Current News (Part 4)
- Thread starter Amos Stevens
- Start date
So he's probably under the end zone somewhere. 
Littledragon
Above The Law
Suspected al-Zarqawi associate nabbed.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suspected deputy of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in the restive city of Mosul, the Iraqi military said Saturday.
Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces on Friday arrested Mullah Mahdi and five other suspected terrorists -- Mahdi's brother, three other Iraqis and a Syrian, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Khalil al-Obeidi said.
Al-Obeidi said authorities believed Mahdi carried out attacks at the direction of al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terrorist who is the most-wanted man in Iraq.
U.S. military officials believe Mahdi belongs to Ansar al-Sunni, a group thought to have ties to al-Zarqawi but not under his direct control.
Mosul is the second-most populous city in Iraq, according to the U.S. State Department, and the capital of Ninevah province, where Iraqi and U.S. troops have been conducting small-scale raids for the past month.
This week, the U.S. military increased its numbers in the province to about 4,000 troops and began a sweep of the area, looking for insurgents who might be using the remote region as a staging ground for terror attacks across Iraq.
Insurgent violence in the province continued Friday.
A suicide car bomb went off behind a police station in Hammam al-Ali, south of Mosul, killing two police officers and wounding seven others, the deputy governor said.
Also, mortar rounds wounded five Iraqis in Tal Afar, the U.S. military said.
Other developments
A suicide car bomber wounded eight Iraqi soldiers and one civilian near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Tikrit, the U.S. military said. A U.S. military spokesman said Iraqi soldiers shot at the car as it approached the checkpoint, which is near a coalition military base.
Operations against the insurgency in Baghdad and around the nearby Abu Ghraib area during the past 10 days have led to 800 arrests, a senior U.S. military official said Friday. Most of those are Iraqis, but a few were foreign fighters, he said. Some of the 800 detainees have since been released.
The U.S. military said a Bradley Fighting Vehicle manned by coalition forces collided with a car carrying Iraq civilians north of Baghdad on Friday. Two Iraqis were killed, including a child, in the accident when the car caught fire, the military said.
CNN's Jennifer Eccleston, Kianne Sadeq and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suspected deputy of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been captured in the restive city of Mosul, the Iraqi military said Saturday.
Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces on Friday arrested Mullah Mahdi and five other suspected terrorists -- Mahdi's brother, three other Iraqis and a Syrian, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Khalil al-Obeidi said.
Al-Obeidi said authorities believed Mahdi carried out attacks at the direction of al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terrorist who is the most-wanted man in Iraq.
U.S. military officials believe Mahdi belongs to Ansar al-Sunni, a group thought to have ties to al-Zarqawi but not under his direct control.
Mosul is the second-most populous city in Iraq, according to the U.S. State Department, and the capital of Ninevah province, where Iraqi and U.S. troops have been conducting small-scale raids for the past month.
This week, the U.S. military increased its numbers in the province to about 4,000 troops and began a sweep of the area, looking for insurgents who might be using the remote region as a staging ground for terror attacks across Iraq.
Insurgent violence in the province continued Friday.
A suicide car bomb went off behind a police station in Hammam al-Ali, south of Mosul, killing two police officers and wounding seven others, the deputy governor said.
Also, mortar rounds wounded five Iraqis in Tal Afar, the U.S. military said.
Other developments
A suicide car bomber wounded eight Iraqi soldiers and one civilian near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Tikrit, the U.S. military said. A U.S. military spokesman said Iraqi soldiers shot at the car as it approached the checkpoint, which is near a coalition military base.
Operations against the insurgency in Baghdad and around the nearby Abu Ghraib area during the past 10 days have led to 800 arrests, a senior U.S. military official said Friday. Most of those are Iraqis, but a few were foreign fighters, he said. Some of the 800 detainees have since been released.
The U.S. military said a Bradley Fighting Vehicle manned by coalition forces collided with a car carrying Iraq civilians north of Baghdad on Friday. Two Iraqis were killed, including a child, in the accident when the car caught fire, the military said.
CNN's Jennifer Eccleston, Kianne Sadeq and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report
Littledragon
Above The Law
U.S.: Guards, detainees mishandled Quran.
(CNN) -- A U.S. military investigation has found four incidents in which guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison mishandled the Quran, but said that it was detainees who threw the Muslim holy book in the toilet.
The report said it confirmed four times when U.S. personnel at the base mishandled the Quran: guards kicked a detainee's Quran; a guard's urine "splashed" a detainee and his holy book after coming through an air vent; and a guard water balloon fight that resulted in two detainees' Qurans getting wet.
In a fifth confirmed incident, it could not be determined whether a guard or a detainee wrote a two-word obscenity in a Quran.
On Saturday, the White House said the incidents were isolated and do not reflect the behavior of the majority of military personnel.
"Our men and women in the military adhere to the highest standards, including when it comes to respecting and protecting religious freedom," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "The military expects its high standards to be met, and does not tolerate or condone it when individuals do not -- as this report makes clear."
The findings of the report, issued by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of the detention center in Cuba, were released late Friday. They found no evidence to support allegations that U.S. soldiers attempted to flush the Muslim holy book down the toilet.
The investigation was prompted after a Newsweek article citing unnamed sources made such a claim -- prompting violent protests in Afghanistan and other parts of the Muslim world that left more than a dozen people dead. (Full story)
Newsweek has since retracted the story.
The Hood report cited three separate incidents in which detainees put their holy book in the toilet or tried to flush it.
In one incident, on February 23, 2004, the report said a guard saw a "detainee place two Qurans in his toilet and state he no longer cared about the Quran or his religion.
Five minutes later, after the detainee retrieved the Qurans, he ripped several pages out of one Quran and threw the pages on the floor. Then, he placed both Qurans on the sink."
Another time, on January 19, 2005, a detainee "tore up his Quran and tried to flush it down the toilet. Four guards witnessed the incident," the report said.
The report also cited 12 other incidents by detainees, including one who used his Quran as a pillow, another who urinated on his holy book and several who ripped pages from the Quran.
Capt. Jeff Weir, an Army spokesman at the facility, told CNN by phone that the detainees were typically trying to stage some form of protest when they mishandled the Quran.
Hood said investigators reviewed more than 30,000 documents in an exhaustive probe.
"The inquiry found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet. This matter is considered closed," the report said.
It said the U.S. military has issued more than 1,600 copies of the Quran since January 2002, conducted more than 28,000 interrogations and carried out thousands of "cell moves."
"Mishandling a Quran at Guantanamo Bay is a rare occurrence," Hood said. "Mishandling of a Quran here is never condoned."
The investigators defined mishandling as "touching, holding or the treatment of a Quran in a manner inconsistent with policy or procedure."
Hood said the investigative team looked into 19 incidents involving allegations of mishandling of the holy book, only five of which could be confirmed.
Ten incidents did not involve mishandling of the Quran, the report concluded. Four incidents could not be verified.
According to the report, the five confirmed incidents were:
In February 2002, a detainee complained that guards kicked the Quran belonging to a detainee in a nearby cell.
On July 25, 2003, a contract interrogator apologized to a detainee for stepping on his Quran in an earlier interview. The interrogator was later fired "for a pattern of unacceptable behavior, an inability to follow direct guidance and poor leadership."
On August 15, 2003, night shift guards threw water balloons in a cell block, wetting the Qurans of two detainees.
On August 21, 2003, a detainee complained that a "two-word obscenity had been written in English on the inside cover of his English version Quran." The report noted that the detainee knew English and Arabic, and it could not be determined exactly who wrote the phrase. "It is possible that a guard committed this act; it is equally possible that the detainee wrote in his own Quran."
On March 25, 2005, a detainee said "urine came through an air vent" and "splashed on him and his Quran while he laid near the air vent." A guard admitted he was at fault, saying he urinated near an air vent and the "wind blew his urine through the vent into the block." The detainee was given a new uniform and Quran. The guard was reprimanded and placed on gate guard duty away from detainees.
Weir, the Army spokesman at the facility, said about 540 suspected terrorists are housed at the maximum security prison. Noting that only five incidents of mishandling of the Quran could be confirmed, he said, "I will stand by the record here; It's outstanding."
He said even if a U.S. soldier was "contemplating misbehaving," it would be extremely difficult.
"Nothing goes unchecked in Guantanamo Bay," he said. "Everything is documented."
There are about 540 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al Qaeda terrorist network.
Both U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have denounced an Amnesty International report that called the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time."
The president told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the report by the human-rights group was "absurd."
On Wednesday, Rumsfeld called the characterization "reprehensible" and said the U.S. military had taken care to ensure that detainees were free to practice their religion.
However, he also acknowledged that some detainees had been mistreated, even "grievously" at times. (Full story)
(CNN) -- A U.S. military investigation has found four incidents in which guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison mishandled the Quran, but said that it was detainees who threw the Muslim holy book in the toilet.
The report said it confirmed four times when U.S. personnel at the base mishandled the Quran: guards kicked a detainee's Quran; a guard's urine "splashed" a detainee and his holy book after coming through an air vent; and a guard water balloon fight that resulted in two detainees' Qurans getting wet.
In a fifth confirmed incident, it could not be determined whether a guard or a detainee wrote a two-word obscenity in a Quran.
On Saturday, the White House said the incidents were isolated and do not reflect the behavior of the majority of military personnel.
"Our men and women in the military adhere to the highest standards, including when it comes to respecting and protecting religious freedom," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "The military expects its high standards to be met, and does not tolerate or condone it when individuals do not -- as this report makes clear."
The findings of the report, issued by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of the detention center in Cuba, were released late Friday. They found no evidence to support allegations that U.S. soldiers attempted to flush the Muslim holy book down the toilet.
The investigation was prompted after a Newsweek article citing unnamed sources made such a claim -- prompting violent protests in Afghanistan and other parts of the Muslim world that left more than a dozen people dead. (Full story)
Newsweek has since retracted the story.
The Hood report cited three separate incidents in which detainees put their holy book in the toilet or tried to flush it.
In one incident, on February 23, 2004, the report said a guard saw a "detainee place two Qurans in his toilet and state he no longer cared about the Quran or his religion.
Five minutes later, after the detainee retrieved the Qurans, he ripped several pages out of one Quran and threw the pages on the floor. Then, he placed both Qurans on the sink."
Another time, on January 19, 2005, a detainee "tore up his Quran and tried to flush it down the toilet. Four guards witnessed the incident," the report said.
The report also cited 12 other incidents by detainees, including one who used his Quran as a pillow, another who urinated on his holy book and several who ripped pages from the Quran.
Capt. Jeff Weir, an Army spokesman at the facility, told CNN by phone that the detainees were typically trying to stage some form of protest when they mishandled the Quran.
Hood said investigators reviewed more than 30,000 documents in an exhaustive probe.
"The inquiry found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down a toilet. This matter is considered closed," the report said.
It said the U.S. military has issued more than 1,600 copies of the Quran since January 2002, conducted more than 28,000 interrogations and carried out thousands of "cell moves."
"Mishandling a Quran at Guantanamo Bay is a rare occurrence," Hood said. "Mishandling of a Quran here is never condoned."
The investigators defined mishandling as "touching, holding or the treatment of a Quran in a manner inconsistent with policy or procedure."
Hood said the investigative team looked into 19 incidents involving allegations of mishandling of the holy book, only five of which could be confirmed.
Ten incidents did not involve mishandling of the Quran, the report concluded. Four incidents could not be verified.
According to the report, the five confirmed incidents were:
In February 2002, a detainee complained that guards kicked the Quran belonging to a detainee in a nearby cell.
On July 25, 2003, a contract interrogator apologized to a detainee for stepping on his Quran in an earlier interview. The interrogator was later fired "for a pattern of unacceptable behavior, an inability to follow direct guidance and poor leadership."
On August 15, 2003, night shift guards threw water balloons in a cell block, wetting the Qurans of two detainees.
