Police: Juveniles laughed after setting 15-year-old on fire

(CNN) -- Five juveniles were in custody Tuesday after a 15-year-old was intentionally set on fire at a Deerfield Beach, Florida, apartment complex, police said.

Police say Michael Brewer, 15, is expected to be hospitalized for five months.

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Michael Brewer suffered second-degree burns over 80 percent of his body. "He's in for a long, long recovery," Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti told reporters.

Three juveniles were arrested Monday night, hours after the incident, and two others were arrested Tuesday, sheriff's Sgt. Steve Feeley said.

"A couple of them last night were laughing about it," he said. "One of them arrested today seems genuinely sorry about it."

The youths all attend school together, police said, and Brewer apparently owed one of the suspects $40 for a video game and had not paid it. So the suspect allegedly stole the victim's father's bicycle, Feeley said. Brewer reported the bicycle stolen Sunday, and the suspect was arrested that day, taken to a detention center and released to his parents early Monday, police said. Watch Lamberti describe the alleged motive »

Neither Brewer nor the suspect went to school Monday, and the victim was waiting at the apartment complex for his friends when the suspect and two other people approached him, Feeley said.

From what the suspects and witnesses have told police, the suspect yelled, "He's a snitch, he's a snitch" and "pour it on him." Another juvenile threw what police believe was rubbing alcohol on Brewer from a plastic jug and used a lighter to set him on fire, he said.

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Witness Provindencia Maldenero told CNN affiliate WPLG, "I saw a kid throwing something at the other kid, and next thing you know, the kid was on fire. He was up in fire."

A resident used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames, and Brewer jumped into the complex's swimming pool, WPLG reported.

Malissa Durkee, the teen's sister, told WPLG on Monday night that her brother was in critical condition. Lamberti said Brewer is expected to be hospitalized for five months.

"In my 31 years -- I always say, 'it's the most heinous crime I've ever seen,' " Lamberti told reporters Tuesday. "This one fits in that category. The fact that a person would intentionally ignite another child on fire -- it's indescribable."

Brewer "reported somebody for stealing his dad's bike," the sheriff said. "That's what this comes down to. It's retaliation. They deliberately sought him out, poured alcohol on him and set him on fire. I can tell you there's no way to explain it, no way to rationalize it."

Police believe the three arrested Monday night took an "active role" in the incident, while the other two helped surround Brewer and prevented him from leaving, Feeley said.

He said authorities are hoping to interview Brewer on Wednesday or Thursday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/13/florida.teen.burned/index.html

U.S.' Davies hurt in fatal car crash

ARLINGTON, Va. -- U.S. soccer forward Charlie Davies underwent surgery on Tuesday afternoon after being involved in a severe one-car accident on the George Washington Parkway in Virginia during the early hours of Tuesday morning.

There was a fatality in the accident, said U.S. Soccer spokesman Neil Buethe.

Davies, 23, who plays for the French club Sochaux, was reported in serious condition after a lengthy surgery at Washington Hospital Center, said hospital spokeswoman So Young Pak.

Buethe initially said that Davies' injuries were "possibly" career-threatening but later clarified the remark.

"At this point, we just don't know the extent of the injuries, so we can't comment on how this affects Charlie's future," Buethe said while Davies was in surgery.

Davies has four goals in 17 caps, and started on Saturday when the U.S. won 3-2 at Honduras to clinch its sixth straight World Cup berth. He made his first U.S. appearance on June 2, 2007, as a substitute against China.

Born in Manchester, N.H., Davies played for Boston College before turning pro in 2006. Davies' parents were in route to Washington on Tuesday, USSF spokesman Michael Kammarman said.

"Obviously, as a team we were saddened to learn this news," said U.S. head coach Bob Bradley in a statement posted on the U.S. Soccer Web site. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Charlie and his family, as well as the people in the car and the families of the others involved. As a team, we are relying on each other in a moment that has for sure hit us all hard."

One person died in the accident, which took place at about 3:15 a.m. on Tuesday on the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia. The U.S. Park Police identified the fatality as Ashley J. Roberta, 22, of Phoenix, Md., according to Washington's NBC affiliate WRC.

U.S. Park Police Sgt. David Schlosser said there were three people in the car and that Roberta was not the driver. There were three people in the vehicle, and Roberta and Davies were passengers, according to Schlosser and USSF officials. Schlosser didn't identify the driver, who was also taken to Washington Hospital Center Medstar. The cause of the accident remained under investigation.

