Current News (Part 4)

[Littledragon]

(I'm not too impressed with the search dogs at this point-when she was first missing)

Body of missing Florida girl foundSaturday, March 19, 2005 Updated at 10:09 AM EST

Associated Press


Homosassa, Fla. — The body of a missing 9-year-old girl was found early Saturday, more than three weeks after she disappeared from her bedroom and a day after officials said a registered sex offender said he kidnapped and killed the girl.

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said Jessica Lunsford's body was found during an overnight search in a densely wooded area, only about 150 yards away from the home the girl shared with her father and grandparents.

"In the early morning hours, somewhere between 3:30 and 4:30, we recovered Jessica," Sherrif Dawsy said.

About an hour before Sherrif Dawsy's announcement, Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, issued a brief, emotional statement to reporters. He visited the search scene shortly after sunrise.



"Everyone heard me say, time after time, that she would be home," Mr. Lunsford said, his eyes hidden behind dark black sunglasses. "She's home now."

John Evander Couey, 46, confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica after taking a lie-detector test Friday in Georgia, Mr. Dawsy said.

"We're en route to bring him back home," Mr. Dawsy said.

That is terrible news!! I am a strong believer that children should learn self defense to fight kidnappers. Instead of learning how a flower re produces and all that useless stuff in school, they should learn how to prevent a pevert from kidnapping them. That is ridiculous.

 

[Littledragon]

(I'm not too impressed with the search dogs at this point-when she was first missing)

Body of missing Florida girl foundSaturday, March 19, 2005 Updated at 10:09 AM EST

Associated Press


Homosassa, Fla. — The body of a missing 9-year-old girl was found early Saturday, more than three weeks after she disappeared from her bedroom and a day after officials said a registered sex offender said he kidnapped and killed the girl.

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said Jessica Lunsford's body was found during an overnight search in a densely wooded area, only about 150 yards away from the home the girl shared with her father and grandparents.

"In the early morning hours, somewhere between 3:30 and 4:30, we recovered Jessica," Sherrif Dawsy said.

About an hour before Sherrif Dawsy's announcement, Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, issued a brief, emotional statement to reporters. He visited the search scene shortly after sunrise.



"Everyone heard me say, time after time, that she would be home," Mr. Lunsford said, his eyes hidden behind dark black sunglasses. "She's home now."

John Evander Couey, 46, confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica after taking a lie-detector test Friday in Georgia, Mr. Dawsy said.

"We're en route to bring him back home," Mr. Dawsy said.

Article from CNN:
HOMOSASSA SPRINGS, Florida (CNN) -- Law enforcement officials announced Saturday that they have found the remains of missing 9-year-old Florida girl Jessica Lunsford.

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said searchers recovered what they believe to be the remains of Jessica's body between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Saturday.

John Evander Couey -- a 46-year-old convicted sex offender -- confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica after a lie-detector test Friday, Sheriff Dawsy said.

According to police, Couey told them he buried the girl behind his sister's home.


Sheriff Dawsy said that's where Jessica's remains were found.

In announcing that development Saturday, Dawsy called Couey "a piece of trash" and said he wants to see him "get the death penalty."

The sheriff also said police are searching for four people who he says are wanted for possible obstruction of the investigation of Jessica's disappearance.

Jessica has been missing for three weeks from her home in Homosassa, Florida.

Jessica's distraught father said earlier Saturday that his daughter is "home now," but made no reference to the discovery of her remains.

"Everyone heard me say time after time that she would be home," said Mark Lunsford, choking back tears. "Well, she's home now. It's over...She's right here with me."

Lunsford said he wanted to tell all parents to "make sure you get that hug and kiss every day before you leave the house."

On Friday, three weeks after Jessica Lunsford disappeared from her home, authorities said a convicted sex offender who had fled to Georgia confessed to kidnapping and killing her.

As the search for Jessica's body continued under bright lights erected just across the street from her home, police were questioning four people described as associates of Couey, who has a long criminal history.

Dawsy said Couey made the confession after undergoing an FBI-administered polygraph test.

"At the end of the polygraph, he (Couey) says, 'You don't need to tell me the results. I already know what they are,'" Dawsy said.

Couey then asked that investigators come back into the room and "apologized to the investigators for wasting their time," the sheriff said.

"John Couey admitted to abducting Jessica and subsequently taking her life," Dawsy told reporters. "I've got my man ... We are now in a major criminal case."

Law enforcement sources told CNN that Couey said he buried the girl behind his sister's home, located across the street from the Lunsfords, where he had been staying.

Dawsy said Mark Lunsford, and the girl's mother, Angela Bryant, who lives in Ohio, had been notified of the development.

"This is a very tough time, not only for me, it's a very tough time for the family," the sheriff said, his voice cracking.

Bryant, trying to choke back tears, said a police investigator called her with the news of Jessica's death. She planned to travel to Florida Sunday.

"He said that the man that they had been questioning admitted what he had done and he took my daughter's life," she told reporters.

"He will pay, he will pay for hurting those children out there and my daughter. He will pay. He deserves everything he gets coming to him," said Bryant, who said she woke up early Friday "and felt something was wrong."

"I love her. I always have and I always will. ... I'll see her again. I will."

Couey late Friday remained in the custody of authorities in Georgia. Dawsy said he was working with the state's attorney about the extradition process, adding that they have built "a very methodical case."

Sex offender's 'associates' questioned
Citrus County Sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney said four people who were "associates" of Couey were taken to police headquarters Friday evening for questioning, following a lookout posted for them. She did not disclose what significance investigators placed on them.

