocent citizen," if it has a "compelling and legitimate interest" and "reaches no farther than it must."
U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis agreed, saying "the Court balanced the goals of protecting the public interest and assuring that First Amendment rights are protected."
Defense attorney John May called the decision a victory for Yahweh because it sent "a clear message to the parole commission that it cannot act arbitrarily and capriciously in denying a reasonable request of Yahweh Ben Yahweh to have contact with members of his faith."
The cult was blamed for 23 murders before its leader was imprisoned in 1990. Yahweh was accused of dispatching his closest followers in 1986 to kill "white devils" and return with body parts as proof.
Yahweh was charged in three murders; he was acquitted in one and the other two cases were dropped.
On the Net:
Nation of Yahweh: http://www.yahwehbenyahweh.com
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Wildlife officials shut down a zoo after 103 wild animals -- including several endangered species -- were found dead in a freezer, authorities said Thursday.
The discovery was made Wednesday, a day after a newspaper reported that animals at Bwana Park, a zoo on the outskirts of Rio, were seriously undernourished.
"We've never seen anything like this. Occasionally you have a spate of dead animals because of disease or bad food, but never over 100 dead animals of different species," said Carlos Henrique Abreu Mendes, the Rio de Janeiro director of Brazil's Environmental Protection Agency.
Among the endangered species found dead were seven rare parrots, a jaguar, a jungle cat and a rare alligator. The dead animals represented 76 percent of the zoo's total collection.
Bwana Park had already been shut in December for maltreatment of its animals, but was allowed to reopen after conditions had improved.
Officials were in the process of again revoking its operating license when they were surprised by the reports of abuse in the media, Mendes said.
"Under normal circumstances, we must be informed about any wild animal that dies in captivity. That didn't happen. We only learned about this horror through the press," Mendes said.
The zoo owner, Eliete Vieira dos Santos, faces up to a year in prison under Brazilian animal cruelty laws.
Mendes said only an autopsy could determine how the animals died, but the condition of the surviving animals, who were as much as 40 percent underweight, indicated they died of starvation.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- On its face, the danger of giving a cancer patient less than the intended amount of a drug seems obvious: The medication will be less effective than the doctor intended it to be.
But the consequences can be more complex -- and more frightening.
Doctors and authorities are looking closely at the potential hazards because of allegations that Kansas City pharmacist Robert Courtney diluted the chemotherapy drugs Gemzar and Taxol.
More than 400 people have called an FBI hot line for cancer patients who believe they received the drugs from Courtney's pharmacy. Doctors are also racing to contact patients, fearing complications.
If a patient fails to show an expected benefits of drugs, a doctor may raise the dose to a level that produces unwanted side effects, said Dr. Michael Coyne, associate vice president and director of pharmacology at New York's Staten Island University Hospital.
Dr. Jack Rosenberg, director of the International Drug Information Center at New York's Long Island University, said cancer cells also can develop resistance to drugs. Depending on the degree of dilution, "instead of killing the cancer, you may get a partial kill of the cells and then a more resistant type of cancer coming out."
Coyne and Rosenberg said they had never heard of a case like that of Courtney, who allegedly diluted the drugs in intravenous solutions he mixed in filling prescriptions from doctors. The FBI says samples prepared by Courtney's pharmacy contained between 39 percent and less than 1 percent of the potentially lifesaving drugs.
"When we saw this on the news, everyone - all of my colleagues - were shocked," said Coyne, who has been in pharmacology for 25 years. "Even the most devious pharmacist in the country couldn't dream this one up."
Taxol is a second-line therapy for advanced ovarian or breast cancer and is used against AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma and lung cancer. Gemzar is used to treat pancreatic cancer and some types of lung cancer.
Courtney is charged with a single felony count of diluting the drugs. FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said homicide or manslaughter charges are possible if investigators link the diluted drugs to a death, though no such link has been made.
Courtney, 48, is being held without bond until a hearing Monday. His attorney, Jean Paul Bradshaw, has said Courtney will plead innocent.
A respiratory therapist who says he bought chemotherapy drugs from the pharmacy and the son of a deceased cancer patient sued Courtney and the pharmacy Thursday, seeking more than $50,000. They sought class-action status for their suit.