The U.S. team is in Washington, D.C., for its final qualifier on Wednesday night against Costa Rica.

The players were subject to a team curfew Monday night, Buethe said, and Davies apparently was in violation. There was no mandatory team function until lunch on Tuesday, so officials were not aware of the accident until 11 a.m., just as Davies' surgery was about to begin. Bradley informed the players of the news as they gathered for lunch.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/soccer/10/13/charlie.davies/index.html?cnn=yes#ixzz0Ts1eolLH

Data losses in Snow Leopard bug

Users of the new Apple operating system Snow Leopard are experiencing massive data losses when logging into their machines under a guest account.

The problem appears to affect those who had a guest account enabled before upgrading to Snow Leopard.

Users have in some cases lost their entire main profile, including sites, pictures, videos and documents.

The problem, reported by more than 100 users on discussion forums, surfaced shortly after the OS's August release.

The issue follows closely on the heels of vast data losses by the Sidekick handset in the US, whose software was designed by Microsoft subsidiary Danger.

Unwelcome guest

Indications are that the Snow Leopard bug simply treats the principal account like a guest account - meaning that the account profile is wiped clean when logging out.

Users who first log into a guest account and then into their normal account have found it to be completely reset to factory default settings, with none of their personal data or files visible.

"I've been using Macs for decades...what the heck have I done here?," wrote user Wingrove on the Apple discussion forums on Monday.

"Repeated restarts and logins never get me back to me usual user acc(ount)."

Those who use backup services including the Mac's own Time Machine can restore their lost data, but it appears that for those who do not, the data is permanently lost.

Apple said in a statement that the problem "occurs only in extremely rare cases" and that it was working on a fix.

In the meantime, users should delete previous guest accounts and, where necessary, create new ones that are "native" to Snow Leopard.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8304229.stm

Does your social class determine your online social network?

(CNN) -- Like a lot of people, Anna Owens began using MySpace more than four years ago to keep in touch with friends who weren't in college.

Our real-world friendships are often a reflection of who we connect with online, experts say.

But soon she felt too old for the social-networking site, and the customizable pages with music that were fun at first began to annoy her. By the time she graduated from the University of Puget Sound, Owens' classmates weren't on MySpace -- they were on Facebook.

Throughout graduate school and beyond, as her network began to expand, Owens ceased using MySpace altogether. Facebook had come to represent the whole of her social and professional universe.

"MySpace has one population, Facebook has another," said the 26-year-old, who works for an affordable-housing nonprofit in San Francisco, California. "Blue-collar, part-time workers might like the appeal of MySpace more -- it definitely depends on who you meet and what they use; that's what motivates people to join and stay interested."

Is there a class divide online? Research suggests yes. A recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas found that people in more affluent demographics are 25 percent more likely to be found friending on Facebook, while the less affluent are 37 percent more likely to connect on MySpace.

More specifically, almost 23 percent of Facebook users earn more than $100,000 a year, compared to slightly more than 16 percent of MySpace users. On the other end of the spectrum, 37 percent of MySpace members earn less than $50,000 annually, compared with about 28 percent of Facebook users.

Social networking by the numbers

Users with household income above $75,000
Facebook -- 41.74 percent
MySpace -- 32.38 percent
LinkedIn -- 58.35 percent
Twitter -- 43.34 percent

Users with household income under $50,000
Facebook -- 28.42 percent
MySpace -- 37.13 percent
LinkedIn -- 17.34 percent
Twitter -- 28.36 percent

Female users
Facebook -- 56.33 percent
MySpace -- 56.69 percent
LinkedIn -- 48.11percent
Twitter -- 53.59 percent

Users aged 18 to 24
Facebook -- 10.27 percent
MySpace -- 15.46 percent
LinkedIn -- 3.99 percent
Twitter -- 9.51percent

Users aged 35 to 49
Facebook -- 31.54 percent
MySpace -- 29.09 percent
LinkedIn -- 43.64 percent
Twitter -- 34.02 percent

Source: The Nielsen Co.

MySpace users tend to be "in middle-class, blue-collar neighborhoods," said Mike Mancini, vice president of data product management for Nielsen, which used an online panel of more than 200,000 social media users in the United States in August. "They're on their way up, or perhaps not college educated."

By contrast, Mancini said, "Facebook [use] goes off the charts in the upscale suburbs," driven by a demographic that for Nielsen is represented by white or Asian married couples between the ages of 45-64 with kids and high levels of education.