Outside the home where Couey lived, authorities sealed off the area with yellow crime scene tape and sheriff's deputies could be seen combing the area.

Jessica Marie Lunsford was last seen on February 23 when friends dropped her off after going to church and her grandmother tucked her in to bed for the night in the family's home in Homosassa Springs. She was missing the next morning.

The case had puzzled investigators because there was no sign of forced entry. Jessica's room was intact with no signs of a struggle, but a stuffed animal her dad won for her at a state fair was missing. And except for an unlocked front door, the home where she lived with her father and grandparents was undisturbed.

Arrest made in Georgia
A relative told detectives that Couey left Florida February 28 on a bus -- under an assumed name -- for Savannah, where he was interviewed by police Saturday at a shelter. Savannah police had no jurisdiction to hold him, and he eventually made his way to Augusta, more than 100 miles away where he was arrested at a Salvation Army shelter.

Couey has a criminal record spanning more than three decades and 24 arrests. Interviews with Couey began Thursday in Georgia, when authorities spoke with him for almost four hours, and resumed early Friday. He had been arrested on probation violation charges.

Couey was among a number of sex offenders whom police looked for after Jessica was reported missing, authorities said. When they went to the residence where he was mostly recently registered as living, he could not be found, and authorities determined that he was living with his relatives across from the Lunsford home.

Couey was registered in Citrus County as a sex offender, and under state law, a convicted sex offender must register any change of address.

CNN Correspondent Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

Brain-Damaged Woman's Feeding Tube Removed




By MITCH STACY, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - With a furious legal and
political battle raging outside her hospice room,
doctors removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube Friday
after an unprecedented attempt by Congress to keep the
brain-damaged woman alive was rebuffed.



The move came after Republicans on Capitol Hill used
their subpoena power to try demand that Schiavo be
brought before a congressional hearing, saying
removing the tube amounted to "barbarism." The
attorney for Schiavo's husband shot back at a news
conference, calling the subpoenas "nothing short of
thuggery."


"It was odious, it was shocking, it was disgusting and
I think all Americans should be very alarmed about
that," George Felos said.


The judge presiding over the case ruled in the
husband's favor early Friday afternoon and rejected
the request from House attorneys to delay the removal,
which he had previously ordered to take place at 1
p.m. EST. Felos said Michael Schiavo was at his wife's
side shortly after the tube was disconnected.


The removal of the tube signals that an end may be
near in a decade-long family feud between Schiavo's
husband and her devoutly Roman Catholic parents, Bob
and Mary Schindler. The parents have been trying to
oust Michael Schiavo as their daughter's guardian and
keep in place the tube that has kept her alive for
more than 15 years.


Michael Schiavo says his wife told him she would not
want to be kept alive artificially. Her parents
dispute that, saying she could get better and that
their daughter has laughed, cried, smiled and
responded to their voices. Court-appointed physicians
testified her brain damage was so severe that there
was no hope she would ever have any cognitive
abilities.


The family is still hoping for a long-shot legal
victory to have the tube re-inserted.


Several right-to-die cases across the nation have been
fought in the courts in recent years, but few, if any,
have been this drawn-out and bitter.


The case has garnered attention around the world and
served as a rallying cry for conservative Christian
groups and anti-abortion activists, who flooded
members of Congress and Florida legislators with
messages seeking to keep Schiavo alive.


Outside Schiavo's hospice, about 30 people keeping
vigil dropped to their knees in prayer when word
spread of the judge's ruling calling for removal of
the tube.


White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President
Bush (news - web sites) discussed the case with his
brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and members of the
state's congressional delegation during his swing
through Florida on Friday to discuss Social Security
(news - web sites) reform.


"We're continuing to monitor developments," McClellan
said. "The president believes when there are serious
questions or doubts in a case like this that the
presumption ought to be in favor of life."


Gov. Jeb Bush said the judge's decision "breaks my
heart" and noted that it often takes two decades for a
death row inmate's appeals to go through the system.


"There's this rush to starve her to death," Bush said
of Terri Schiavo.


But Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) of
California, senior Democrat on the Government Reform
Committee, called the subpoenas a "flagrant abuse of
power" and said they amounted to Congress dictating
the medical care Terri Schiavo should receive.


"Congress is turning the Schiavo family's personal
tragedy into a national political farce," Waxman said.






Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when a
chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating
disorder caused her heart to stop beating for a few
minutes. She can breathe on her own, but has relied on
the feeding and hydration tube to keep her alive.

Both sides accused each other of being motivated by
greed over a $1 million medical malpractice award from
doctors who failed to diagnose the chemical imbalance.


The Schindlers also said that Michael Schiavo wants
their daughter dead so he can marry his longtime
girlfriend, with whom he has young children. They have
begged him to divorce their daughter, and let them
care for her.

The tangled case has encompassed at least 19 judges in
at least six different courts.

In 2001, Schiavo went without food and water for two
days before a judge ordered the tube reinserted when a
new witness surfaced.

When the tube was removed in October 2003, her parents
and two siblings frantically sought intervention from
Gov Jeb. Bush to stop her slow starvation. The
governor pushed through "Terri's Law," and six days
later the tube was reinserted.

That set off a new round of legal battles which
culminated in September 2004 with the Florida Supreme
Court (news - web sites) ruling that Bush had
overstepped his authority and declared the law
unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) has been
unwilling to hear arguments in the case.

On Feb. 25, Circuit Judge George Greer gave Michael
Schiavo permission to order the removal of the feeding
tube Friday.

