High court to hear case on animal cruelty images

High court to hear case on animal cruelty images

WASHINGTON — In an unusual clash between free-speech rights and an animal cruelty law, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the government can make it a crime to sell videos of dogs fighting or animals being mauled.

The high court said it will rule on the case of Robert Stevens, a Virginia man who was convicted of selling videos of pit bulls fighting. He had advertised his videos in Sporting Dog Journal, which the government described as an underground publication that reports on illegal dog fights.

One gruesome scene showed the dogs ripping the jaw off of a pig.

Stevens mailed the videos to federal agents in Pittsburgh in 2003, and he was the first person prosecuted under a new federal law against depictions of animal cruelty.

4 found dead in hotel

TOWSON, Md. — A man, two women and a teenage girl were found dead Monday inside a hotel guest room in suburban Baltimore, though authorities have not said how they died or whether they were related.

Autopsies were planned for today, and the identities have not been released. Investigators have released few details, though Baltimore County Police Cpl. Michael Hill said police weren’t looking for any suspects. However, it’s unclear whether the deaths were a murder-suicide.

2 kidnapping victims found dead in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — The bodies of two college students kidnapped during the weekend were found Monday inside an abandoned house in a section of New Orleans east of the Mississippi River.

The bodies of Fitzgerald Phillips and Calyisse Perkins, both 19, were found about 1:30 p.m. in the Gert Town section of the city after police received an anonymous tip, Deputy Police Superintendent Marlon Defillo said. The two were students at Southern University at New Orleans. Police did not say how the victims died and released few details.

Police arrested a man earlier Monday in connection with the case after picking up six people who had been in the area where a car owned by one of the victims was found. Kenneth Barnes, 22, was charged with aggravated kidnapping, possession of stolen items and other crimes after investigators discovered property belonging to the victims, Defillo said.

Police detain suspect in Boston Craigslist slaying

BOSTON — Boston’s police commissioner says a 22-year-old man has been arrested in the killing in a luxury hotel last week of a woman who advertised massage services on Craigslist.

Commissioner Ed Davis said Monday that Phil Markoff was arrested after being stopped on Interstate 95 in Walpole.

Davis says authorities had the Boston University student under surveillance “for days” before arresting him.

Markoff is charged with killing Julissa Brisman, 29, who was found dead last Tuesday at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Markoff is scheduled to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court today.

2 ships fight off attacks

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates in speedboats opened fire Monday on two cargo ships in the latest hijacking attempts in the notorious Gulf of Aden. Another band of brigands freed a food aid freighter but only after receiving a $100,000 “reward” from Somali businessmen.

The latest attack occurred at midday when pirates fired shots at a Chinese-owned, Panama-flagged cargo ship, the MV New Legend Honor, said Cmdr. Chris Davies, from NATO’s maritime headquarters in England.

Ill Hawking is hospitalized

LONDON — Stephen Hawking, the British mathematician and physicist famed for his work on black holes, was rushed to a hospital Monday and was seriously ill, Cambridge University said.

Hawking has been fighting a chest infection for several weeks and was being treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, the university city northeast of London, the university said.

Mexico OKs ambassador

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department says it has approved Cuban-American Carlos Pascual as the new U.S. ambassador.

Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa told reporters Mexico approved the new ambassador several days ago, though she did not say who it was. Foreign Relations Department spokesman Victor Aviles later told The Associated Press it was Pascual.

Pascual served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2000 to 2003.

Combined dispatches