Even more affluent are users of Twitter, the microblogging site, and LinkedIn, a networking site geared to white-collar professionals. Almost 38 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $100,000 a year.

Nielsen also found a strong overlap between those who use Facebook and those who use LinkedIn, Mancini said.

Nielsen isn't the first to find this trend. Ethnographer danah boyd, who does not capitalize her name, said she watched the class divide emerge while conducting research of American teens' use of social networks in 2006.

When she began, she noticed the high school students all used MySpace, but by the end of the school year, they were switching to Facebook.

When boyd asked why, the students replied with reasons similar to Owens: "the features were better; MySpace is dangerous and Facebook is safe; my friends are here," boyd recalled.

And then, boyd said, "a young woman, living in a small historical town in Massachussetts said to me, 'I don't mean to be a racist or anything, but MySpace is like, ghetto.'" For boyd, that's when it clicked.

"It's not a matter of choice between Facebook and MySpace, it was a movement to Facebook from MySpace," she said, a movement that largely included the educated and the upper-class.

So why do our online worlds, unencumbered by what separates us in daily life, reflect humans' tendency to stick with what -- and who -- they know?

A lot of it has to do with the disparate beginnings of MySpace and Facebook, said Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief of Mashable, a blog about social media. Facebook originated at Harvard University and was limited at first to students at approved colleges before opening itself to the public in September 2006.

MySpace, on the other hand, had a "come one, come all" policy and made a mad dash towards monetization, Ostrow said. "They used a lot of banner ads without regard to the quality, and it really diminished the value [of the site] for the more tech-savvy demographic."

And while the Internet can build bridges between people on opposite sides of the globe, we still tend to connect with the same people through online social networks who we connect with offline, said technology writer and blogger Sarah Perez.

"It's effectively a mirror to our real world," she told CNN. "Social networks are the online version of what kids do after school."

These social-networking divides are worrisome to boyd, who wrote "Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics." Instead of allowing us to cross the boundaries that exist in our everyday lives, these online class differences threaten to carry those boundaries into the future.

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"The social-network infrastructure is going to be a part of everything going forward, just like [Web] search is," boyd said. "The Internet is not this great equalizer that rids us of the problems of the physical world -- the Internet mirrors and magnifies them. The divisions that we have in everyday life are going to manifest themselves online."

Jason Kaufman, a research science fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, examined the Facebook profiles of Harvard students over four years and found that even within Facebook, there's evidence of self-segregation.

Multiracial students tended to have more Facebook friends than students of other backgrounds and were often the sole connection between white and black circles, Kaufman said.

Nonetheless, Kaufman feels that social networks may one day help us overcome our instinct to associate with those who share our income level, education, or racial background.

"I think it's fair to say that the Web has great potential to at least mitigate everyday tendencies towards self-segregation and social exclusion," Kaufman said. "In some ways, [Facebook] levels the playing field of friendship stratification. In the real world, you have very close friends and then there are those you just say "Hi" to when you pass them on the street.

"The playing field is a lot more level in that you can find yourself having a wall-to-wall exchange with just an acquaintance. If you pick up the unlikely friend, not of your race or income bracket, the network may [help you] establish a more active friendship than if you met them in real life."

But MySpace's users still find something appealing about MySpace that they don't about Facebook, and it may have nothing to do with class or race, blogger Perez said.

"It's not just the demographics that have people picking one over the other," Perez said. "It also comes down to what activities you like. If you like music, you'll still be on MySpace. If you're more into applications, then you might go to Facebook because you're addicted to Mafia Wars or whatever."

In the end, boyd isn't as concerned about the reasons behind these divisions online as she is about the consequences of people only networking within their chosen social-media groups.

"Friendships and family relationships are socially divided; people self-segregate to deal with racism sometimes," she said. "Okay, fine: We've made a decision to self-segregate, but what happens when politicians go on Facebook and think they're reaching the whole public? What happens when colleges only go on Facebook to promote?"

When and if that does happen, Mashable's Ostrow said, we'll know perhaps we've given social networks more credit than they're worth. "When it comes to information, I don't think social networks are the best source for that. The Internet is so open," said Ostrow, who believes users would go beyond their networks to search out information online.

If you're looking to branch out of your social network box, your best option may be Twitter. Nielsen's survey didn't find a dominant social class on Twitter as much as they found a geographical one: Those who use Twitter are more likely to live in an urban area where there's greater access to wireless network coverage, Mancini said.