"I have had no cogent reason why the (congressional)
committee should intervene," Greer told attorneys in a
conference call Friday, adding that last-minute action
by Congress does not invalidate years of court
rulings.

In Tallahassee, the Florida House on Thursday passed a
bill to block the withholding of food and water from
patients in a persistent vegetative state who did not
leave specific instructions on their care. Hours
later, however, the Senate defeated a different
measure 21-16.



Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc.

CNN Article:
PINELLAS PARK, Florida (CNN) -- The feeding tube for the brain-damaged Florida woman at the center of a bitter moral and legal tug of war was disconnected Friday afternoon, and her husband's lawyer pleaded, "She has a right to die in peace."

The dramatic moment seemed to cap an emotional day in which Terri Schiavo's husband, parents, the courts and members of Congress waded into the battle over the woman's fate.

But late Friday, lawyers for the House of Representatives filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to intervene in the case.

Justice Anthony Kennedy has jurisdiction over emergency appeals in cases arising in the 11th U.S. Circuit, where Schiavo's case is being played out.

That appeal was later denied without comment.

The court made the decision at 11:05 p.m. after the justices conferred by telephone. There was no breakdown of the vote.

David Gibbs, an attorney for Schiavo's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, said the family is appealing to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on an expedited basis and pressing Congress to sort out legislation, while also lobbying the Florida Legislature to pass a law to intervene.

"We're now up against a very tight clock because Terri is in the process of being starved to death," Gibbs said. "It is looking more and more like Washington, D.C., or [the state capital of] Tallahassee is going to have to step forward and save Terri's life."

He added, "The family is heartsick. This is their daughter. This is their loved one. This is their sister. And they are watching her suffer, in their opinion, a death that she shouldn't have to face."

The tube was disconnected about 1:45 p.m., George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, told reporters. Friday's medical procedure was the third time the tube had been disconnected from the 41-year-old woman.

Present were her doctor, a number of other health care providers and a representative of her husband and guardian, Felos said. He said Terri Schiavo, who is Roman Catholic, received the sacrament of Communion from a hospice priest before the tube was disconnected.

"I am told that it was an emotional occasion. Prayers were said at the time, and the feeding tube was disconnected," Felos told reporters. "Mr. Schiavo currently is with his wife, at her bedside."

"It was a very calm, peaceful procedure," he said.

Without liquids, it could take Schiavo two to four weeks to die from dehydration.

Felos said Terri's parents, who have been trying to become their daughter's guardians and have fought Michael Schiavo's desire to let his wife die, can visit their daughter at the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in Pinellas Park.

"They are free to visit her right now. I want to be absolutely clear about that," Felos said. "There is no effort whatsoever to restrict their visitation. They can go and visit her now. They can stay as long as they want."

The disconnecting of the feeding tube was the latest step in a contentious family saga that began 15 years ago, when Terri Schiavo collapsed from heart failure that resulted in severe brain damage. Lower courts have ruled that she is in a "persistent vegetative state."

Seven years ago, Schiavo's husband and her parents began a legal tug-of-war over whether to have her feeding tube removed and allow her to die. The case has drawn national attention and rallied activists on both sides of the right-to-die debate.

Michael Schiavo contends his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially. But her parents argue she had no such death wish and believe she could get better with rehabilitation.

Terri Schiavo did not leave anything in writing about what she would want if she ever became incapacitated. Over the years, courts have sided with her husband in more than a dozen cases.

There had been an attempt by the Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House to block the removal of Terri's feeding tube, which Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer had ordered earlier Friday. That order was stayed briefly when Greer could not be found to participate in a conference call with attorneys.

The House committee's measures came after bills aimed at saving Schiavo's life stalled in Congress and in the Florida Legislature.

But Greer reinstated his order to have the tube removed, saying it should be done "forthwith."

Felos said other legal efforts still are under way to have the feeding tube reconnected. He said the deputy clerk at the Florida Supreme Court said a petition for relief filed there by the House was denied.

He, Greer and Michael Schiavo also were served Friday in a federal district court action in the Middle District of Florida in a lawsuit brought by Terri's parents. Another lawsuit also has been filed in federal district court, but he said he had no information on it.

Attorney: Congressional 'thuggery'
Felos called the House interference "thuggery" and said Terri Schiavo was "a pawn in a political football game."

"Mrs. Schiavo had a right to choose her own course," he added.

Schiavo's feeding tube has been removed twice before, most recently in 2003. That year, Gov. Jeb Bush pushed a law through the Florida Legislature that authorized the woman's feedings to resume, six days after a court stopped them. The Florida Supreme Court later ruled the law unconstitutional.

CNN's Ninette Sosa, Carol Lin, Ted Barrett, Joe Johns, Rich Phillips and Jen Yuille contributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

China mine: 17 dead, 52 trapped.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A gas explosion in a northern Chinese coal mine on Saturday killed at least 17 miners and trapped 52 others, state media said, in the latest tragedy to strike the world's deadliest mining industry.

Two miners had been rescued after the blast hit the Xishui Colliery near the city of Shuozhou in Shanxi province, a major coal-producing region, the China News Service said.

Officials with the mine, local government and police could not be reached for comment, but an official with a city hospital said rescue work was underway but that he had not yet seen any injured people.

Provincial Governor Zhang Baoshun was on his way to the scene to direct rescue and investigative work, the official Xinhua news agency said.

China's coal mines are the world's deadliest. Last year, more than 6,000 miners were killed in explosions and accidents.