On August 21, 2003, a detainee complained that a "two-word obscenity had been written in English on the inside cover of his English version Quran." The report noted that the detainee knew English and Arabic, and it could not be determined exactly who wrote the phrase. "It is possible that a guard committed this act; it is equally possible that the detainee wrote in his own Quran."
On March 25, 2005, a detainee said "urine came through an air vent" and "splashed on him and his Quran while he laid near the air vent." A guard admitted he was at fault, saying he urinated near an air vent and the "wind blew his urine through the vent into the block." The detainee was given a new uniform and Quran. The guard was reprimanded and placed on gate guard duty away from detainees.
Weir, the Army spokesman at the facility, said about 540 suspected terrorists are housed at the maximum security prison. Noting that only five incidents of mishandling of the Quran could be confirmed, he said, "I will stand by the record here; It's outstanding."
He said even if a U.S. soldier was "contemplating misbehaving," it would be extremely difficult.
"Nothing goes unchecked in Guantanamo Bay," he said. "Everything is documented."
There are about 540 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with a crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al Qaeda terrorist network.
Both U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have denounced an Amnesty International report that called the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time."
The president told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the report by the human-rights group was "absurd."
On Wednesday, Rumsfeld called the characterization "reprehensible" and said the U.S. military had taken care to ensure that detainees were free to practice their religion.
However, he also acknowledged that some detainees had been mistreated, even "grievously" at times. (Full story)
Littledragon
Above The Law
Police offer theories on teen's disappearance.
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) -- One theory police are pursuing in the disappearance of an Alabama student in Aruba is that "people of interest" -- identified as the three men Natalee Holloway was last seen with early Monday morning -- may have harmed her.
Aruba's Deputy Chief Gerald Dompig said police are also considering two other theories about what happened to Holloway on her high school's senior class trip to the island: that she may have left on her own accord or she may have been kidnapped.
Police have not ruled any of these theories out, according to Dompig, and he said police are still receiving tips "by the hour."
His comments came during a joint press conference with the student's mother on Saturday.
Holloway, from the Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, was last seen as she was leaving a nightclub called Carlos 'n' Charlie's in the town of Oranjestad.
Witnesses said she left in a car with three local young men about 1:30 a.m. Friends have also said they have pictures of her dancing with young men at the club.
Authorities have said they talked to the men who left with her and the men said they dropped her off at her hotel about 2 a.m.
Police spent much of Saturday afternoon at a hotel under renovation close to that Holiday Inn Holloway stayed in during her time in Aruba.
The police have given no indication that they have found anything of relevance in the hotel and they refused to say what led them to that site.
In a news conference held Saturday afternoon in Birmingham, Holloway's aunt, Marcia Twitty, said that based on information police relayed to the family, "We feel that we will have a definitive answer in 24 hours."
Lt. Pepito Comenencia of the Aruba Police Department said Friday authorities could soon make arrests, but he did not elaborate.
"Now, we are going to close the case a little bit more, and I think then we're going over to arrest people. We don't know yet. The investigation is still going on," he said, adding that he hoped to elaborate later on Saturday.
Aruba's Prime Minister Nelson O. Oduber said Friday that more FBI agents had been added to help in the search and efforts will be concentrated around coastal areas. Aiding the FBI and Aruba police in the search are Holloway's family members, tourists, Aruban nationals and Dutch marines.
Oduber pledged his nation's "full support and utmost dedication" in finding Holloway. "We are shocked and completely distressed at this turn of events," he said. "We will not tolerate any activities that harm our American friends or tarnish Aruba's reputation."
Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, who flew to Aruba to help search efforts, said about 20 to 40 of Holloway's classmates saw her leave.
"Natalee's bags were packed and ready to go," Beth Twitty told CNN Friday. "Everything was packed. Her passport was in her purse -- she even had the remaining cash she had on her in her purse --- it was in her room, everything was zipped up. She was ready to go home."
"This is such a mystery. It's a mystery to Aruba, and it's a mystery to the United States," she said.
She said she has tried to remain focused and driven during the search because "I wanted to make sure that she would be as proud of me as I am of her in accomplishing our one goal and that is to find Natalee."
Holloway was on the trip to Aruba with about 100 Mountain Brook High School students to celebrate their graduation from high school. Parent chaperones accompanied the students. Marcia Twitty said Saturday that the Holloway family "absolutely" believes the seven chaperones on the Aruba trip did all they could.
Holloway is a straight-A student and a member of the National Honor Society as well as the school's dance team.
The family has posted a $50,000 reward for any information leading to her whereabouts. A family representative said the money was donated in $10,000 increments from the Aruban Tourist Board, the family, the Aruban government, an anonymous donor and the additional $10,000 from various other sources.
The family has asked members of the Mountain Brook community to post yellow ribbons in her honor. In addition, some area youths are making bracelets. Daily prayer services are being held for Holloway.
The FBI announced Saturday a tip line for Holloway. People with any information are encouraged to call 1-877-628-2533.
CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul contributed to this report.
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) -- One theory police are pursuing in the disappearance of an Alabama student in Aruba is that "people of interest" -- identified as the three men Natalee Holloway was last seen with early Monday morning -- may have harmed her.
Aruba's Deputy Chief Gerald Dompig said police are also considering two other theories about what happened to Holloway on her high school's senior class trip to the island: that she may have left on her own accord or she may have been kidnapped.
Police have not ruled any of these theories out, according to Dompig, and he said police are still receiving tips "by the hour."
His comments came during a joint press conference with the student's mother on Saturday.
Holloway, from the Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook, was last seen as she was leaving a nightclub called Carlos 'n' Charlie's in the town of Oranjestad.
Witnesses said she left in a car with three local young men about 1:30 a.m. Friends have also said they have pictures of her dancing with young men at the club.
Authorities have said they talked to the men who left with her and the men said they dropped her off at her hotel about 2 a.m.
Police spent much of Saturday afternoon at a hotel under renovation close to that Holiday Inn Holloway stayed in during her time in Aruba.
The police have given no indication that they have found anything of relevance in the hotel and they refused to say what led them to that site.
In a news conference held Saturday afternoon in Birmingham, Holloway's aunt, Marcia Twitty, said that based on information police relayed to the family, "We feel that we will have a definitive answer in 24 hours."
Lt. Pepito Comenencia of the Aruba Police Department said Friday authorities could soon make arrests, but he did not elaborate.
"Now, we are going to close the case a little bit more, and I think then we're going over to arrest people. We don't know yet. The investigation is still going on," he said, adding that he hoped to elaborate later on Saturday.
Aruba's Prime Minister Nelson O. Oduber said Friday that more FBI agents had been added to help in the search and efforts will be concentrated around coastal areas. Aiding the FBI and Aruba police in the search are Holloway's family members, tourists, Aruban nationals and Dutch marines.
Oduber pledged his nation's "full support and utmost dedication" in finding Holloway. "We are shocked and completely distressed at this turn of events," he said. "We will not tolerate any activities that harm our American friends or tarnish Aruba's reputation."
Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, who flew to Aruba to help search efforts, said about 20 to 40 of Holloway's classmates saw her leave.
"Natalee's bags were packed and ready to go," Beth Twitty told CNN Friday. "Everything was packed. Her passport was in her purse -- she even had the remaining cash she had on her in her purse --- it was in her room, everything was zipped up. She was ready to go home."
"This is such a mystery. It's a mystery to Aruba, and it's a mystery to the United States," she said.
She said she has tried to remain focused and driven during the search because "I wanted to make sure that she would be as proud of me as I am of her in accomplishing our one goal and that is to find Natalee."
Holloway was on the trip to Aruba with about 100 Mountain Brook High School students to celebrate their graduation from high school. Parent chaperones accompanied the students. Marcia Twitty said Saturday that the Holloway family "absolutely" believes the seven chaperones on the Aruba trip did all they could.
Holloway is a straight-A student and a member of the National Honor Society as well as the school's dance team.
The family has posted a $50,000 reward for any information leading to her whereabouts. A family representative said the money was donated in $10,000 increments from the Aruban Tourist Board, the family, the Aruban government, an anonymous donor and the additional $10,000 from various other sources.
The family has asked members of the Mountain Brook community to post yellow ribbons in her honor. In addition, some area youths are making bracelets. Daily prayer services are being held for Holloway.
The FBI announced Saturday a tip line for Holloway. People with any information are encouraged to call 1-877-628-2533.
CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul contributed to this report.
Littledragon
Above The Law
Rumsfeld warns on China military.
SINGAPORE (AP) -- China's military buildup, particularly its positioning of hundreds of missiles facing Taiwan, is a threat to Asian security, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saturday.
Rumsfeld rebuked China at a regional security conference in Singapore, saying it was pouring huge resources into its military and buying large amounts of sophisticated weapons despite facing no threat from any other country.
The Pentagon chief's remarks signaled a harder line against China from the Bush administration, which has criticized Beijing over trade and human rights issues but not directly challenged its military buildup.
The director of the Asia bureau of China's foreign ministry, Cui Tiankai, was in the audience for Rumsfeld's speech and reacted strongly.
"Since the U.S. is spending a lot more money than China is doing on defense, the U.S. should understand that every country has its own security concerns and every country is entitled to spend money necessary for its own defense," Cui told The Associated Press after Rumsfeld's remarks.
Rumsfeld said the Pentagon's annual assessment of China's military capabilities shows China is spending more than its leaders acknowledge, expanding its missile capabilities and developing advanced military technology.
China now has the world's third-largest military budget, he said, behind the United States and Russia. He did not say how large the U.S. believes China's military budget is.
"Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases?" Rumsfeld said at the conference organized by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a private, London-based think tank.
Cui responded sharply to Rumsfeld during a question-and-answer session.
"Do you truly believe that China is under no threat by other countries?" Cui asked. "Do you truly believe that the U.S. is threatened by the emergence of China?"
Rumsfeld said he does not think any country threatened China and that the United States did not see China as a threat.
Central to the disagreement is Taiwan, a self-governing island Beijing regards as a renegade territory.
China has said it will attack Taiwan if the island tries to declare independence, and it repeatedly calls on the United States to stop selling weapons to Taiwan.
Beijing denounced a joint U.S.-Japan statement earlier this year saying the two allies shared the objective of a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue.
The United States is urging the European Union to keep in place its ban on selling weapons to China. Washington argues that any European weapons sold to China could be used in a conflict over Taiwan.
"I just look at the significant rollout of ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan, and I have to ask the question: If everyone agrees the question of Taiwan is going to be settled in a peaceful way, why this increase in ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan?" Rumsfeld said.
He also questioned China's government, saying political freedom there had not kept pace with increasing economic freedom.
"Ultimately, China will need to embrace some form of a more open and representative government if it is to fully achieve the political and economic benefits to which its people aspire," he said.
The defense secretary, who has said he would like to visit China this year, also pressed Beijing to use its influence with North Korea to restart six-nation talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
North Korea has stayed away for a year from the talks with China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
Rumsfeld said the United Nations might need to decide what to do about the nuclear threat from North Korea, which declared in February that it has atomic bombs.
North Korea says it needs a nuclear deterrent because of what it calls Washington's "hostile policy" against it.
Rumsfeld said North Korea was a worldwide threat because of its record of selling missile technology and other weapons.
"One has to assume that they'll sell anything, and that they would sell nuclear weapons," he said.
Similar U.S. criticism of North Korea has sparked an angry response from Pyongyang.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency this week called Vice President Dick Cheney a "bloodthirsty beast" for saying that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was irresponsible.
U.S. President George W. Bush and other administration officials say the U.S. has no intention of attacking North Korea.
Tensions between the two nations have been rising in recent months.
Last week, the Pentagon suspended its only contact with North Korea efforts to search for the remains of missing servicemen from the Korean War.
U.S. officials said they could not guarantee the search teams' safety in remote areas.
SINGAPORE (AP) -- China's military buildup, particularly its positioning of hundreds of missiles facing Taiwan, is a threat to Asian security, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saturday.
