SNOWPLOW DRIVER ARRESTED IN
RAMPAGE, FORMER MAYOR'S SLAYING
8.23 p.m. ET (123 GMT) February 27, 1998
By Robert Weller, Associated Press
ALMA, Colo. (AP) - A part-time snowplow driver on Friday
admitted killing the former mayor and using a huge
construction vehicle in a demolition run around town,
punching holes in four public buildings and knocking out water
and phone service.
"I plead guilty to all of it,'' Thomas Leask, 50, said in court.
Despite his request, the public defender's office was ordered to
appoint an attorney.
Leask was arrested about 4 1/2 hours after the rampage in a
grove behind his burning house, which sheriff's authorities said
he had set on fire. He was armed with a .45-caliber pistol and a
rifle.
Residents said Leask had been battling with town officials,
objecting to being forced to use the town's water system.
Leask rammed a stolen military surplus front-end loader into
the water treatment plant Thursday night, knocking out service
and sending thousands of gallons of water into the streets,
where it formed sheets of ice.
He also attacked town hall, a fire station and the Post Office in
the same way, knocking holes that measured 10 feet high and
15 feet wide.
Residents in this hamlet of 150 people 65 miles southwest of
Denver, near the Breckenridge ski resort, were advised to boil
drinking water until the plant was repaired. The damage also
cut off telephone service.
"He did a pretty good job of shutting the town down,'' said
Sheriff's Sgt. Don Anthony.
Leask was ordered held without bail for investigation of
first-degree murder, first-degree arson and criminal mischief. He
said he didn't want a lawyer, but the public defender's office was
ordered to appoint one.
Investigators were trying to determine a motive for the rampage.
A friend, Jeff Oberholtzer, said Leask was "not a violent kind of
guy or anything. I liked the guy. He always kept to himself a
lot.''
A neighbor, David Rowe, 27, was arrested after allegedly trying
to thwart officers' efforts to arrest Leask.
"He opened his window and he was hollering out, letting him
know where all our positions are. We decided that wasn't fair
so we arrested him,'' said sheriff's Sgt. Don Anthony.
The body of former mayor Willie Morrison was found inside
town hall where he had been attending a meeting, said
Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Mark Wilson. He had
been shot to death and six Molotov cocktails were found
nearby, police said.
Morrison and several town council members had resigned last
week in a dispute over a newly hired marshal.
Mac McChesney, who works in a local real estate office, said
his son had also been mayor of the town but had quit because
he said the situation "is too volatile.'''
"This is like any other place in the mountains,'' he said. "People
come up here to get away from government.''
At 10,578 feet, Alma touts itself as the highest town in the
country.
Pat Pocius, a member of the local Chamber of Commerce, said
Morrison, who was in his 40s, was a gifted sculptor who
specialized in welding large pieces of art. "He was just starting
to do big things as an artist,'' she said.
With the town at a standstill, dozens of residents gathered
Friday to watch as investigators sifted through debris and
workers chipped away at ice covering the streets.
"I think this was just one of those things,'' said McChesney.
"Somebody just went over the edge. Willie would have been the
last person in this town someone would have killed.''
Said Pocius: "This isn't normal for anywhere.''
_________________________________________________________
TIGER BITES OFF KEEPER'S ARM
1.20 a.m. ET (620 GMT) February 26, 1998
CHIPPING NORTON, England (AP) - A tiger bit off part of a
trainer's left arm when the man put it through the bars of the
animal's cage to move a partition.
The accident happened Wednesday near Chipping Norton in
southern England where the Chipperfields, a family that has run
circuses for 300 years, keep animals used for circuses, film and
advertising work.
The 32-year-old keeper, whose severed hand and lower arm was
apparently eaten by the tiger, was hospitalized in nearby
Oxford. He was not identified.
After the attack, the four-year-old Bengal tiger bedded down for
the night as usual, Chipperfield Enterprises said.
