GOP lawmakers file appealSFlbto halt Troopergate case

GOP lawmakers file appealSFlbto halt Troopergate case

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Five Republican lawmakers have filed an emergency appeal to Alaska’s Supreme Court in an attempt to halt an investigation into abuse of power allegations by Gov. Sarah Palin before the findings are released next week.

An independent investigator is conducting the probe into whether Palin acted improperly in firing former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The investigator, Steven Branchflower, plans to turn over his findings to the Legislative Council by next Friday.

An Anchorage judge on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit by the five Republican lawmakers. They claim the investigation is being manipulated to damage Palin before Election Day.

Authorities say landlord videotaped female tenants

PHILADELPHIA — A suburban Philadelphia landlord secretly videotaped 34 female tenants over two decades after hiding cameras in their apartments, authorities said Friday.

Thomas Daley, 45, was arraigned on more than 2,000 charges by Magisterial District Judge Francis Lawrence Jr. and waived his preliminary hearing Friday.

Daley had installed the cameras — typically one in the bedroom and one in the bathroom — in at least 7 apartments he rented to women in Norristown over the last 19 years, Reynolds said.

Daley’s sophisticated set-up fed the camera images to a recording system in the basement, enabling him to view the tapes from his home via the Internet, authorities have said.

Evidence gathered from Fossett’s plane crash site

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — Investigators finished up Friday at the scene of Steve Fossett’s plane crash in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada just as dark clouds rolled in and winds picked up ahead of a storm that threatened to bury any remaining evidence under 2 feet of snow.

Mangled and charred plane parts and other bundles of debris were headed to a warehouse in Sacramento, where investigators planned to lay them out for examination.

Fossett vanished Sept. 3, 2007, during what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight from a Nevada ranch owned by his friend Barron Hilton.

Thrill-seeker Fossett gained worldwide fame for setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats.

In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon.

Canada’s prime minister criticizes U.S. bailout

TORONTO — As Canada faces an economic slowdown, the country’s prime minister said Friday that Canadians don’t need a Parliament that acts like the U.S. Congress and panics like the U.S. Treasury Department.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper criticized the way the U.S. has managed the credit crisis a day after political rivals said during a debate the Canadian leader was out of touch with the seriousness of Canada’s slowing economy, which they blamed on shock waves from the U.S. crisis.

The Conservative Party leader said he needs a strong mandate from voters in the Oct. 14 national elections so he can deal with the economic slowdown. He said Canada has avoided a mortgage meltdown and a banking crisis and promised a steady hand on the economy.

Murder charges for soldier

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A soldier has been charged with murder in the September shootings of a superior and a fellow team leader at their Army patrol base in central Iraq, the military said Friday.

Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis, has been returned to the U.S. from Iraq and is being held in pretrial confinement at an undisclosed location in southern Georgia, said Maj. Lee Peters, spokesman at Fort Stewart where the soldiers’ unit is based.

Bozicevich is charged with the Sept. 14 slayings of Army Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, 26, of Dallas.

Militants killed by missiles

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Two suspected U.S. missile strikes Friday on villages close to the border with Afghanistan killed at least 12 people, most of them militants and all in one village, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

American forces recently ramped up cross-border operations against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan’s border zone with Afghanistan — a region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.

Associated Press