Saturday's explosion came just two days after a blast in a coal mine in the southwestern city of Chongqing killed at least 18 miners.

After a string of recent mine disasters, including the worst in half a century that killed 214 people in February, Beijing pledged earlier this month to spend more than 50 billion yuan ($6.1 billion) in the coming years to improve safety.

China's fast-growing economy relies on coal for most of its energy needs, and mines have tried to crank up production as prices soar amid booming demand.

Many of China's mining deaths occur in small, privately owned pits that frequently evade Beijing's attempts to regulate them and impose safety standards.

The Xishui mine had annual output of 150,000 tonnes a year, Xinhua said.

 

[Littledragon]

Bush: Toppling Saddam inspired democracy in MIddle East.

WACO, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. military victory against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq gets the credit for "inspiring democratic reformers from Beirut to Tehran," President Bush said Saturday.

"Today, women can vote in Afghanistan, Palestinians are breaking the old patterns of violence, and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are rising up to demand their sovereignty and democratic rights," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"These are landmark events in the history of freedom," he said.

With his primary rationale for the war -- Saddam's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction -- discredited, Bush has turned to the argument that the war in Iraq was justified because it freed the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator and now gives the Middle East a model for democracy.

Bush said "the Iraqi people are taking charge of their own destiny," citing the country's first free and fair elections in its modern history, this week's first meeting of the Transitional National Assembly and the upcoming drafting of a constitution for a "free and democratic Iraq."

Against that progress, insurgents have carried on a relentless campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings while rampant crime, power outages, unemployment over 50 percent and a fuel crisis in one of the world's prime oil-exporting countries continues.

Even as the Iraqi legislators convened, they did not set a new date to meet reconvene, elect a speaker or nominate a president and vice president.

Some have questioned Bush's repeated claims that recent democratic developments in several global hotspots are due to both the Iraq war and his second-term drive to push for reforms in friend and foe.

Still, the president has pointed to democratic gains in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, as well as the relatively peaceful elections in Iraq.

"Today we're seeing hopeful signs across the broader Middle East," Bush said. "The victory of freedom in Iraq is strengthening a new ally in the war on terror, and inspiring democratic reformers from Beirut to Tehran."

The president saluted military personnel who died in Iraq, numbering more than 1,500 since the start of the war in March 2003, and the families who have endured long separations from loved ones.

"I know that nothing can end the pain of the families who have lost loved ones in this struggle, but they can know that their sacrifice has added to America's security and the freedom of the world," he said. "Because of our actions, freedom is taking root in Iraq, and the American people are more secure."

Bush is spending the weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, arriving there Friday night after a day traveling in Florida to pitch his plans to overhaul Social Security.

On Monday, he embarks on a two-day trip in the West to continue pitching his Social Security proposals and then returns to his ranch for meetings Wednesday with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Afterward, Bush plans to spend the rest of Easter week at the ranch before going back to Washington.

 

[Littledragon]

Violence marks 2nd anniversary of war.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents Saturday marked the second anniversary of the beginning of war in Iraq by killing two Iraqi contractors working for the U.S. Army in a drive-by shooting and three Iraqi police officers in a bombing.

President Bush marked day with an impassioned speech defending the invasion and the ensuing U.S.-led operation, which ousted the Saddam Hussein regime and is trying to help establish a democratic political system. (Full story)

"Now, because we acted, Iraq's government is no longer a threat to the world or its own people," Bush said, delivering his weekly radio address.

But across the globe, demonstrators congregated to protest the U.S.-led actions, which they said have caused needless bloodshed and failed to uncover weapons of mass destruction -- a major reason for the invasion.

Protests marking the second anniversary of "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad were held in such cities as Tokyo, Istanbul, Athens, Stockholm and London and were to be held in cities throughout in the United States.

The insurgent violence in Iraq escalated after Bush declared an end to the military phase of the war on May 1, 2003. The incidents and developments Saturday typified the daily attacks Iraq has since endured and the dogged efforts of U.S. and Iraqi forces to arrest suspected insurgents.

In Saturday's violence, a bomb exploded during a funeral procession in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing three Iraqi police officers and wounding six others, the military said. The funeral was for an Iraqi police officer killed on Friday.

In Baquba, another northern city, two Iraqi contractors working for U.S. Army were shot dead and three civilians were wounded Saturday in a drive-by shooting, a hospital official told CNN.

Iraqi police said a Syrian national who Iraqi police suspect was making plans for a terrorist attack was arrested near Baghdad's Babylon Hotel early Saturday. The suspect was apparently doing reconnaissance work around the hotel grounds, police said.

In another incident on Saturday, U.S. soldiers mistakenly fired on a group of Iraqi police officers in a northern neighborhood of Baghdad early in the morning, wounding three of the Iraqis, according to an Iraqi Emergency Police spokesman.

U.S.-led forces are trying to rout insurgents in western Iraqi cities and in Mosul. U.S. and Iraqi forces detained 12 suspected insurgents during operations Friday and Saturday.

Other developments

Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marked the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with demonstrations across Europe Saturday. (Full story)


The Swedish Foreign Ministry said Friday that an Iraqi-born Swede kidnapped in Iraq more than a month ago has been released. Sweden's National Police said the family of politician Minas Ibrahim Al-Yousifi told authorities of his release. (Full story)


An American soldier died from a gunshot wound Friday during a patrol in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The number of U.S. deaths in the war stands at 1,520.

CNN producer Zoran Stevanovic contributed to this report.

 

[Littledragon]

Democrats slam budget cuts for veterans' services.

