Waiter pleads innocent to felony harassment

Waiter pleads innocent to felony harassment

WOODBURY, N.Y. — A waiter who shocked guests at a Jewish wedding by playing a recording of a crowd chanting in Arabic has pleaded innocent to felony harassment.

Stephen Buttafuoco, 23, said he was playing the recording for a co-worker and was unaware it was being amplified over a sound system at the Woodbury Jewish Center during the Jan. 4 wedding, his lawyer Tom Spreer said.

Investigators said he made the recording when he attended a rally opposing the Israeli offensive in Gaza, during which protesters chanted, “Allah Akbar,” or “God is great.”

Buttafuoco, of West Babylon, was arrested Friday and arraigned Saturday. He was scheduled to be released on $1,500 bail, his lawyer said.

Police said the defendant is not related to Joey Buttafuoco, whose 17-year-old lover, Amy Fisher, shot his wife in the face more than a decade ago.

Dolphins hanging around

TRENTON, N.J. — The survivors of a group of dolphins living in a New Jersey river have returned after briefly heading toward the sea.

Three of the five dolphins returned to the Shrewsbury River after they were spotted Saturday in Sandy Hook Bay, authorities said. They were apparently frightened by construction noise near the bay, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said.

Four dolphins tried to cross again Sunday but turned back, although it wasn’t clear why, the center said.

Three dolphins had been confirmed dead out of the original group of 16 that spent the summer and fall in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers. Authorities don’t know what happened to the others.Animal rescuers are fighting with federal wildlife officials over whether to remove the dolphins.

Pirate’s body discovered

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The body of a Somali pirate who drowned just after receiving a huge ransom washed onshore with $153,000 in cash, a resident said Sunday, as the spokesman for another group of pirates promised to soon free a Ukrainian arms ship.

Five pirates drowned Friday when their small boat capsized after they received a reported $3 million ransom for releasing a Saudi oil tanker. Local resident Omar Abdi Hassan said one of the bodies had been found on a beach near the coastal town of Haradhere and relatives were searching for the other four.

The U.S. navy released photos of a parachute dropping a package onto the deck of the Sirius Star, and said the package was likely to be the ransom delivery.

Monitors check gas line

SUDZHA GAS METERING STATION, Russia — Teams of EU monitors deployed Sunday at natural gas transit sites along Ukraine’s vast pipeline network, but still no gas flowed to a freezing Europe.

Russia refused to restart gas supplies that have been stalled since Wednesday, saying the deal for the monitors was made void by Ukraine, which signed the document but then issued what it called a “declaration” to accompany it.

The European Commission insisted the declaration could not change the agreement, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the document was void unless Ukraine withdrew the declaration.

Russia has demanded monitors to track the movement of gas across Ukraine before it will restart supplies to other European countries. Russia stopped supplying gas to Ukraine on Jan. 1 amid a price dispute and later stopped supplying countries beyond Ukraine because it claimed Kiev was siphoning off the gas.

Parliament delays vote

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s parliament delayed a vote on a new speaker Sunday after the main Sunni bloc failed to agree on a candidate and instead descended into bitter infighting that has sharpened sectarian rivalries ahead of key elections this month.

The dispute comes at a time when U.S. commanders are wary of major cutbacks in the 150,000-strong U.S. military mission, in part because of uncertainty over Iraq’s political stability.

The 275-member legislature convened Sunday for the first time this year to select a replacement for former speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni who resigned last month after widespread complaints about his erratic behavior.

That post is supposed to go to a Sunni Arab under a complicated system that distributes key positions to the various religious and ethnic communities. But the main Sunni bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, has been unable to agree on a candidate.

Associated Press