Russian denied entry to U.S. at the N.Y.-Canada border
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A man trying to enter New York state from Canada Friday night was turned back after inspectors suspected he was trying to enter the United States illegally, U.S. authorities said Saturday.The Alexandria Bay, N.Y., border crossing was closed more than three hours beginning 9:30 p.m. EST Friday after a scanner and bomb-sniffing dog indicated possible chemical residue in the man's vehicle, U.S. Customs Service officials said. An explosives team found no bomb-making chemicals or materials.
The man, whom officials would not identify, was then turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service and eventually to Canadian authorities.
The INS originally reported the man made threatening statements that he planned to cause an explosion.
Mike Gilhooly, director of public affairs for the INS eastern region, later said the original statement was in error. "He was refused entry because he didn't satisfy our inspectors that he was a legitimate visitor," Gilhooly said. "He's an immigrant from Russia. It appeared to us he had been living in the United States or intended to live in the United States. He doesn't have an immigrant visa."
Man reports killing wife and children, then kills himself
READING, Pa. (AP) -- A machine-shop foreman shot and killed his wife and her three children on Saturday, then called 911 to admit to the slayings and committed suicide, authorities said.
The bodies of Henry Peffer, 46, and his wife, Kimberly, 27, were found in a breakfast nook in their modest brick home, said coroner John Lampros.
Kimberly Peffer's three children -- ages 5, 8 and 15 -- were found together in an upstairs bedroom, Lampros said. Two were dead when police arrived. The youngest died at a hospital.
Police described the murder weapon as a revolver.
When Peffer called 911, he told operators that he could not take it any more and had just shot his family.
Beatle trespasser in Maui faces burglary, theft charges
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) -- A woman arrested inside George Harrison's Maui estate a week before the former Beatle was stabbed in London was being held on $5,000 bail.
Cristin Keleher is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 11 on charges of first-degree burglary and fourth-degree theft.
Prosecutors said Keleher had been stalking Harrison. Don Carroll, who manages the estate, said she had approached him in October and said she wanted to meet Harrison.
After she was arrested Dec. 23, Keleher told police she had walked into the home through an open sliding glass door.
"She said she had cooked a frozen pizza, drank a root beer soda, she was doing her laundry and she had made a long-distance call to her mother in New Jersey," officer Jeffrey Hunt said.
Harrison was stabbed in the chest by an intruder in his mansion near London early Thursday. He was treated for a collapsed right lung.
The mother of the man accused in the stabbing was quoted in the Liverpool Echo newspaper as saying her son had a history of mental problems and "had recently become obsessed" with The Beatles. Michael Abram, 33, was charged with attempted murder.
Plane drops leaflets on Cuba, then returns safely to U.S.
MIAMI (AP) -- A pilot flew a small plane from Florida into Cuban airspace and dropped anti-communism pamphlets on Havana, Customs officials said.
A Customs radar center in Long Beach, Calif., tracked the single-engine plane once it left U.S. airspace after departing Tamiami Airport in Miami on Saturday, said Customs spokesman Michael Sheehan.
"His reason for going down was to drop leaflets, anti-communist leaflets in multiple languages," Sheehan said.
While the man was flying the rented plane over Havana, the Cuban government sent two MiG fighter jets to monitor his flight until he left Cuban airspace, Sheehan said. The MiGs took no action, he said.
The aircraft returned to Tamiami Airport about four hours after it left and Customs officials detained the pilot for questioning. Sheehan identified him only as a 51-year-old Asian.
He had not been charged with anything by Saturday afternoon.
"There is a regulation requiring him to notify our agency prior to him coming into the United States, which he did not do," Sheehan said.
Broken pipe douses fest at posh apartment complex
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- About 1,000 residents of a posh apartment building were forced from their homes early Saturday when a water pipe burst and caused a power failure.
The trouble at The Dorchester, a well-known high-rise along ritzy Rittenhouse Square, occurred about 1 a.m., as residents were returning home from millennium celebrations.
Police said the pipe burst at a convenience store at the rear of the building and shorted out the power system, causing the lights to go out. Residents were expected to return by Saturday evening, an apartment manager said.
