Sheriff disappears amid credit-card probe

Sheriff disappearsamid credit-card probe
EUREKA, Ill. -- The sheriff has disappeared after questions were raised about thousands of dollars in charges to department credit cards.
Woodford County Sheriff Bill Myers was last seen at his office Oct. 24 and last called his department a few days later.
Since then, the state's attorney and Illinois State Police have started investigating $28,000 in charges, including cash advances and at least one automated teller machine withdrawal made at a strip club.
Deputies, state investigators, county board members and reporters have apparently been unable to find the 12-year sheriff, and the Peoria Journal Star ran a cartoon depicting his photo on a milk carton.
Myers, 51, disappeared after county board members raised questions about credit card charges with vague explanations like "New Equipt.," "DUI Equipt.," and "Contingent."
Australian leader likelyto win third term
CANBERRA, Australia -- The international community has condemned Prime Minister John Howard's hard-line stance in rejecting illegal immigrants. In national elections today, Australia's voters get their turn to pass judgment.
Seeking a third term for his conservative government, Howard has made the policy of turning away asylum seekers trying to sneak into Australia in boats one of the central planks of his campaign, along with staunch support for the U.S.-led military strikes against Afghanistan.
With polls showing popular support for the stance on illegal immigrants at more than 70 percent, the opposition Labor Party leader, Kim Beazley, has backed it as well.
As polls opened across Australia's eastern states, Howard's government appeared likely to win, according to a final opinion poll published today.
A Herald/ACNielsen survey published in the Sydney Morning Herald showed the government leading 52 percent to 48 percent when votes for minor parties are discounted. The poll of about 2,000 voters was taken on Wednesday and Thursday nights. No margin of error was given.
Simpson's mother dies
SAN FRANCISCO -- O.J. Simpson's mother, Eunice Simpson, was found dead of natural causes Friday at her home, the medical examiner's office said. She was 80.
Simpson was a longtime resident of the city's Bayview District and lived in a home bought for her by her football-star son, who was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and a friend of hers.
In a moment of high drama at the trial, Mrs. Simpson left her wheelchair and was helped into the witness box. Then, as her son smiled adoringly, she gave the jury an account of her hard life as a divorced mother of four.
Associated Press