Last month Richard Chipperfield, 24, was seriously injured
when a tiger he had raised as a cub clamped its jaws round his
head during preparations for a show in St. Petersburg, Fla.
_________________________________________________________
TRANSVESTITE BOXER'S NIMBLE RING-CRAFT WINS THAI HEARTS
BANGKOK, Feb 25 (AFP) - Thousands packed Bangkok's Lumpini
Stadium to watch the country's new kick-boxing sensation,
"transvestite slugger" Parinya Kiatbusaba, win the biggest fight of
his life.
The cheers from the 10,000 strong crowd crammed into the stadium
were deafening as Parinya, 16, in full makeup, outpointed his
opponent over five rounds to net the 40,000 baht (900 dollars) in
prize money.
"It was amazing because the boxer was not a real man, but a
lady-boy," said one awestruck spectator.
"But he can use his body like a man, and can fight like a real
man. Most women can't do that. Sometimes men can't even do it," the
bemused spectator said.
Amid the throbbing beat of traditional Thai drums, betting
reached fever pitch as the match wore on, with Parinya earning odds
of 2-1, 5-1 and 10-1 in the first three rounds.
After Tuesday's fight Parinya, wearing red lipstick and pink
nail polish under his boxing golves, sashayed across the ring and
planted a delicate kiss on the cheek of bloodied and demoralized
opponent Oven Sor Boonya.
"I had a big fight today and proved that I can do it like a man,
even though my feelings deep inside are very feminine," a breathless
Parinya was quoted as saying by the Nation daily.
Thai boxing experts welcomed the newcomer to the Bangkok big
league as a breath of fresh air, and the press, eager for a break
from Thailand's economic woes, splashed the story across their front
pages.
The prominent Bangkok English-language Nation daily ran the
front page headline, "This lady-boy shows fans he packs a punch",
while the rival Bangkok Post dubbed the new sensation the
"Transvestite slugger".
In an interview following the fight, an elated Parinya said one
of his biggest fears was having to fight a handsome man, whom he may
be afraid to hit too hard.
"I don't want to fight with a handsome man, because I won't want
to hurt him," the boxer said, adding that he would use some of his
prize money for cosmetic surgery.
At the weigh-in prior to the fight Parinya burst into tears and
refused to strip at the request of officials before climbing on the
scales. They finally relented and allowed him to keep his underwear
on.
"The rule is unnacceptable. How can I strip in public," Parinya
said, tears gushing down his face, causing his makeup to run.
Transvestites, known as "kratoey" or lady-boys here, are a
common sight throughout Thailand's 73 provinces and are found in all
levels of Thai society, although most locals still regard them with
some fascination.
Former Thai world champion junior bantam-weight Khaosai Galaxy
told AFP that Parinya was welcome to the sport and that being a
transvestite and homosexual would be a strong selling point for the
young boxer's career.
"As a transvestite, he will be welcome in boxing circles here as
it will promote the sport, but he should be careful of flirting with
overnight fame," the more experienced boxer, who was world champ
between 1984 and 1991, warned.
"Without proper and continuous practice his career could be
short-lived. He could get worn out by too many fights if his
promoter does not take a lot of care," Khaosai warned.
"Also his opponent last night was not strong. A transvestite is
a transvestite afterall. If he meets a stronger and better trained
opponent then I think he may have problems," he added.
Following his weigh-in ordeal, the teary-eyed youngster from the
northern Thai city of Chiang Mai soon pulled himself together and
warned his opponent to watch out for his nimble ring-craft and not
to be fooled by his fragile looks.
"So I would like to warn my opponent not to get distracted by my
eyes or my smile, because this smile has knocked 18 boxers out in 22
fights over the past two years," the Bangkok Post quoted Parinya as
saying.
The fight at Lumpini Stadium, the mecca of Thai boxing, was
Parinya's first foray into the big league of Thai kick boxing,
having recently moved to the capital following a successful career
in the provinces.
