Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006 Kerry backing Strickland, takes swipe at Blackwell WASHINGTON — Sen. John Kerry didn't contest the results at the time, but now that he's considering another run for the White House, he's alleging election improprieties by the Ohio Republican who oversaw the deciding vote in 2004. An e-mail will be sent to 100,000 Democratic donors Tuesday asking them to support U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland for governor of Ohio. The bulk of the e-mail criticizes Strickland's opponent, GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, for his dual role in 2004 as President Bush's honorary Ohio campaign co-chairman and the state's top election official. Kerry, D-Mass., conceded the election when he lost Ohio's electoral votes. A recount requested by minor-party candidates showed Bush won by about 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million cast. Boy, 17, convicted of killing attorney's wife MARTINEZ, Calif. — A jury on Monday convicted a 17-year-old boy of murder in the bludgeoning death of a prominent defense attorney's wife. Contra Costa County jurors deliberated four days before convicting Scott Dyleski of first-degree murder with special circumstances, including killing the victim by bludgeoning and committing a murder during a burglary. Dyleski, 16 at the time of the killing, was tried as an adult and faces life in prison without parole for killing his neighbor, Pamela Vitale, wife of television legal analyst Daniel Horowitz. Vitale, 52, was found dead by Horowitz on Oct. 15 at the couple's home in the San Francisco suburb of Lafayette. Sentenced in bomb threat MILWAUKEE — A fired police officer was sentenced Monday to 41/2 years in prison for making a bomb threat at a police station and for violating bail. Jon Bartlett, 34, was convicted of the bomb threat and bail jumping this month. He was accused of making the threat to his former station in December 2005. Bartlett was charged with bail jumping because at the time he had been out on bail on charges in a case that that inflamed racial tensions in the city: the beating of a biracial man at a house party in October 2004. 3 passengers rescued from plane in pond INDIANAPOLIS — A small plane narrowly missed homes as it crashed in a subdivision's retention pond Monday, killing the pilot, but residents rescued the three passengers as the aircraft filled with water. The residents pulled out all four people in the single-engine plane, but the pilot, Indianapolis oral surgeon Robert Edesess, died at a hospital. He and two family members aboard were survivors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The survivors were in area hospitals but their injuries were not considered life-threatening. Edesess' wife, Pouliri, was listed in fair condition, and his son, Jeremy, and Janet Adams were in serious but stable condition. Konzen identified Adams as Jeremy Edesess' girlfriend. 3,500 to go to Lebanon UNITED NATIONS — Troop commitments from France, Italy and several other European nations mean the United Nations will be able to deploy an initial force of 3,500 peacekeepers to south Lebanon in the coming days as it had hoped, a senior U.N. official said Monday. In a meeting of troop contributing nations, Italy and France confirmed that they will lead the early vanguard of peacekeepers, with hundreds more troops from other European nations — and possibly some Asian countries — to follow in the coming weeks. Italian troops could start deploying within two to three days. Overall, 20 nations detailed their commitments to provide support for the force in the meeting, and several others have also promised soldiers. That put the U.N. goal of deploying the first 3,500 troops by Sept. 2 within reach. The troops are meant to help ease out Israeli forces that occupied south Lebanon during more than a month of war with Hezbollah. Israel's troops would be replaced by 15,000 Lebanese Army forces. Tourist resort bombed ANTALYA, Turkey — An explosion in the center of one of Turkey's most popular tourist resorts killed three people and injured at least 20 others Monday, less than a day after bomb attacks struck another tourist center and an Istanbul neighborhood. Authorities said they were looking for two suspects, suggesting that Monday's explosion in the Mediterranean town of Antalya — a tourist resort popular with Russians, Germans and Israelis — was the result of a bomb, though they would not say that outright. A militant Kurdish group that has threatened to target Turkey's vital tourism industry claimed responsibility for the two bomb attacks Sunday night and again warned tourists against coming to Turkey. In one of Sunday's attacks, a bomb placed on a minibus exploded in another Mediterranean resort town, Marmaris, injuring 10 British tourists and 11 Turks. Associated Press