"The simplicity of Twitter definitely creates less of a divide, because it's not a relationship like it is on MySpace or Facebook," Ostrow said. "If you live in the middle of nowhere or you live in a city, you can follow anyone about anything."


http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/13/social.networking.class/index.html

Al-Qaeda suspects die in shootout

Two suspected al-Qaeda militants and a police officer have been killed in a clash at a checkpoint in Saudi Arabia, near the Yemeni border, officials say.

Shots were fired after a female police officer approached a car to check the identities of the three people inside - two of whom were disguised as women.

The two dead men were wearing explosive vests. A third man was arrested.

It was the first known armed clash between suspected al-Qaeda militants and troops in the kingdom since August.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is said to have been behind the suicide bombing in the port of Jeddah at the end of the month which injured Assistant Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

The attack came weeks after the arrest in Saudi Arabia of 44 suspected members of the group, which is aligned with Osama Bin Laden's international network and led by a former associate.

Re-emergence

Tuesday's clash happened at a police checkpoint about 120km (75 miles) from the city of Jizan, on the road to Asir province, the interior ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Brig Gen Mansour al-Turki said the vehicle in which the three suspected militants were travelling had been about to undergo a security check on the basis of "information on the planning of terrorist acts by the deviant minority" when started shooting at the security forces.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula says it was behind August's bombing in Jeddah

He said the subsequent exchange of fire resulted in "the deaths of two passengers in the vehicle and the arrest of a third".

The two men wearing women's clothing had explosive vests and grenades underneath, and "more grenades, automatic weapons and bomb-making materials" were found inside their car, he added.

Gen Turki said one police officer was killed and another wounded in the incident. It is not known if the policewoman was one of them.

The Saudi Arabian government is concerned about the resurgence of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, where the authorities have been ineffective in cracking down on the group, focusing instead on fighting Shia rebels.

Last month, the director of the US National Counter-terrorism Centre, Michael Leiter, told a Senate hearing that the group had gained a dangerous foothold across the border.

"We have witnessed the re-emergence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, with Yemen as a key battleground and potential regional base of operations from which al-Qaeda can plan attacks, train recruits and facilitate the movement of operatives," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8305919.stm

Supreme Court to hear case about 'sex slave' Web site

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court will delve into the shadowy world of sadomasochism next year as it looks into the case of a sex trafficker, known as the "S&M Svengali," whose criminal conviction had been set aside.

The Supreme Court will hear a case next year involving a sadomasochism Web site.

The justices Tuesday agreed to accept the government's appeal of a case involving Glenn Marcus, who had been sentenced to nine years in prison for the sexual abuse, physical mutilation and psychological humiliation of a woman who had agreed to be photographed as his "sex slave."

A federal appeals court threw out the conviction, saying some of the offenses occurred before the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which was used to prosecute Marcus.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor -- who was on that appeals court -- did not take part in the high court's consideration of whether to accept the appeal, and is not likely to attend oral arguments, which would take place early next year.

Like her colleagues on the appeals bench, Sotomayor said at the time of the ruling that prior precedents required the conviction be set aside, but she conceded the Supreme Court might view the issue differently. She noted the justices had, in some cases, found that lower court errors in application of the law "do not seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of the judicial proceedings."

According to the trial record, Marcus ran a Web site that featured photos he had taken of women who acted as "sex slaves" and were subjected to varying levels of physical abuse. The woman at the center of the case -- identified only as "Jodi" -- had met the defendant in 1998 and agreed to participate in his commercial activities.

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At issue was whether Marcus took the relationship too far and held Jodi against her wishes. Prosecutors claim he manipulated and forced the woman to undergo the punishment, then write about it for the Web site. The incidents took place at various locations between 1999 and 2001.

Attorneys for Marcus said the relationship was consensual, even enjoyable, and that Jodi had signed an employment contract and was provided for through the for-profit Web site, which had paying members and advertising. They also said that while the public may find the details unsettling, it was done in the privacy of homes.

The woman testified she felt like a prisoner and she could not escape her situation. Her head was shaved and the word "slave" was written on her stomach by Marcus with a knife. She claimed she was whipped regularly, hung by her arms from posts, and subjected to a range of humiliating poses.

The appellate court concluded that Jodi never benefited financially, since Marcus had kept profits from the Web site.

Other women along the East Coast also were involved in Marcus' master-slave business.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/13/scotus.sex.trafficking/index.html

DNA leads to suspect after 19 years, FBI says

CNN) -- A suspect has been arrested in the 1990 abduction and attempted murder of an 8-year-old Texas girl, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Houston, Texas, office said.