The mass-circulation newspaper Thai Rath quoted Parinya's
trainer and promoter, Virat Praianand, as saying the star would go
up against a foreigner in his next big match on March 21, although
he did not elaborate.
He said in the future he would be pushing for Parinya to enter
the international circuit by arranging a fight in Las Vegas.
_________________________________________________________
SO, HEH, HEH, HEARD THE LATEST AESOP'S FABLE?
1.13 a.m. ET (614 GMT) February 23, 1998
By Hillel Italie, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - So you know the fables about the tortoise
who outlasts the hare and the mouse who pulls the thorn from
the paw of the lion. Heard the one about the camel who relieves
himself in the river?
A new translation of "Aesop's Fables'' reveals the quaint
children's tales were, in the original Greek, considerably rawer
and racier. The new book features gender-switching hyenas,
hard-hearted frogs and a crane with a taste for double entendres.
"The ones we're familiar with have been tampered with through
the ages,'' said co-translator Olivia Temple, who collaborated
on the book with her husband, Robert Temple.
"The Victorians didn't translate any of the slightly rude ones.
And the ones we have known about were turned into little
morality tales for children.''
Penguin Classics published "Aesop: The Complete Fables'' in
England last month. The book isn't due in U.S. stores until
Tuesday, but it's already received attention in some expected
places. Rush Limbaugh mentioned them on his radio show,
wondering if they were fit for children, and they were
lampooned on TV's Comedy Central as "Lust in Translation.''
Little is known about Aesop, who apparently lived in Greece in
the sixth century B.C. He's referred to in the writings of
Aristophanes, Plato and Aristotle, among others, and he was
said to have used his stories to make points in courtrooms and
negotiations. It was supposedly a sign of status to quote him at
drinking parties.
The new edition of the fables includes 358 entries, some 100 of
which have never before appeared in English. The fables define
a pagan world, the moral less that good is stronger than evil but
rather that you do what you need to do to survive.
In "The Shut-In Lion and the Ploughman,'' the ploughman's
attempt to trap the lion in his shed leads to the lion's killing all
the sheep and then attacking the cattle. The moral: Don't
provoke the powerful.
A hard lesson also is learned in "The Ass and the Frogs.'' When
the ass falls into a bog and begins to cry, the frogs have no
sympathy: "What sort of a noise would you make if you had
been living here for as long we we have? You, who have only
fallen for a moment?''
The moral: Life is tough; quit whining.
Alterations in the fables date at least to the 18th century, when a
translator named Samuel Croxall freely expanded the original
works. "Well over 50 percent of Croxall's so-called translations
were written by Croxall,'' Robert Temple said.
Just a single word could make all the difference. In "The Fox
and the Bunch of Grapes,'' a hungry fox is unable to reach a
bunch of grapes hanging from a tree. As originally translated,
the fox walks away and, to save face, mutters, "Those grapes
are sour.'' That's the source of the expression "sour grapes.''
But the Temples' translation reveals a sexual overlay to the
story. The Greek word was not "sour,'' but "unripe.'' The phrase
"unripe grapes'' also could refer to a sexually immature girl.
The fables actually are no more graphic than other Greek
literature, to which even some ancient Greeks objected. In
Plato's "Republic,'' Socrates complains that Homer should not
have shown the Trojan king Priam, "the kinsman of the gods,''
as "praying and beseeching, rolling in the dung.'' Socrates also
criticizes Hesiod's creation poem, the "Theogony,'' which
includes a son who castrates his father and throws away the
genitals.
Some of the fables clearly were too strong for the Victorians.
The title of one, "The Camel Who Shat in the River,'' speaks for
itself. Another fable, "The Beaver,'' notes that the beaver is often
hunted because his genitals are valued for medicinal purposes.
His defense? Biting off his parts and throwing them away.
A couple of fables play off the ancient myth that hyenas
changed gender every year. "The Hyena and the Fox'' tells of the
fox who rejects the hyena's female incarnation because he can't
know "whether you would be my girlfriend or my boyfriend.'' In
"The Hyenas,'' after a male hyena attempts what the fable calls
an "unnatural'' act with a female hyena, she warns him to
"remember that what you do to me will soon be done to you.''