New Year's bullet hits youth who was watching fireworks
PHOENIX (AP) -- A teenager was struck in the head by a rifle bullet fired into the air by someone celebrating the new year.
Doctors removed the slug from the base of Gabriel Vergara Jr.'s skull, about an inch above his spine.
"I felt like a baseball hit my head, then I realized I was shot," the 14-year-old said.
Gabriel was shot early Saturday as he hugged his aunt in the yard of his home, where they were trying to watch the downtown fireworks.
Gabriel said he felt lucky to be alive and was praying for the shooter. "Just tell God I forgive him," he said.
In one Phoenix neighborhood, gunfire could be heard steadily for about two minutes after midnight. Three men were arrested for shooting in the air.
During a special session of the Legislature last month, lawmakers failed to pass a bill that would have made such random gunfire a felony.
In Houston, a woman seven months pregnant was struck in the neck by a stray bullet that had been fired into the air on New Year's Eve. Leticia Delarosa, 22, was in good condition, and the fetus was fine, police said.
Inmate spanking costs guards their jobs in Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Two prison guards have been fired for taking part in the spanking of an inmate, apparently because it was his birthday, officials said.
The officers at the medium-security Fort Dodge Correctional Facility used handcuffs to restrain the unidentified prisoner in a stairwell Dec. 18 so he could be spanked by other inmates, said W.L. "Kip" Kautzky, director of the Iowa Department of Corrections.
In addition, one officer put the prisoner in a headlock and took part in a separate spanking, Kautzky said. The inmate, who was clothed, suffered some bruises.
"It was horseplay, but as a practical matter it was inappropriate use of force," Kautzky said Friday. He said there are clear policies about the use of handcuffs.
Because of personnel policies, he refused to identify the two officers who were dismissed.
Early morning fire kills 4, destroys house in Georgia
MORROW, Ga. (AP) -- Four people died early Saturday in a fire that destroyed a house in Atlanta's southern suburbs.
The blaze broke out just after 1:30 a.m., said Police Chief Kenny Smith. Investigators had not determined a cause.
"It appeared to happen quick," Smith said.
The victims were identified as Tim Morgan, 36, his wife, Amy, 26, and her sister Rebecca Bradshaw, 30. A fourth victim, a male, couldn't be identified until dental records were checked.
Earthquake greets new year in New York, south Ontario
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- A moderate earthquake shook parts of western New York and southern Ontario early Saturday, rattling dishes but causing no damage.
The 4.5-magnitude earthquake at 6:23 a.m. was felt in Rochester, Buffalo, Niagara Falls and in a large area of Ontario, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Environment Canada.
"People felt it because they were not used to it," said Trudy Harlow, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va. "In California this would be totally unremarkable."
The earthquake's epicenter was about 15 miles northeast of North Bay, Ontario, Harlow said.
Police in New York and Ontario got several calls from worried residents.
It was the largest tremor to hit the region since 1935, but there have been a few dozen smaller quakes in the region over the past 10 to 15 years, said John Adams of the Canadian Geological Survey.
Female suspect disarmed in Kansas hostage standoff
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) -- A hostage standoff that lasted nearly eight hours ended early Saturday when two of the people being held captive managed to disarm the female suspect, allowing a SWAT team to make the arrest.
No one was injured during the standoff that began around 5 p.m. Friday.
Authorities did not identify the 24-year-old Olathe woman, who had said she was upset about losing her job and had no hope for the future.
Police would not comment on any motive.
FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said the woman probably would be charged in federal court Monday. She also could face state charges.
Eleven people were trapped inside the Bank of America branch when the woman walked in Friday, Lanza said. Six were taken hostage and five others managed to hide in another part of the building.
The woman released four of the hostages at various times through the evening, and the five others were able to slip out of the building on their own more than four hours later, authorities said.
N. Y. Times admits error -- 100 years after the fact
NEW YORK (AP) -- Normally punctilious about correcting its own errors, The New York Times used the new millennium to fess up to a mistake that had appeared on its front page every day for more than a century.
Saturday's Times is actually issue No. 51,254 -- not No. 51,754.
You hadn't noticed?
Neither had anyone else, according to the paper, until 24-year-old news assistant Aaron Donovan recently "became curious about the numbering."