The alleged dilution was first noticed by Eli Lilly and Co., which makes Gemzar. Authorities said a sales representative for the company found a discrepancy between the amount of Gemzar the pharmacy ordered and the amount it billed an unidentified Kansas City-area doctor. Testing of samples at an independent laboratory showed greatly reduced concentrations of the drugs.
Rosenberg said it's common for drug companies to monitor the use of their drugs.
"They do it strictly for marketing," he said. "Thank God they did."
CHICKASHA, Okla. (AP) -- A man who was free on bail for a domestic abuse charge killed his wife and two of their children before killing himself, authorities said.
Sheriff's deputies discovered the bodies in the family's two-story home Thursday morning after receiving a call from co-workers concerned that the woman had not shown up for work, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kym Koch, said.
Authorities did not say how they were killed.
Koch identified the dead as Phillip Bond, 43; his wife, Janiss, 42; and children Meagan, 16, and Nathan, 12. The couple had two other sons, ages 26 and 18, who did not live at home, Koch said.
She said the sheriff's office had responded to disturbance calls at the home Saturday morning and Sunday night. Bond was arrested Sunday on a domestic abuse complaint. He was released on bail on Monday.
Chickasha is about 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A young man wanted in a pair of murders of gay men in Florida has been spotted in San Francisco, police said.
Adam Ezerski, 19, of Atlantic Beach, Fla. faces murder charges in the July 25 slaying of Irving Sicherer, 76, and the death the following day of Anthony Martilotto, 39.
"We consider him very dangerous," said Andy Black, FBI spokesman in San Francisco. "Both of his victims were members of the gay community, as he is. We were hoping that someone in the public will lead us to him and his arrest."
Ezerski was on probation for car theft when Sicherer was found bludgeoned in his condominium in Adventura, Fla.
The next day, Martilotto was discovered strangled in a Fort Lauderdale, Fla. hotel room, where he had been staying and apparently checked in with Ezerski, police said.
Fingerprints tie Ezerski to at least one of the murders, authorities said. He is believed to be driving a 2001 red Ford Mustang leased by Martilotto.
Black said someone reported seeing Ezerski driving the stolen car in San Francisco on Wednesday.
He is named in a federal warrant charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Ezerski is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 175 pounds with brown, possibly bleached hair and green eyes.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An explosion and fire tore through a 1920s-era Hollywood residential hotel early Thursday, killing two people, including a woman who lowered two children to firefighters and then plunged to her death from a fourth-floor window.
Fifty people were rescued from the Palomar Hotel or fled down fire escapes, avoiding a toll on the scale of the city's worst residential blazes which killed 25 each in 1982 and 1973.
The two rescued children, a man and four firefighters were injured.
The dead woman was identified as Norma Galindo, 38, coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said. The other fatality was a man whose body was found on the second floor. He was not identified, but the resident manager was reported missing.
A special team from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was summoned to help Fire Department investigators try to find out what rocked the four-story building, hurling debris across Santa Monica Boulevard.
Deputy Chief John Callahan said it was unclear if the fire or blast came first. He said there was no immediate indication that natural gas, flammable liquids or a bomb were involved in the blast. Sprinklers worked and fire doors in halls closed, he said.
The building, which has a first-floor church and an eyewear business and three residential floors, was cited for building and safety violations in 1999. The owner's stepfather said they had evicted problem tenants and undertaken renovations, but often received threats from people who were denied space in the $375-a-month rooms.
People were clinging to windows when firefighters arrived in response to a 3:41 a.m. call.
Galindo dangled a boy and a girl from a fourth-floor window to firefighters on a ladder that reached only to the third floor, then fell as a firefighter tried to reach her.
"The captain went up and grabbed one kid, and then I went up and grabbed the other kid," Firefighter Tony Cardona said. "I grabbed the little girl, I took her down. I went back up, tried to calm mom. But mom was screaming. She was panicking. And as I went up, talking to her and trying to calm her down, she jumped down. She hit me on the right arm … I just felt her hit my arm. I couldn't react fast enough and she went down."
Capt. Robert McMaster, who rescued the boy, saw her fall.
"I think what she tried to do was get out farther into the windowsill and get away from the heat and the smoke," he said.
Firefighters were moving a longer ladder into place moments before the plunge.
