Last IMF protestors released after charges are reduced
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The final 156 protesters arrested during World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings were released from jail overnight on Friday after charges against them were reduced, supporters said.Hundreds of people were arrested last weekend and early this week during protests against the multilateral lending institutions that the protesters saw as representing global capitalism.
David Levy, a member of Mobilization for Global Justice that helped organize the protesters, said District of Columbia officials agreed to trim charges against the protesters to jaywalking that carries a $5 fine.
Downtown streets in Washington were barricaded and blocked for days as delegates to the IMF and World Bank met while hundreds of police lined up against protesters, using pepper spray and tear gas to keep them at bay.
5 family members are found dead in Virginia plane crash
NORTON, Va. (AP) -- Five members of a family were found dead in the wreckage of a small plane in the hills of southwestern Virginia on Saturday, more than a day after the plane disappeared from radar, officials said.
The single-engine Mooney 20G aircraft was en route from Nashville, Tenn., to Roanoke when it vanished from radar late Friday morning near Norton. Rescue teams, delayed by heavy clouds and rain, found the wreckage Saturday afternoon not far from where the plane was last seen on radar, Lt. Karen Copenhaver of the Virginia wing of the Civil Air Patrol said. There no survivors, she said.
Maj. Jeff Wadley of the Tennessee wing of the Civil Air Patrol said the plane's occupants included the pilot, his daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren. All were from Tennessee. Their names were being withheld until relatives could be notified.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
Dr. Laura settles slander suit by California surf shop owner
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- Radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger has settled a slander lawsuit filed against her by the owner of a Costa Mesa surf shop, her attorney says.
Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed, but attorney Gerard P. Fox told the Los Angeles Daily Journal on Thursday that the agreement was amicable and "good for all parties involved."
Tom Moore, owner of Beach Access, sued radio's "Dr. Laura" after she filed suit against him in October.
Schlessinger alleged Moore verbally attacked her in public after she announced on the air that his store sold Big Brother Skateboarder magazine -- a Larry Flynt publication that she deemed pornographic. An Orange County judge dismissed her lawsuit earlier this year, calling it a strategic lawsuit against public participation.
Moore's $6 million slander lawsuit alleged Schlessinger told listeners his business "intentionally does things to harm children."
Former Beatle will get trial to test right-of-way in Hawaii
HONOLULU (AP) -- The Hawaii Supreme Court has ordered a trial in a Maui property dispute involving former Beatle George Harrison.
The high court reversed a 1993 decision by Circuit Judge John McConnell that people may use a path across Harrison's property at Nahiku, Maui, to the ocean.
Harrison appealed, saying his privacy was being violated.
The original landowner had subdivided several hundred acres to create five lots, including the 63-acre lot that Harrison bought in 1981. The trail provides access to Kapukaulua Point, a rocky bluff overlooking the ocean.
Harrison had allowed residents to use the trail until he discovered some had allowed nonresidents access to the trail so they could see his home.
Five landowners sued, saying an easement included in their property deeds gives them the right to access the trail.
Alexander Cohen, 79, dies after 60 years on Broadway
NEW YORK (AP) -- Alexander Cohen, a Broadway producer for nearly 60 years and the man who brought the Tony Awards to national television, died Saturday of complications from emphysema. He was 79.
A colorful, prolific showman who was never shy of voicing his opinions, Cohen was a product of the golden age of Broadway.
"Angel Street," Cohen's first production, was one of his biggest hits, opening in 1941 and running 1,295 performances. Patrick Hamilton's Victorian thriller, which starred Vincent Price, was later made into the movie "Gaslight," with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.
His last show, "Waiting in the Wings," currently is playing at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theater.
Hunter calls a turkey, gets a mountain lion and lives
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Allen Sherwood dressed up in camouflage, hid himself in a fallen pine tree and began calling a turkey.
What he got was a mountain lion.
"I turned around and he was coming face and feet first at my head," said the 36-year-old Los Alamos resident who was in the Jemez Mountains. "I'm just lucky I was quick enough to get an elbow up to protect my face and head."
The cougar, which may have mistaken Sherwood for a turkey because of his calling noises, caught Sherwood across his right eyebrow and the bridge of his nose with one paw and on his back with the other.