Sniper shootings trial

Sniper shootings trial
CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- Convicted killer Lee Boyd Malvo is described by his friends and teachers as bright and sweet, courteous and lonely -- not the vision of evil he was called by the daughter of one sniper victim.
Now, Malvo's estranged father is expected to talk again about his son as the defense makes its last bid to persuade jurors to spare the 18-year-old's life.
"We hope you'll see the value of that life," defense attorney Thomas Walsh said Friday during his opening statement in the sentencing phase of Malvo's trial. "That young man has value."
Malvo was found guilty Thursday of two counts of capital murder in the shooting death of FBI analyst Linda Franklin on Oct. 14, 2002, during a three-week series of sniper attacks in the Washington area that killed 10 people and wounded three.
His lawyers had claimed Malvo was indoctrinated by John Allen Muhammad, a man he saw as a father figure, and was incapable of telling right from wrong. Muhammad, 42, was convicted last month in another of the shootings, and his jury recommended the death penalty.
The jurors in Malvo's trial now must decide whether the younger man also should be sentenced to death or get life in prison without chance of parole.
Lawmakers seek changesin health-care employment
TRENTON, N.J. -- In his 16 years as a nurse, Charles Cullen was fired from six jobs, quit three others and once was the target of a lawsuit by a co-worker.
Each time Cullen was dismissed or disciplined for infractions that included endangering a patient's health, his new employers never learned of his past.
Now as prosecutors sort out Cullen's claims that he murdered as many as 40 people in hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, lawmakers are pressing for changes to a system they say failed and possibly kept a killing spree alive.
"There was, I believe, a breakdown in the system because it took so long and so many people had to die before this person was captured," said state Sen. Joseph F. Vitale.
U.S. Sen. Jon S. Corzine has scheduled a news conference this morning in Trenton to outline his proposal for stricter employment screenings for health care professionals. Corzine said in a statement that the Cullen case revealed fundamental flaws in the employment screening system that should be addressed nationally.
The most glaring error disclosed so far was that hospitals were unable -- or in some cases unwilling -- to disclose details about Cullen's background to future employers. State regulators in Pennsylvania and New Jersey also failed to keep track of disciplinary actions and did not report them, legislators said.
Sept. 11 victims' fund
NEW YORK -- With the deadline for applications to the Sept. 11 victims' compensation fund only hours away, more than 90 percent of families who lost loved ones have filed claims, the fund's chief administrator said today.
The fund had received claims from about 92 percent of eligible families as of this morning, said Kenneth Feinberg, the program's special master. He had said he hoped to reach 90 percent enrollment by the program's deadline at midnight tonight.
Among those not filing claims were 73 people who insisted on suing the airlines instead, he said. But many said grief prevented them from filing.
"I've met families, individual families, who look at me and say, 'Mr. Feinberg, thank you for coming, thank you for the application, I simply cannot put pen to paper. ... I'm paralyzed'," he said in an interview on CBS' "The Early Show."
The fund had also received more than 3,000 claims from those injured in the attacks, Feinberg said.
The compensation fund, created by Congress to help victims and protect the airline industry from possibly crippling litigation, had paid out nearly $1.5 billion as of last week.
SARS patient recovering
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's SARS patient was strong enough today to occasionally remove breathing tubes from his nose and move around his hospital room, his physician said.
The patient, a 44-year-old military researcher, apparently developed SARS symptoms Dec. 10 after being exposed to the virus in his laboratory. He was Taiwan's first SARS patient in five months.
After being hospitalized for nearly a week, the scientist's fever has dropped and his appetite is "extremely good," said Chu Ta-cheng, the head of Hoping Hospital in Taipei.
"An X-ray indicated that his lung infection has become milder, although there are still obvious pneumonia symptoms," Chu said.
"There has been improvement in his blood-oxygen level, and he can remove his breathing tube occasionally to move around slightly," Chu said.
Associated Press