Then you have the one about the crane and the peacock. The
peacock brags how he is decked out in purple and gold, while
the plain crane has nothing beautiful to wear.
"But I,'' replied the crane, "sing near to the stars and I mount up
to the heavens. You, like the cockerels, can only mount the
hens down below.''
_________________________________________________________
POLICE CHARGE 8-YEAR-OLD GIRL WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER
7.28 a.m. ET (1229 GMT) February 21, 1998
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An 8-year-old girl was charged with
attempted murder after police said she tried to poison her
great-grandmother.
The girl pleaded innocent during a preliminary hearing Friday,
the same day Virginia Dozier, 76, was released from Ohio State
University Medical Center. She had been in critical condition
after being poisoned with wintergreen oil Wednesday, hospital
spokesman Kenneth Phillips said.
Magistrate Larry Sanchez ordered the child sent home in the
custody of her mother.
Judge Kay Lias, administrative judge of Domestic Relations
Court, said most children are generally considered able to know
right from wrong by age 7. But Franklin County prosecutors
and Juvenile Court judges said they could not recall a child so
young being charged with such a serious offense in the county.
Eppert said the girl, who lives with her mother, Ms. Dozier and
other family members, poured wintergreen oil into Ms. Dozier's
soft drink.
"The investigation indicates it was purposely done,'' police
Detective Steve Eppert said. "I guess you could call it a
personality conflict.''
Wintergreen oil is commonly used in small amounts as a food
flavoring but is lethal in high doses.
Convicted juvenile offenders are usually placed in the custody
of the state prison system for juveniles, but the system does not
accept children under age 12. A Juvenile Court would have to
decide the girl's punishment if she is convicted.
_________________________________________________________
PERFORMANCE ARTIST TO GROW EXTRA EAR: REPORT
LONDON, Feb 20 (AFP) - A performance artist has announced in
London that he is to grow a third ear, a report said Friday.
The 53-year-old Australian known only as Stelarc said he hoped
to enlist the help of plastic surgeons, according to The Times
newspaper.
"A little rubber balloon is going to be inserted under the skin
behind my ear," said Stelarc at the Royal Institution of Great
Britain in London.
"It will be inflated over the period of a month or so to leave a
packet of excess skin. Then I will put in an ear scaffold beneath
the skin. What you will have is a third ear."
Although Stelarc will not be able to hear with the ear, he said
he planned to install a sound chip in it so that he can detect
anyone approaching.
He said his inspiration came from the Oncamouse, which
scientists genetically altered to grow a human ear on its back.
In his other works, Stelarc has inserted a titanium capsule into
his stomach that could expand to the size of a fist by remote
control, dangling in the air from hooks in his skin and attaching
60-volt electrodes to his muscles on two arms and a leg, wiring
himself to the Internet and encouraging the public to manipulate his
body.
_________________________________________________________
POLICE: WOMAN TOSSED SON OUT OF CAR TO
'PROTECT HIM FROM PORNOGRAPHY'
6.22 p.m. ET (2322 GMT) February 19, 1998
By Karen Testa, Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A woman admitted she
threw her 18-month-old son out a speeding car into a highway
median Thursday because she "would rather see her baby dead
than to be involved with pornography,'' police said.
Krisann Haddad, 30, of West Palm Beach, was being held on
$60,000 bond after being charged with first-degree attempted
murder and second-degree aggravated child abuse.
Police believe the woman had taken drugs, alcohol or both.
Results from a blood test were not expected for a week.
Her son, Stephen, was listed in critical condition with broken
bones a West Palm Beach hospital.
Witnesses told police they saw Haddad late Thursday morning
speeding up to 90 mph along Interstate 95, the main
north-south artery on Florida's Atlantic coast.