Jennifer Schuett speaks at a news conference, urging other victims of violent crime to use their voices.

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The victim, Jennifer Schuett, is now 27. She recently shared her story with CNN in hopes of someday bringing her attacker to justice.

Schuett fought tears as she spoke at a news conference in Dickinson, Texas.

"This event in my life was a tragic one," she said. "But today, 19 years later, I stand here and want you all to know that I am OK. I am not a victim, but instead, victorious." Watch Schuett's teary remarks »

She continued, "I hope that my case will remain as a reminder to all victims of violent crime to never give up hope ... With determination and by using your voice to speak out, you are capable of anything."

Dennis Earl Bradford, a 40-year-old welder, was arrested at 6:50 a.m. Tuesday in Little Rock, Arkansas, authorities said. He was on his way to work, and his wife was in the car with him.

DNA and other forensic testing led to him, authorities said. His DNA profile was in the FBI database due to a 1996 arrest in Arkansas. Watch police announce the arrest »

Schuett was abducted from her bedroom, raped and left for dead August 10,1990. She spoke with CNN two weeks ago.

CNN normally does not identify victims of sexual assaults. But Schuett decided to go public with her story -- and her name -- to increase the chances of finding and prosecuting her attacker.

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"It's not about me anymore," she told CNN in September. "It's about all the little girls that go to sleep at night. I know there are so many girls out there who have been raped and hurt. You have to fight back."

"I remember everything; I've always wanted to remember everything so I can find the person that did this," Schuett said. "If I had blocked this out of my memory, the investigation wouldn't have come this far. I'm a fighter."

Schuett says she was alone in her bed when a man crept in through a window. She remembers waking up in a stranger's arms as he carried her across a dark parking lot.

She said he told her he was an undercover cop and knew her family.

He drove her through the streets of Dickinson, Texas, pulling into a mechanic's shop next to her elementary school.

"Watch the moon. The moon will change colors, and that is when your mom will come to get you," she recalled him saying. "Oh, it looks like she is not coming."

Schuett said he drove her to an overgrown field next to the school and sexually assaulted her.

She passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was lying naked on top of an ant hill with her throat slashed from ear to ear, and her voice box torn.

She was found at 6 p.m. on a hot August day after lying in the field for nearly 12 hours. She was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

"Three days after the attack, I started giving a description. The doctors told me I would never be able to talk again, but I proved them all wrong," Schuett said. She believes she got her voice back so she could tell her story.

Houston FBI Special Agent Richard Rennison is one of the lead investigators in the case, along with Dickinson police Detective Tim Cromie. Read the affidavit

Both men were discussing the case when Rennison received a memo from the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team seeking child abduction cases that had gone cold and could be retested for DNA evidence. Schuett's was one of the cases selected.

Rennison, who has 10 years of experience in child abduction cases, said he has never seen a case like Schuett's.

"This is the only one that I can think of that the victim has suffered some traumatic injuries and survived," he said, "The main reason the CARD team picked this case was because she was alive. In cases of child abduction, it is rare that the child is recovered alive. Frequently, you recover a body. And most times, you never find them."

The investigators found evidence collected 19 years ago, which was retested. It included the underwear and pajamas Schuett was wearing, as well as a man's underwear and T-shirt, which were found in the field where Schuett was left for dead.

The clothes were tested in 1990, but the sample wasn't large enough for conclusive results. But now, modern techniques allow DNA to be isolated from a single human cell.

They were still awaiting the results when CNN featured Schuett's story in late September.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/13/texas.rape.arrest/index.html

