Free Republic

Jan 6, 2001 - 05:47 PM No Jail Time for Woman Accused of Forcing Daughter to Have Abortion The Associated Press FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) - A woman accused of forcing her 16-year-old daughter to go to an abortion clinic will not serve jail time or have a criminal record as part of a plea agreement. Circuit Judge Robert Makemson approved Friday a no-contest plea entered by Glenda Dowis. Prosecutors accepted the plea because Dowis' daughter refused to testify against her mother. "The victim in this case has said she would not cooperate if this case went to trial," ...

Jan 6, 2001 - 09:06 AM Microsoft Shuts Down Web Site With Pornographic Pictures of Children By Lennart Simonsson Associated Press Writer STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Microsoft's Internet service provider shut down a Swedish-language Web site with hundreds of pornographic pictures of children, police said Saturday. The site - one of thousands created by Microsoft Network users - was shut down Friday after police alerted the company in Sweden. Investigators and MSN officials were working to track down the creator of the site, believed to be in Sweden. "We have zero tolerance for this. Personally, I find it downright ...

Storefront autopsy service opposed by its neighbors By Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer TUJUNGA -- At death's door, Vidal Herrera wants to place a welcome mat. An autopsy technician who formed his own business in 1988, Herrera wants to open a storefront headquarters that could be the first of its kind in the nation. But he faces opposition from locals horrified at the idea of body bags and toe tags at his front door. Vidal Herrera had his van painted to advertise his planned autopsy business in Tujunga (Evan Yee / Daily News) Herrera's plans could be buried today by ...

China Developing a Navy That Could Confront U.S. Michael Richardson International Herald Tribune Friday, January 5, 2001 Territorial Issues, Oil and Taiwan Drive Program  SINGAPORE Some time in the next few weeks, a new, Russian-built destroyer, armed with some of the world's fastest and deadliest anti-ship missiles, is expected to pass through the Taiwan Strait on its maiden voyage to join the Chinese Navy.The delivery of the 8,000-ton Sovremenny-class destroyer, carrying Sunburn supersonic missiles that can threaten the defenses of United States warships, including aircraft carriers, will be the latest move by China in a long term strategy to transform ...

MOSCOW, Jan 5, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Israel's President Moshe Katsav is expected to pay a three-day official visit to Moscow, starting January 23, Israeli sources in Moscow told the RIA-Novosti news agency Thursday. Contacted by AFP, the Kremlin declined to confirm the report of Katsav's forthcoming visit, and officials at the Israeli embassy were unavailable for comment. "The program of Moshe Katsav's visit is still being worked out with the Russian side," RIA-Novosti cited its official sources as saying. Russia is a co-sponsor, with the United States, of the Middle East peace process. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse) ...

MOSCOW, Jan 4, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia has developed new technology which will allow military planes to completely escape radar and other tracking systems, researchers were quoted by Itar-Tass Wednesday as saying. The technology consists of a plasma field capable of absorbing the electromagnetic waves emitted by enemy tracking systems, sending back false signals on the plane's speed and position, the Keldysh research center sources said. The nascent Russian system would eclipse the finest of US stealth technology, according to the report. Russia's new fifth-generation MIG fighter planes will be equipped with the new technology, the researchers said. ...

CARDINAL O'CONNOR - post file photo A red-faced Time Out New York magazine yesterday offered an apology to outraged Catholics for saying "good riddance" to John Cardinal O'Connor and calling his death "the best" event of 2000 for homosexuals. In the "Gay and Lesbian" section of its Jan. 4-11 edition, the magazine slammed O'Connor - an outspoken critic of homosexuality - as an "anti-gay menace." The magazine wrote: "Cardinal John O'Connor kicks the bucket: The press eulogized him as a saint, when, in fact, the pious creep was a stuck-in-the-1950s, anti-gay menace. Good riddance!" William Donohue, president of the ...

Grocery Store Guard Kills Shoplifting Suspect The Associated Press SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - A grocery store security guard shot and killed a man who had allegedly run from the store with a dozen stolen steaks in his trousers, police said. The guard said she thought the 39-year-old man was armed, but authorities did not immediately find a weapon. The man was shot in the back behind the store Wednesday night after he stuffed his pants with six sirloins and six boneless ribeyes, total value $103.28. Security guards are supposed to fire their guns only if they believe lives are ...

Stolen Police Files Turn Up in Baltimore County Trash Bin The Associated Press BALTIMORE (AP) - The trail of evidence from a Christmas Eve burglary at a top-secret police office has led to a trash bin behind a doughnut shop. Two bags full of confidential police documents and other items were found in a container behind a Dunkin' Donuts store by a man looking for discarded materials to build a scooter platform for his son. Jim Isbell, 38, said he found police personnel folders and files, a city police officer's Rolodex, surveillance photos, mug shots, video tapes with names ...

Washington Teen Held Without Bail in Family Slaying By Nicholas K. Geranios Associated Press Writer COLVILLE, Wash. (AP) - A 16-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting four members of his family was ordered held without bail and prosecutors said he will likely face first-degree murder charges. William L. Lembcke was ordered Tuesday to remain in the Stevens County Jail. Defense lawyer Patty St. Claire asked for a psychiatric exam to be administered and that her client be segregated from other prisoners. Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said Lembcke will be tried as an adult. The teen is scheduled to ...