She crossed the grassy median into southbound traffic, then
zipped back toward the northbound lanes, witnesses said. At
least three people reported seeing the woman throw the toddler
through the driver's side window, according to the arrest
affidavit.
Haddad stopped her car along side the highway in Hobe
Sound, about 25 miles north of West Palm Beach, and ran
toward her son. Several witnesses had gathered to help him, the
affidavit said.
She later told police she "would rather have her son dead than
to be involved with pornography movies.''
It was not clear the exact speed she was traveling when the
child was thrown from the car, police said.
_________________________________________________________
MINISTER, WIFE CHARGED WITH SENDING
SON NAKED INTO COLD, RAINY NIGHT
5.14 p.m. ET (2216 GMT) February 18, 1998
JOHNSON CITY Tenn. (AP) - A minister and his school
psychologist wife face charges of sending their 13-year-old son
naked into a cold, rainy night as punishment.
Joseph Yeaney was found the next day shivering in a neighbor's
barn about a quarter-mile from home, wearing only a choir robe
he took from his father's nearby church.
"He was made to strip nude and go outside to think about what
he had done,'' Sullivan County Sheriff Keith Carr said
Wednesday. "Obviously, he was quite cold, shaking
uncontrollably,''
The temperature was in the 30s when Joseph was turned out the
night of Jan. 16. His mother, Donna Yeaney, reported him
missing eight hours later and he was found the next morning.
Joseph, who was adopted, was placed in state custody.
The sheriff wouldn't say what the boy had done but said it
wasn't the first time the punishment was used on the
seventh-grader.
The couple have two biological children who were never
punished that way, Carr said.
Stephen Yeaney, 40, the pastor of Rock Springs United
Methodist Church, and Mrs. Yeaney, 39, who works for the
Scott County, Va., school system, were indicted Tuesday on
child abuse charges. They were released on $2,000 bond,
pending a hearing March 27.
The pastor wouldn't comment when reached at home
Wednesday.
_________________________________________________________
HIV-POSITIVE PROSTITUTE CAUSES CONCERN
Wednesday February 18 11:42 AM EST
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli Health Ministry said it would try to
persuade an HIV-positive prostitute, aged about 70, to stop her work.
AIDS activists in contact with the prostitute say she has intercourse with
six to 10 customers a day, charges only 10 shekels ($2.80) and does not
demand that they wear condoms.
Most of her clients, they said, were adolescents attracted by the low fee.
"Recently, we received reports about the activities of an HIV-positive
prostitute in the Tel Aviv area," the ministry said in a statement, referring
to the virus that causes AIDS.
"Lacking legal grounds, we cannot prevent her from working, however the
ministry's director-general has ordered that she be located and persuaded
to cease her employment, which endangers the public," it said.
AIDS activist Inon Schenker, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's School
of Public Health, urged the ministry to take all means necessary to get the
woman off the streets.
"To say you can't do anything is like putting your head in the sand," he told
Reuters, saying Israel's public health law empowered the ministry to take
steps to prevent the spread of disease.
"We don't know how many people have been infected by her... she is a danger
by the minute," Schenker said.
A survey between 1991 and 1994 showed that five percent of all Israeli
prostitutes who volunteered to undergo AIDS tests carried the virus that can
cause Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
_________________________________________________________
GERMAN POLICE OFFICER BARES ALL
MUNICH, Germany, Feb 16 (AFP) - A 50-year-old German police
superintendent has been exposed as having an unusual off-duty
past-time -- acting in a hard-core porno film, Munich police sources
said Monday.
While his superiors have voiced their disapproval at the
revelations, the sources said the unidentified officer would not
face disciplinary action as his part-time acting career did not
interfere with his normal duties.
According to Focus magazine, the superintendent agreed to act in
the movie because he had fallen in love with the 26-year-old
co-producer, who was said to be a former sympathiser of the
terrorist Red Army Faction group.
