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Helen Carey Collins, 88, devoted, hardworking motherBy Gayle Ronan Sims Inquirer Staff Writer Helen Carey Collins raised nine children in a 2-bedroom house. Helen Carey Collins' life was marked by hard times, hard work and devotion to her family. She was sent to an orphanage when she was 2, she went to work in a factory when she was 14, and she reared nine children in a two-bedroom rowhouse in Pennsport. And after her children were old enough to take care of themselves, she returned to working in factories. Mrs. Collins, 88, died Sunday of diabetes and hypertension at the...

Luckily for us, 3/5 of the people who were in our larger shelters here have been relocated to better housing. Bob has now worked both the Reliant Park area and the Convention Center and I have worked the Convention Center. Second Baptist has organized the interfaith effort there and is now effectively in charge of that entire shelter. When I was there at 4:00 in the afternoon, there was no one there from either the Red Cross or FEMA and they left the volunteers at the information area no good information about their processes and plans. Red Cross left an...

A 17-year-old youth walked into an Italian restaurant in Burlington, N.J., to order two large pizzas. Emblazoned on his white T-shirt was a large yellow smiley face with the tip of a cat's tail protruding from of the smiley's mouth. Beneath the design was an explicitly depraved, three-word sentence that would offend almost any woman. "I will not take your order so long as you are wearing that shirt," the counter woman told the customer. "Get your mind out of the gutter," the youth shouted at her. "Get that shirt out of my store," the woman yelled. "Does your mother...

The Pope believes the Harry Potter books "distort Christianity in the soul", according to two letters published on the internet. The comments were made to a German author who wrote Harry Potter - Good or Evil? which criticises J K Rowling's best-selling series. Gabriele Kuby sent Pope Benedict XVI a copy of the book in 2003, when he was still a cardinal, and the pontiff's replies have now been published. "It is good that you enlighten people about Harry Potter because these are subtle seductions which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can...

Thai Man Commits Suicide With Super Glue A young Thai man with a history of moodiness has killed himself by gluing his mouth and nose shut with super glue. Bangkok police say the young man's body was found Thursday morning in his bedroom, apparently after suffocating overnight. They say a small amount of cash and a note saying "Here is all that I have, take what you please" were also found on the bed. The man's family told police he had argued with his sister a day earlier over some money she'd borrowed and not repaid. He went into his...

With the Nov. 2 presidential election looming on the horizon and their candidate down as many as six points in the latest Virginia polls, Sen. John Kerry's campaign has recently removed nearly two dozen staffers from the Commonwealth. The Kerry campaign will not close any of its Virginia offices, but approximately 22 out of 33 paid campaign workers are being transferred to battleground states such as Nevada and Wisconsin, where the contest is much closer, said Jonathan Beeton, Kerry's spokesperson in Virginia. The removal of staffers, following an advertising withdrawal by Kerry two weeks ago, is another blow to Democratic...