Adopted 'nobles' at war over vast fortune

Jonathan Pamphilj and Gesine Doria are understood no longer to be on speaking terms By David Willey BBC News, Rome Two British orphans adopted by one of Rome's most famous princely papal families are locked in a bitter legal feud over which of their children will eventually inherit an estate reportedly worth more than 1bn euros (£930m). At the heart of the row is whether the children of one of the orphans - who is gay and had his offspring via a surrogate mother - have a legal right to the family fortune. The estate includes a 1,000-room palace in Rome, another in the centre of Genoa, plus one of the world's most valuable art collections. The two grown-up orphans, Jonathan and Gesine Doria Pamphilj, still frequently style themselves as Prince and Princess, although all former royal and papal titles were formally abolished in Italy when the country became a republic after World War II. Rift I know them both well, as until last spring I was one of their 250 tenants in their sprawling 16th-Century palace. I understand they are no longer on speaking terms because of the inheritance dispute. Frank Pogson and Princess Orietta Doria brought their children up in luxury after plucking them from a British orphanage in the 1960s Gesine prefers to be called Donna Gesine, a courtesy title recalling her family's long history (there was a Doria Pope - Innocent X - in the 17th Century while Andrea Doria, the famous Genoese admiral, was from another generation). She is married to a commoner, Massimiliano Floridi, by whom she has four daughters, the eldest of whom is now 15 and the youngest five. Massimiliano, an art expert, is a devout Catholic and was recently inducted into the church as a deacon by his local bishop. Jonathan was brought up as Gesine's brother, although they are biologically unrelated. He was educated at Downside, the English Catholic public school. He is in a British-registered civil partnership with a gay Brazilian man, Elson Edeno Braga, and has two children born of foreign surrogate mothers, aged three and two. The problem is that, according to Gesine, a recently passed Italian law on assisted procreation means that Jonathan's two children may have no rights of inheritance to the family fortune. Same-sex marriages are not recognised in Italy, which is why he chose to register a civil partnership in the UK. Legal uncertainty Gesine told me that she began a legal action in Rome two years ago to establish the paternity of one of Jonathan's two children. News of this leaked out in the Italian press last weekend, and has now been published abroad as well. I wanted to clear things up for the future because sooner or later when we die this situation will explode Gesine Doria Pamphilj Jonathan is not answering calls and has issued a brief statement refusing to comment on his sister's legal action in the interests of his children. Gesine told me: "I advised Jonathan to adopt children, just like our parents did, but he refused because he wanted his own children by surrogate mothers. "He failed to realise that, under current Italian law, if you are a sperm donor, you cannot claim parentage. Only the mother who actually gives birth to a child has the right - and the obligation - to look after that child. "I wanted to clear things up for the future because sooner or later when we die this situation will explode. We don't know what the future is. David Willey used to be one of the 250 tenants at the Doria Pamphilj palace "I am taking this action as much for the benefit of Jonathan's children as for my own, and I am not expecting a rapid decision by the Rome judge." Gesine chose to bring up her own family in a country house in the mountains south of Rome, not in the imposing Doria Pamphilj palace, where she retains a suite of rooms, but only comes to visit at weekends. Jonathan, on the other hand, lives in the palace in his own apartment and administers the family's real estate from an office in another part of the palace complex which occupies a whole city block. Jonathan and Gesine's adoptive father was Frank Pogson, a British naval frigate commander who met Princess Orietta Doria during WWII. By the time they married, Princess Orietta and Don Frank, as he was known, were unable to have children of their own and decided to adopt instead. But it meant that when she died in 2000, the blood line of the family was extinguished. The family art collection is open to the public and Jonathan's voice accompanies visitors on an audio guide. The collection includes works by Caravaggio, Titian and Giorgione and the famous portrait of the Doria Pope, Innocent X ,which Velasquez painted in this palace and which is given pride of place with a small room to itself. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8305238.stm

'Whole face of the mountain' fell into valley, resident says

CNN) -- The sights and sounds of rocks rolling down mountainsides are common but still captivating phenomena for the residents of the Nile Valley in central Washington state.

The landslide covered up to a half-mile of Washington state Route 410 with rock up to 30 feet deep.

more photos »

"Every morning I hear big rocks coming down," said longtime valley resident Frank Koch.

But a landslide over the weekend was more than Koch and the other 1,500 people in the Nile Valley bargained for.

"We just had the whole face of the mountain just pretty much come off," said Valerie Royster, manager of the Woodshed Restaurant, which sits just across the road from the edge of the landslide.

The slide covered a quarter-mile to half-mile of State Route 410, which connects Yakima with Mount Rainier National Park, with rock up to 30 feet deep, said Washington state Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Westbay.

Westbay said 25 homes had been affected by flooding and five by the landslide itself, including a mobile home that was demolished. See how slide blocked roads, moved homes »

Damage was estimated at $20 million, but that would likely increase, said Jim Hall, director of emergency management for Yakima County.

"My bet is it's probably going to be a lot more than that,' Hall said. Roads would needed to be rebuilt or rerouted, he said, and tons and tons of rock and debris moved. iReport.com: Are you there? Share your photos, videos

The mountain's movement attracted dozens of residents to the parking lot of the Woodshed, which Royster calls the hub of the community, on Sunday morning to take in the spectacle.

