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ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- Florida prosecutors charged an astronaut Friday with trying to kidnap a woman she saw as a rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections, but they declined to file an attempted murder charge that had been recommended by police. Lisa Nowak, 43, was formally charged almost a month after she was arrested at an Orlando airport parking lot. Police have said the Houston mother of three had raced 900 miles in her car from Texas to Orlando on February 5 to confront the woman. She reportedly donned a wig and trench coat, then sprayed a chemical into...

Colleen Shipman said the protective order against the astronaut is no longer necessary. The Associated Press HOUSTON - A woman has withdrawn a request for a protective order against an astronaut charged with attacking her because she considered her a romantic rival. Colleen Shipman, 30, an Air Force captain from Florida, dropped her bid for a petition for "protection against repeat violence" Thursday, officials said Friday. Shipman said in court documents that the order against Lisa Nowak was no longer necessary. As a condition of her release from jail, Nowak was fitted with an electronic monitor on her ankle. It...

Check out JealousAstronaut.com and prepare to laugh your space helmet off.

As True Crime goes, things get slow. Then, like last week, all hell breaks loose. Anna Nicole…could this fellow known as Howard K. Stern really be killing people in front of our lying eyes? How comes he's the only fellow around when people about him are dying? Consider me the Greta of the Internet I am so on this story. And how about the diaper-clad astronaut? We've got lots on that this week. Mike Devlin charges frevealed and the Duke Grand Jury speaks out. The big Networks all had Corbin stories...this would be the murdering Dentist from Georgia. We've got...

We can learn something about life from the Lisa Nowak story. ================ Poor Robochick! There is probably some high moral reason that I shouldn’t feel sorry for astronaut Lisa Nowak, who is now charged with attempted murder and kidnapping, but I just can’t help it. And lots of people I know are also riveted by this tale, straight out of Desperate Housewives, filled with so many kooky soap-opera touches. The wig. The pepper spray. The diaper. And maybe, worst of all, the object of her affections, a “Top Gun” pilot with the unfortunate nickname of “Billy-O.” Sure, I know that...

You knew this was coming. The strange saga of the astronaut who traveled 900 miles to allegedly try to murder a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut will be turned into a movie. Granada America has optioned the film rights to a New York Times article on Lisa Nowak, 43, who was arrested Monday and charged with attempted murder. Nowak, a Navy captain and mother of three, wore diapers during her trip so she wouldn't have to stop for bathroom breaks. Once in Orlando, she confronted Colleen Shipman, whom she believed was involved in a relationship with Navy...

AS A FORMER NASA astronaut training manager responsible for crew training for shuttle missions, I was not entirely surprised by the initial reports of the sad, bizarre case of Lisa Marie Nowak. This isn't the first case of astronauts having difficulties in their personal lives. Usually, the straying astronaut simply resigns or retires, and everything is hushed up. But being charged with assault, attempted kidnapping and attempted murder is far greater than anything I ever observed or imagined could occur. Perhaps this tragedy will bring some of the agency's long-ignored problems into the open. First is the tremendous and unnecessary...

[A] Florida court had ordered that 43 year-old Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, KC5ZTB, who was facing charges of attempted kidnapping and battery, could be freed on bail. However, the introduction of the more serious charge that she intended to murder Colleen Shipman reverses that. More at: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2007/astronaut_love_kidnap_plot.htm

Excerpt - HOUSTON - Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three. Her background — high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot — seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense. On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment, a day after she was charged in Florida with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depicted as a love triangle...

Did huge career pressures aid astronaut's undoing? 16:39 07 February 2007 NewScientist.com news service Kathleen M Wong The family of Lisa Nowak says her alleged attempt to kidnap and murder a woman she considered her romantic rival was 'completely out of character' (Image: NASA) US astronaut Lisa Nowak's fall from grace – she is accused of trying to kidnap and kill a woman she considered a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut – has raised a plethora of unanswered questions from a shocked public. Chief among them: how someone who passed the stringent psychological screening required to become...

This cannot be a happy day at the NASA press office. Lisa Nowak, 43, drove hundreds of miles to confront a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut, Bill Oefelein, according to police. (Photos: NASA)It is always awkward answering questions when one of your employees is arrested. It becomes still more awkward when the employee is an astronaut. And it gets really, really awkward when, as the Times’ Christine Hauser reports, the employee is accused by police of driving from Houston to Orlando in diapers, arming herself with a BB gun and pepper spray, donning a wig and trench...

The bizarre arrest of NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak Monday cast in sharp relief the guidelines governing civilian and military spaceflyers. Police arrested Nowak, a U.S. Navy captain and mother of three, in Orlando, Florida early Monday, where she is charged with the attempted kidnapping of a romantic rival for the affections of NASA space shuttle pilot William Oefelein. Nowak also faces a charge of attempted first-degree murder based on items recovered by police at the time of her arrest, Orlando police said Tuesday. Both Nowak and Oefelein, a Navy Commander, are active U.S. Navy personnel attached to NASA, a civilian...

Ms Nowak said she did not intend to harm Ms Shipman A US astronaut has been charged with trying to kidnap a woman she thought was a rival for the affection of a space shuttle pilot. Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew to the international space station last July, was charged with attempted kidnapping, battery and other crimes. She drove from Texas to Florida to confront Colleen Shipman, disguised in a wig and trench coat. Police said Capt Nowak, who was denied bail, used pepper spray on Ms Shipman. The man in the love triangle was said to...

GENEVA - Torture in Iraq may be worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners, the U.N. anti-torture chief said Thursday. Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, made the remarks as he was presenting a report on detainee conditions at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay as well as to brief the U.N. Human Rights Council, the global body's top rights watchdog, on torture worldwide. Reports from Iraq indicate that torture "is totally out of hand," he said. "The situation is so bad...

US faces prison ship allegations The United Nations says it has learned of serious allegations that the US is secretly detaining terrorism suspects, notably on American military ships. The special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak said the accusations were rumours at this stage, but urged the US to co-operate in an investigation. He said the UN wants lists of the places of detention and those held. The comments come five days after the UN accused the US of stalling on their requests to visit Guantanamo Bay. Investigators have been asking to visit the jail in Cuba to carry out checks...

WARSAW, Poland - Poland is ready to compromise in the deadlock over a European Union constitution but will not be pressured into concessions, its foreign minister said Wednesday. Poland lost its main ally in the EU constitutional debate with Sunday's election defeat of Spain's conservative government, which joined Warsaw in blocking the draft charter in an attempt to gain greater voting rights in EU decisions. "I declare readiness for compromise ... in which each side is ready to make some concessions for the partners," Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told state radio. But, he added, "No one can force Poland into...

TARNOW, Poland – Poland vowed Monday to keep troops in Iraq and warned Spain's incoming government that its plan to pull out could be seen as weakness in the face of terror after the Madrid bombings. Poland has 2,400 troops in Iraq and commands a 9,000-strong division of troops from 24 nations, including 1,300 Spanish soldiers, in a central-south zone. "Revising our positions on Iraq after terrorist attacks would be to admit that terrorists are stronger and that they are right," Prime Minister Leszek Miller told a news conference in the Polish town of Tarnow. Spain had been due to...

<p>BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) -- Poland has vowed not to pull troops out of Iraq because of "terrorist" attacks and said it was willing to remain in command of a stabilisation force there if Spain, which had been due to take over, withdrew.</p>