PENINSULA DAILY NEWS for Tuesday, May 7, 2013 PAGE
A3 Briefly: Nation FBI: Minn. raid disrupts local terrorism plot MINNEAPOLIS — The FBI said authorities disrupted “a localized terror attack” in its planning stages when they arrested a man in a western Minnesota mobile home that contained Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms, the agency said Monday. Buford Rogers, 24, of Montevideo was arrested Friday and was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He remained in federal custody Monday, and it was not clear if he had an attorney. “The FBI believed there was a terror attack in its planning stages, and we believe there would have been a localized terror attack, and that’s why law enforcement moved quickly to execute the search warrant on Friday to arrest Mr. Rogers,” FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said Monday. Loven declined to elaborate about the location of the alleged target, other than to say it was believed to be in Montevideo, a city of about 5,000 people about 130 miles west of Minneapolis. He also declined to say whether Rogers was believed to be acting alone or as part of a group, or if other arrests were expected.
DUI arrest for bishop WORCESTER, Mass. — The leader of a Roman Catholic Dio-
cese in Massachusetts was arrested over the weekend on a drunken driving charge after an alleged hitand-run in Rhode Island. McManus Worcester Bishop Robert McManus, 61, was arrested Saturday night in Narragansett, R.I. The driver of the other vehicle reportedly called police, who arrested McManus at his nearby vacation home, police said. On Monday, McManus said he “made a terrible error in judgment” by driving after drinking wine at dinner. McManus was scheduled to be arraigned today in South Kingstown, R.I., on charges of drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident. He was a bishop in Providence for five years before heading the Worcester Diocese in 2004.
Migraine drug warning WASHINGTON — U.S. health regulators are warning doctors and women of childbearing age that certain medications used to treat migraine headaches can decrease children’s intelligence if taken while their mothers are pregnant. The Food and Drug Administration said the drugs, including Depakote and Depacon, that contain contain valproate sodium should never be taken by pregnant women. The Associated Press
Briefly: World 42 reportedly killed Sunday in Israeli strike BEIRUT — Israel’s weekend airstrike on a military complex near the Syrian capital of Damascus killed at least 42 Syrian soldiers, anti-regime activists said Monday, citing information from military hospitals. The Syrian government has not released a death toll, but Syrian state media have reported casualties in Sunday’s pre-dawn airstrike, Israel’s third into Syria this year. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear how many soldiers were there at the time of the strike. Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the group, said his sources at Syrian military hospitals gave him information on 42 Syrian soldiers killed in the Israeli attack. Israel’s government has not formally confirmed involvement in strikes on Syria. Israel on Monday signaled a return to “business as usual,” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arriving in China for a scheduled visit.
Ex-Nazi, 93, arrested BERLIN — A 93-year-old man who was deported from the U.S. for lying about his Nazi past was arrested by German authorities Monday on allegations he served as an Auschwitz death camp guard.
Hans Lipschis was taken into custody after authorities concluded there was “compelling evidence” he was involved in crimes at Auschwitz while there from 1941 to 1945, Stuttgart prosecutor Claudia Krauth said. Lipschis has acknowledged being assigned to an SS guard unit at Auschwitz but maintains he only served as a cook. Krauth said, however, that a judge upheld her office’s request for an arrest warrant. Bringing formal charges, a process similar to a U.S. grand jury indictment, would take another two months, she said. In the meantime, Krauth said a doctor has confirmed Lipschis’ health is good enough for him to be kept in detention. Lipschis was deported from the U.S. in 1983 for lying about his Nazi past when he immigrated to Chicago in the 1950s.
Nigerian plane crash NIAMEY, Niger — An airport official in the capital of Niger said a military plane from Nigeria has crashed, killing the two people aboard. Chaibou Massalatchi, the head of Niamey’s airport, said the plane had taken off Monday to do a reconnaissance mission. The Nigerian military is taking part in the regional effort to support France’s operation in northern Mali. Nigerian Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade said two pilots were killed when the Alpha jet fighter went down 37 miles west of Niamey. The Associated Press
Bomb suspect’s friend free on $100,000 bond Judge agrees flight risk slim THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WORCESTER, Mass. — A magistrate judge Monday OK’d the release of a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from federal custody while he awaits trial for allegedly lying to federal investigators probing the bombings. Robel Phillipos, 19, was charged last week with lying to investigators about visiting Tsarnaev’s college dorm room after the bombings. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student faces a maximum of eight years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors initially asked that Phillipos be held while he awaits trial, arguing that he posed a serious flight risk. But both sides said in the court motion filed Monday they agreed to allow Phillipos to be released on $100,000 bond, provided he be confined to home and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler agreed to the strict house arrest Monday afternoon. She told Phillipos he was allowed to leave the house only for meetings with his lawyers or true emergencies. A crowd of supporters, including Phillipos’ relatives, friends and grade-school principal, showed up for the detention hearing. It was not immediately clear when Phillipos would be released. Meanwhile, a funeral director trying to find a cemetery to take the body of Tsarnaev’s older
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A courtroom sketch shows Robel Phillipos’ Boston appearance last week. brother and alleged accomplice, Tamerlan, pledged to ask the city of Cambridge to allow him to be buried in a city-owned cemetery because the brothers lived in Cambridge for the past decade.