The 3-year-old boy and his 5-year-old sister were in serious condition with first-degree burns and smoke inhalation, said Steve Rutledge, spokesman for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
The four firefighters were injured in falls. Two with burns were in good condition at Grossman Burn Center and were expected to have surgery Friday. Two others were treated at hospitals for fall injuries but did not suffer burns
Residents who fled in their night clothes huddled under blankets at a mini-mall as firefighters battled the flames. Some said they had smelled something unusual.
"There was a just a huge explosion, and all I thought of was - earthquake," said Mark Batui, 51, who lived on the second floor for 13 years. "I just barely had enough time to get my drawers on … and get out of there. … There was flames everywhere."
Ronald Ortiz, 42, a plumber, was jolted awake.
"All my drywall came off, my door blew off, the front window blew open, all of the glass blew out … I thought a meteor struck the Earth … (I thought) 'Lord … is this is the beginning of the end?"' he said.
Ortiz said the daughter of the residential manager told him that her father "smelled a gas leak and went to investigate the leak."
George L. Sellers, attorney for owner Juan Ortiz, said the safety violations involved problems such as cockroaches, leaky faucets and undersize shower drains.
"There just wasn't anything that had anything to do with what happened today," Sellers said.
Juan Ortiz's stepfather, Joseph Lewellen, 67, said the building was purchased in 1998 for about $500,000 and about $260,000 had been spent on renovations.
The building was in slum condition when it was purchased, with seven or eight people to a room and prostitution and drug activity constantly bringing police, said Lewellen, who keeps the books for his stepson.
"At least three times a month we get people in there screaming and yelling that they're gonna kill us, they're gonna murder us or they're gonna burn us out" because they have been denied a room, he said.
Mayor James Hahn, the former city attorney, said he asked that office to determine the status of the violations and urged severe prosecution if there were any uncorrected items involving criminal neglect. But he added, "We don't know if any of the violations were a causative factor in this fire."
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An explosion and fire tore through a 1920s-era Hollywood residential hotel early Thursday, killing two people, including a woman who lowered two children to firefighters and then plunged to her death from a fourth-floor window.
Fifty people were rescued from the Palomar Hotel or fled down fire escapes, avoiding a toll on the scale of the city's worst residential blazes which killed 25 each in 1982 and 1973.
The two rescued children, a man and four firefighters were injured.
The dead woman was identified as Norma Galindo, 38, coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said. The other fatality was a man whose body was found on the second floor. He was not identified, but the resident manager was reported missing.
A special team from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was summoned to help Fire Department investigators try to find out what rocked the four-story building, hurling debris across Santa Monica Boulevard.
Deputy Chief John Callahan said it was unclear if the fire or blast came first. He said there was no immediate indication that natural gas, flammable liquids or a bomb were involved in the blast. Sprinklers worked and fire doors in halls closed, he said.
The building, which has a first-floor church and an eyewear business and three residential floors, was cited for building and safety violations in 1999. The owner's stepfather said they had evicted problem tenants and undertaken renovations, but often received threats from people who were denied space in the $375-a-month rooms.
People were clinging to windows when firefighters arrived in response to a 3:41 a.m. call.
Galindo dangled a boy and a girl from a fourth-floor window to firefighters on a ladder that reached only to the third floor, then fell as a firefighter tried to reach her.
"The captain went up and grabbed one kid, and then I went up and grabbed the other kid," Firefighter Tony Cardona said. "I grabbed the little girl, I took her down. I went back up, tried to calm mom. But mom was screaming. She was panicking. And as I went up, talking to her and trying to calm her down, she jumped down. She hit me on the right arm … I just felt her hit my arm. I couldn't react fast enough and she went down."
Capt. Robert McMaster, who rescued the boy, saw her fall.
"I think what she tried to do was get out farther into the windowsill and get away from the heat and the smoke," he said.
Firefighters were moving a longer ladder into place moments before the plunge.
The 3-year-old boy and his 5-year-old sister were in serious condition with first-degree burns and smoke inhalation, said Steve Rutledge, spokesman for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
The four firefighters were injured in falls. Two with burns were in good condition at Grossman Burn Center and were expected to have surgery Friday. Two others were treated at hospitals for fall injuries but did not suffer burns
Residents who fled in their night clothes huddled under blankets at a mini-mall as firefighters battled the flames. Some said they had smelled something unusual.
