LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Since the 1980s, we've been hearing we're going to have an AIDS vaccine in 10 years.
For the first time in my lifetime, it feels as
though we're actually getting on the right track."
Josh Ruxin of the Access Project,
which helps health centers provide AIDS care in Rwanda Article, 1A N.C. indictment adds anti-military plot
RALEIGH, N.C. - Two North Carolina terrorism suspects plotted to kill U.S. military personnel and one of them obtained maps of a Marine Corps base in Virginia to plan an attack, prosecutors said Thursday.
An indictment returned against Daniel Patrick Boyd and Hysen Sherifi is the first time authorities have said the homegrown terrorism ring had specific targets. Prosecutors said Boyd "undertook reconnaissance" of the base located about 30 miles south of Washington.
Authorities have previously said the men went on training expeditions in the weeks leading up to their arrest in July, practicing military tactics on a property in rural North Carolina. Seven men are awaiting trial in the case, and investigators say an eighth suspect is believed to be in Pakistan.
An initial indictment had accused the men of plotting international terrorism and conspiring to support terrorism.
The new indictment adds charges for conspiring to kill military personnel. It also adds weapons charges for Boyd, Sherifi and Zakariya Boyd.
Their attorneys did not immediately return calls.
Funeral-picketing verdict overturned
RICHMOND, Va. - A federal appeals court Thursday tossed out a $5 million verdict against protesters who carried signs with inflammatory messages such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" outside the Maryland funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the signs contained "imaginative and hyperbolic rhetoric" protected by the First Amendment.
A Baltimore jury had awarded Albert Snyder damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy. The 2006 funeral of Snyder's son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder in Westminster, Md., was among many military funerals that have been picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas.
Albert Snyder's attorney, Sean E. Summers, said he will appeal the ruling to either the full appeals court or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Westboro officials did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages.
Members of the Topeka, Kan.-based church have used protests at military funerals to spread their belief that U.S. deaths in the Iraq war are punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
Libyans again pitch tent on Trump land
BEDFORD, N.Y. - Libyan officials pitched a tent again on Donald Trump's suburban estate Thursday, a day after it was taken down, prompting town officials to issue a criminal summons and threaten court action.
A Libyan official, Khalifa Khalifa, said the tent was legal and meant to honor Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who never went to the 213-acre Seven Springs estate to stay.
Bedford officials got wind of the new tent and arrived at the home early Thursday evening with a stop-work order and a criminal summons.
Rhona Graff, a vice president of the Trump Organization, said by e-mail Thursday night that the tent was down. She did not answer a question about whether Trump's permission had been sought for the tent.
Town attorney Joel Sachs had said he would seek a court injunction if the tent hadn't been removed by today.
FEMA trailer not faulty, jury decides
NEW ORLEANS - A federal jury Thursday rejected a New Orleans family's claims that the government-issued trailer they lived in after Hurricane Katrina was defective and exposed them to dangerous fumes.
A jury of five men and three women decided that a trailer made by Gulf Stream Coach Inc. and occupied by Alana Alexander and her 12-year-old son, Christopher Cooper, was not "unreasonably dangerous" in its construction.
The jury also concluded that Fluor Enterprises Inc., which had a contract to install Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, wasn't negligent in doing so. The federal government wasn't a defendant in this first of several "bellwether" trials.
Alexander and Christopher lived in a FEMA trailer for 19 months after Hurricane Katrina damaged their home in August 2005. Alexander's lawyers claimed elevated levels of formaldehyde in the family's trailer aggravated Christopher's asthma and increased his risk of getting cancer.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/25/2009