Rumsfeld rebuked China at a regional security conference in Singapore, saying it was pouring huge resources into its military and buying large amounts of sophisticated weapons despite facing no threat from any other country.
The Pentagon chief's remarks signaled a harder line against China from the Bush administration, which has criticized Beijing over trade and human rights issues but not directly challenged its military buildup.
The director of the Asia bureau of China's foreign ministry, Cui Tiankai, was in the audience for Rumsfeld's speech and reacted strongly.
"Since the U.S. is spending a lot more money than China is doing on defense, the U.S. should understand that every country has its own security concerns and every country is entitled to spend money necessary for its own defense," Cui told The Associated Press after Rumsfeld's remarks.
Rumsfeld said the Pentagon's annual assessment of China's military capabilities shows China is spending more than its leaders acknowledge, expanding its missile capabilities and developing advanced military technology.
China now has the world's third-largest military budget, he said, behind the United States and Russia. He did not say how large the U.S. believes China's military budget is.
"Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases?" Rumsfeld said at the conference organized by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a private, London-based think tank.
Cui responded sharply to Rumsfeld during a question-and-answer session.
"Do you truly believe that China is under no threat by other countries?" Cui asked. "Do you truly believe that the U.S. is threatened by the emergence of China?"
Rumsfeld said he does not think any country threatened China and that the United States did not see China as a threat.
Central to the disagreement is Taiwan, a self-governing island Beijing regards as a renegade territory.
China has said it will attack Taiwan if the island tries to declare independence, and it repeatedly calls on the United States to stop selling weapons to Taiwan.
Beijing denounced a joint U.S.-Japan statement earlier this year saying the two allies shared the objective of a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue.
The United States is urging the European Union to keep in place its ban on selling weapons to China. Washington argues that any European weapons sold to China could be used in a conflict over Taiwan.
"I just look at the significant rollout of ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan, and I have to ask the question: If everyone agrees the question of Taiwan is going to be settled in a peaceful way, why this increase in ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan?" Rumsfeld said.
He also questioned China's government, saying political freedom there had not kept pace with increasing economic freedom.
"Ultimately, China will need to embrace some form of a more open and representative government if it is to fully achieve the political and economic benefits to which its people aspire," he said.
The defense secretary, who has said he would like to visit China this year, also pressed Beijing to use its influence with North Korea to restart six-nation talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
North Korea has stayed away for a year from the talks with China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
Rumsfeld said the United Nations might need to decide what to do about the nuclear threat from North Korea, which declared in February that it has atomic bombs.
North Korea says it needs a nuclear deterrent because of what it calls Washington's "hostile policy" against it.
Rumsfeld said North Korea was a worldwide threat because of its record of selling missile technology and other weapons.
"One has to assume that they'll sell anything, and that they would sell nuclear weapons," he said.
Similar U.S. criticism of North Korea has sparked an angry response from Pyongyang.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency this week called Vice President Dick Cheney a "bloodthirsty beast" for saying that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was irresponsible.
U.S. President George W. Bush and other administration officials say the U.S. has no intention of attacking North Korea.
Tensions between the two nations have been rising in recent months.
Last week, the Pentagon suspended its only contact with North Korea efforts to search for the remains of missing servicemen from the Korean War.
U.S. officials said they could not guarantee the search teams' safety in remote areas.
Amos Stevens
New Member
Normandy marks D-Day Anniversary
Normandy marks D-Day anniversary
Associated Press
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Veterans and dignitaries were gathering Monday in the French region that perhaps best symbolizes the fallen Allied soldier to honour the thousands of fighting men who gave their lives in the D-Day landings 61 years ago.
French and American dignitaries were joining Second World War veterans at the Normandy American cemetery in the town of Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,387 fallen U.S. soldiers are buried. A church choir and band were taking part in the tribute.
Villages and towns around Normandy were holding smaller commemorations for those who fought and died on the five blood-soaked beaches during the June 6, 1944, invasion that played a key role in bringing about the end of the Nazi regime.
Parades, wreath-laying ceremonies and concerts were scheduled around the region that has a passion for remembering the fallen Allied soldiers.
Crowds this year were not expected to compare with the tens of thousands who attended last year's 60th anniversary commemorations and included U.S. President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the Queen.
The blue-ribbon ceremonies last year injected a new sense of trans-Atlantic unity at a time when the United States and countries like France and Germany were at odds over the Iraq war.
"It's not an off-year for me," said Bill Coleman, the American Legion delegate in Normandy. He landed at Omaha Beach on June 8, two days after the initial invasion, a member of the critical ordnance teams that kept supplies flowing to the fighters. At 81, he still visits Normandy schools to explain the significance of D-Day, which opened a western front against the Nazis.
"I keep the war alive for the children so that they do not forget what transpired. We came here to liberate them and now they're free," he said.
Rain dampened plans Sunday for one of the most dramatic tributes - a drop by some 150 military parachutists into the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, a near-annual commemoration that was to include Germans for the first time. The town was the first liberated by U.S. forces in Normandy after paratroopers landed ahead of the main invasion force.
Hoping to strike a spirit of unity, Mayor Marc Lefevre invited about 40 German parachutists to take part - but building support for his idea wasn't easy.
"Many people asked me what was going through my head," Lefevre said. "We need to know how to turn the page, and welcome the Germans without rancour."
Second World War veterans were among hundreds of spectators waiting for the jumps that, finally, were called off.
"It's always moving to see this," said American spectator Shifty Power, 82, who parachuted in on D-Day with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. "It's good for Germans also to take part - it's important for peace in the world."
About 156,000 Allied soldiers - mostly American, British and Canadian - took part in the invasion, storming in from the English Channel.
© 2005 Bell Globemedia Inc.
Normandy marks D-Day anniversary
Associated Press
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Veterans and dignitaries were gathering Monday in the French region that perhaps best symbolizes the fallen Allied soldier to honour the thousands of fighting men who gave their lives in the D-Day landings 61 years ago.
French and American dignitaries were joining Second World War veterans at the Normandy American cemetery in the town of Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,387 fallen U.S. soldiers are buried. A church choir and band were taking part in the tribute.
Villages and towns around Normandy were holding smaller commemorations for those who fought and died on the five blood-soaked beaches during the June 6, 1944, invasion that played a key role in bringing about the end of the Nazi regime.
Parades, wreath-laying ceremonies and concerts were scheduled around the region that has a passion for remembering the fallen Allied soldiers.
Crowds this year were not expected to compare with the tens of thousands who attended last year's 60th anniversary commemorations and included U.S. President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the Queen.
The blue-ribbon ceremonies last year injected a new sense of trans-Atlantic unity at a time when the United States and countries like France and Germany were at odds over the Iraq war.
"It's not an off-year for me," said Bill Coleman, the American Legion delegate in Normandy. He landed at Omaha Beach on June 8, two days after the initial invasion, a member of the critical ordnance teams that kept supplies flowing to the fighters. At 81, he still visits Normandy schools to explain the significance of D-Day, which opened a western front against the Nazis.
"I keep the war alive for the children so that they do not forget what transpired. We came here to liberate them and now they're free," he said.
Rain dampened plans Sunday for one of the most dramatic tributes - a drop by some 150 military parachutists into the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, a near-annual commemoration that was to include Germans for the first time. The town was the first liberated by U.S. forces in Normandy after paratroopers landed ahead of the main invasion force.
Hoping to strike a spirit of unity, Mayor Marc Lefevre invited about 40 German parachutists to take part - but building support for his idea wasn't easy.
"Many people asked me what was going through my head," Lefevre said. "We need to know how to turn the page, and welcome the Germans without rancour."
Second World War veterans were among hundreds of spectators waiting for the jumps that, finally, were called off.
"It's always moving to see this," said American spectator Shifty Power, 82, who parachuted in on D-Day with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. "It's good for Germans also to take part - it's important for peace in the world."
About 156,000 Allied soldiers - mostly American, British and Canadian - took part in the invasion, storming in from the English Channel.
© 2005 Bell Globemedia Inc.
Littledragon
Above The Law
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday ruled doctors can be blocked from prescribing marijuana for patients suffering from pain caused by cancer or other serious illnesses.
In a 6-3 vote, the justices ruled the Bush administration can block the backyard cultivation of pot for personal use, because such use has broader social and financial implications.
"Congress' power to regulate purely activities that are part of an economic 'class of activities' that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce is firmly established," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens for the majority.
Justices O'Connor, Rehnquist and Thomas dissented. The case took an unusually long time to be resolved, with oral arguments held in November.
The decision means that federal anti-drug laws trump state laws that allow the use of medical marijuana, said CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Ten states have such laws.
"If medical marijuana advocates want to get their views successfully presented, they have to go to Congress; they can't go to the states, because it's really the federal government that's in charge here," Toobin said.
At issue was the power of federal government to override state laws on use of "patient pot."
The Controlled Substances Act prevents the cultivation and possession of marijuana, even by people who claim personal "medicinal" use. The government argues its overall anti-drug campaign would be undermined by even limited patient exceptions.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) began raids in 2001 against patients using the drug and their caregivers in California, one of 11 states that legalized the use of marijuana for patients under a doctor's care. Among those arrested was Angel Raich, who has brain cancer, and Diane Monson, who grew cannabis in her garden to help alleviate chronic back pain.
A federal appeals court concluded use of medical marijuana was non-commercial, and therefore not subject to congressional oversight of "economic enterprise."
But lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department argued to the Supreme Court that homegrown marijuana represented interstate commerce, because the garden patch weed would affect "overall production" of the weed, much of it imported across American borders by well-financed, often violent drug gangs.
Lawyers for the patient countered with the claim that the marijuana was neither bought nor sold. After California's referendum passed in 1996, "cannabis clubs" sprung up across the state to provide marijuana to patients. They were eventually shut down by the state's attorney general.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that anyone distributing medical marijuana could be prosecuted, despite claims their activity was a "medical activity."
The current case considered by the justices dealt with the broader issue of whether marijuana users could be subject to prosecution.
Along with California, nine states have passed laws permitting marijuana use by patients with a doctor's approval: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Arizona also has a similar law, but no formal program in place to administer prescription pot.
California's Compassionate Use Act permits patients with a doctor's approval to grow, smoke or acquire the drug for "medical needs."
Users include television host Montel Williams, who uses it to ease pain from multiple sclerosis.
Anti-drug activists say Monday's ruling could encourage abuse of drugs deemed by the government to be narcotics.
"It's a handful of people who want to see not just marijuana, but all drugs legalized," said Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation.
In its hard-line stance in opposition to medical marijuana, the federal government invoked a larger issue. "The trafficking of drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists," said President Bush in December 2001. Tough enforcement, the government told the justices, "is central to combating illegal drug possession."
Marijuana users, in their defense, argued, "Since September 11, 2001, Defendants [DEA] have terrorized more than 35 Californians because of medical cannabis." In that state, the issue has become a hot political issue this election year.
The case is Gonzales v. Raich, case no. 03-1454.
In a 6-3 vote, the justices ruled the Bush administration can block the backyard cultivation of pot for personal use, because such use has broader social and financial implications.
"Congress' power to regulate purely activities that are part of an economic 'class of activities' that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce is firmly established," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens for the majority.
Justices O'Connor, Rehnquist and Thomas dissented. The case took an unusually long time to be resolved, with oral arguments held in November.
The decision means that federal anti-drug laws trump state laws that allow the use of medical marijuana, said CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Ten states have such laws.
"If medical marijuana advocates want to get their views successfully presented, they have to go to Congress; they can't go to the states, because it's really the federal government that's in charge here," Toobin said.
At issue was the power of federal government to override state laws on use of "patient pot."