"There was a just a huge explosion, and all I thought of was - earthquake," said Mark Batui, 51, who lived on the second floor for 13 years. "I just barely had enough time to get my drawers on … and get out of there. … There was flames everywhere."
Ronald Ortiz, 42, a plumber, was jolted awake.
"All my drywall came off, my door blew off, the front window blew open, all of the glass blew out … I thought a meteor struck the Earth … (I thought) 'Lord … is this is the beginning of the end?"' he said.
Ortiz said the daughter of the residential manager told him that her father "smelled a gas leak and went to investigate the leak."
The Red Cross opened a recreation center as a shelter for the evacuees.
Built in 1925, the hotel was purchased by Juan Jose Garcia Ortiz in 1998 and was cited in 1999 for violations including missing smoke detectors, structural deficiencies, locked exit doors, open wiring, unsupported gas pipes, a damaged sprinkler system and unserviced fire extinguishers. Ortiz pleaded no contest a year ago to 10 violations, was fined, given probation and ordered to complete fire safety repairs by last November.
After a follow-up inspection, the city attorney's office said, prosecutors sought jail time for the owner but a judge accepted evidence that some fire code violations were addressed. Ortiz was ordered to make more improvments. New code compliance orders were issued last month but officials would not release them Thursday, citing the investigation.
The owner's attorney, George L. Sellers, said fire safety problems had been fixed and subjected to inspection three weeks ago.
"There just wasn't anything that had anything to do with what happened today," Sellers said.
Juan Ortiz's stepfather, Joseph Lewellen, 67, said the building was purchased in 1998 for about $500,000 and about $260,000 had been spent on renovations.
The building was in slum condition when it was purchased, with seven or eight people to a room and prostitution and drug activity constantly bringing police, said Lewellen, who keeps the books for his stepson.
"At least three times a month we get people in there screaming and yelling that they're gonna kill us, they're gonna murder us or they're gonna burn us out" because they have been denied a room, he said.
Mayor James Hahn, the former city attorney, said he asked that office to determine the status of the violations and urged severe prosecution if there were any uncorrected items involving criminal neglect. But he added, "We don't know if any of the violations were a causative factor in this fire."
BOMBAY, India (AP) -- A speeding train ran over passengers who had scrambled off a stopped train and run onto the tracks Thursday in central India, killing 15 people, including five children.
In a second accident, a train plowed into a stationary train Thursday in a station at Jamui town in Bihar state, killing five people and injuring at least 50, said Digvijay Singh, India's junior railways minister.
The first accident took place when passengers pulled the emergency chain on their train when they saw Geetanjali Express en route to Bombay approaching the station in Jalgaon town in central Maharashtra state, said Central Railway spokesman Mukul Marwah.
The train came to a stop, and passengers climbed off and ran across the tracks, apparently wanting to catch the express. But the train was not scheduled to stop, and plowed through the crowd, killing 15 people. Among the dead were eight women and five children.
"This train was not scheduled to take a halt and the passengers were run over," Marwah said.
The Central Railway authority ordered an inquiry. Railroad accidents are common in India, which has one of the world's largest rail networks.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Attorney Paul Caruso, whose clients during the last 45 years ranged from entertainers and athletes to Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, has died. He was 81.
Caruso died Tuesday in a residential care facility, said son P. Carey Caruso, also an attorney.
"Call Paul" became a popular anthem among celebrities in trouble in the 1950s through the 1980s. He represented Atkins on murder charges before lawyer Daye Shinn took over her defense in the Tate-La Bianca murders.
He was also the attorney for war hero and actor Audie Murphy, who was charged with firing a gun at a dog trainer; Eddie Nash, who was accused of four Laurel Canyon slayings; and TV sports reporter Stan Duke in the gunshot slaying of radio commentator Averill Berman.
Caruso won reinstatement of a state license for veteran fight promoter George Parnassus, defended Art Aragon on allegations of trying to bribe welterweight opponent Dick Goldstein to take a dive in their 1957 fight, and handled contract and other disputes for manager Willie Ketchum, heavyweight Jerry Quarry, lightweight champion Ismael Laguna and Panamanian fight promoter Jorge Panay.
He worked out a trade for Angels pitcher Bo Belinsky after Belinsky was sent down to the Angels' Hawaii farm club in 1964 following an altercation with a Los Angeles Times sportswriter.