"It was a slow slide," she told CNN by telephone Monday morning, which meant residents had enough warning to get out of their homes and to the Woodshed's parking lot to watch nature's majesty and fury.

"It was very loud. You could watch trees coming down" as the slide pushed the rocks in the valley's riverbed 30 to 40 feet up the opposite bank, Royster said. Afterward, residents found river fish high and dry on the hillside, she said.

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Westbay said the slide was like nothing the state has seen before, in that it wasn't the result of a weather or seismic event.

"We've had rockslides, mudslides, avalanches, but nothing like this," he said. Geologists were calling it a "natural land movement," he said.

Westbay said the rocks had stabilized by Tuesday morning, and crews had begun work on a temporary gravel road to restore access to residents.

Flooding was the biggest obstacle to that; the slide changed the course of the Naches River, he said.

For all the spectacle of the weekend, local resident Koch was impressed by something else Tuesday morning -- the government response.

"They're out there kicking bootie today," he said of the repair crews. "It's pretty amazing to see government moving that fast."

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/10/13/washington.landslide/index.html

Boy punished for cutlery breach

A six-year-old American boy has been ordered to spend 45 days at a school for troublemakers after he brought his favourite camping cutlery to school.

Zachary Christie took out the combination knife, fork and spoon at lunch, in violation of the school policy of not bringing in knives.

Zachary agreed that knives should not be in school but said the punishment was "not fair", he told CBS News.

Hundreds of people are expected at a school board meeting about the issue.

Downes Elementary School, in Newark, Delaware, operates a zero tolerance policy on knives, banning them as dangerous instruments.

Officials said they were forced to act regardless of Zachary's age or what he planned to do with the knife, the Associated Press reported.

School board member John Mackenzie said the board could change its policy.

"The policy, of course, needs some additional flexibility," he told AP.

"Politically, zero tolerance is what everybody clamours for, until we start to realise how harsh zero tolerance can be."

Suspension appeal

In other cases school officials have ignored the policy and Mr Mackenzie said he was surprised this had not happened in Zachary's case.

Zachary and his mother supported the policy but were unhappy with its implementation.

He said: "I agree that they shouldn't bring dangerous weapons to school but I don't think the punishment should be this bad.

"It's not fair."

His mother, Debbie Christie, is home-schooling him and is to appeal her son's suspension.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8305987.stm

Teacher could face death for killing lover's pregnant fiancé

CANTON, Mississippi (In Session/CNN) -- A Mississippi middle school teacher could face the death penalty after she was found guilty Tuesday of fatally shooting and stabbing her lover's pregnant fiancé in 2006.

Carla Hughes taught at the same middle school as the victim's husband, Keyon Pittman.

Carla Hughes, 28, sobbed loudly as a judge read the verdicts on two counts of capital murder for the deaths of Avis Banks and her unborn child. The jury also found the slayings occurred during the commission of a burglary, making Hughes eligible for the death penalty.

A jury of nine women and three men are due to return to Madison County Circuit Court Wednesday morning to decide if Hughes will be executed for killing Banks, who was five months pregnant. Their verdict must be unanimous or Hughes will receive a life sentence.

Mississippi is among the states that consider murdering a pregnant woman to be taking two lives.

Madison County district attorneys alleged Hughes killed Banks so she could be with Keyon Pittman, her lover and colleague at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, Mississippi.

Banks, 27, was found lying in a pool of blood on November 29, 2006, in the garage of the Ridgeland home she shared with Pittman, the father of her unborn child.

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• Jury convicts teacher of capital murder

She had been shot four times in the leg, chest and head, and then stabbed multiple times in the face and neck as she lay dying, according to medical testimony.

Suspicion initially fell on Pittman, who admitted to having an affair with Hughes, a language arts teacher. Pittman, a key prosecution witness, told the jury he began seeing Hughes one month after finding out his girlfriend was pregnant. He testified that the two met frequently in Hughes' home and even went out of town together, but he insisted the relationship was based solely on sex.

Throughout the trial, defense lawyers maintained her innocence and attempted to cast blame on Pittman, portraying him as a womanizer seeking to avoid the burden of fatherhood.

But prosecutors said they could not link the crime to Pittman, who testified that he invoked his right against self-incrimination during a preliminary hearing when asked where he was the afternoon his fiancée was killed.

