It galled her to do it, but Sarah Dillon was desperate for answers, so she wrote letters to convicted snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo: If you murdered my son, please confess, she wrote. She got no reply. "I've been waiting for answers for seven years," said Dillon, who took to wearing a button that said "Billy Gene Dillon is a very important person" as a reminder that his killing remains unsolved. Sarah Dillon is not the only person with unanswered questions about the killing spree initiated by Muhammad and Malvo seven years ago, which culminated with 13 shootings and 10 deaths ...
Read Full Story
Massive colorful dominoes painted by German students were placed Saturday along the former path of the Berlin Wall to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the barrier that divided the city for nearly three decades. Many of the upright 7.5-foot-high (2.3-meter-high) plastic foam dominoes carried messages, including "We are one people." The approximately 1,000 dominoes stretching for 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) will be toppled Monday as part of wider celebrations of the wall's fall. One labeled "bleeding heart" showed a sword cutting through the city of Berlin, starting a crimson flow of blood speckled with crosses. "Everyone has walls in their heads ...
Read Full Story
A slain Catholic nun who lived and worked on the Navajo Indian reservation of western New Mexico was remembered for her passion for the poor at funeral services. A tearful, standing-room only crowd attended funeral Mass for 64-year-old Sister Marguerite Bartz Saturday at Gallup's Sacred Heart Cathedral. Many wore memorial ribbons on their shirts, jackets and blouses in honor of Bartz. Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament President Patricia Shuchalaski told mourners that during her 43 years as a nun, Bartz showed her compassion daily for God and for God's people — especially the poor. Bartz's body was discovered Sunday in her home on church ...
Read Full Story
In his first year at San Marcos University, Hermenegildo Espejo barely spoke, and certainly not in class. His Spanish was rudimentary, his accent an embarrassment. Classmates in Lima, a two-day trip from his Amazon home town, laughed at his grammatical stumbles, his odd pronunciation. "I didn't understand anything. I couldn't pronounce words well," the 22-year-old Peruvian Indian recalls, wincing as he gazes out a taxi window on a rutted jungle road near his home. Six years later, Espejo is a thesis away from an undergraduate degree in linguistics at Peru's top public university. And while his Spanish is now excellent, it is not his ...
Read Full Story
Lebanon's Syrian-backed factions finally agreed on a unity government proposed by their pro-Western rivals on Saturday, ending a four-month deadlock in the deeply divided country. The announcement by the opposition coalition dominated by the militant Hezbollah group came after a meeting late Friday night between the groups' leaders including Hassan Nasrallah. Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri was informed the next day. The agreement would end a political deadlock that has threatened to send the fragile nation spiraling back into violence. Hariri has been trying to form a Cabinet since June, when his western-backed coalition narrowly defeated Hezbollah and their allies and retained a slim majority ...
Read Full Story
Suspected swine flu is sweeping a traditional Eskimo whaling village on a remote Alaska island — prompting an urgent medical mission to deliver help. "Diomede is probably the most isolated place in the United States right now," said David Head, a doctor involved in the effort. "We thought it would be better to go out there and just vaccinate people." So many of the 130 residents of Diomede have been stricken with flu-like symptoms that the Alaska Army National Guard stepped in with a Black Hawk helicopter to transport a medical team from Nome 135 miles away, where Head is chief of staff at ...
Read Full Story
Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with shoulders — and tattoos — exposed. Male models wore long, Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts. As surging militant violence grabs headlines around the world, Pakistan's top designers and models are taking part in the country's first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and ready-to-wear fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers made reference to the turmoil, reflecting the contradictions and tensions coursing through this society. The four-day event, which was postponed ...
Read Full Story
A top Iranian lawmaker has rejected the possibility of Iran shipping uranium abroad for further enrichment. The call by prominent conservative lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi intensifies pressures on the government to reject a U.N.-backed plan to allay international concerns over Iran's nuclear program. The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Boroujerdi Saturday as saying that Iran won't ship its low enriched uranium abroad in a single batch or in several shipments under any circumstances. Earlier, Iran had indicated that it might agree to send only "part" of its stockpile in several shipments. The lawmaker said Iran itself should be doing the necessary enriching. Enriching uranium can ...
Read Full Story
Donald Baim NATICK, Mass (AP) — Dr. Donald Baim, a renowned cardiologist and medical device executive, died Friday following surgery to treat a form of cancer, his family said in a statement. He was 60. Baim had undergone recent surgery to remove diseased tissue caused by adrenal cancer, a rare form of the disease that attacks the adrenal glands. Baim, a former Harvard medical school professor, most recently served as chief medical officer for Boston Scientific Corp., a leading manufacturer of pacemakers, defibrillators and other implants. He joined the company in 2006. Boston Scientific Chief Executive Ray Elliot called Baim, a pioneer in the ...
Read Full Story
Some women strode the catwalk in vicious spiked bracelets and body armor. Others had their heads covered, burqa-style, but with her shoulders — and tattoos — exposed. Male models wore long, Islamic robes as well as shorts and sequined T-shirts. As surging militant violence grabs headlines around the world, Pakistan's top designers and models are taking part in the country's first-ever fashion week. While the mix of couture and high-street fashions would not have been out of place in Milan or New York, many designers reflected the turmoil, contradictions and tensions coursing through the society. The four-day event, which was postponed twice due to ...
Read Full Story