(CNN) -- The governor of Pennsylvania on Saturday said the federal government must do a better job helping America's war veterans and criticized proposed budget cuts affecting them.

"During this time of war, it is absolutely the wrong time for our federal government to step back from any of its commitments to our veterans. To do so would be penny wise but pound foolish," said Gov. Ed Rendell in the weekly Democratic radio address.

"In today's parlance, the cost of health care for these vets may be half a billion dollars but their sacrifice for our nation, priceless," he said.

His remarks followed the weekly radio address of President Bush, who defended the Iraqi invasion and operation and marked its second anniversary. Rendell said that Pennsylvania and other states have programs helping veterans and their families.

"While we the governors do all we can for our vets and our returning soldiers, our federal government still has the primary responsibility for meeting the needs of our veterans. And that's why I find the president's budget cuts for critical veteran services to be unconscionable."

He maintained that budget cuts include "a $350 million reduction in veterans home funding, which wipes out at least 5,000 veterans' nursing home beds."

"If the president's proposed budget cuts are enacted, nearly 60 percent of the 1,600 veterans will lose their daily stipend that allows them to stay in our state's nursing homes, literally forcing them out into the cold."

Vet co-payments for prescription drugs were tripled two years ago, Rendell said, and "now the president is proposing to again double those increased co-pays."

"In the midst of a war, when many new men and women will join the legion of veterans, does it really make sense for the president to increase the cost of vets' prescriptions by 100 percent?"

Rendell criticized a proposal calling for a $250 fee "to be paid by every vet wishing to participate in the Veterans Administration health care program. "

"There may well be some veterans who can afford to do so, but can all vets come up with an extra $250 a year to pay for health care? I doubt it."

He urged "every patriotic American" to contact their legislators and protest budget cuts for veteran services.

Also, Rendell praised the thousands of returning troops who "put their lives on the line" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Unlike any war in recent history, citizen-soldiers are fighting this war. Forty percent of all the troops are from National Guard units or reservists,"

Rendell said more than 69 Pennsylvanians have died in the Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts and "since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 14,000 Pennsylvania National Guard members have left the comfort of their home to risk their lives for our security."

"The families of the brave service men and women from all 50 states now know for sure that their loved ones did not die in vain. This war has reminded us of the solemn pledge our nation makes to our veterans."

 

[Littledragon]

Diplomat, historian Kennan dead at 101.

PRINCETON, New Jersey (AP) -- In 1947, diplomat George F. Kennan wrote an article that would guide America's postwar policy for decades. He proposed -- in the piece signed "X" -- that the United States stop the global spread of Communism through ideology and politics, not war.

The policy came to be known as "containment," and Kennan went on to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian.

Kennan, called a role model by his peers in the foreign service, died Thursday night at his Princeton home, said his son-in-law, Kevin Delany of Washington. He was 101.

"He was a giant. Many people have called him the most important foreign service officer of the past half-century," Delany said. "He was a very thoughtful man with an elegant writing style."

Identified only as "X," Kennan laid out the general lines of the containment policy in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1947, when he was chief of the State Department's policy planning staff. The article also predicted the collapse of Soviet Communism decades later.

"It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies," Kennan wrote.

When the Communist Party was finally driven from power in the Soviet Union after the failed hardline coup in August 1991, Kennan called it "a turning point of the most momentous historical significance."

In his 1947 article, Kennan disagreed with the emphasis on military containment embodied in the "Truman doctrine." That policy, announced three months before publication of Kennan's article, committed U.S. aid in support of "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure."

Kennan believed a Soviet Union exhausted by war posed no military threat to the United States or its allies, but was a strong ideological and political rival. In later years, he came to believe that the arms race, waged on the U.S. side in the name of containment, had become the greatest threat to both the United States and the Soviet Union.

Despite the "X" article and his work in formulating the Marshall Plan, Kennan lost influence rapidly after Dean Acheson was appointed secretary of state in 1949. After a difference of opinion on Germany -- Kennan favored reunification, his superiors did not -- he took a leave of absence in 1950 to work at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

He was appointed ambassador to Moscow in May 1952 but was declared "persona non grata" within a year. He resigned from the foreign service in 1953 because of differences with the new secretary, John Foster Dulles.

During his years out of the foreign service, Kennan won the Pulitzer Prize for history and a National Book Award for "Russia Leaves the War," published in 1956.

He again won a Pulitzer in 1967 for "Memoirs, 1925-1950." A second volume, taking his reminiscences up to 1963, appeared in 1972. Among his other books was "Sketches from a Life," published in 1989.

Kennan returned to the foreign service in the Kennedy administration, serving as ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1961-63. In 1967, he was assigned to meet Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Josef Stalin, in Switzerland and helped persuade her to come to the United States.

In the 1960s, Kennan opposed American involvement in Vietnam, arguing that the United States had no vital interest. In Kennan's view, Washington had only five areas of vital interest: the Soviet Union, Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States itself.

George Frost Kennan was born February 16, 1904, in Milwaukee. An uncle, George Kennan, was an expert on Czarist Russia who wrote "Siberia and the Exile System" in 1891.

A year after graduating from Princeton University in 1925, Kennan entered the foreign service. Early postings included Switzerland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In 1929, Kennan was assigned to a program in Russian language, history and politics in Berlin. When the United States resumed diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union in 1933, Kennan accompanied Ambassador William C. Bullit to Moscow.

Kennan was assigned to Berlin at the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and was interned for six months after the United States entered the war in 1941.

During late 1943 and 1944 he was counselor of the American delegation to the European Advisory Commission, which worked to prepare Allied policy in Europe.