Caruso also sued UCLA and Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for $1 million in 1969 on behalf of American Basketball Association player Dennis Grey, whose jaw was broken during a pickup basketball game.
Born to Sicilian immigrants in upstate New York, Caruso boasted his Italian heritage and in 1978 became founding president of the Italian-American Lawyers Association.
Caruso is survived by his wife, Gloria Salamone Caruso; sons Carey, Doug and Vito; daughters Lucille Caruso Ball and Regina Caruso Jobling; stepdaughter Gina Salamone; and sisters Rose Madden and Gloria Petrick.
A memorial service will be held Sunday afternoon at Casa Italiana.
OAKLAND (AP) -- A man facing charges in a pit bull attack on a 10-year-old boy has been arrested again, after police said they found nearly a pound of rock cocaine in his van.
Benjamin Moore, 28, of Richmond was stopped by police as he was driving in Oakland Wednesday afternoon, Oakland Police Officer George Phillips said Thursday.
Moore was in federal custody, and federal prosecutors are handling the case because of the amount of drugs involved, Phillips said.
Charges have not yet been filed, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Police said they searched three other homes in Richmond and Oakland connected to Moore and found more drugs. Police shot and killed a pit bull that attacked them during one of the searches, said narcotics officer Johnny Gutierrez.
Moore was already facing two misdemeanor counts in the June 18 attack on Shawn Jones of Richmond. Shawn, who has since turned 11, was riding his bicycle when he was severely mauled by the dogs. He remains in hospital. Moore was charged with allegedly concealing the dogs after the attack.
Police said they have been investigating Moore since shortly after the attack on Shawn.
Gutierrez told The Oakland Tribune that when he approached Moore's van, Moore asked if he was being stopped because of something to do with the dogs.
"No, it's the narcotics," Gutierrez said.
DALLAS (AP) -- The escaped convict who allegedly killed a policeman during a Christmas Eve robbery pleaded for forgiveness and said he deserved to die in a 21-page written confession shown to the jury Thursday.
George Rivas also told police he hoped officer Aubrey Hawkins' wife would gain "some sort of peace of mind" when he was executed for killing her husband.
Jurors were shown copies of Rivas' statement to police on the fourth day of the capital murder trial. Irving Police Sgt. Jeff Spivey testified he took the statement January 22 after Rivas voluntarily waived his rights to have an attorney present.
Rivas wrote in the statement that after leading the robbery of an Irving sporting goods store, he was waiting for the other men to leave the store when Hawkins drove up.
"I then pulled out my gun and yelled at him to put his hands up," Rivas wrote. "He could hear me but wouldn't comply. He moved his right arm down and forward. I thought he was going for his gun. Please forgive me but I shot through the windshield and hit his right shoulder."
"Please Mrs. Hawkins, forgive me," he wrote. "I never intended to hurt anyone. I make no excuses for my actions and take full responsibility for them. I deserve death and I hope when I am put to death it will give you some sort of peace of mind."
Rivas is the first of six convicts to be prosecuted for the slaying of Hawkins. All face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted. The seventh inmate killed himself before officers could recapture him along with the other inmates.
Rivas' lawyers have argued that he did not intend to harm Hawkins, but only wanted to disarm the officer when others started shooting in "panic mode."
The seven men escaped from Connally Unit in South Texas Dec. 13 with 16 guns. One gun taken from the prison was found behind the sporting goods store, investigators testified.
TULARE (AP) -- A San Joaquin Valley man is likely going to jail for killing four stray puppies by casting them into an agricultural shredding machine.
Brandon Ferguson, 26, pleaded no contest to four felony counts of cruelty to animals, one felony count of dissuading a witness from reporting the crime and one felony count of threatening a witness.
Ferguson faces as many as four years and four months in prison when he is sentenced in September.
Ferguson was arrested July 11 after Tulare County sheriff's deputies received an anonymous tip that Ferguson put the puppies through a silage chopper at Vieira Custom Chopping in Tulare the day before.
The puppies lived in the equipment yard and investigators said Ferguson killed them because he didn't like the mess they were making.
The puppies appeared to be 8 to 10 weeks old and of a shepherd-Labrador mix. The surviving mother and a lone pup were taken to an animal shelter in nearby Visalia and are up for adoption.