The Controlled Substances Act prevents the cultivation and possession of marijuana, even by people who claim personal "medicinal" use. The government argues its overall anti-drug campaign would be undermined by even limited patient exceptions.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) began raids in 2001 against patients using the drug and their caregivers in California, one of 11 states that legalized the use of marijuana for patients under a doctor's care. Among those arrested was Angel Raich, who has brain cancer, and Diane Monson, who grew cannabis in her garden to help alleviate chronic back pain.
A federal appeals court concluded use of medical marijuana was non-commercial, and therefore not subject to congressional oversight of "economic enterprise."
But lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department argued to the Supreme Court that homegrown marijuana represented interstate commerce, because the garden patch weed would affect "overall production" of the weed, much of it imported across American borders by well-financed, often violent drug gangs.
Lawyers for the patient countered with the claim that the marijuana was neither bought nor sold. After California's referendum passed in 1996, "cannabis clubs" sprung up across the state to provide marijuana to patients. They were eventually shut down by the state's attorney general.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that anyone distributing medical marijuana could be prosecuted, despite claims their activity was a "medical activity."
The current case considered by the justices dealt with the broader issue of whether marijuana users could be subject to prosecution.
Along with California, nine states have passed laws permitting marijuana use by patients with a doctor's approval: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Arizona also has a similar law, but no formal program in place to administer prescription pot.
California's Compassionate Use Act permits patients with a doctor's approval to grow, smoke or acquire the drug for "medical needs."
Users include television host Montel Williams, who uses it to ease pain from multiple sclerosis.
Anti-drug activists say Monday's ruling could encourage abuse of drugs deemed by the government to be narcotics.
"It's a handful of people who want to see not just marijuana, but all drugs legalized," said Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation.
In its hard-line stance in opposition to medical marijuana, the federal government invoked a larger issue. "The trafficking of drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists," said President Bush in December 2001. Tough enforcement, the government told the justices, "is central to combating illegal drug possession."
Marijuana users, in their defense, argued, "Since September 11, 2001, Defendants [DEA] have terrorized more than 35 Californians because of medical cannabis." In that state, the issue has become a hot political issue this election year.
The case is Gonzales v. Raich, case no. 03-1454.
Schiavo autopsy finds damage was irreversible
CTV.ca News Staff
An autopsy of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who became the symbol for the right-to-die battle, concludes that she could not have been rehabilitated, the Florida medical examiner's office said Wednesday.
Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said his autopsy showed Schiavo's brain at the time of death was about half the weight of a normal brain, backing her husband's contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state.
"This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," Thogmartin told reporters.
Schiavo, 41, died on March 31, after her husband, Michael, successfully won a legal bid to have her feeding tube removed. But many questions about her life remained.
"For years (Michael) feels that he's been talking in the wind," said Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, in Dunedin, Fla. Wednesday. "For years, he's alleged, and we proved in court, that Terri could not be sustained by mouth and the medical examiner found that to be the case."
Parents don't believe autopsy
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought to keep their daughter alive, saying she could have been rehabilitated. They also claimed she was responsive to them. However, Thogmartin said that at the time of her death, she was blind.
The Schindlers' lawyer David Gibbs said Wednesday that the couple doesn't believe the results of the autopsy.
He said the parents continue to believe their daughter wasn't in a persistent vegetative state, and that they may take some unspecified legal action after discussing the autopsy with other medial experts.
The Schindlers also alleged during the battle over Terri that their daughter suffered abuse at the hands of Michael -- a claim he always denied.
Today, Thogmartin said there was no evidence of strangulation at the time of her collapse in 1990, and fractures to her spine were consistent with osteoporosis, common in paralysis patients. He said her bones were "palpably soft."
As for what caused Schiavo to collapse at the age of 26, leading to her vegetative state, Thogmartin said his results did not support the initial diagnosis of an eating disorder.
Previously, doctors had suggested that Schiavo suffered a severe chemical imbalance and heart attack as the result of bulimia nervosa.
Thogmartin said her heart was normal, and could not definitively say what caused the collapse. He suggested that caffeine may have been a factor. Schiavo is believed to have had about 1 gram of tea a day.
However, he said the collapse happened in the morning, making caffeine toxicity unlikely.
As for her official cause of death, Thogmartin said she suffered severe dehydration, and did not starve to death.
He also said that Schiavo would not have been able to live without a feeding tube, and that trying to eat or drink orally would have resulted in aspiration.
"Removal of her feeding tube would have resulted in her death whether she was fed or hydrated by mouth or not,'' Thogmartin said.
Michael Schiavo always maintained that Terri had told him before her collapse that she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially. However, Schiavo left no living will and her family said they didn't believe she would make such comments.
The long battle between Schiavo's parents and her husband reached the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress, the Vatican and the White House. The case also made headlines around the world
CTV.ca News Staff
An autopsy of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who became the symbol for the right-to-die battle, concludes that she could not have been rehabilitated, the Florida medical examiner's office said Wednesday.
Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said his autopsy showed Schiavo's brain at the time of death was about half the weight of a normal brain, backing her husband's contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state.
"This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," Thogmartin told reporters.
Schiavo, 41, died on March 31, after her husband, Michael, successfully won a legal bid to have her feeding tube removed. But many questions about her life remained.
"For years (Michael) feels that he's been talking in the wind," said Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, in Dunedin, Fla. Wednesday. "For years, he's alleged, and we proved in court, that Terri could not be sustained by mouth and the medical examiner found that to be the case."
Parents don't believe autopsy
Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought to keep their daughter alive, saying she could have been rehabilitated. They also claimed she was responsive to them. However, Thogmartin said that at the time of her death, she was blind.
The Schindlers' lawyer David Gibbs said Wednesday that the couple doesn't believe the results of the autopsy.
He said the parents continue to believe their daughter wasn't in a persistent vegetative state, and that they may take some unspecified legal action after discussing the autopsy with other medial experts.
The Schindlers also alleged during the battle over Terri that their daughter suffered abuse at the hands of Michael -- a claim he always denied.
Today, Thogmartin said there was no evidence of strangulation at the time of her collapse in 1990, and fractures to her spine were consistent with osteoporosis, common in paralysis patients. He said her bones were "palpably soft."
As for what caused Schiavo to collapse at the age of 26, leading to her vegetative state, Thogmartin said his results did not support the initial diagnosis of an eating disorder.
Previously, doctors had suggested that Schiavo suffered a severe chemical imbalance and heart attack as the result of bulimia nervosa.
Thogmartin said her heart was normal, and could not definitively say what caused the collapse. He suggested that caffeine may have been a factor. Schiavo is believed to have had about 1 gram of tea a day.
However, he said the collapse happened in the morning, making caffeine toxicity unlikely.
As for her official cause of death, Thogmartin said she suffered severe dehydration, and did not starve to death.
He also said that Schiavo would not have been able to live without a feeding tube, and that trying to eat or drink orally would have resulted in aspiration.
"Removal of her feeding tube would have resulted in her death whether she was fed or hydrated by mouth or not,'' Thogmartin said.
Michael Schiavo always maintained that Terri had told him before her collapse that she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially. However, Schiavo left no living will and her family said they didn't believe she would make such comments.
The long battle between Schiavo's parents and her husband reached the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress, the Vatican and the White House. The case also made headlines around the world
Amos Stevens
New Member
Maybe people will see that letting her go was the best thing for her
Amos Stevens
New Member
Military jet crashes in Az
Military jet crashes in Ariz., no injuries 23 minutes ago
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine Corps attack jet crashed into flames in a residential area of Yuma, Arizona, on Wednesday, but no one on the ground was hurt, and the pilot walked away from the accident, military and municipal officials said.
The aircraft, a Harrier AV-8B jet carrying two 500-pound (227-kg) bombs and 30 rounds of 20 mm ammunition, went down in a central Yuma neighborhood at 2:49 p.m. local time during a training exercise, a Marine spokesman said.
There were conflicting official accounts about the extent of damage from the crash.
City spokesman James Stover said the plane hit two houses. But Cpl. Michael Nease of the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, where the jet was based, said the single-seat aircraft crashed in the backyard of a home.
Nease said the ensuing blaze was put out by city and military firefighters.
The pilot, who was not identified, ejected from the plane before it hit the ground and was taken to a nearby hospital, according to Nease. He said the pilot was able to walk around after the accident.
Likewise, authorities said no one on the ground was injured.
"When I first heard this, I was pretty shook up," Deputy Mayor Bobby Brooks said. "But when I found that there were no casualties, it took a huge weight off my shoulders. We can always rebuild houses, but we can't rebuild lives."
Nease said the plane went down while preparing to land at the air station, which is located near the U.S.-Mexican border about 160 miles southwest of Phoenix.
Harrier jets, also known as jump jets, are equipped with engines that swivel, allowing them to take off and land vertically, and have been used extensively by the Marines in Iraq. The planes cost about $30 million each, Nease said.
The British-designed Harrier has been plagued by safety issues during the more than three decades it has been in use by the U.S. military. The plane's engine underwent a design overhaul in 2000 to address safety problems.
The Marine Corps base in Yuma is home to four squadrons of Harriers and is one of the principal sites for Marine pilot training.
A U.S. Marine pilot was killed in 1998 when his Harrier crashed during a routine training exercise at the Yuma base.
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.
Military jet crashes in Ariz., no injuries 23 minutes ago
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine Corps attack jet crashed into flames in a residential area of Yuma, Arizona, on Wednesday, but no one on the ground was hurt, and the pilot walked away from the accident, military and municipal officials said.
The aircraft, a Harrier AV-8B jet carrying two 500-pound (227-kg) bombs and 30 rounds of 20 mm ammunition, went down in a central Yuma neighborhood at 2:49 p.m. local time during a training exercise, a Marine spokesman said.
There were conflicting official accounts about the extent of damage from the crash.
City spokesman James Stover said the plane hit two houses. But Cpl. Michael Nease of the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, where the jet was based, said the single-seat aircraft crashed in the backyard of a home.
Nease said the ensuing blaze was put out by city and military firefighters.
The pilot, who was not identified, ejected from the plane before it hit the ground and was taken to a nearby hospital, according to Nease. He said the pilot was able to walk around after the accident.
Likewise, authorities said no one on the ground was injured.
"When I first heard this, I was pretty shook up," Deputy Mayor Bobby Brooks said. "But when I found that there were no casualties, it took a huge weight off my shoulders. We can always rebuild houses, but we can't rebuild lives."
Nease said the plane went down while preparing to land at the air station, which is located near the U.S.-Mexican border about 160 miles southwest of Phoenix.
Harrier jets, also known as jump jets, are equipped with engines that swivel, allowing them to take off and land vertically, and have been used extensively by the Marines in Iraq. The planes cost about $30 million each, Nease said.
The British-designed Harrier has been plagued by safety issues during the more than three decades it has been in use by the U.S. military. The plane's engine underwent a design overhaul in 2000 to address safety problems.
The Marine Corps base in Yuma is home to four squadrons of Harriers and is one of the principal sites for Marine pilot training.
A U.S. Marine pilot was killed in 1998 when his Harrier crashed during a routine training exercise at the Yuma base.
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.
I thought planning a murder made it first degree? So the jury still let the guy off easy (well, easier)....
-----------------------
Former Klansman found guilty of manslaughter
CTV.ca News Staff
Former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen has been found guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of three civil-rights workers who disappeared exactly 41 years ago today.
On their second day of deliberations, a jury of nine whites and three blacks rejected murder charges against the 80-year-old Killen, delivering instead a verdict of manslaughter.
Killen, in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen tube, showed little emotion as the verdict was read. His wife comforted him in the Philadelphia, Miss., courtroom.
The jury got the case on Monday, and told the judge they were deadlocked. They were ordered to return today and to keep trying to reach a verdict.
Killen was the first person to face state murder charges in the 1964 deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
The story of the murders was dramatized in the 1988 Hollywood film, Mississippi Burning.
Schwerner, 24, and Goodman, 20, came from New York to register black voters. Chaney, a 21-year-old black man from Mississippi, also participated in the voter drive.