Kennan returned to Moscow and remained there from May 1944 to April 1946. At the end of that term, he wrote a long analysis of the prospects for postwar Russia, the so-called "Long Telegram" which became the basis for the "X" article.

In 1947, Kennan was appointed director of the policy planning staff of the Department of State and directed much of the groundwork for the Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild Europe with a large infusion of aid.

Reflecting on the article in 1987, Kennan wrote in Foreign Affairs that he now regarded the Soviet Union as a military threat but as no ideological or political threat to the United States -- the reverse of the situation he perceived in 1947.

"It is entirely clear to me that Soviet leaders do not want a war with us and are not planning to initiate one," he wrote.

In a New York Times article published in February 2004 as Kennan turned 100, former ambassador Richard Gardner said: "All of us who aspired to careers in the Foreign Service still look to Kennan as a role model. Just look at the Long Telegram. How many ambassadors today could write such a document?"

Kennan's honors included the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989, Albert Einstein Peace Prize in 1981, the German Book Trade Peace Prize in 1982, and the Gold Medal in History from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1984.

Kennan is survived by his wife, Annelise, whom he married in 1931. They had three daughters and a son.

 

[Storm]

Judge Says Calif. Can't Ban Gay Marriage




By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - A judge ruled Monday that California's
ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional — a legal
milestone that, if upheld on appeal, would open the
way for the most populous state to follow
Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed.



Judge Richard Kramer of San Francisco County's
trial-level Superior Court likened the ban to laws
requiring racial segregation in schools, and said
there appears to be "no rational purpose" for denying
marriage to gay couples.


The ruling came in response to lawsuits filed by the
city of San Francisco and a dozen gay couples a year
ago after the California Supreme Court halted a
four-week same-sex marriage spree started by Mayor
Gavin Newsom.


The opinion had been eagerly awaited because of San
Francisco's historical role as a gay rights
battleground.


Gay marriage supporters hailed the ruling as a
historic development akin to the 1948 state Supreme
Court decision that made California the first state to
legalize interracial marriage.


"Today's ruling is an important step toward a more
fair and just California that rejects discrimination
and affirms family values for all California
families," San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera
said.


Conservative leaders expressed outrage at the ruling
and vowed to appeal.


"For a single judge to rule there is no conceivable
purpose for preserving marriage as one man and one
woman is mind-boggling," said Liberty Counsel
President Mathew Staver. "This decision will be
gasoline on the fire of the pro-marriage movement in
California as well as the rest of the country.


Last winter, nearly 4,000 gay couples got married
after Newsom instructed the city to issue them
licenses, in defiance of state law. The California
Supreme Court later declared those marriages void,
saying the mayor overstepped his authority. But the
court did not address the underlying issue of whether
the law against gay marriage violates the California
Constitution.


At issue were a 1977 law that defined marriage as "a
personal relation arising out of a civil contract
between a man and a woman," and a voter-approved
measure in 2000 that amended the law to say more
explicitly: "Only marriage between a man and a woman
is valid or recognized in California."


The state maintained that tradition dictates that
marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer also cited the state's
domestic-partners law as evidence that California does
not discriminate against gays.


But Kramer rejected that argument, citing Brown v.
Board of Education — the landmark U.S. Supreme Court
(news - web sites) decision that struck down
segregated schools.


"The idea that marriage-like rights without marriage
is adequate smacks of a concept long rejected by the
courts — separate but equal," the judge wrote.


It could be months or years before the state actually
sanctions same-sex marriage, if ever.


Lockyer has said in the past that he expected the
matter eventually would have to be settled by the
California Supreme Court.


Two bills now before the California Legislature would
put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex
marriage on the November ballot. If California voters
approve such an amendment, as those in 13 other states
did last year, that would put the issue out of the
control of lawmakers and the courts.


The decision is the latest development in a national
debate that has been raging since 2003, when the
highest court in Massachusetts decided that denying
gay couples the right to wed was unconstitutional.





In the wake of the Massachusetts ruling, gay rights
advocates filed lawsuits seeking to strike down
traditional marriage laws in several other states.
Opponents responded by proposing state and federal
constitutional amendments banning gay marriage.

Around the country, Kramer is the fourth trial court
judge in recent months to decide that the right to
marry and its benefits must be extended to same-sex
couples.

Two Washington state judges, ruling last summer in
separate cases, held that prohibiting same-sex
marriage violates that state's constitution, and on
Feb. 4, a New York City judge ruled in favor of five
gay couples who had been denied marriage licenses by
the city.

Just as many judges have gone the other way in recent
months, however, refusing to accept the argument that
keeping gays from marrying violates their civil
rights.

California has the highest percentage of same-sex
partners in the nation, and its Legislature has gone
further than any other in providing gay couples the
benefits of marriage without being forced to do so by
court order.


Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press.

Call me old fashioned but two guys wanting to get married!
As if there weren't enough pretty women about!They don't know if it's Abel or Mabel!
I know that's simplistic but...yuk!
Amos,sorry to hear about them mounties. They represent enforcing the law without ultimate force,but nothing they could do this time.

 

[Lollipop]

Call me old fashioned but two guys wanting to get married!
As if there weren't enough pretty women about!They don't know if it's Abel or Mabel!
I know that's simplistic but...yuk!

Old fashion!! Different strokes for different folks!

 

[Storm]

True Lollipop. Very true. Make sure it's the right stroke though! I just can't picture a hairy assed fella...yuk!!!!! Lol.