Instead, prosecutors alleged that the murder weapons connected Hughes to the crime. The defendant's cousin testified that he lent her a knife and a loaded .38 caliber revolver the weekend before Hughes' death. Ballistics tests matched the bullets from Hughes' body to the gun, which Hughes returned unloaded to her cousin after her first interview with police.

Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest said Banks' relatives plan to deliver victim impact statements at the sentencing. He said medical testimony will be presented to support the prosecution's claim that the murders were gruesome and heinous, and warrant the death penalty.

Hughes' lawyer, Johnnie E. Walls, Jr., a Mississippi state senator, said her relatives will testify in a bid to spare her life

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/13/mississippi.teacher.slayings/index.html

Senate panel passes health bill

A Senate committee has approved a bill to reform US healthcare, a key step in President Barack Obama's attempt to overhaul the system.

Senators voted by 14 votes to nine to pass the bill, with one Republican joining Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee in voting in favour.

Senator Olympia Snowe became the first Republican to back the proposals.

The reforms, intended to cut costs and make insurance more affordable, are Mr Obama's top domestic priority.

The president welcomed the committee's decision, calling it a "critical milestone".

"We are closer than ever before to passing healthcare reform but we are not there yet," he said. "Now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back... It is time to dig in further and get this done."

'Miles to go'

Obama welcomed the progress made so far on the bill

Announcing her decision to break with her party on Tuesday, Senator Snowe said: "When history calls, history calls."

However, the moderate Republican said it did not necessarily mean she would support later versions of a bill.

"There are many, many miles to go in this legislative journey," she said. "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what it will be tomorrow."

The panel's bill, which was drafted after weeks of at times bitterly bipartisan debate, sets out a 10-year $829bn (£525bn) plan to cut health costs and provide affordable health insurance to most Americans.

US HEALTHCARE No universal coverage Private health insurance available through employer, government or private schemes US spends some 16.2% of GDP on healthcare, nearly twice average of other OECD countries US Census Bureau estimates some 46m people do not have health insurance - includes 9.2 million non-citizens and 18 million people who earn over $50,000 a year Medicaid: federal-state programme for low income groups Medicare: for people 65 years old and above and some younger disabled people Q&A: Healthcare reform Healthcare around world

Senator Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the panel, criticised the legislation and predicted that the bill would move "leftward" as it progressed through Congress.

"This bill is already moving on a slippery slope to more government control of healthcare," he said.

The finance committee's bill must now be combined with a bill drafted by the Senate Health Committee before going to the full Senate for a vote.

It is not guaranteed to pass, as it needs all the Democrats, two independents and one Republican to vote in favour.

'Public option'

Mr Obama argues that all Americans are entitled to insurance coverage, that rising costs must be tackled and that private insurers must not be able to deny coverage or end it when someone becomes seriously ill.

ANALYSIS Paul Adams, BBC News, Washington On the long, tortuous road towards reform of America's healthcare system, this was a decisive moment. Several members of the Senate Finance Committee called the vote historic. The Washington Post this morning reported that not since Theodore Roosevelt proposed universal healthcare in 1912 has any such bill come this far. After months of debate, the committee's chairman, Max Baucus, looked delighted and relieved. In the end, those in favour of the bill won comfortably. This was due in part to a Democratic majority, but also to the support of Senator Olympia Snowe, who became the first Republican to back any of the bills proposed this year. But this is not the end of the process. There are many more legislative hurdles to overcome before it becomes law. In the meantime, debate will continue to rage.

A long congressional slog still lies ahead, correspondents say, but Mr Obama's push for healthcare reform has gone further than attempts in the 1990s by President Bill Clinton, which never got beyond all the committees.

All the different versions of the bill produced by House of Representatives and Senate committees are broadly similar in the scope of their reforms:

• toughen regulations on health insurers
• mandate all Americans to get insurance
• offer subsidies to the less well-off and set up health insurance exchanges for people without employer-sponsored coverage, to help them choose between different options.

Lawmakers are divided, however, over whether there should be a new government-run insurance scheme - the so-called "public option".

The finance committee's bill is the only one not to include a public option, an element advocated by Mr Obama and some Democrats as the means of creating competition between insurers.

Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that the finance committee's bill would result in reducing the federal deficit by $81bn and mean some 94% of eligible Americans would have insurance coverage.

However, Republicans say the final draft which will be voted on is likely to be very different and more expensive than this version. They say the proposed reforms are too costly and represent too much government intrusion into healthcare.

At the weekend, the private insurance industry issued a study that said the plans could mean policies end up costing people hundreds, if not thousands, more dollars.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8304375.stm