Florida boys indicted in slaying of father
Florida boys indictedin slaying of father
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Two adolescent brothers have been charged with murder in the slaying of their father and indicted as adults in the most recent case to bring attention to Florida's laws regarding juvenile offenders.
Derek and Alex King, ages 13 and 12, were charged with premeditated murder and arson Tuesday. They are accused of bludgeoning their father and setting the house on fire. If convicted of first-degree murder, they would be sentenced to life in prison.
"I quite frankly told them this is what would happen," said James Stokes, Alex's lawyer. "I was hoping against it."
Stokes said he planned to visit the boys, who were moved to the county jail from a juvenile detention center after they were indicted.
He said he earlier had explained the seriousness of the situation but added "I'm not sure it has dawned on them yet."
Stokes and Sharon Potter, Derek's lawyer, said they will enter innocent pleas for their clients at an arraignment Thursday.
The boy's father, Terry King, 40, was found inside his burning home in Cantonment, a blue-collar suburb north of Pensacola, on Nov. 26.
Administration seeksto raise debt limit
WASHINGTON -- Setting the stage for a huge legislative battle next year, the Bush administration has formally asked Congress to increase the government's borrowing limit to $6.7 trillion.
In a letter sent Tuesday to congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said the current debt limit of $5.95 billion could be reached as soon as February of next year.
As recently as August, the administration projected that the current borrowing limit would not be reached until September 2003. O'Neill blamed the worsening debt picture on the terrorist attacks.
"In the wake of the tragic terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, related disaster recovery and assistance efforts, the ongoing war on terrorism and resulting negative effects on the economy, the administration now projects the statutory debt ceiling ... may be reached as soon as February 2002," O'Neill said in his letter.
Democrats countered that O'Neill had failed to mention the impact that last spring's $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut had on the national debt.
U.N.: Millions of kidsbought as sex slaves
UNITED NATIONS -- Millions of children are being bought and sold for use as sex slaves, according to a new report by the U.N. Children's Fund. It calls for a global campaign to eradicate a multibillion-dollar industry in the sexual exploitation of youngsters.
"Zero tolerance means ending the trafficking of children, their sale and barter and imprisonment and torture," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in a statement issued with the report late Tuesday. "It means stamping out every horrible facet of the commercial sexual exploitation of children."
The report, which includes statements from women and children lured into the sex trade, was released in conjunction with a conference on the issue, cosponsored by UNICEF and scheduled to be held Dec. 17-20 in Yokohama, Japan.
UNICEF called for laws to protect children them from abuse and said they must be enforced with tough penalties.
"Millions of children throughout the world are being bought and sold like chattel and used as sex slaves," Bellamy said. "This is an utterly intolerable violation of children's rights."
Osteoporosis study
CHICAGO -- Almost 20 million American women, or nearly half of those past menopause, have thinning bones and don't know it, one of the largest osteoporosis studies to date suggests.
The study was funded by Merck & amp; Co., which makes an osteoporosis drug.
Using a relatively inexpensive imaging technique on 200,160 healthy women 50 and older, researchers found full-fledged osteoporosis in 7 percent and low bone density in an additional 40 percent.
The women were then followed for a year to see how many broke bones. The fracture rate in women with low bone density was nearly double that of women with normal bones, and four times higher in women with osteoporosis.
The study shows not only that bone-thinning is "grossly underdiagnosed" in postmenopausal women but that bone density can be used to predict the risk of fractures in as little as a year, said Dr. Ethel Siris, a Columbia University professor of clinical medicine who led the study.
The study is published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Associated Press