Republican senator draws ire of candidate

Republican senatordraws ire of candidate
DALLAS -- Republican Sen. Phil Gramm on Saturday accused Democrats of trying to divide Texans along racial lines and scoffed at a major Democratic debate that was held in Spanish.
Gramm, who is retiring this year after about a quarter-century in Washington, spoke to thousands of cheering delegates on the final day of the state's Republican convention.
"The Democrats believe that they can divide Texas based on race," Gramm said of this year's elections for governor and U.S. Senate. "That's their dream and that's their vision. And this election is about rejecting that dream and that vision once and for all."
Tony Sanchez, a Democrat who is Hispanic, is running against incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is white.
Gramm also quipped during his speech that a debate held in Spanish between Democratic candidates Sanchez and Dan Morales before the March primary was "not conducted in the English language."
Sanchez spokesman Mark Sanders said the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves and "Texans won't stand for it."
WWII veteran retrieveslost ring after 57 years
BERLIN -- Carlisle Louis Nottingham's high school ring found its way back to his hand Saturday, after a 57-year journey that saw it pass from a Russian soldier, to an East German and finally an Internet surfer who searched for its rightful owner.
Embossed with "Cape Charles High School 1937" and bearing the initials CLN, the gold ring with a blue stone now only fits on the World War II airman's pinky finger.
"I never thought that I would see it again," said Nottingham, 81, at a ceremony in front of the Allied Museum in Berlin, where he accepted the ring from its most recent owner, Mathias Franke. "I'm very happy."
Shot down over Belgium in 1943, Nottingham was held in a Nazi prison near the Polish border. As Soviet troops advanced on Berlin in the final days of the war, the prison was evacuated.
"On the night of Jan. 27, 1945, we had to practically flee the prison because the Russians were approaching," Nottingham recalled. The ring was left behind, in the pocket of a pair of trousers.
A Russian soldier found it, and in the 1960s, when he was stationed in East Germany, he sold it to Karl Franke. Franke gave the ring to his grandson, Mathias, as a Christmas present in 2001.
When Mathias Franke met an American with a similar class ring, the young German began to wonder, who was CLN?
Using the Internet, he found a contact for Cape Charles High School who figured out that only one person from the Class of '37 had those initials: Nottingham. The World War II veteran was tracked down with a phone book; he lives only a few miles from Cape Charles, in Virginia.
Nottingham exchanged several e-mails with Mathias Franke before flying to Berlin to meet him in person and retrieve his ring. The U.S. Air Force funded his trip.
Gunbattle in Greece
ATHENS, Greece -- A man wielding a shotgun fired shots at the home of the Greek premier Saturday and was arrested after a gun- battle with police, authorities said.
The gunman was injured, but no one else was hurt.
Costas Simitis was inside the building when the incident occurred, in a heavily policed area of central Athens. The entrance of the apartment block was damaged by one of the shots.
Police said they were not treating the incident as an attack on the premier's life but said it was not immediately clear if there was a political motive for the shooting.
The gunman was identified as a 38-year-old Dimitris Aivatzidis.
Driving a rented car, Aivatzidis eluded police outside Simitis' apartment and was captured about 2 miles away after a chase through the city center.
Compensation demand
SEOUL, South Korea -- Protesters burned an American flag Saturday to demand compensation for a South Korean man who died months after receiving an electric shock from high tension wires set up by the U.S. military.
About 150 activists gathered near the U.S. military base in Seoul to demand an apology and compensation from the U.S. military for the death of Jeon Dong-rok, who died Thursday.
The 55-year-old man was working at a construction site near the U.S. military base in Paju, 25 miles northeast of Seoul, when he received a 22,000-volt shock last July.
The demonstrators also demanded the withdrawal of 37,000 Americans stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea.