Madoff home, boats seized

Madoff home, boats seized

PALM BEACH, Fla. — Federal authorities seized disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s Palm Beach mansion, his vintage yacht and a smaller boat Wednesday, part of an effort to recoup assets to pay back investors he swindled.

Barry Golden, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said about five U.S. marshals arrived at the 8,753-square-foot, five-bedroom mansion late Wednesday afternoon, hours after marshals seized the boats. Authorities planned to enter and secure the mansion, change the locks and conduct an inventory of the property, which Palm Beach County records show had a taxable value of $9.3 million last year.

Suspect’s wife apologizes

ROBBINS, N.C. — The estranged wife of a man charged with killing seven residents and a nurse at a North Carolina nursing home says she wishes she’d been the victim.

Wanda Gay Neal told WRAL-TV on Wednesday she has apologized to some families of those killed. The 43-year-old nurse’s assistant, who was working there at the time, says she wishes it had been her instead.

Authorities say Robert Stewart shot and killed eight people Sunday at Pinelake Health and Rehab before a Carthage police officer shot him and ended the rampage. He’s been charged with eight counts of murder.

Court documents show the couple married twice, but Neal’s mother has said she had recently left him. Authorities won’t speculate on a motive but say they’re looking into whether the shooting was domestic-related.

9/11 remains identified

NEW YORK — New York City has positively matched another Sept. 11 victim to long-held human remains after retesting DNA.

The city medical examiner’s office says 54-year-old Manuel Emilio Mejia has been identified from remains found at the World Trade Center site in the months after the 2001 terrorist attack.

Mejia was a kitchen worker at Windows on the World, the restaurant on top of the trade center’s north tower.

Nearly 2,800 people are on the city’s Sept. 11 victims list, but more than 40 percent of them have never been identified from remains.

The city has started using newer DNA technology to retest thousands of remains. It has identified more than 20 victims with the technology over the past two years.

N. Korea launch response

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president sought Wednesday to galvanize support from world leaders to pursue U.N. Security Council punishment for North Korea if it proceeds with a rocket launch that is suspected to be a cover for a missile test.

In one-on-one meetings in London on the eve of the G-20 summit, President Lee Myung-bak stressed the need for a “united response” among world leaders after Pyongyang carries out what it has said will be a satellite launch some time from Saturday to next Wednesday.

As world leaders prepared a response to the launch, CNN television reported that the North’s own preparations were continuing. The network said on its Web site that Pyongyang has begun fueling the rocket, citing an unidentified senior U.S. military official. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it was aware of the report but declined to comment.

Power-plant ruling

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the government can weigh costs against benefits in deciding whether to order power plants to undertake environmental upgrades that would protect fish.

The court’s 6-3 decision is a defeat for environmentalists who had urged the justices to uphold a favorable federal appeals court ruling that could have required an estimated 554 power plants to install technology that relies on recycled water to cool machinery.

By reducing water intake, the closed-cycle cooling also results in fewer fish being sucked into the system or smashed to death against screens.

Justice of the paddle

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A justice of the peace who gave parents of school-dodging kids the option of paddling their children in court or paying a fine has gotten a warning from the state panel that oversees judicial conduct.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct rebuked Gustavo Garza for violations of judicial conduct that included the option of spankings instead of $500 fines. The commission found that Garza exceeded his authority by providing a “safe haven” for corporal punishment.

The warning was not accompanied by any fine or discipline.

Associated Press