_________________________________________________________
FLORIDA MAN TRIED ON OBSCENITY T-SHIRT CHARGE
3.06 p.m. ET (2007 GMT) February 16, 1998
OCALA, Fla. - Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a
24-year-old Florida man charged with obscenity over a T-shirt
featuring a bare-breasted nun and calling Jesus a profane name.
Record-store clerk Andrew Love was wearing a new T-shirt
promoting the British "death metal'' band Cradle of Filth in
November when security officers at an Ocala shopping mall
told him to turn the garment inside out or leave.
Before he was able to reverse the shirt, Ocala police showed up,
arrested him and confiscated it.
The shirt shows a bare-breasted woman in a nun's habit
reaching between her legs. On the back are the words "Jesus is a
...,'' using a crude term for female genitalia.
"I know its offensive,'' Love said. "Since when is it against the
law to be offensive?''
Love contended the shirt was not obscene but prosecutor Steve
Rogers disagreed.
Love was never jailed on the misdemeanor charge and was
released on his own recognizance. If convicted, he could be
fined $1,000 and sentenced to a year in jail.
Florida law defines obscenity as something the average person
believes would appeal to a prurient, shameful or morbid
interest. Something is obscene if it depicts or describes sexual
material in a patently offensive way and lacks serious literary,
artistic, political or scientific value.
"In this community, that T-shirt is definitely political,'' said
Love's attorney, Jim Reich.'' He said the case had sparked an
outcry from fans of Cradle of Filth, civil libertarians and ''those
of an anarchistic bent.''
Reich argued Love's arrest amounted to unlawful prior restraint
because police officers determined on their own that the T-shirt
was obscene.
Marion County Judge Sandra Edward-Stephens rejected that
argument and opening statements were expected to start in the
case on Tuesday.
_________________________________________________________
SINGER BEATS WIFE TO DEATH FOR SOUR NOTES
NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (AFP) - A professional Indian singer allegedly
battered his wife to death because she sang out of tune at a party,
the United News of India said on Friday.
Jailon (one name) was arrested for murder on Thursday after
his wife's death in the eastern city of Jamshedpur, where the couple
had been invited to sing folk songs at a party.
Jailon allegedly struck her with a rock after the two argued.
She was rushed to hospital but died of her injuries, the news agency
said.
_________________________________________________________
MSNBC'S SINATRA DEATH GAFFE
Thursday February 12th 4:50 PM PST
By E! Online News Staff
Frank Sinatra went home to his Beverly Hills compound Thursday after two
days in the hospital for undisclosed, nonemergency tests.
"He's glad to be home," spokeswoman Susan Reynolds says. His wife
Barbara accompanied Sinatra on the eight-mile ambulance ride from
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The 82-year-old entertainer--not seen in public since suffering a heart
attack more than a year ago--is rumored to be gravely ill, possibly
battling bladder cancer, according to the New York Post and the
supermarket tabloids.
Reynolds would not say what type of tests Sinatra had or comment on his
condition, saying only that it was not serious. And, according to the
Website run by Sinatra's kids, the Chairman of the Board "is OK. The
reports are exaggerated, unfair and uncalled for."
Tell that to MSNBC. The cable news network jumped the gun on the Sinatra
story--big-time--Wednesday, very briefly airing an obituary graphic
("1915-1998") during a morning news update on the singer's latest
hospitalization.
Network spokeswoman Cameron Blanchard estimates the card was on the
screen for less than a second. "You had to be really, really watching"
to catch it, she said.
Turns out some viewers were really, really watching. Fans in a Sinatra
newsgroup reported spotting the icon and made the MSNBC mishap a topic
of conversation last night.
There were no complaints, though, and no angry calls from the Sinatra
camp, adds Blanchard.
"We did do it. It was a technical error. Obviously, it regrettably
occurred."
_________________________________________________________
ELDERLY GUNMAN FIRES IN CASINO
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A 78-year-old man allegedly shot and wounded
five people in a casino and was caught as he tried to shuffle away
using his walker.
None of those wounded were seriously hurt.
