Former scientologist must pay for criticizing church

Former scientologist mustpay for criticizing church
SAN FRANCISCO -- A former scientologist has been ordered to pay $500,000 for speaking out against his old church in violation of an 18-year-old legal settlement.
A Marin County judge issued the award to the Church of Scientology after ruling that Gerry Armstrong breached a contract by criticizing the church in 131 separate interviews, Internet postings and public protests.
In 1986, Armstrong agreed to drop his own lawsuit, alleging threats and harassment from scientology officials, in exchange for $800,000. As part of the settlement, he pledged to maintain strict silence about the years he says he spent as a church intelligence and communications officer and personal archivist for scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Acting on a 2002 lawsuit brought by the church, the judge said last Friday that Armstrong did not prove his argument that the settlement agreement violated his First Amendment rights to free speech.
Debt clock demolished;replacement to be built
NEW YORK -- The national debt clock, a billboard-size sign that reminded Manhattan passers-by of how much the government is borrowing -- in trillions of dollars -- has been taken down.
A new high-tech digital clock will be erected a block north, just east of Times Square, the sign's owner said Tuesday. The building where the old clock had been hung is being demolished.
The last time the clock went dark was in September 2000, when developer Douglas Durst pulled the plug after government debt levels started to fall because of budget surpluses. It was restarted two years later, when government deficits began to rise again.
The clock initially was put up in 1989 by Durst's late father, Seymour Durst, to bring attention to what he felt was a dangerous increase in government borrowing.
When the debt clock first was turned on, the deficit was a little less than $3 trillion. Durst's family pulled the plug in 2000 when falling deficits hit $5.5 trillion.
Election in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africans of all races voted today for a new government for the third time in a decade with the party credited with ending apartheid poised for another sweeping victory.
Braving an early morning chill, voters lined up from as early as 3 to cast their ballots for a new national parliament and provincial assemblies.
President Thabo Mbeki was one of the first to vote when polls opened four hours later.
"The big day has come," he said at a booth set up in a park in the capital, Pretoria. "It is now time for the people to speak. I hope that all the millions who have registered will come out today to vote."
While the outcome is all but certain, political leaders worry that the thrill of democracy is waning 10 years after South Africa's first all-race vote ended close to half a century of oppressive white minority rule.
Harp seal hunt in Canada
TORONTO -- Wildlife officials counted slain harp seals Tuesday to determine whether hunters had reached their quota in one of the largest commercial slaughters of marine mammals in the world.
The hunt -- carried out with rifles and spears and reviled by animal rights activists -- was held in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the coast of Quebec and in the frozen barrens of the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland.
"The hunt ends at 8 p.m. Tuesday," said Steve Outhouse, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "But if the quota has not been reached, it will be extended for another 24 hours."
Hunters were allowed to kill 350,000 young seals this year, the largest amount since the government instituted quotas in the 1960s. Wildlife officials said that the harp seal population is growing at 5.2 million and pelts are garnering record prices of about $50 each.
Search for drug tunnel
CALEXICO, Calif. -- The federal government began drilling holes Tuesday in this border town, searching for a tunnel it believes may be used to smuggle drugs from Mexico.
But after seven hours of work, officials said they had come up empty.
With technology developed by geophysicists, the Department of Homeland Security identified the possible tunnel -- 2 feet wide and about 15 feet below ground -- two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, a giant drill plugged 10 holes in a dirt road used by the Border Patrol. The crew reported a change in soil at about 14 feet and struck water at about 18 feet. They brought along a camera on a 6-foot pole to scope underground.
But Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security, said the crew by late Tuesday had found nothing amiss and tentatively concluded there was no drug tunnel in the area.
Associated Press