Forecasts for a warming trend in the Midwest and Northeast eased concerns that natural-gas supplies might run out if the unusually cold weather persisted all winter. But consumers who are being hit by drastically higher energy bills this winter have little cause for celebration yet. The futures price, on which retail prices are based, remains nearly four times what it was a year ago. And the National Weather Service is still calling for below-normal temperatures in the northern United States for January through March. "The longer-term outlook still looks scary in terms of supply," said Tim Evans, senior energy ...

Bigfoot's Buttocks THE imprint of a hairy backside in the mud of Washington state is the strongest hint yet that Bigfoot is roaming the North American far west, according to researchers who made the discovery. Many people doubt whether the giant primate, commonly known as Bigfoot, actually exists. Hundreds of its supposed footprints have been photographed and cast, but this is one of the few body impressions of the hypothetical creature. Comic: Bigfoot research struggles to be taken seriously [Photo: Moviestore Collection] "If we can just get other scientists to look at this with an objective view, I think they'll ...

Father hacks daughter, then leaps to death Only explanation: holiday depression BY LUISA YANEZ lyanez@herald.com Justo Ferrer greeted the new year armed with a machete and a resolve to kill his daughter and then himself, Miami Police said. He succeeded in the latter. In the city's first domestic tragedy of 2001, Ferrer hacked at his 30-year-old daughter several times early Monday inside the first-floor Allapattah apartment they shared. The woman escaped and ran screaming into the building's lobby at around 8:30 a.m., police said. ``My father wants to kill me!'' Isora Ferrer yelled, as she begged for help from a ...

OH, BEHAVE! "Austin Powers" bombshell Heather Graham trashes the Catholic Church in a new interview, saying it stifled her sexuality when she was growing up. - Mirek Towski/DMI Sexy "Austin Powers" star Heather Graham has come out swinging against the Catholic Church - ripping it as a group of close-minded men who believe a woman's sexuality is "evil." "Organized religion, in my experience, has been destructive," Graham, 30, tells the February issue of Talk magazine. "Why do I have to do what all these men are saying? Why is a woman's sexuality supposed to be so evil?" She adds ...

Remains of 33 Egyptian Victims From EgyptAir Crash Returned to Egypt By Sarah El Deeb Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The first remains of Egyptian victims of EgyptAir Flight 990 arrived home Saturday, more than a year after the plane bound from New York to Cairo crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Among them were the remains of co-pilot Gamil El-Batouty - who U.S. authorities suggested put the Boeing 767 into its fatal dive - which were being buried in a family plot. Officials at Cairo International Airport confirmed the return of 33 sets of remains, including those of ...

Despite being sure he was about to die, he leaped from his business class seat and rushed into the cockpit to find a tall Kenyan man trying to crash the plane and the pilots trying in vain to stop him. Bynum, a former Clemson University basketball player, used his 6-foot-7-inch frame to grab the Kenyan and wrestle him to the floor. "There were literally hundreds of people back home praying for us, knowing we were going on this (church) mission trip (to Uganda). There was this strength within that made me get up and go. It came from God," ...

Stunning UFO Photo Over Popocatepetl Volcano Dec 22, 2000 - A professional photographer for the Mexican newspaper Milenio took a remarkable photograph of a brightly lighted object racing toward the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City on Tuesday, December 19 at 6:10 AM. The photograph is a 20 sec. time exposure taken with a 24 MM lens. This accounts for the streak that reveals the object's trajectory. It was not a digital photograph. No aircraft were present in the area at the time. The photographer did not see the object while he was making the shot, only observing it after the ...

F ort Polk, Louisiana I went onto the base and asked for the head of public relations. She was a very friendly and helpful non-military person. She was hired from the civilian community to present the military in light of her honest belief concerning it. She believed the regular personnel were very loyal and courteous young men and women. I personally met with many of the enlisted personnel and agreed with her 100%. She brought me up to date on many of the military exercises conducted at Fort Polk. One such exercise was conducted in 1995 and again in 1997. ...

Reactions were mixed to Friday's reversal by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "People of Louisiana should rise up in rightful indignation over this unbelievable, unjust and horrible pro-criminal decision," said James Sandifer, of Common Sense Against Crime, a victim advocacy group. Keith Nordyke, who has represented inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola in two class-action lawsuits, said if anyone deserves another chance, it is Rideau. "I don't mean at all to depreciate the nature of the crime and the seriousness of the offense. But if there is such a thing as rehabilitation, he is someone ...

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) - A civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense was shot and killed and a U.S. Marine injured early Saturday in an apparent carjacking in this West African country, a U.S. Embassy official said. The American defense official, a retired military officer, was attacked about 1 a.m. as he was leaving a popular restaurant frequented by Niger's expatriate community with a group of U.S. Embassy employees, the Embassy official said on condition of anonymity. Witnesses said two unidentified men armed with an automatic rifle and a pistol opened fire on the defense official as he was ...