Jesse Rosson may have been jealous that his wife or girlfriend was
at the casino with another man, said Barry Phillips, a spokesman at
Club Cal-Neva, where the shooting took place Tuesday night.
Police said only that Rosson targeted a man and woman in their 50s.
Rosson was booked for investigation of two counts of attempted murder
and three counts of battery with a deadly weapon.
Two of the wounded refused to go to the hospital and remained at the
casino to gamble, Phillips said.
_________________________________________________________
MCDONALD'S OWNER SUED MAN WHO CLAIMS
HE FOUND ROACH EGGS IN SANDWICH
8.28 p.m. ET (125 GMT) February 7, 1998
HOUSTON (AP) - A man who accused McDonald's of serving
him a roach-egg infested biscuit wasn't satisfied when the
restaurant offered him a $1 refund or another sandwich.
So Hubert Lee put up a sign at his used car dealership that says,
"I got roach eggs at McDonalds at Jensen (Drive)!''
That angered the owner of the McDonald's, who denied serving
contaminated food and filed a $100,000 libel and slander
lawsuit against Lee on Friday.
"I have done nothing to provoke Mr. Lee in any way, yet he
continues to slander me publicly and has caused serious mental
and financial damage to me personally,'' owner Phillip Hagans
said in an affidavit.
Lee, in turn, sued Hagans and McDonald's for unspecified
damages, alleging they violated the Deceptive Trade Practices
Act by not warning consumers of the hazards of eating there.
"I'm just letting people in my neighborhood know what
happened to me,'' Lee said Friday. "I get fed a roach egg. They
offer me a dollar, then turn around and sue me.''
There was no answer at Lee's home Saturday and a message left
for Hagans by The Associated Press was not returned.
Lee alleges he took a bite from a breakfast sandwich he bought
Oct. 22 and saw a roach egg fall from his mouth and onto his
napkin. He said he vomited.
Hagans said in his lawsuit that health inspectors and the
restaurant chain itself found no evidence of roaches.
The fast food outlet has been seeking a court order to have Lee's
sign removed. But a court hearing on the issue was canceled
when Lee filed his lawsuit.
_________________________________________________________
CLERGYMEN SAY GOD STEERED GAYS AWAY
Friday February 6 11:03 AM EST
NASSAU, Bahamas (Reuters) - Bahamian clergymen who protested the
planned visit of a cruise ship carrying hundreds of gay vacationers said
Thursday the power of prayer had steered the ship away from the islands.
The Norwegian Cruise Line vessel Leeward canceled a visit Thursday to
the company's private Bahamian island, Stirrup Cay, due to inclement
weather, the cruise line said.
"The call there was canceled due to bad weather," Norwegian Cruise Line
spokeswoman Fran Sevcik said. "We have to anchor off the island and
tender in. With the high winds and seas, it just makes that operation
impossible."
Bahamian ministers, who Tuesday staged a demonstration of protest and
prayer against the gay group in Nassau's Rawson Square, said the cancel-
lation was due to divine intervention.
"Prayer changes things," said Bishop Harcourt Pinder, president of the
Bahamas Christian Council.
The voyage of the Leeward, carrying some 900 gay men and women on a
vacation cruise arranged by West Hollywood, California-based Atlantis Events
Inc, a gay tour operator, became a test for the tourist-dependent Caribbean
after the Cayman Islands in December refused the ship landing rights.
The Caymans, a British territory in the western Caribbean, said the vacationers
could not be counted on to "uphold standards of appropriate behavior." An
official said some islanders were offended 10 years earlier when a gay tour
landed and men were seen kissing and holding hands in the streets.
While the Leeward rescheduled the Caymans stop for Belize, a U.S.-based gay
rights organization called on the British government to intervene with the Caymans.
Gay rights advocates said anti-gay protests could be costly to the tourist
economies of the Caribbean, a favorite playground for affluent gays.
British officials later said the Caymans government had decided to review
its cruise ship berthing policy.