On June 21, 1964, the three were in a car together, driving on Mississippi back roads in an attempt to investigate a church burning in the segregated south. Before they could get to the church, the three men were arrested for speeding and thrown into jail.
Prosecutors say that while the civil rights workers sat in prison, about 20 Klan members decided to hatch a plan to kill the three.
When the three were released, they were chased by Klan members, who forced their vehicle off the road, beat them and shot them to death at close range, authorities say.
Their bodies were found 44 days later, buried in an earthen dam.
Killen, a part-time preacher, was accused by authorities of being the ringleader. He was also the first person to be indicted for murder in the case.
But Schwerner's widow, Rita Schwerner Bender, said others should face justice for their part in he killings.
"Preacher Killen didn't act in a vacuum," Bender told reporters after the verdict was read Tuesday. "The state of Mississippi was complicit in these crimes and all the crimes that occurred, and that has to be opened up."
At the time of the killings, the state did not charge anyone with murder. Instead, in 1967, 18 people were put on trial on federal charges of violating the victims' civil rights.
Seven were convicted and served prison sentences of no longer than six years. Eight were acquitted, including Killen.
During his most recent trial, Killen's lawyers admitted their client was in the Klan, but insisted that did not mean he committed murder. Killen, who did not take the stand in his own defence, has long claimed he was attending a wake at a funeral home when the three victims died.
Now that he's been convicted of manslaughter, the part-time preacher and sawmill worker faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
-----------------------
Former Klansman found guilty of manslaughter
CTV.ca News Staff
Former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen has been found guilty of manslaughter in the deaths of three civil-rights workers who disappeared exactly 41 years ago today.
On their second day of deliberations, a jury of nine whites and three blacks rejected murder charges against the 80-year-old Killen, delivering instead a verdict of manslaughter.
Killen, in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen tube, showed little emotion as the verdict was read. His wife comforted him in the Philadelphia, Miss., courtroom.
The jury got the case on Monday, and told the judge they were deadlocked. They were ordered to return today and to keep trying to reach a verdict.
Killen was the first person to face state murder charges in the 1964 deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
The story of the murders was dramatized in the 1988 Hollywood film, Mississippi Burning.
Schwerner, 24, and Goodman, 20, came from New York to register black voters. Chaney, a 21-year-old black man from Mississippi, also participated in the voter drive.
On June 21, 1964, the three were in a car together, driving on Mississippi back roads in an attempt to investigate a church burning in the segregated south. Before they could get to the church, the three men were arrested for speeding and thrown into jail.
Prosecutors say that while the civil rights workers sat in prison, about 20 Klan members decided to hatch a plan to kill the three.
When the three were released, they were chased by Klan members, who forced their vehicle off the road, beat them and shot them to death at close range, authorities say.
Their bodies were found 44 days later, buried in an earthen dam.
Killen, a part-time preacher, was accused by authorities of being the ringleader. He was also the first person to be indicted for murder in the case.
But Schwerner's widow, Rita Schwerner Bender, said others should face justice for their part in he killings.
"Preacher Killen didn't act in a vacuum," Bender told reporters after the verdict was read Tuesday. "The state of Mississippi was complicit in these crimes and all the crimes that occurred, and that has to be opened up."
At the time of the killings, the state did not charge anyone with murder. Instead, in 1967, 18 people were put on trial on federal charges of violating the victims' civil rights.
Seven were convicted and served prison sentences of no longer than six years. Eight were acquitted, including Killen.
During his most recent trial, Killen's lawyers admitted their client was in the Klan, but insisted that did not mean he committed murder. Killen, who did not take the stand in his own defence, has long claimed he was attending a wake at a funeral home when the three victims died.
Now that he's been convicted of manslaughter, the part-time preacher and sawmill worker faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Littledragon
Above The Law
Missing Scout found alive in Utah.
KAMAS, Utah (CNN) -- Volunteers Tuesday found an 11-year-old boy alive four days after he disappeared from a Boy Scout camp in rugged northeast Utah.
As Brennan Hawkins was wheeled on a gurney into Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, he waved to reporters, then frowned and rubbed his eyes.
"We are here to tell you that the heavens are not closed," said his mother, Jody Hawkins. "And children come home."
A short time later, Dr. Edward Clark, medical director of Primary Children's, said, "Brennan appears in remarkably good shape, given the ordeal he's been through."
An initial evaluation showed the boy was "scraped and bumped, he's had falls and bruises," said Clark. The doctor added that Hawkins was being treated for dehydration and would be given blood tests and X-rays and kept overnight for evaluation.
"We still haven't ruled out any other major injuries," he said.
However, he added, "Everything we see right now suggests he'll make a full recovery."
The boy "looks like he's tired and he looks like he's very happy to be where he is, and he's extraordinarily pleased to have his parents around him."
Two volunteer searchers came across the boy around noon (3 p.m. ET) about 1.5 miles south of Lily Lake. Searchers, who used all-terrain vehicles and horses, had considered the area unlikely to prove fruitful, because the boy would have had to cross a steep mountain ridge to get there.
"He said he had seen the horses before but was scared to approach them," Summit County Sheriff David Edmunds said about the boy, who told rescuers he had neither eaten nor drunk anything.
"As soon as they got there, he ate all the food they had on them," including granola bars, Edmunds said, adding that the boy was found five miles west of where he was last seen, not far off a trail.
After eating and drinking, the boy -- wearing the same blue sweatshirt, nylon shorts and climbing shoes as when he was last seen -- "wanted to play a video game on one of the searchers' cell phones."
The boy "was in no mood to give us a lot of details" about how he came to be lost or what he did during those four days, Edmunds said. "He just wanted something to eat; wanted to see his mom."
The boy's parents were called in, and joined him in an ambulance for a ride to the hospital.
"What a power burst," said his uncle, Bob Hawkins. "We are absolutely thrilled with the outcome of this ... this is the greatest outcome we could expect."
Kay Godfrey, of the Greater Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts, said he was "walking on air."
"I can't believe what a relief it is to have this young man alive," he said.
"Thank God he's found," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts. "The boy's safe, and that's what's important."
The boy vanished Friday afternoon from an 8,500-foot elevation Boy Scout camp 80 miles east of Salt Lake.
At 11, Hawkins was still a Cub Scout, but was attending the camp as the guest of another boy whose father was leading an annual event.
A climbing wall supervisor said he had seen Hawkins removing his climbing gear, but the boy failed to show up for dinner an hour later.
His disappearance prompted a four-day search of Utah's rugged Uinta Mountains and an area along Bear River.
As many as 3,000 volunteers were involved in the effort.
One of them was the father of a 12-year-old scout who disappeared last August just a few miles away from the area Hawkins was last seen.
The official search for Garrett Bardsley was called off nine days later.
"As happy as I am for the Hawkins family, this brings back a lot of wounds from the Bardsley search," Edmunds said. "My deepest sympathies still go out to them, and it's hard to talk about that, quite frankly."
KAMAS, Utah (CNN) -- Volunteers Tuesday found an 11-year-old boy alive four days after he disappeared from a Boy Scout camp in rugged northeast Utah.
As Brennan Hawkins was wheeled on a gurney into Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, he waved to reporters, then frowned and rubbed his eyes.
"We are here to tell you that the heavens are not closed," said his mother, Jody Hawkins. "And children come home."
A short time later, Dr. Edward Clark, medical director of Primary Children's, said, "Brennan appears in remarkably good shape, given the ordeal he's been through."
An initial evaluation showed the boy was "scraped and bumped, he's had falls and bruises," said Clark. The doctor added that Hawkins was being treated for dehydration and would be given blood tests and X-rays and kept overnight for evaluation.
"We still haven't ruled out any other major injuries," he said.
However, he added, "Everything we see right now suggests he'll make a full recovery."
The boy "looks like he's tired and he looks like he's very happy to be where he is, and he's extraordinarily pleased to have his parents around him."
Two volunteer searchers came across the boy around noon (3 p.m. ET) about 1.5 miles south of Lily Lake. Searchers, who used all-terrain vehicles and horses, had considered the area unlikely to prove fruitful, because the boy would have had to cross a steep mountain ridge to get there.
"He said he had seen the horses before but was scared to approach them," Summit County Sheriff David Edmunds said about the boy, who told rescuers he had neither eaten nor drunk anything.
"As soon as they got there, he ate all the food they had on them," including granola bars, Edmunds said, adding that the boy was found five miles west of where he was last seen, not far off a trail.
After eating and drinking, the boy -- wearing the same blue sweatshirt, nylon shorts and climbing shoes as when he was last seen -- "wanted to play a video game on one of the searchers' cell phones."
The boy "was in no mood to give us a lot of details" about how he came to be lost or what he did during those four days, Edmunds said. "He just wanted something to eat; wanted to see his mom."
The boy's parents were called in, and joined him in an ambulance for a ride to the hospital.
"What a power burst," said his uncle, Bob Hawkins. "We are absolutely thrilled with the outcome of this ... this is the greatest outcome we could expect."
Kay Godfrey, of the Greater Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts, said he was "walking on air."
"I can't believe what a relief it is to have this young man alive," he said.
"Thank God he's found," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts. "The boy's safe, and that's what's important."
The boy vanished Friday afternoon from an 8,500-foot elevation Boy Scout camp 80 miles east of Salt Lake.
At 11, Hawkins was still a Cub Scout, but was attending the camp as the guest of another boy whose father was leading an annual event.
A climbing wall supervisor said he had seen Hawkins removing his climbing gear, but the boy failed to show up for dinner an hour later.
His disappearance prompted a four-day search of Utah's rugged Uinta Mountains and an area along Bear River.
As many as 3,000 volunteers were involved in the effort.
One of them was the father of a 12-year-old scout who disappeared last August just a few miles away from the area Hawkins was last seen.
The official search for Garrett Bardsley was called off nine days later.
"As happy as I am for the Hawkins family, this brings back a lot of wounds from the Bardsley search," Edmunds said. "My deepest sympathies still go out to them, and it's hard to talk about that, quite frankly."
Littledragon
Above The Law
Durbin apologizes for Gitmo remarks.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate's No. 2 Democrat apologized Thursday for remarks comparing the treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to methods used by the Nazis, Soviets and other repressive regimes.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said he "never intended any disrespect" to U.S. troops with his June 14 comments, for which the minority whip has endured a week of criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.
"In the end, I don't want anything in my public career to detract from my love for this country, my respect for those who serve it, and this great Senate," Durbin said in an emotional statement on the Senate floor.
"I offer my apologies to those that were offended by my words."
Human rights groups and the Red Cross have criticized the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a U.S. Navy base where prisoners from the war on terrorism have been held since early 2002. The facility currently houses about 520 prisoners. (Full story)
In the June 14 floor speech, Durbin read from an FBI agent's account of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay being shackled to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures for up to 24 hours at a stretch.
Prisoners in those conditions sometimes urinated or defecated on themselves, the agent reported.
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.
The White House, which insists prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, called Durbin's remarks "reprehensible." (Full story)
Republicans quickly called for Durbin to apologize -- a call he rejected Friday, saying his statement was "misused and misunderstood." (Full story)
But Durbin said Tuesday he had erred by invoking the specter of the Holocaust, which he called "the greatest moral tragedy of our time."
"Nothing should ever be said to demean or diminish that moral tragedy," Durbin said. "I'm also sorry if anything I said, in any way, cast a negative light on our fine men and women in the military."
He said he would "continue to speak out on the issues that I think are important to the people of Illinois and to the nation."
Sen. John McCain -- who was a prisoner of war for more than five years during the Vietnam War -- said Sunday that Durbin should apologize. (Full story)
But the Arizona Republican also said reports of controversial interrogation techniques and allegations of abuse could endanger American POWs in a future conflict.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate's No. 2 Democrat apologized Thursday for remarks comparing the treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to methods used by the Nazis, Soviets and other repressive regimes.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said he "never intended any disrespect" to U.S. troops with his June 14 comments, for which the minority whip has endured a week of criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.
