Candidate challenges opponent to debates

Candidate challengesopponent to debates
OLD BRIDGE, N.J. -- Even as Republicans contested Frank N. Lautenberg's effort to get his name on the ballot in a bid for the Senate, the GOP candidate challenged the Democrat Saturday to a series of debates.
Approaching Lautenberg at a street fair, Douglas Forrester borrowed a page from the former senator's first campaign in 1978 in challenging him to 21 debates -- one for each county. "Are you willing?" he asked.
"I thought you didn't want me to be a candidate," Lautenberg countered. Later, he said he would debate Forrester "any place, any time."
The U.S. Supreme Court had not decided Saturday whether to review a state high court ruling allowing Democrats to substitute Lautenberg for Sen. Robert Torricelli on the New Jersey ballot.
Torricelli, once considered a shoo-in for re-election, sank in the polls following a rebuke by Senate colleagues over allegations of unethical conduct. He ended his troubled candidacy Monday, saying he wanted to spare his party a possible loss of its one-seat hold on the Senate.
Republicans contend that replacing Torricelli with Lautenberg so close to the Nov. 5 election is illegal. Forrester, 49, said he made the debate offer in case the high court disagrees.
N.C. man accusedin extortion plot
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A man was charged with extortion, accused of luring six Marines for sex, then threatening to tell their families and superiors unless they had sex with him again.
Rodney Brent Hodge, 39, hired the men, ages 18 to 22, to do yard work at his home last month, police said. He then reportedly got them drunk and offered them hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus a new truck, in exchange for sex. Police said the men left Hodge's home without receiving any money.
Hodge made secret video and audio tapes of the sex acts and told the men he would send the tapes to their military superiors and families unless they came back, police said.
Hodge was arrested Friday. He has pleaded innocent, and was being held on $1 million bail, County Magistrate Steve Swindell said. Officials were unable to confirm whether he had an attorney.
Those serving in the military face dismissal if caught engaging in homosexual acts. It was not immediately clear whether the Marines would be disciplined.
President says agentsuncovered coup plot
CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that his government uncovered plans for a military coup after intelligence agents found evidence of one during a raid.
"We, in recent hours, have avoided a coup. I'm sure of this, but we have to remain alert," Chavez told supporters in Caracas.
He said the coup was planned for today. Chavez, a leftist former paratrooper who was elected in 1998, was briefly ousted by dissident generals in mid-April.
His statements came after agents from the Military Intelligence Directorate raided the home of former Foreign Minister Enrique Tejera Paris, who was suspected of aiding the dissident generals.
Chavez said agents found videos, lists with telephone numbers and a large map of strategic areas in Caracas titled "The Final Solution" in Tejera's home.
Tejera was not placed under arrest and his lawyer, Luis Valdivieso, said agents violated his client's rights by raiding his home without a warrant.
Palestinian teen killed
NABLUS, West Bank -- Israeli troops Saturday killed a Palestinian youth during clashes in the West Bank's most populous city, the fifth such death in Nablus and nearby refugee camps in two weeks.
Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed Palestinian legislation defining Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia said.
Qureia said Arafat decided to sign the two-year-old bill Saturday in response to a demand by the U.S. congress that Jerusalem be recognized as Israel's capital.
Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but most countries, including the United States, have their embassies in Tel Aviv.
In the West Bank, the shooting of 15-year-old Amer Hashem came during the sort of confrontation that has become common in the Nablus area, where youths often defy the nearly continuous curfew Israel has imposed since mid-June in response to two suicide bombings by Palestinian militants.
The army said soldiers fired in self defense after they were attacked with stones and at least one bomb, but they were not aware of any casualties.
Associated Press