HFUNERAL FOR MARINE

hFuneral for Marine
ALBANY, Ore. -- Oregon National Guard Master Sgt. Fred Felde, left, presents the flag that covered the coffin of his nephew Tyler Troyer to Troyer's mother, Terri Thorpe of Tangent, Ore., during a graveside service at Twin Oaks Memorial Gardens near Albany. Behind Thorpe is her husband, Michael, Troyer's sister Brittany Troyer, back left, Troyer's brother Michael Samard and Troyer's fianc & eacute;e, Megan Oswald, right. Troyer, a lance corporal with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine G Company, was killed Nov. 19 in Iraq.
Court declines to blockexecution of gang founder
SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to halt the scheduled execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams, the Crips gang founder who became an anti-gang activist while in prison and whose supporters claim has redeemed himself. In a last-ditch legal move, defense attorneys petitioned the high court earlier this month, alleging shoddy forensic testing and other errors may have wrongly sent Williams to San Quentin State Prison, where he is scheduled die by injection Dec. 13. Lawyers for Williams, author of a series of anti-gang books for children, wanted to re-exam ballistics evidence that showed his shotgun was used to kill three people during a 1979 motel robbery.
Honesty pays for cabbiewho returned jewelry
LOS ANGELES -- Two weeks ago, Haider Sediqi reunited a passenger with $350,000 in diamonds that the man had left in his taxicab. Now, Sediqi's act of honesty has turned to gold. The New York jeweler who forgot the bag of diamonds sent Sediqi a $10,000 check and a diamond bracelet. Sediqi said the man's thank-you note meant just as much to him. "The guy, he said I changed his life," Sediqi said. "That's very important." Eric Austein left the diamonds in Sediqi's cab Nov. 16 when he got out at Los Angeles International Airport. Sediqi tracked him down through a cell phone bill he found inside the bag.
Lawyer says Ohio imamis willing to leave country
DETROIT -- The leader of Ohio's biggest mosque who is facing possible deportation for hiding ties to terrorist groups is prepared to leave voluntarily, his lawyer said Wednesday. Lawyers for Imam Fawaz Damra had been conducting negotiations before he was detained last week in hopes of finding a country where he could settle, said Mosabi Hamed, who represented Damra in U.S. immigration court in Detroit on Wednesday. "He's tired. He wants to take his wife and kids and leave," Hamed said. However, Damra maintains his innocence and continues to fight the accusations against him as "a matter of honor," Hamed said. Damra, 44, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.
Peru prepares lawsuitagainst Yale over relics
LIMA, Peru -- Peru is preparing a lawsuit against Yale University to retrieve artifacts taken nearly a century ago from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a government official said Wednesday. Peru has held discussions in recent years with Yale seeking the return of nearly 5,000 artifacts, including ceramics and human bones that explorer Hiram Bingham dug up during three expeditions to Machu Picchu in 1911, 1912 and 1914. "Yale considers the collection university property, given the amount of time it has been there," said Luis Guillermo Lumbreras, chief of Peru's National Institute of Culture, in an interview with The Associated Press.
Associated Press