"In the end, I don't want anything in my public career to detract from my love for this country, my respect for those who serve it, and this great Senate," Durbin said in an emotional statement on the Senate floor.
"I offer my apologies to those that were offended by my words."
Human rights groups and the Red Cross have criticized the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a U.S. Navy base where prisoners from the war on terrorism have been held since early 2002. The facility currently houses about 520 prisoners. (Full story)
In the June 14 floor speech, Durbin read from an FBI agent's account of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay being shackled to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures for up to 24 hours at a stretch.
Prisoners in those conditions sometimes urinated or defecated on themselves, the agent reported.
"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.
The White House, which insists prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, called Durbin's remarks "reprehensible." (Full story)
Republicans quickly called for Durbin to apologize -- a call he rejected Friday, saying his statement was "misused and misunderstood." (Full story)
But Durbin said Tuesday he had erred by invoking the specter of the Holocaust, which he called "the greatest moral tragedy of our time."
"Nothing should ever be said to demean or diminish that moral tragedy," Durbin said. "I'm also sorry if anything I said, in any way, cast a negative light on our fine men and women in the military."
He said he would "continue to speak out on the issues that I think are important to the people of Illinois and to the nation."
Sen. John McCain -- who was a prisoner of war for more than five years during the Vietnam War -- said Sunday that Durbin should apologize. (Full story)
But the Arizona Republican also said reports of controversial interrogation techniques and allegations of abuse could endanger American POWs in a future conflict.
Littledragon
Above The Law
Solar sail reported missing.
PASADENA, California (Reuters) -- An experimental solar-driven spacecraft went missing after its launch from a Russian submarine on Tuesday, but backers of the privately funded mission hoped it would be found in an unplanned orbit rather than floating in the sea off Russia.
Cosmos 1, the world's first solar-sail spacecraft, blasted off in a converted Russian ballistic missile from the Barents Sea at the start of a mission meant to show a group of space enthusiasts could kick-start a race to the stars on a shoestring budget of $4 million.
Backers at the Planetary Society in Pasadena believe the disc-shaped craft either veered off course during its rocket-propelled trip into orbit or failed to separate from the Russian-made Volna rocket that launched it into space.
Members of the Planetary Society, the world's largest private space advocacy group, had hoped the craft, which was intended to deploy a 100-foot (30-meter) petal-shaped solar sail to power its planned orbit around Earth, would demonstrate that sunlight could fuel interplanetary space travel.
A 2001 test launch of the 49-foot (15-meter) solar sails ended in failure because of problems with the launch vehicle separating from the spacecraft.
Mission controllers grew worried after several tracking stations along the path of Cosmos 1's intended orbit failed to pick up signs of the 220-pound (100-kg) spacecraft.
A portable tracking station in Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, manned by a volunteer with a laptop and an antenna, picked up Doppler data showing the spacecraft's velocity, but the feed was cut off as a "kick motor" apparently ignited to lift the craft into orbit.
The radio silence extended for more than six hours as mission organizers, operating from the Planetary Society's bungalow in Pasadena attempted to track the orbiter's expected path.
Another portable tracking station in the Marshall Islands also was unable to detect the craft's passage. Mission officials said radar scans of the area showed no evidence the spacecraft had exploded.
The spacecraft was also not detected by permanent ground tracking stations in Alaska, the Czech Republic or by two stations outside Moscow.
Those stations will have a better opportunity to contact the spacecraft at about 9:30 p.m. PDT (0430 GMT Wednesday), when it will be directly overhead. Controllers said Cosmos might have been too low on the horizon for stations to pick up its signal during earlier passes.
"It certainly is worrisome but we can't make any conclusions yet," Planetary Society Executive Director Louis Friedman said via telephone from Moscow, where he was monitoring the flight from the Russian space agency.
Jim Cantrell, project operations manager, said it was possible the Russian missile had put the spacecraft into an orbit that was not the planned trajectory, accounting for the craft's apparent absence.
The project started as a dream by Planetary Society founders Carl Sagan, the late science fiction writer, Bruce Murray and Friedman, a former NASA engineer who proposed sending a solar-sail craft to rendezvous with Halley's Comet in the 1970s.
Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, provided most of the funding for the mission through her entertainment company, Cosmos Studios. Druyan, who invoked her late husband's memory during the launch, said she felt "numb" on hearing the spacecraft may be lost, but joked, "Now I think I know why the mission was so affordable."
Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
PASADENA, California (Reuters) -- An experimental solar-driven spacecraft went missing after its launch from a Russian submarine on Tuesday, but backers of the privately funded mission hoped it would be found in an unplanned orbit rather than floating in the sea off Russia.
Cosmos 1, the world's first solar-sail spacecraft, blasted off in a converted Russian ballistic missile from the Barents Sea at the start of a mission meant to show a group of space enthusiasts could kick-start a race to the stars on a shoestring budget of $4 million.
Backers at the Planetary Society in Pasadena believe the disc-shaped craft either veered off course during its rocket-propelled trip into orbit or failed to separate from the Russian-made Volna rocket that launched it into space.
Members of the Planetary Society, the world's largest private space advocacy group, had hoped the craft, which was intended to deploy a 100-foot (30-meter) petal-shaped solar sail to power its planned orbit around Earth, would demonstrate that sunlight could fuel interplanetary space travel.
A 2001 test launch of the 49-foot (15-meter) solar sails ended in failure because of problems with the launch vehicle separating from the spacecraft.
Mission controllers grew worried after several tracking stations along the path of Cosmos 1's intended orbit failed to pick up signs of the 220-pound (100-kg) spacecraft.
A portable tracking station in Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, manned by a volunteer with a laptop and an antenna, picked up Doppler data showing the spacecraft's velocity, but the feed was cut off as a "kick motor" apparently ignited to lift the craft into orbit.
The radio silence extended for more than six hours as mission organizers, operating from the Planetary Society's bungalow in Pasadena attempted to track the orbiter's expected path.
Another portable tracking station in the Marshall Islands also was unable to detect the craft's passage. Mission officials said radar scans of the area showed no evidence the spacecraft had exploded.
The spacecraft was also not detected by permanent ground tracking stations in Alaska, the Czech Republic or by two stations outside Moscow.
Those stations will have a better opportunity to contact the spacecraft at about 9:30 p.m. PDT (0430 GMT Wednesday), when it will be directly overhead. Controllers said Cosmos might have been too low on the horizon for stations to pick up its signal during earlier passes.
"It certainly is worrisome but we can't make any conclusions yet," Planetary Society Executive Director Louis Friedman said via telephone from Moscow, where he was monitoring the flight from the Russian space agency.
Jim Cantrell, project operations manager, said it was possible the Russian missile had put the spacecraft into an orbit that was not the planned trajectory, accounting for the craft's apparent absence.
The project started as a dream by Planetary Society founders Carl Sagan, the late science fiction writer, Bruce Murray and Friedman, a former NASA engineer who proposed sending a solar-sail craft to rendezvous with Halley's Comet in the 1970s.
Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, provided most of the funding for the mission through her entertainment company, Cosmos Studios. Druyan, who invoked her late husband's memory during the launch, said she felt "numb" on hearing the spacecraft may be lost, but joked, "Now I think I know why the mission was so affordable."
Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Littledragon
Above The Law
Former Klansman found guilty of manslaughter.
PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi (CNN) -- Forty-one years to the day after three civil rights workers were ambushed and killed by a Ku Klux Klan mob, a jury found former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen guilty on three counts of manslaughter Tuesday.
The 1964 "Freedom Summer" killings of James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, helped galvanize the civil rights movement that led to major reforms in access to voting, education and public accommodations.
Circuit Court Judge Marcus Gordon set Killen's sentencing for Thursday at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET). He faces a prison sentence ranging from one to 20 years per count, said Mississippi Attorney General James Hood.
"There's justice for all in Mississippi," Hood said.
The jury of nine whites and three blacks reached the decision after several hours of deliberations. The conviction was on a lesser charge; prosecutors had charged Killen with murder.
Killen, 80, displayed no emotion as the verdicts were read.
But as the wheelchair-bound man was being escorted from the courthouse under heavy guard, he took swipes at reporters' microphones and cameras. One of the reporters was black, as was a cameraman.
'This is not over with'
Chaney's brother, Ben, said that despite the verdicts, "This is not over with. ... But we'll take what we got."
From her home in New York's Manhattan, Goodman's mother, Carolyn Goodman, 89, said she had waited a long time for a guilty verdict, but it was "nothing to be happy about."
"I'm just overcome. ... But you know I had a feeling it was going to happen," she said.
"I just hope he's off the streets," she said of Killen. "I don't want anything more terrible than that. I don't want anything violent. I'm against capital punishment."
Schwerner's widow, Rita Bender, said, "I would hope that this case is just the beginning and not the end."
She acknowledged the fact that the case likely became a high-profile one because Schwerner and Goodman were white New Yorkers who came to the South the summer of 1964 with hundreds of other volunteers to register black voters. Chaney was a black man from Mississippi.
Neshoba County District Attorney Mark Duncan said the verdict means his county will no longer "be known by a Hollywood movie anymore," referring to the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning" based on the killings.
"Today we've shown the rest of the world the true character of the people of Neshoba County," Duncan told reporters.
Prosecutor: 'Venom' still exists
In his closing argument Monday, Duncan implored the 12 jurors to "hold the defendant responsible for what he did."
"What you do today when you go into that jury room is going to echo throughout the history of Neshoba County from now on," Duncan said. "You can either change the history that Edgar Ray Killen and the Klan wrote for us, or you can confirm it."
"Find him guilty of murder," Duncan said. "That's the verdict that the state of Mississippi asks you to return."
"Those three boys and their families were robbed of all the things that Edgar Ray Killen has been able to enjoy for the last 41 years. And the cause of it, the main instigator of it was Edgar Ray Killen and no one else," the district attorney said.
"He was the man who led these murders. He is the man who set the plan in motion. He is the man who recruited the people to carry out the plan. He is the man who directed those men into what to do."
The balding, bespectacled Killen -- a former part-time Baptist preacher -- appeared to be sleeping during much of the closing remarks.
Hood, who led the case, said he wished "some of my predecessors would have done their duty" by bringing charges against Killen. Noting that it was "not good politics to bring this case up," he said, politics and time should not get in the way of justice.
Hood said testimony showed Killen possessed "venom" at the time of the killings and still does.
"That venom is sitting right there. It is seething behind those glasses," he said. "That coward wants to hide behind this thing and put pressure on you."
Burden of proof
Defense attorney Mitch Moran said "nothing in the record shows Edgar was there" during the ambush and killings.
"The '60s was a terrible era in a lot of ways. We do not need to relive them, and we do need to go forward," Moran said. "What I'm asking you to do is to look at this evidence and hold the state to the burden of proving this case beyond a reasonable doubt."
On June 21, 1964, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were on their way to investigate the burning of a black church when they were briefly taken into custody for speeding.
According to testimony, the Klan had burned the church to lure the three men back to Neshoba County.
After they were released from the county jail in Philadelphia, a KKK mob tailed their car, forced if off the road, and shot them to death. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam -- in a trench dug in anticipation of the killings, according to testimony.
In a 1967 federal trial, an all-white jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of convicting Killen. The lone holdout said she could not vote to convict a preacher.
Seven other men were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of the victims, namely their right to live. None served more than six years in prison. At the time, no federal murder statutes existed, and the state never brought charges.
PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi (CNN) -- Forty-one years to the day after three civil rights workers were ambushed and killed by a Ku Klux Klan mob, a jury found former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen guilty on three counts of manslaughter Tuesday.
The 1964 "Freedom Summer" killings of James Chaney, 21, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, helped galvanize the civil rights movement that led to major reforms in access to voting, education and public accommodations.