 

[Lollipop]

True Lollipop. Very true. Make sure it's the right stroke though! I just can't picture a hairy assed fella...yuk!!!!! Lol.

Well I don't want a woman near me! Yuk!!!!!!!!! But I will not judge because I do not want to be judged! I want to do what makes me happy!! :apeace:

 

[Littledragon]

Congress agrees on Schiavo bill.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Members of Congress said Saturday that they have agreed on a compromise, bipartisan bill aimed at saving the life of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was disconnected Friday by order of a Florida court.

"It seems to me that we are at a point where we have no choice other than to ensure these parents, who are desperately seeking an opportunity to care for their daughter, have a chance to be heard in federal court," Republican Rep. David Dreier of California said, referring to Mary and Bob Schindler, Schiavo's parents.

The legislation -- which must be voted on by the House and the Senate -- would allow Schiavo's parents, who have been waging their legal battles in state court, to take their case to the federal court system.

There is no language ordering that the tube be reinserted, because Congress has no authority to do that.

"We should investigate every avenue before we take the life of a living human being," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican. "This is giving the Schindlers the opportunity to get into federal court and have a federal judge look at this, based on the merits of the case."

The compromise legislation applies only to the Schiavo case, lawmakers said.

The Senate met briefly Saturday for a procedural move and will reconvene Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., about one hour after the House begins meeting.

President Bush is expected to sign the bill, should it pass.

Schiavo, now 41, collapsed in 1990 in her home, suffering from heart failure that led to her brain damage.

Her parents have been fighting her husband over her fate for years. Lower courts have ruled that Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."

Her husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, has been fighting to have her feeding tube removed for more than a decade, contending his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially.

Her parents argue she had no such wish and believe she could get better with rehabilitation.

Terri Schiavo did not leave anything in writing about what she would want if she ever became incapacitated.

Over the years, courts have sided with her husband in more than a dozen cases.

Schiavo's feeding tube was disconnected about 1:45 p.m. Friday, George Felos, the attorney for her husband, told reporters. It was the third time the tube had been disconnected from the 41-year-old woman.

Cry for help
Schiavo's anguished mother pleaded Saturday with officials and lawmakers to save her daughter's life.

"My daughter is in the building behind me, starving to death," Mary Schindler said. "We laugh together, we cry together, we smile together, we talk together. She is my life.

"I am begging Governor [Jeb] Bush and the politicians in Tallahassee, President Bush and the politicians in Washington: Please, please, please save my little girl," Schindler said.

After the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal late Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives to intervene in Schiavo's case, House Republican leaders do not plan to pursue any other appeals, a House leadership aide told CNN on Saturday.

Friday's decision by the Supreme Court not to intervene in the case capped an emotional day in which Schiavo's husband, parents, the courts and members of Congress waded into the battle over the woman's fate.

Also Friday, David Gibbs, an attorney for Schiavo's parents, said the family is appealing to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on an expedited basis and pressing Congress to sort out legislation, while also lobbying the Florida Legislature to pass a law to intervene.

At the Florida hospice where Schiavo is being cared for, three people, including former militia-movement leader James "Bo" Gritz, were arrested Saturday because they refused to stay back from a police line. The three apparently were trying to get water to Schiavo.

Other activists at the scene said they had plans to attempt to get bread and water to Schiavo, but said they would wait until Tuesday to see what happens in Washington.

CNN's Ted Barrett, Dana Bash and Bob Franken contributed to this report.

 

[Amos Stevens]

I feel bad for the family of that woman..but to be honest,I'm sooooo tired of hearing this teeter totter going back & forth,why don't they just leave her alone

 

[ORANGATUANG]

Like i said there are some sick sons of bitches out there...and i wouldnt waste an bullet on them ..just let the victims family at him or her...i heard about that story about that little girl i had an gut feeling the news wouldnt be good..poor little soul.

 

[ORANGATUANG]

There was an real tragedy over the weekend in New South Wales about three little darlings burnt to death in the family car after finding an box of matches we all know what kids are like very curious..they were 4,3,2..all little girls Angel, Dominque, Stefanie....there father is an volunteer fireman and he was fisrt on the scene....and the mother is 6 months pregnant...its just an real shame and i cant even begin to know what that family is going through...and also in the same state an father shot his wife and two beautiful toddlers dead then turned the gun on himself...gutless wonder isnt he?...just thought you would like to know..

 

[Amos Stevens]

Sorry to hear this very sad news Heather

 

[Amos Stevens]

Vt boys sneakers named smelliest in US

Vt. Boy's Sneakers Named Smelliest in U.S.




By LISA RATHKE, Associated Press Writer

MONTPELIER, Vt. - There wasn't much left of the
sneakers Noah Nielsen entered into the contest
Tuesday, but it was the stench that earned him the top
prize.


Nielsen, 10, beat six other contestants from around
the country in the 30th annual national rotten sneaker
contest.


The secret of his success? "No socks, ever."


"The stank was from rubbing my toes back and forth and
making them sweaty," said Nielsen, with his trophy in
hand and two golden sneakers hanging from his neck.


Nielsen said he also played soccer and baseball in the
three-year-old Adidas patched together with duck tape.
The wide gaps in the shoes revealed grimy toes and
emitted a pungent odor that drove one judge to gag,
another to take a step back and a dog to roll on top
of the sneakers.


"Human feet shouldn't smell that bad," said judge Bill
Fraser, Montpelier city manager.


Nielsen is a veteran of the competition. Last year he
was a runner-up in the state event.