On Tuesday, Bahamian clergymen and supporters demonstrated and prayed
in Nassau, saying they were concerned about the influence of visiting homo-
sexuals on Bahamian youth.
In a statement issued Thursday, the Bahamian government said it had cleared
the Leeward to enter Bahamian waters but the cruise line had decided to cancel
the visit.
"Last year, the islands of The Bahamas welcomed more than 3.4 million
vacationers of all ages, religions, races and sexual preferences," Tourism
Minister C.A. Smith said. "The people of The Bahamas do not discriminate
against nor judge other people of the world."
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MAN CRITICALLY INJURED BY UMBRELLA
AP-NY-02-05-98 1324EST
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A man was in critical condition Thursday after being
stabbed in the eye with an umbrella for apparently bumping into another
pedestrian.
The tip of the furled umbrella went into the victim's brain.
Police appealed for the public's help in finding the other man, who fled
after the attack.
The stabbing took place on a rainy Tuesday morning on a busy street near
MacArthur Park.
``Evidently they passed and crossed each other,'' Detective Robert Bub
said. ``Either their umbrellas touched or they bumped into each other.''
The unidentified victim was unconscious and on a respirator.
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THAI MONK'S LUCKY PICKS STRIKE LOTTERY GOLD
2.03 a.m. ET (700 GMT) February 3, 1998
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Bookmakers for Thailand's
underground lottery were running short on cash after a
fortune-telling Buddhist monk picked two winning numbers, a
newspaper said.
The underground lottery is based on bets on the last two or
three numbers of the official lottery result, or combinations of
those numbers.
Luangpor Nivet - the abbot of a temple in Nakorn Nayok
province, 60 miles northeast of Bangkok - said more than a
week ago that the numbers 48 and 59 would appear on the
winning state lottery ticket, the daily Thai Rath newspaper
reported Monday.
The 60-year-old monk, the newspaper said, is known to have
picked winning numbers on seven occasions. As news of his
picks spread, there was a rush to play the two numbers that
turned up as winners Sunday.
Thai Rath reported that one dealer has been forced to pay out
$960,000 in winnings so far and said others may be in hiding to
avoid paying.
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AUTHOR'S SON SENTENCED FOR ROBBING CORPSE
Monday February 2 10:40 AM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The son of author Paul Auster was sentenced
Friday to five years' probation after pleading guilty last week to stealing
more than $3,000 from the body of a slain Colombian.
Daniel Auster, 20, said nothing as Acting Manhattan Supreme Court
Justice William Wetzel handed down the sentence, which had been
worked out in a plea deal with the Manhattan district attorney's office.
In making his Jan. 20 plea, Auster admitted taking more than $3,000
from Angel Melendez on March 10, 1996, after Melendez was killed.
Auster, a junior at Purchase College of the State University of New York
in Purchase, New York, had faced up to seven years behind bars.
He admitted he was in Melendez's apartment in New York when Michael
Alig, a former party promoter for a New York nightclub owner, and his
roommate Robert Riggs killed and dismembered Melendez.
Auster was not charged in that crime. Alig and Riggs pleaded guilty to
manslaughter and are serving up to 20 years in prison.
Auster's father is novelist, poet and screenwriter Paul Auster, whose
works include "The New York Trilogy," an exploration of language and
psychology in the form of three mystery stories, and the independent
film "Smoke."
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PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
1.48 p.m. ET (1845 GMT) February 1, 1998
NEW YORK (AP) - Larry Hagman has a jewel of a gallstone.
After having several gallstones removed during his liver
transplant in 1995, Hagman sent them to artist Barton Benes
who made one into a ring.
"He has a great sense of humor,'' Benes says in the Feb. 7-13 TV
Guide.
The artist who collects inane celebrity objects also has a surgical
staple from Hagman's transplant ant the keys to his dressing
room from "Dallas.''
Benes also has a throat lozenge that President Clinton threw out
in an ashtray before a television interview, a pencil chewed by
Geraldo Rivera and a lock of Mary Martin's hair.