hCarnival in Brazil

hCarnival in Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Thousands of plumed dancers kicked off a second night of parading Monday in Rio's pre-Lenten Carnival. The Porto da Pedra group opened the festivities with 3,720 dancers who delighted the 70,000 people packed into the Sambadrome stadium. "This is the biggest Carnival ever," said Ailton Guimaraes Jorge, president of the Independent League of Samba Schools, which organizes the two nights of parading that are the centerpiece of Brazil's Carnival celebrations.
LA Times' Chandler dies
LOS ANGELES -- Otis Chandler, who as publisher of the Los Angeles Times during the 1960s and '70s turned a narrow, conservative publication into one of the nation's most distinguished and influential newspapers, died Monday at 78. Chandler, who had been suffering from a degenerative brain disorder known as Lewy body disease, died at his home in Ojai, said Tom Johnson, who succeeded him as publisher and retired as chairman and chief executive of CNN News Group. Chandler was the scion of a family that wielded financial and political power in the Los Angeles area for decades. As publisher, he spent most of his career chafing against what he sensed was an East Coast bias against Los Angeles and fought to elevate the Times and put it on par with its Eastern rivals. The Times won seven Pulitzer Prizes during Chandler's tenure.
Rove's obsession: Hillary?
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Reacting to a new book quoting Karl Rove as saying she will be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist "spends a lot of time obsessing about me." The former first lady also said she believed Rove, national GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman and other Republicans are using her to divert attention from Republican problems as the 2006 congressional elections approach. "Karl Rove is a brilliant strategist. So, if I were thinking about this," she told WROW-AM radio in Albany, "I'd say, 'Why are they spending so much time talking about me?'"
UK theft equal to $92M
LONDON -- A new audit showed thieves stole the equivalent of about $92 million during last week's robbery at a southeast England cash depot, police said Monday, describing the second-largest cash theft in recent history. The haul was second only to the looting of Iraq's central bank during the U.S.-led invasion. Still, it was the biggest cash theft in British history. Warehouse owner Securitas Cash Management Ltd. confirmed the amount stolen -- 53 million pounds -- after an audit, said Adrian Leppard, assistant chief constable of Kent Police. Leppard told reporters four men had been arrested in south London and adjoining Kent county in the last 24 hours and were being questioned in connection with the robbery. A fifth man was arrested and released on bail, as were six suspects detained earlier.
Suspect tied to Milosevic
MADRID, Spain -- Spanish police arrested a suspected Serb hit man wanted in the murder of a Kosovo Albanian who was believed to have had evidence implicating former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in dozens of murders, authorities said Monday. Police say the arrest of Veselin Vukotic, a master of disguise who confounded authorities in Europe and Latin America for 16 years, could reveal key evidence in the trial against Milosevic at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Milosevic faces 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide, for his role in Bosnia, Kosovo and Croatia during the bloody breakup of the six-nation Yugoslav federation in the 1990s.
Circus in spying trial
FAIRFAX, Va. -- The nation's largest circus went on trial Monday on allegations that it ran an extensive corporate espionage campaign against an animal-rights group and hired a former CIA operative to help conduct the operation. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment, which produces the Ringling Bros. circus, more than four years ago, claiming the company's president supervised the spying efforts. PETA claims circus operatives stole sensitive documents such as donor lists. It is seeking $1.8 million in legal fees and damages, as well as full disclosure of the alleged spying activities.
Associated Press