Circuit Court Judge Marcus Gordon set Killen's sentencing for Thursday at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET). He faces a prison sentence ranging from one to 20 years per count, said Mississippi Attorney General James Hood.
"There's justice for all in Mississippi," Hood said.
The jury of nine whites and three blacks reached the decision after several hours of deliberations. The conviction was on a lesser charge; prosecutors had charged Killen with murder.
Killen, 80, displayed no emotion as the verdicts were read.
But as the wheelchair-bound man was being escorted from the courthouse under heavy guard, he took swipes at reporters' microphones and cameras. One of the reporters was black, as was a cameraman.
'This is not over with'
Chaney's brother, Ben, said that despite the verdicts, "This is not over with. ... But we'll take what we got."
From her home in New York's Manhattan, Goodman's mother, Carolyn Goodman, 89, said she had waited a long time for a guilty verdict, but it was "nothing to be happy about."
"I'm just overcome. ... But you know I had a feeling it was going to happen," she said.
"I just hope he's off the streets," she said of Killen. "I don't want anything more terrible than that. I don't want anything violent. I'm against capital punishment."
Schwerner's widow, Rita Bender, said, "I would hope that this case is just the beginning and not the end."
She acknowledged the fact that the case likely became a high-profile one because Schwerner and Goodman were white New Yorkers who came to the South the summer of 1964 with hundreds of other volunteers to register black voters. Chaney was a black man from Mississippi.
Neshoba County District Attorney Mark Duncan said the verdict means his county will no longer "be known by a Hollywood movie anymore," referring to the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning" based on the killings.
"Today we've shown the rest of the world the true character of the people of Neshoba County," Duncan told reporters.
Prosecutor: 'Venom' still exists
In his closing argument Monday, Duncan implored the 12 jurors to "hold the defendant responsible for what he did."
"What you do today when you go into that jury room is going to echo throughout the history of Neshoba County from now on," Duncan said. "You can either change the history that Edgar Ray Killen and the Klan wrote for us, or you can confirm it."
"Find him guilty of murder," Duncan said. "That's the verdict that the state of Mississippi asks you to return."
"Those three boys and their families were robbed of all the things that Edgar Ray Killen has been able to enjoy for the last 41 years. And the cause of it, the main instigator of it was Edgar Ray Killen and no one else," the district attorney said.
"He was the man who led these murders. He is the man who set the plan in motion. He is the man who recruited the people to carry out the plan. He is the man who directed those men into what to do."
The balding, bespectacled Killen -- a former part-time Baptist preacher -- appeared to be sleeping during much of the closing remarks.
Hood, who led the case, said he wished "some of my predecessors would have done their duty" by bringing charges against Killen. Noting that it was "not good politics to bring this case up," he said, politics and time should not get in the way of justice.
Hood said testimony showed Killen possessed "venom" at the time of the killings and still does.
"That venom is sitting right there. It is seething behind those glasses," he said. "That coward wants to hide behind this thing and put pressure on you."
Burden of proof
Defense attorney Mitch Moran said "nothing in the record shows Edgar was there" during the ambush and killings.
"The '60s was a terrible era in a lot of ways. We do not need to relive them, and we do need to go forward," Moran said. "What I'm asking you to do is to look at this evidence and hold the state to the burden of proving this case beyond a reasonable doubt."
On June 21, 1964, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were on their way to investigate the burning of a black church when they were briefly taken into custody for speeding.
According to testimony, the Klan had burned the church to lure the three men back to Neshoba County.
After they were released from the county jail in Philadelphia, a KKK mob tailed their car, forced if off the road, and shot them to death. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam -- in a trench dug in anticipation of the killings, according to testimony.
In a 1967 federal trial, an all-white jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of convicting Killen. The lone holdout said she could not vote to convict a preacher.
Seven other men were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of the victims, namely their right to live. None served more than six years in prison. At the time, no federal murder statutes existed, and the state never brought charges.
Littledragon
Above The Law
Seven dead in Israeli train wreck.
REVADIM, Israel (AP) -- A passenger train collided with a coal delivery truck in central Israel on Tuesday afternoon, killing seven people and wounding 191 others, rescue officials said. Police said the crash appeared to be an accident.
Passengers were thrown from the train cars. Three train cars derailed and were left mangled and twisted wrecks. Splinters of metal were strewn on the side of the tracks, some dozens of meters from the trains.
Israeli police said five were dead at the scene and two others died in hospitals. Also, 191 people were treated for injuries, according to Anat Gil-Zuberi, a police spokeswoman, and a female soldier was in critical condition, Israel TV reported.
"It's a horrible sight," Dudi Greenwald, a medic at the scene, told Israel Radio.
"One of the railroad cars is upside down, and it's impossible to tell what's inside," he said. "It's the worst accident I've ever seen."
Authorities said the crash, near the town of Revadim, about 40 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, appeared to be an accident and there was no reason to suspect it was an intentional attack.
At least 62 ambulances arrived at the scene. Helicopters arrived to help transport the injured, and rescuers climbed over the train seats in their efforts to pull out the survivors.
"Hospitals are responding as if it was a terror attack with multiple victims," Health Minister Dan Naveh told Channel 2.
The passenger train, carrying 300 to 400 people from Tel Aviv to the southern city of Beersheba, was traveling as fast as 130 kph (80 mph) when it hit a coal delivery truck about 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) on a remote section of the track that contained a crossing but no traffic light, said Avi Zohar, a Magen David Adom spokesman.
The massive truck weighed about 40 tons, he said.
"It took about fifteen, twenty minutes for rescue services to arrive. We felt really helpless. All we could see around us was fields. We had no idea where we were," Daphna Arad, a reporter for Army Radio who was on the train, told Israel's Channel Two TV.
"Soldiers took out their bandages and began to treat the injured as much as possible," she said.
"I approached a woman who looked all right but had slipped on the floor, and she said she was pregnant and was very worried about her baby. I looked for an old man who had been sitting next to me, and I saw that half his head was coated in blood," she said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
REVADIM, Israel (AP) -- A passenger train collided with a coal delivery truck in central Israel on Tuesday afternoon, killing seven people and wounding 191 others, rescue officials said. Police said the crash appeared to be an accident.
Passengers were thrown from the train cars. Three train cars derailed and were left mangled and twisted wrecks. Splinters of metal were strewn on the side of the tracks, some dozens of meters from the trains.
Israeli police said five were dead at the scene and two others died in hospitals. Also, 191 people were treated for injuries, according to Anat Gil-Zuberi, a police spokeswoman, and a female soldier was in critical condition, Israel TV reported.
"It's a horrible sight," Dudi Greenwald, a medic at the scene, told Israel Radio.
"One of the railroad cars is upside down, and it's impossible to tell what's inside," he said. "It's the worst accident I've ever seen."
Authorities said the crash, near the town of Revadim, about 40 kilometers south of Tel Aviv, appeared to be an accident and there was no reason to suspect it was an intentional attack.
At least 62 ambulances arrived at the scene. Helicopters arrived to help transport the injured, and rescuers climbed over the train seats in their efforts to pull out the survivors.
"Hospitals are responding as if it was a terror attack with multiple victims," Health Minister Dan Naveh told Channel 2.
The passenger train, carrying 300 to 400 people from Tel Aviv to the southern city of Beersheba, was traveling as fast as 130 kph (80 mph) when it hit a coal delivery truck about 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) on a remote section of the track that contained a crossing but no traffic light, said Avi Zohar, a Magen David Adom spokesman.
The massive truck weighed about 40 tons, he said.
"It took about fifteen, twenty minutes for rescue services to arrive. We felt really helpless. All we could see around us was fields. We had no idea where we were," Daphna Arad, a reporter for Army Radio who was on the train, told Israel's Channel Two TV.
"Soldiers took out their bandages and began to treat the injured as much as possible," she said.
"I approached a woman who looked all right but had slipped on the floor, and she said she was pregnant and was very worried about her baby. I looked for an old man who had been sitting next to me, and I saw that half his head was coated in blood," she said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Littledragon
Above The Law
Police: Lions free kidnapped girl.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) west of the capital, Addis Ababa.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.
News of the June 9 rescue was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in southwestern Ethiopia.
"If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.
"Everyone ... thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people," Wondimu said.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said that it was likely that the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.
"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn't eat her," Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."
The girl, the youngest of four brothers and sisters, was "shocked and terrified" and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Wondimu said.
He said that police had caught four of the men, but were still looking for three others.
In Ethiopia, kidnapping has long been part of the marriage custom, a tradition of sorrow and violence whose origins are murky.
The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where the majority of the country's 71 million people live.
Ethiopia's lions, famous for their large black manes, are the country's national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Former emperor Haile Selassie kept a pride in the royal palace in Addis Ababa.
Despite their integral place in Ethiopia culture, their numbers have been falling, according to experts, as farmers encroach on bush land.
Hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1,000, despite a recent crackdown against illegal animal trading across the country. Williams said that at most only 1,000 Ethiopian lions remain in the wild.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) west of the capital, Addis Ababa.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.
News of the June 9 rescue was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in southwestern Ethiopia.
"If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.
"Everyone ... thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people," Wondimu said.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said that it was likely that the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.
"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn't eat her," Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."
The girl, the youngest of four brothers and sisters, was "shocked and terrified" and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Wondimu said.
He said that police had caught four of the men, but were still looking for three others.
In Ethiopia, kidnapping has long been part of the marriage custom, a tradition of sorrow and violence whose origins are murky.
The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where the majority of the country's 71 million people live.
Ethiopia's lions, famous for their large black manes, are the country's national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Former emperor Haile Selassie kept a pride in the royal palace in Addis Ababa.
Despite their integral place in Ethiopia culture, their numbers have been falling, according to experts, as farmers encroach on bush land.
Hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1,000, despite a recent crackdown against illegal animal trading across the country. Williams said that at most only 1,000 Ethiopian lions remain in the wild.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
LONDON (CP) - Japan's Tokyo and Osaka are the world's most expensive cities with London in third place, according to a survey released Monday. New York, which placed 13th, is the most costly of North American cities and Ottawa, in 122nd spot, is the cheapest.
The annual report released in London Monday ranked cities based on the comparative cost of more than 200 items including housing, public and private transport, food, clothing and entertainment.
For example researchers for Mercer Human Resource Consulting found a bus ride in London cost $3.66 US compared to 51 cents in Prague, $1.83 in Dublin and $1.76 in Paris.
Surveys are conducted in 144 cities around the globe every March. All cities are compared to New York, which is automatically given a ranking of 100, Tokyo in comparison scored 135.
Toronto is the most expensive Canadian city, and sits in 82nd spot.
South America was home to the least expensive cities, with Asuncion, Paraguay the cheapest of all surveyed cities.
The Mercer group put the relative expensiveness of Tokyo at No. 1, followed by Osaka then London down to the strength of the pound and the yen against the U.S. dollar and cited the high cost of housing and transport as a major factor in London's cost of living.
"Many of the U.S. cities surveyed have fallen in the rankings due to the weakening of the dollar against the Euro, Canadian dollar and Asian Pacific currencies," Mercer research manager Marie-Laurence Sepede said.
Because China pegs its currency to the U.S. dollar its cities ratings were also affected by the dollar's depreciation and were lower in the rankings than the previous year.
The report also found the cost of living divide between the world's cheapest and most expensive cities was narrowing.
-
Top 25 cities (with last year's ranking):
1. Tokyo, Japan (1)
2. Osaka, Japan (4)
3. London, Britain (2)
4. Moscow, Russia (3)
5. Seoul, South Korea (7)
6. Geneva, Switzerland (6)
7. Zurich, Switzerland (9)
8. Copenhagen, Denmark (8)
9. Hong Kong, Hong Kong (5)
10. Oslo, Norway (15)
11. Milan, Italy (14)
12. Paris, France (17)
13. New York City, United States (12)
14. Dublin, Ireland (14)
15. St. Petersburg, Russia (10)
16. Vienna, Austria (19)
17. Rome, Italy (21)
18. Stockholm, Sweden (22)
19. Beijing, China (11)
20. Sydney, Australia (20)
21. Helsinki, Finland (23)
22. Douala, Cameroon (25)
23. Istanbul, Turkey (18)
24. Amsterdam, Netherlands (26), Budapest, Hungary (34) (Amsterdam and Budapest ranked equally).
82. Toronto.
122. Ottawa.
The annual report released in London Monday ranked cities based on the comparative cost of more than 200 items including housing, public and private transport, food, clothing and entertainment.