In the week leading up to this year's contest, he
refused to take a bath. When his parents insisted,
they found him with his feet hanging out of the tub,
his father Peter Nielsen said.


His parents wouldn't allow him to wear the sneakers to
school, so he put them on in the morning and at night.
Noah Nielsen even wore them to bed Monday night, said
his sister, Izabel, 13.


As the winner, he was awarded a $500 savings bond, a
$100 check for new sneakers and a supply of
Odor-Eaters products.


The other young contestants came from as far away as
Alaska, Texas, Washington and Utah to compete in the
event, which is sponsored by Odor-Eaters.


They each competed in state competitions to make it to
Montpelier.


The contest began in 1975 as a way to help a local
sporting goods store sell shoes. In 1988, Odor-Eaters
— maker of anti-foot-odor insoles, sprays and powder —
assumed sponsorship of the event.


The four judges, including an odor expert from NASA
(news - web sites) and a black Labrador retriever,
ranked the sneakers for their soles, heals, toes,
laces and odor.


Kylan Dinkel, 10, from Wasilla, Alaska, said she
played soccer in her muddy laceless sneakers for four
years.


Jake Nelson, 10, of Lehi, Utah, dragged his behind his
scooter. "He just doesn't like to wear socks," his
father Steve Nelson said.


But it was Nielsen's that stood out. "I didn't like
that," Bill Aldrich of NASA said after he took a
sniff.





"I'll just take a step back," said judge Martha
Tucker. "Those are impressive."


Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press

 

[Amos Stevens]

Doctors reattach boys foot,hands

Doctors reattach boy's foot, hands
Surgery a success after freak basketball accident
Monday, March 28, 2005 Posted: 5:56 AM EST (1056 GMT)





SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- An operation to
simultaneously reattach an Australian boy's foot and
both his hands after a freak basketball accident was a
success with the boy's fingers and toes alive and
pink, surgeons said on Monday.

Ten-year-old Terry Vo's hands and left foot were cut
off when a brick wall supporting a basketball
backboard gave way as he executed a slam dunk at a
friend's birthday party in Perth, the Western
Australian state capital, on Saturday.

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp
brick edges and a broken metal rain gutter, cut Vo's
three limbs just above the wrists and ankle.

Vo underwent microsurgery at Perth's Princess Margaret
Hospital for Children on Saturday night and a further
two hours of skin grafts on Monday.

Dr Robert Love, who led the surgery, said the
operations were a success and Vo's limbs were all
alive and pink.

"We took down all of his dressings and we're very
happy to report that all limbs are alive and in fact
are well vascularized and they have very good blood
supply," Love told reporters on Monday.

Professor Wayne Morrison, head of plastic and hand
surgery at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital, said he
believed the simultaneous reattachment operation was a
world first.

"We have had some cases of both legs, or a foot and a
leg, taken off but we haven't had three limbs. To have
three all combined I think it must be certainly a
first in Australia and I would think a first in the
world," Morrison told reporters.

Despite being kept unconscious since the first round
of surgery, Vo was able to move his fingers, said
Love.

"The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course
when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes,
is not a surprise," Love said.

"The question is more the sensory return that he will
get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will
have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come
with time, hopefully," he said.

"We will assess that over the next 18 months to two
years."

All three limbs were shortened to make reattachment
possible but Vo would probably still be able to play
sport after extensive occupational therapy and
rehabilitation, said Love.

"I'm sure that he'll enjoy a game of basketball in the
future," he said.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2005 Reuters.

 

[Littledragon]

Quake strikes off Indonesia coast.

(CNN) -- U.S. officials were urging residents to evacuate coastal regions in the Indian Ocean after a earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 struck off the coast of Indonesia Monday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration urged residents within 1,000 kilometers of the epicenter to evacuate coastal regions.

The quake was centered on the same fault line where a December 26 earthquake launched a tsunami that killed at least 175,000 people.

The director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said scientists there feared another tsunami might hit the area.

Charles McCreary said he could not be certain that the quake, which was 203 kilometers (126 miles) from Sibolga on Sumatra Island, would cause a tsunami.

Experts agreed the quake was massive.

"This earthquake has the potential to generate a widely destructive tsunami in the ocean or seas near the earthquake," NOAA said in a statement on its Web site. "Authorities in those regions should be aware of this possibility and take immediate action."

Asked whether evacuations are taking place, USGS spokesman Don Blakeman said, "I certainly hope so."

Thailand issued a warning that the quake could bring a tsunami to its southern provinces. The warning, which was carried on national television, cautioned people in the six provinces to be careful and vigilant, but did not order evacuations.

USGS spokesman Doug Blake said there had been no reports of tsunami activity nearly 90 minutes after the quake struck.

"We're still waiting for any kind of reports," he said.

"At this point in time we don't know what type of fault occurred ... and that is critical information we just don't have yet," he said. "It is in the aftershock zone of the December 26 quake. It's a little bit south, but it's on the same fault."

The quake occurred at 11:09 a.m. ET (1609 GMT), and is considered a "great" earthquake, the largest of seven grades.

The grades are very minor, minor, light, moderate, strong, major and great.

Tsunamis are distinguished from normal coastal surf by their great length and speed. A single wave in a tsunami series might be 160 kilometers (100 miles) long and race across the ocean at 960 kph (600 mph).

When it approaches a coastline, the wave slows dramatically, but it also rises to great heights because the enormous volume of water piles up in shallow coastal bays.

The December 26 quake, measured at magnitude 9, triggered a massive tsunami that devastated Asian and African coastlines in nearly a dozen nations.