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Henrico woman left full-term baby inside plastic bag in dryer, police say

A Henrico County woman is being held without bond after she gave birth to a full-term baby and then left the baby for dead inside a plastic bag placed inside a pillowcase in the dryer of her apartment, authorities say.

Angela Marie Janecka, 39, of the 5600 block of Aloe Court, was arrested Tuesday and charged with attempted murder and felony child neglect.

On Aug. 25, Janecka told her husband -- who was not home at the time -- that her baby girl had been born lifeless at their apartment, and that a doctor who came to her aid had taken the dead baby, Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Nancy Oglesby said in an arraignment hearing this morning.

Later that day, the husband came home to help clean up the apartment after the birth, and in the process, he discovered the baby girl - still alive - inside a plastic bag and pillowcase in the dryer, Oglesby said.

That afternoon, Janecka and her husband called their 8-year-old son's pediatrician's answering service to report that the baby had been born and that they needed help, Oglesby said.

The infant is alive and doing well, and is in the custody of Child Protective Services. She weighed more than 8 pounds.

The case remains under investigation.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Va. OKs Constitution, Libertarian, Green presidential nominees for ballot

The state Board of Elections said today that Constitution Party presidenital nominee Virgil H. Goode Jr. and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson have qualified for the Nov. 6 election, rejecting efforts by the state Republican Party to bar them from the Virginia ballot.

But the board voted to have the attorney general's office investigate allegations of fraud, raised by the state GOP, in how the Constitution Party collected its signatures.

The elections board also said the Green Party nominee, Jill Stein, qualified for the ballot.

Goode, a former Virginia congressman, attended the board of elections meeting at the Washington Building on Capitol Square. He suggested afterward that the state GOP tried to bar him and Johnson -- the Libertarian nominee who is a former two-term governor of New Mexico -- because it sees them as a threat.

“I’ve committed no fraud and that (investigation) is fine with me,” Goode said.

In order to qualify for the ballot in Virginia, a presidential candidate must amass at least 10,000 valid signatures, including at least 400 from each of the 11 congressional districts.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Outside groups spend $37 million on TV ads in Va.

Outside political groups, apart from campaigns, have bought $37 million worth of airtime in Virginia's top four TV markets, according to an analysis by the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan tracker of money in Virginia politics.

The purchases in the Washington, Richmond, Roanoke and Hampton Roads markets encompass ads about U.S. Senate and congressional campaigns as well as the presidential election.

So far, conservative groups backing Republicans and/or limited government, have dominated the ad buys, accounting for nearly 75 percent of such spending in Virginia.

"It's a perfect storm for TV viewers," said VPAP executive director David Poole. "Virginia has become a top battleground state in the very cycle when outside groups have seemingly unlimited resources to spend."

Brief by the Richmond-Times Dispatch

Safe passage for Taliban discussed in Pakistan

Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States on Wednesday discussed how to provide Taliban leaders safe passage to join peace negotiations, a key issue to allow the talks to succeed, officials said.

Many senior Taliban commanders, including leader Mullah Omar, are believed to be based in Pakistan, making Islamabad's cooperation critical. Pakistan also has strong historical ties with the group that many analysts believe have continued.

The U.S. and Afghan governments have urged Islamabad to push the Taliban to participate in a peace process that has had trouble getting off the ground. All three countries believe a peace deal is necessary to prevent Afghanistan from descending into civil war after most foreign forces withdraw by the end of 2014. But the process has been plagued by mistrust between the three governments and the Taliban.

The discussions that took place Wednesday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, marked the inaugural meeting of the Safe Passage Working Group, said the Pakistani Foreign Ministry in a written statement. The three governments agreed to form the group in April, the ministry said.

The group is focused on choosing which Taliban leaders should be provided safe passage, guaranteeing their security and dealing with logistics like visas, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to talk to reporters about the meeting. The official described the meeting as "positive."

The U.S. began clandestine talks with the Taliban last year, aided by Germany and secretly held in Qatar. It is widely believed that Pakistan provided safe passage to some Taliban militants to attend those discussions.

But the contacts have run into a series of problems.

The Taliban broke off talks earlier this year, saying the U.S. reneged on a promise to release Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. security prison in Cuba. To get the Taliban back to the table, the U.S. has said it is considering a proposal to transfer some Guantanamo Bay inmates to a prison in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have said they want the prisoners freed unconditionally before resuming talks.

Brief by the Associated Press

Feds vow to prove gross negligence by BP

The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to ignore arguments by BP that the Gulf Coast's natural resources are making a "robust recovery" from the company's massive oil spill.

In a strongly worded court filing Friday, government lawyers also renewed their vow to prove BP engaged in gross negligence or willful misconduct leading up to the deadly rig explosion in 2010 that killed 11 workers and spawned the nation's worst offshore oil spill. BP could be liable for billions of dollars in fines if U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier sides with the government.

The memo's strong language is a sign that BP and the Justice Department aren't close to a settlement to resolve the federal government's claims against the oil giant before a trial scheduled for next year.

Brief by the Associated Press

Bullfights back on Spanish public TV

Bullfights return to Spanish state TV, six years after they were banned from the public channel. It's part of the conservative government's effort to promote bullfighting as cultural heritage.

Renowned bullfighters are waiving payments demanded in better economic times to broadcast their battles, although Spaniards were still able to see bullfights on TV on pay channels and on regional public TV stations.

Bullfighting aficionados hope the revived national broadcasts will spur renewed interest in the tradition, which has suffered deep cutbacks over the last several years by Spanish towns that traditionally fund fights.

Brief by the Associated Press

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