Interment request But Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy said he is urging Tsarnaev’s family not to make the request. “The difficult and stressful efforts of the citizens of the city of Cambridge to return to a peaceful life would be adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests and wide spread media presence at such an interment,” Healy said Sunday. Worcester funeral director Peter Stefan said he hasn’t been able to find a cemetery in Massachusetts willing to accept the
remains of Tamerlan, who was killed following a gunbattle with police four days after the bombings. He said if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state officials. Stefan said Monday he does not think Russia will take the body. Phillipos is accused of lying to investigators about visiting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s college dorm room April 18, three days after the bombings. Two other friends were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by taking a backpack with fireworks and a laptop from Tsarnaev’s dorm room. All four had studied at UMass Dartmouth. Defense attorneys for Phillipos said their client had nothing to do with the deadly bombings and isn’t a flight risk. In letters filed with the motion, friends and family members urged the court to release Phillipos on bail, describing him as peaceful and nonviolent. “I was shocked and stunned when I heard the news of his arrest,” wrote Zewditu Alemu, his aunt. “I do not believe that my beloved Robel crosses the line intentionally to support or assist such a horrendous act.” Phillipos was majoring in marketing with a minor in sociology at UMass Dartmouth and expected to graduate in 2015. The Tsarnaev brothers are accused of carrying out the bombings using pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and metal shards. The attack killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in a prison hospital in Boston.
Burned limo had 1 more passenger than allowed THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A stretch limousine that burst into flames on a San Francisco Bay bridge, killing five women inside, was carrying one too many passengers, investigators said Monday. The state Public Utilities Commission had authorized the vehicle to carry eight or fewer passengers, but it had nine on the night of the deadly fire, California Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Maskarich said. He did not comment on whether the overcrowding may have been a factor in the deaths.
Girls night out
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Lincoln Town Car was packed with young women celebrating a girls’ night out with a newlywed bride when it went up in flames Saturday night on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. The driver and four women were able to escape. The newlywed woman was among the dead. The driver, Orville Brown, said at first he misunderstood when one of the passengers knocked on the partition and complained about smelling smoke. With the music turned up, he initially thought the woman was
Quick Read
California state and local emergency personnel investigate the limousine fire scene Saturday in Foster City, Calif. asking if she could smoke. Seconds later, he said, the women knocked again, screaming, “Smoke, smoke!” and “Pull over,” said Brown, who helped four women escape through the partition. One woman ran to the door at the back of the limo, but by then it was engulfed in flames. The five dead were found huddled near the partition, apparently unable to squeeze through. They have not yet been identified.
Two survivors were hospitalized Monday in critical condition. Investigators were trying to determine whether any crime occurred. Relatives said one of the dead was Neriza Fojas, a 31-year-old registered nurse from Fresno who recently wed and was planning to travel to her native Philippines to hold another ceremony before family. Her friends in the limousine were fellow nurses.
. . . more news to start your day
West: California cities can ban pot shops, court says
Nation: JFK Library allowed to archive Hemingway trove
Nation: Billions of cicadas set to overrun East Coast
Nation: More Haitians go to Puerto Rico to emigrate
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN California have legal authority to ban storefront marijuana shops within their borders, California’s highest court ruled Monday. Nearly 17 years after voters legalized medical marijuana, the court ruled unanimously in a legal challenge to a ban the city of Riverside enacted in 2010, which declared storefront pot shops as public nuisances. Marijuana advocates have argued that allowing local government to bar dispensaries thwarts the intent of the state’s medical marijuana law to make the drug accessible to residents with doctor’s recommendations to use it.
A NEW PARTNERSHIP will allow U.S. scholars and the public to get a fuller view of the trove of books and records Ernest Hemingway left at his home in Cuba where he wrote some of his most famous works. Cuba and a U.S. foundation are working to preserve the novelist’s papers that have been kept at his home near Havana since he died in 1961. On Monday at the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts and the Boston-based Finca Vigia Foundation announced the digitization of 2,000 Hemingway papers and materials. The digital copies will be sent to Boston’s John F. Kennedy Library.
ANY DAY NOW, billions of cicadas with bulging red eyes will crawl out of the earth after 17 years underground and overrun the East Coast. People from North Carolina to Connecticut will be outnumbered roughly 600-to-1. Maybe more. But at worst, the insects might damage a few saplings or young shrubs. Lots of people won’t ever see them. They’re looking for sex. And they’ve been waiting quite a long time. Since 1996, the 1-inch bugs have been a few feet underground, sucking on tree roots and biding their time. They emerge only when the ground temperature reaches precisely 64 degrees.
HAITIANS HAVE FLED their troubled country for years, attempting to reach the U.S. or other Caribbean islands by heading north across the open sea or trekking across the island of Hispaniola to scratch out a living in the Dominican Republic. But a newly popular route is taking migrants to a closer piece of the U.S. Hundreds of Haitian migrants have made their way to Puerto Rico in recent months. They’ve found that if they can make it to the U.S. territory without getting arrested, they can fly on to U.S. cities without having to show a passport, although some kind of identification, such as a driver’s license, is needed.