ANCLOTE KEY, Fla. (AP) -- A large gathering of sharks that had congregated in the waters off central Florida's west coast have moved out of the area.
Hundreds of sharks, some up to 10 feet long, were first spotted Monday three miles offshore, prompting officials to issue an alert to swimmers.
Most were blacktips, a common species often blamed for nipping surfers and swimmers, but not regarded as a man-eater. Bull sharks, hammerheads and nurse sharks were also sighted by sheriff's marine patrols in the shallow Gulf of Mexico waters off Pasco County, northwest of Tampa.
By Wednesday, the brief invasion was over. They were spotted heading south by a crew from Mote Marine Laboratory.
"The thing that really caught my attention was that there were several species," marine biologist Bill Alevizon said. "Species tend to move alone."
Blacktips are known to move from the Gulf of Mexico back into the Atlantic Ocean about this time of year, said Mote spokeswoman Teri Behling.
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- Beverly King wanted to win tickets to a Madonna concert so badly that she stripped to pasties and a G-string and rode a horse past a small crowd in a park.
The stunt earned King another ticket -- one for indecent exposure that could land her in jail.
King, one of two winners of the stunt contest sponsored by a radio station, said she was wearing pasties when she removed her bra as she rode her horse Cinnamon through San Carlos Park on Monday. All was fine until one of the straps on her G-string broke, King said.
An onlooker called the sheriff's office.
She could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.
"In retrospect, I was in the wrong," said King, who won a package promoters estimated at $500 that included tickets to Tuesday night's Fort Lauderdale concert, transportation to and from the Drowned World Tour event and an after-show party.
The other winner was a woman who shaved her head and ate a bowl of worms mixed with dog food.
BABYLON, N.Y. (AP) -- Dog owners in this town could have their day in court if their pets attack cats or other canines.
Under a new resolution, owners of dogs who make such attacks could be subject to court proceedings or be required to have a $100,000 insurance policy.
A judge could then order a dog euthanized or confined, and could impose fines on the owners of up to $1,000, and possibly misdemeanor charges, Newsday reported Wednesday.
State agricultural law already imposes penalties for dog attacks on cattle, horses and llamas, but does not include dogs and cats.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Persistence didn't pay off for a woman who allegedly tried to cash in an altered lottery ticket.
Danyelle Freda, 21, was charged with forgery and criminal attempt at theft for changing a letter on a scratch-off ticket to make it appear that she had won a $20,000 jackpot.
Freda asked her grandfather to redeem the ticket at a local store, but a clerk there realized the ticket was a forgery and told the man to leave, authorities said.
Authorities said Freda should have quit the scam after the grandfather was rejected.
"If she would have just walked away at this point, it would not have been an issue, but she kept pressing that the ticket was winner," said Sgt. Al Della Fave, a state police spokesman.
When her grandfather returned to the store and tried again, the clerk had the grandfather fill out the required paperwork and hand over the ticket.
The clerk then mailed the ticket to the state Lottery Commission, which determined that the ticket had been forged and notified state police.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- On the theory that a nation's character is reflected in its commodes, Malaysia has set up a committee to monitor the cleanliness of public toilets.
Ong Ka Ting, minister of housing and local government, said Thursday that messy public toilets reflected poorly on the attitude and character of Malaysians in the minds of foreign tourists.
"The attitude of the people has led to this problem," Ong was quoted as saying by the national news agency Bernama. "When they use the toilet, they do not seem to care for the person who will use it next."
The Cabinet decided Wednesday to create a committee to monitor public toilet cleanliness nationwide and to raise public awareness, Ong said.
VAN BUREN, Ark. (AP) -- A man and a woman who police say were drinking when they tried to steal a 44-foot trawler had to be rescued after burning up the boat's engine and running aground.
Although only 30 feet from shore when the mishap occurred, the pair shot off flares.
"They're in waist-deep water, and they're sending off flares," said fisherman Ryan Lawrence of Fort Smith, who helped rescue the pair from the Dos Amigos II.
Danny William Borders Jr., 30, of Irving, Texas, and Melissa Sue Taylor, 33, of Dallas, were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of theft of property. Authorities said both said they had been drinking.
Authorities said the $110,000 boat was stolen Friday. It suffered $40,000 in damage.
8/17/01
Posted in Uncategorized on Friday, August 17, 2001 12:00 am Updated: 10:18 pm.
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