Free Republic

NEW YORK – The lead lawyer for thousands of Sept. 11 rescue and recovery workers has acknowledged that in preparing some claims, his firm made mistakes — including assertions that people had cancer when they didn't. But the attorney, Paul Napoli, said the errors all occurred at preliminary stages of the case, are being corrected and won't have any bearing on the outcome. He characterized the mistakes as few and accidental, caused by a crushing workload and a rush to meet court deadlines. "We are not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes," .. Napoli's firm, Worby Groner Edelman...

Reporting from Naples, Italy - In most respects, it was a typical mob shootout: members of feuding clans facing down their rivals on the main street of the small town of Lauro, exchanging gunfire from their cars until three people lay dead and four others wounded. The difference, though, was that the battle between the Cava and Graziano families involved women only. As townspeople looked on in horror, two mothers in their 50s and a 16-year-old girl were slain in their Audi on the streets of the Naples-area community. Yet even after the deadly 2002 firefight, prosecutors were slow to...

There was intense competition today to rescue items, many of them worth considerable amounts of money, from containers washed ashore from a stricken freighter. There were reports of threats and squabbling as people sought to secure the most valuable items, including £12,000 brand new BMW motorcycles. As news of the wreckage spread, people travelled from as far away as 60 miles to Branscombe beach in east Devon to see investigate. Goods washed ashore included a container which split apart to reveal 20 of the K1200GT motorcycles. Groups of men man-handled the heavy machines 500 metres up the beach to the...

Miracle of San Gennaro repeatedDried blood of Naples' patron saint liquefies (ANSA) - Naples, September 19 - Thousands of people packed into this city's cathedral Monday morning to watch the blood of patron saint San Gennaro liquefy in the repetition of a centuries-old 'miracle.' The miracle officially took place at 09.56 (07.56gmt) and was announced by the archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Michele Giordano, who held up a phial containing the blood while a white handkerchief was waved from the altar to the applause of the crowd. This year the miracle took on special importance because it marked 1,700 years from...