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A MAJOR investigation has been launched at a Dublin hospital after the remains of a British tourist were sent home containing two hearts and four lungs. The organs were discovered inside the body of 55-year-old Louis Selo during a second post-mortem examination in the UK. Mr Selo, from New Malden in Surrey, died of a massive heart attack at Dublin Airport on 2 August. Mr Selo hit the headlines five years ago when he flew his son to Australia for extremely rare brain surgery.

SACRAMENTO – Mexican President Vicente Fox said yesterday that the U.S. Senate vote for sweeping changes in immigration policy is a “monumental step forward” and vowed that his country will continue to improve its economy so Mexicans will have less incentive to cross the border. His remarks to a joint session of the California Legislature drew applause from Democrats, while Republicans largely remained silent as they wore yellow no más lapel buttons – a protest for “no more” illegal immigration. “It is a moment that millions of families have been hoping for,” Fox said of the Senate action. “This is...

A judge is considering a challenge to an Arizona law creating the state crime of immigrant smuggling, an offense that has drawn about 100 prosecutions and is criticized because it has been used mostly on the customers of smugglers. Lawyers for nearly all of the first 48 immigrants charged under the 9-month-old law argued the Legislature never intended it to be used on their clients for paying someone to bring them into Arizona, the nation's busiest illegal entry point. They also called the law an unconstitutional attempt by the state to regulate immigration, a legal area they contend is under...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An attorney for two seventh-graders and their families argued to a federal appeals court that a Contra Costa County school district violated the students' rights by forcing them to adopt Muslim names and recite Islamic prayers in a roleplaying exercise. "The children were supposed to become Muslims. They were acting as a Muslim would act," attorney Edward White of the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian defense organization, told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday. The families were appealing a 2003 ruling by a federal judge...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices heard arguments Monday over whether a Michigan law barring the state from paying for appeals for indigent defendants who plead guilty discriminates against the poor. Michigan is the only state with such a law. However, 17 states are backing its case, and advocates for the poor are worried those states will pass similar laws if Michigan prevails. Before the court was the case of Antonio Dwayne Halbert, who pleaded no contest in 2001 to two child molestation charges and received up to 30 years in prison. Halbert, who has learning disabilities, has unsuccessfully sought a...

UNITED NATIONS - Before a vast assembly of world leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) on Tuesday criticized the violation of basic laws around the globe — from cold-blooded massacres and prisoner abuses in Iraq (news - web sites) to the seizing of children in Russia and widespread rape in Sudan. "Today the rule of law is at risk around the world," Annan said. "Again and again, we see fundamental laws shamelessly disregarded — those that ordain respect for innocent life, for civilians, for the vulnerable — especially children." President Bush (news - web sites) and Iraq's...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - More than two dozen environmental representatives went into their first face-to-face meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday preparing to express some disappointment in his administration, but came out reassured by his renewed pledge of commitment to their goals. "There's a lot of high hopes," Kim Delfino of Defenders of Wildlife said after the hour-long meeting at the Capitol. "We've got the possibility of having some really good things come out of this administration, but only time will tell." A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman said the governor is committed to creating jobs and improving the state's business climate without...

A mother listened on the phone as her estranged husband killed himself and their four young children, an inquest has heard. Farm labourer Keith Young, 38, drove his boys Joshua, seven, Thomas, six, Callum, five and Daniel, three to a beauty spot near Llangollen, North Wales. Mr Young, from Winsford, Cheshire, then gassed them by running a petrol lawnmower in the back of the family car. He was separated from his wife Samantha but was seeing the boys on an access visit. At an inquest in Wrexham, North East Wales, coroner John Hughes recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on...

<p>LOS ANGELES — California's high-stakes recall election has another court date Monday, when a federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments by the American Civil Liberties Union (search) that using outdated punch card machines (search) threatens to disenfranchise minorities.</p> <p>"Democracy in California should not hang by a chad," said ACLU attorney Mark Rosenbaum, referring to the small pieces of paper that voters punch out of ballots that were blamed for problems in Florida in the 2000 presidential election.</p>