Swearing at toilet brings police, citation

Swearing at toilet
brings police, citation

SCRANTON, Pa. — Talk about a potty mouth. A Scranton woman who allegedly shouted profanities at her overflowing toilet within earshot of a neighbor was cited for disorderly conduct, authorities said. Dawn Herb could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300. “It doesn’t make any sense. I was in my house. It’s not like I was outside or drunk,” Herb told The Times-Tribune of Scranton. “The toilet was overflowing and leaking down into the kitchen and I was yelling [for my daughter] to get the mop.”

Herb doesn’t recall exactly what she said, but she admitted letting more than a few choice words fly near an open bathroom window Thursday night. Her next-door neighbor, a city police officer who was off-duty at the time, asked her to keep it down, police said. When she continued, he called police.

Trial in serial killings

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Defense attorneys for a farmer accused of being Canada’s worst serial killer rested their case Tuesday, after taking testimony from 30 witnesses over several weeks. Robert Pickton went on trial in January on the first six of the 26 charges of first-degree murder he faces in the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood.

Prosecutors said early in the trial that Pickton told an undercover officer he killed 49 women and was caught before he could reach his goal of 50. Though Pickton has been charged with the deaths of 26 women, almost 40 names remain on an official police list of women who have been declared missing.

Libya gets council seat

UNITED NATIONS — Libya won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, just over a year after the U.S. removed the African nation from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and without any opposition from President Bush’s administration. The U.S. decision not to support a rival African country for the seat angered families of victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland — some of whom watched the vote in the U.N. General Assembly from the visitors gallery. They said the United States should have done more to prevent Libya from getting a seat on the U.N.’s most powerful body. The Bush administration said in May 2006 that it was resuming regular diplomatic relations with Libya for the first time in more than a quarter-century. It removed Libya from the State Department’s list of terrorism sponsors on June 30, 2006.

Measuring Arctic ice

LONDON — A British explorer said Tuesday he is planning the most accurate survey of the thickness of the Arctic ice during a 1,240-mile trek to the North Pole to gauge the effects of global warming. The Vanco Arctic Survey will take millions of readings of the thickness and density of the ice and snow next year to try to provide the clearest picture of the polar ice cap and how long it will last. Explorer Pen Hadow’s three-member team will pull a sled-mounted, ground-penetrating radar from Point Barrow in Alaska to the North Pole between February and June. The radar will measure the depth of the ice every eight inches, producing some 10 million readings in all.

New plan for wounded

WASHINGTON — Calling the nation’s system of caring for wounded troops an antiquated bureaucratic nightmare, President Bush announced Tuesday an overhaul intended to streamline procedures and provide new support for families. The plan would change the way injured military personnel are evaluated and compensated: Those whose injuries prevent them from returning to active duty would be assigned pensions, and responsibility for their care would be shifted quickly from the Pentagon to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also would put new emphasis on the diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Anyone entering a VA hospital for care would be checked for the disorder.

Sandstorm causes pileup

LANCASTER, Calif. — A blinding sandstorm that caught drivers by surprise caused a pileup Tuesday on a highway in the high desert north of Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring 16, authorities said. Two victims were in critical condition after the crash that left at least a dozen vehicles scattered across the highway, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson said. The crash was reported around 1:40 p.m. during a sandstorm whipped by winds gusting up to 55 mph, the National Weather Service said. Eight vehicles and four big rigs were involved, fire officials said.

Combined Dispatches