For example researchers for Mercer Human Resource Consulting found a bus ride in London cost $3.66 US compared to 51 cents in Prague, $1.83 in Dublin and $1.76 in Paris.
Surveys are conducted in 144 cities around the globe every March. All cities are compared to New York, which is automatically given a ranking of 100, Tokyo in comparison scored 135.
Toronto is the most expensive Canadian city, and sits in 82nd spot.
South America was home to the least expensive cities, with Asuncion, Paraguay the cheapest of all surveyed cities.
The Mercer group put the relative expensiveness of Tokyo at No. 1, followed by Osaka then London down to the strength of the pound and the yen against the U.S. dollar and cited the high cost of housing and transport as a major factor in London's cost of living.
"Many of the U.S. cities surveyed have fallen in the rankings due to the weakening of the dollar against the Euro, Canadian dollar and Asian Pacific currencies," Mercer research manager Marie-Laurence Sepede said.
Because China pegs its currency to the U.S. dollar its cities ratings were also affected by the dollar's depreciation and were lower in the rankings than the previous year.
The report also found the cost of living divide between the world's cheapest and most expensive cities was narrowing.
-
Top 25 cities (with last year's ranking):
1. Tokyo, Japan (1)
2. Osaka, Japan (4)
3. London, Britain (2)
4. Moscow, Russia (3)
5. Seoul, South Korea (7)
6. Geneva, Switzerland (6)
7. Zurich, Switzerland (9)
8. Copenhagen, Denmark (8)
9. Hong Kong, Hong Kong (5)
10. Oslo, Norway (15)
11. Milan, Italy (14)
12. Paris, France (17)
13. New York City, United States (12)
14. Dublin, Ireland (14)
15. St. Petersburg, Russia (10)
16. Vienna, Austria (19)
17. Rome, Italy (21)
18. Stockholm, Sweden (22)
19. Beijing, China (11)
20. Sydney, Australia (20)
21. Helsinki, Finland (23)
22. Douala, Cameroon (25)
23. Istanbul, Turkey (18)
24. Amsterdam, Netherlands (26), Budapest, Hungary (34) (Amsterdam and Budapest ranked equally).
82. Toronto.
122. Ottawa.
Littledragon
Above The Law
Scout's parents: 'Brennan continues to amaze us'.
BOUNTIFUL, Utah (CNN) -- The father of 11-year-old Cub Scout Brennan Hawkins said Wednesday his son "continues to amaze us" after surviving four days alone in the Utah wilderness.
Brennan was found safe Tuesday by a searcher driving an all-terrain vehicle. He was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where doctors diagnosed him with sunburn, scrapes, bruises and some minor dehydration.
He was released early Wednesday morning and returned to his family home in the suburb of Bountiful.
His parents held two news conferences in their front yard and provided details on their four-day ordeal with a background of yellow ribbons and balloons.
Brennan Hawkins made his first public appearance at the afternoon session, surrounded by family and friends.
He said only that he felt "good" before sitting down at his mother's feet behind the microphones while his parents and four siblings answered reporters' questions.
His parents said the boy appeared to be fine but that he didn't seem ready to talk much about his ordeal -- at which point Brennan Hawkins shook his head.
"Brennan continues to amaze us," said his father, Toby Hawkins. "You know, his ability to deal with this initially, I made the comment that I thought that he was the most ill-prepared out of our five children to deal with it, and now I think he was maybe the best-prepared."
Brennan's mother, Jody Hawkins, suggested her son may have been avoiding searchers by following his father's advice.
"He had two thoughts going through his head all the time," she said. "Toby's always told him that 'if you get lost, stay on the trail.' So he stayed on the trail.
"We've also told him don't talk to strangers. ... When an ATV or horse came by, he got off the trail. ... When they left, he got back on the trail."
"His biggest fear, he told me, was someone would steal him," she said.
Brennan's uncle, Bob Hawkins, said his nephew may have been afraid to contact the strangers because they weren't using the password his family had adopted.
The family explained that Brennan was born prematurely and he is socially immature as a result.
"He doesn't have any disabilities; he's just immature," Toby Hawkins said.
'What a remarkable finish'
Brennan went missing Friday while camping at a Boy Scout camp about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City that is about 8,500 feet in elevation.
Toby Hawkins was asked how he felt. "What a remarkable finish and conclusion to this whole experience," he said.
"You go from incredible worry and concern. ... Then you go through the search process of not getting any clues. ...
"And then in just an instant, kind of flip of the switch, you go to incredible exhilaration and gratitude and appreciation for everybody's efforts that ultimately resulted in the successful rescue of Brennan."
Both parents' composure cracked as they described how they learned their son had been found alive.
Jody Hawkins said she feared the worst when officials from the Summit County Sheriff's Department asked her to get in a car because they had news.
"I, at that point, didn't think Brennan was still with us," she said. "I felt peace with the situation, but I didn't really think he could have survived that long in the wilderness. ...
"So when I was going to get into the sheriff's car I knew they going to tell me that Brennan was no longer with me.
"So I collapsed even before I got into the sheriff's truck, and when they told me that Brennan was still alive, ... my brain still cannot comprehend that."
Although Brennan hasn't given many details about his ordeal, he did tell his father that when he first realized he was lost, he said a prayer.
"I said to Brennan, 'Heavenly father has taken care of you,'" Toby Hawkins said.
As his parents spoke at their morning news conference, Brennan lay sleeping inside.
"His personality has not changed one tiny bit," said Jody Hawkins. "He was cracking jokes to us within 20 to 30 seconds when we saw him yesterday."
One of the first questions Brennan asked after he was rescued, his father said, was if the Pokemon cards he had ordered on eBay had arrived.
Found by ATV searcher
The boy was last reported seen around 5:30 p.m. Friday by a climbing wall supervisor who said he saw Brennan removing his climbing gear.
When the boy failed to show up for dinner an hour later, Scout leaders began searching.
On Tuesday, volunteer searcher Forrest Nunley driving an all-terrain vehicle came across the boy around noon (3 p.m. ET) about a mile and a half south of Lily Lake -- five miles west of where he was last seen, said Summit County Sheriff David Edmunds.
Nunley said he "turned a corner and there was a kid standing in the middle of the trail. He was all muddy and wet."
Nunley then dialed 911 on his cell phone. "He was a little delirious. I sat him down and gave him a little food," he told CNN affiliate KSL.
Volunteers had delayed searching the area where Brennan was found because they thought it unlikely that the boy crossed the nearby mountain ridge to get there.
Brennan told rescuers he'd had nothing to eat or drink during his ordeal.
After eating and drinking, the sheriff said, Brennan -- wearing the same blue sweatshirt, nylon shorts and climbing shoes he was reported wearing Friday -- "wanted to play a video game on one of the searchers' cell phones."
CNN's Rusty Dornin, Ted Rowlands and Peter Viles contributed to this report.
BOUNTIFUL, Utah (CNN) -- The father of 11-year-old Cub Scout Brennan Hawkins said Wednesday his son "continues to amaze us" after surviving four days alone in the Utah wilderness.
Brennan was found safe Tuesday by a searcher driving an all-terrain vehicle. He was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where doctors diagnosed him with sunburn, scrapes, bruises and some minor dehydration.
He was released early Wednesday morning and returned to his family home in the suburb of Bountiful.
His parents held two news conferences in their front yard and provided details on their four-day ordeal with a background of yellow ribbons and balloons.
Brennan Hawkins made his first public appearance at the afternoon session, surrounded by family and friends.
He said only that he felt "good" before sitting down at his mother's feet behind the microphones while his parents and four siblings answered reporters' questions.
His parents said the boy appeared to be fine but that he didn't seem ready to talk much about his ordeal -- at which point Brennan Hawkins shook his head.
"Brennan continues to amaze us," said his father, Toby Hawkins. "You know, his ability to deal with this initially, I made the comment that I thought that he was the most ill-prepared out of our five children to deal with it, and now I think he was maybe the best-prepared."
Brennan's mother, Jody Hawkins, suggested her son may have been avoiding searchers by following his father's advice.
"He had two thoughts going through his head all the time," she said. "Toby's always told him that 'if you get lost, stay on the trail.' So he stayed on the trail.
"We've also told him don't talk to strangers. ... When an ATV or horse came by, he got off the trail. ... When they left, he got back on the trail."
"His biggest fear, he told me, was someone would steal him," she said.
Brennan's uncle, Bob Hawkins, said his nephew may have been afraid to contact the strangers because they weren't using the password his family had adopted.
The family explained that Brennan was born prematurely and he is socially immature as a result.
"He doesn't have any disabilities; he's just immature," Toby Hawkins said.
'What a remarkable finish'
Brennan went missing Friday while camping at a Boy Scout camp about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City that is about 8,500 feet in elevation.
Toby Hawkins was asked how he felt. "What a remarkable finish and conclusion to this whole experience," he said.
"You go from incredible worry and concern. ... Then you go through the search process of not getting any clues. ...
"And then in just an instant, kind of flip of the switch, you go to incredible exhilaration and gratitude and appreciation for everybody's efforts that ultimately resulted in the successful rescue of Brennan."
Both parents' composure cracked as they described how they learned their son had been found alive.
Jody Hawkins said she feared the worst when officials from the Summit County Sheriff's Department asked her to get in a car because they had news.
"I, at that point, didn't think Brennan was still with us," she said. "I felt peace with the situation, but I didn't really think he could have survived that long in the wilderness. ...
"So when I was going to get into the sheriff's car I knew they going to tell me that Brennan was no longer with me.
"So I collapsed even before I got into the sheriff's truck, and when they told me that Brennan was still alive, ... my brain still cannot comprehend that."
Although Brennan hasn't given many details about his ordeal, he did tell his father that when he first realized he was lost, he said a prayer.
"I said to Brennan, 'Heavenly father has taken care of you,'" Toby Hawkins said.
As his parents spoke at their morning news conference, Brennan lay sleeping inside.
"His personality has not changed one tiny bit," said Jody Hawkins. "He was cracking jokes to us within 20 to 30 seconds when we saw him yesterday."
One of the first questions Brennan asked after he was rescued, his father said, was if the Pokemon cards he had ordered on eBay had arrived.
Found by ATV searcher
The boy was last reported seen around 5:30 p.m. Friday by a climbing wall supervisor who said he saw Brennan removing his climbing gear.
When the boy failed to show up for dinner an hour later, Scout leaders began searching.
On Tuesday, volunteer searcher Forrest Nunley driving an all-terrain vehicle came across the boy around noon (3 p.m. ET) about a mile and a half south of Lily Lake -- five miles west of where he was last seen, said Summit County Sheriff David Edmunds.
Nunley said he "turned a corner and there was a kid standing in the middle of the trail. He was all muddy and wet."
Nunley then dialed 911 on his cell phone. "He was a little delirious. I sat him down and gave him a little food," he told CNN affiliate KSL.
Volunteers had delayed searching the area where Brennan was found because they thought it unlikely that the boy crossed the nearby mountain ridge to get there.
Brennan told rescuers he'd had nothing to eat or drink during his ordeal.
After eating and drinking, the sheriff said, Brennan -- wearing the same blue sweatshirt, nylon shorts and climbing shoes he was reported wearing Friday -- "wanted to play a video game on one of the searchers' cell phones."
CNN's Rusty Dornin, Ted Rowlands and Peter Viles contributed to this report.