NFL Hall of Famer charged in rape case

(News Today) - Hall of Fame football linebacker Lawrence Taylor was charged Thursday with rape and patronizing a prostitute in a case involving a 16-year-old girl, police in Ramapo, New York, said.

Taylor's attorney said the former New York Giants star denied the charges and will fight them.

"My client did not have sex with anybody. Period," Arthur Aidala said, adding: "Lawrence Taylor did not rape anybody."

Taylor appeared at an afternoon court hearing where a judge set bail at $75,000. Taylor was not asked to enter a plea and left the courthouse after posting bail.

Seeing television cameras outside the courthouse, Taylor said, "I'm not that important" as he walked away.

Taylor, 51, was arrested in a Holiday Inn room a few hours after the alleged rape took place, according to Christopher St. Lawrence, the town supervisor and police commissioner in Ramapo, about 30 miles northwest of New York City.

Police Chief Peter Brower said Taylor was charged with third-degree rape, a felony, for allegedly engaging in sexual intercourse with someone younger than 17. Taylor also was charged with third-degree patronization for allegedly paying the underage victim $300 to have sex, Brower said.

According to Brower, the rape charge carries a possible four-year prison term, and the patronization charge, a misdemeanor, could bring up to a year in prison.

Asked whether Taylor knew that the victim was underage, Brower said "ignorance is not an excuse" for having sex with a minor.

Aidala said after the bail hearing that Taylor "is denying and preparing to fight each and every one of those charges."

Aidala said that "no violence, no force, no threat, no weapons" was involved in the case. He noted that the rape charge against Taylor was for consensual sex with a minor and said Taylor denied it.

St. Lawrence and Brower said the alleged victim, since March a runaway from New York's Bronx borough, was allegedly brought to Ramapo by a pimp on Wednesday night.

When the pimp and the girl returned to New York early Thursday, she texted an uncle who notified the New York police, St. Lawrence said.

New York police arrested the pimp and called Ramapo police, and Taylor was arrested in his hotel room at around 4 a.m., according to St. Lawrence.

The alleged victim had facial injuries that police determined occurred before she entered the Holiday Inn room, St. Lawrence said.

Detective Lt. Brad Weidel said police knocked twice on Taylor's hotel door and identified themselves before entering the room. Weidel and St. Lawrence said Taylor was cooperative with authorities.

Taylor was a 10-time All-Pro linebacker for the New York Giants from 1981 to 1993 after earning All American honors at the University of North Carolina.

A punishing tackler and pass rusher known by his initials "L.T.," he was on two Super Bowl champion teams and was inducted into the National Football League's Hall of Fame, which noted that he "redefined the way the outside linebacker position was played."

However, Taylor was twice suspended by the NFL for substance abuse and battled a cocaine addiction long after retirement, resulting in several arrests and a downward spiral that he chronicled in a 2003 autobiography.

After kicking drugs, he worked as a sports commentator and appeared as a contestant on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" in 2009. Taylor and his dance partner on the program, Edyta Sliwinska, were eliminated in the seventh week of competition.

Brower said that police found a bottle of alcohol in Taylor's hotel room but that Taylor showed no sign of inebriation. Brower said that no drugs were found in the room.

Mark Lepselter, Taylor's agent, said Taylor was very upset about the charges against him.

"He's worked very hard over the last 12 years to change perceptions about him," Lepselter said.

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Coroner: Corey Haim died of natural causes

Los Angeles, California (News Today) - Pneumonia, not drug abuse, killed actor Corey Haim, the Los Angeles County Coroner ruled in an autopsy report released Tuesday.

Although the investigation into Haim's death began as a "suspected prescription medication overdose," toxicology tests "revealed no significant contributing factors" from drugs, the coroner reported.

The autopsy found "an extremely large amount" of swelling in Haim's lungs, it said.

The ruling that his death was not related to his well-publicized drug addiction confirmed what his mother and manager have insisted for weeks: that Haim, 38, did not overdose.

Haim died March 10 after collapsing at the Los Angeles apartment he shared with his mother.

Although the 1980s teen actor battled drug addiction for decades, his death came when Haim "was making major progress" with a program to wean him from pills, said his manager, Mark Heaslip.

Toxicology tests showed that Haim's blood did have "low levels" of a list of drugs, including an antidepressant (Prozac), an antipsychotic (Olanzapine), diazepam (Valium), a muscle relaxer (Carisoprodol), a tranquilizer (meprobamate) and THC (a chemical in marijuana).

Haim also was taking a cough suppressant, antihistamine and ibuprofen.

"These medications are present in low levels and are non-contributory to death," the autopsy report said. Read the autopsy report (PDF)

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has used Haim's death to publicize his enforcement efforts against illegal prescription drug use. At a news conference last month, Brown called Haim "the poster child" for the problem of addicts "doctor shopping" for dangerous drugs.

State investigators found that the former child actor obtained four dangerous drugs -- including Vicodin, Valium, Soma and Xanax -- just five days before he died, Brown said.

Brown launched an inquiry of what he said was Haim's "doctor shopping" for drugs. Seven doctors gave him prescriptions for four controlled substances in the last 10 weeks of his life, Brown said.

Haim sometimes threatened to find other doctors to prescribe him drugs when his primary physician wouldn't give him what he wanted, his manager said.

"I would be the only one who could talk him out of it," Heaslip said Monday night.

His doctor was providing pills only in one-day supplies in an effort to wean him, Heaslip said.

Haim began his acting career in 1982, with a television appearance on the Canadian series "The Edison Twins." His first film role was in the 1984 American movie "First Born."

Haim also won rave reviews for his title role in the 1986 film "Lucas."

Film critic Roger Ebert said at the time, "If he continues to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor."

His most famous role was in the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys," in which Haim played a fresh-faced teenager whose brother becomes a vampire.

In recent years, the actor was reunited with longtime friend and frequent co-star Corey Feldman in a reality show. "The Two Coreys" ran for two seasons on the A&E Network.

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Missing iPhone case led to 'virtual strip-search'

(News Terupdate) - Search warrants have always been a blunt instrument for finding evidence of crime.

Think of television cop shows from the '70s and '80s: A police search of an apartment for drugs was, de facto, a license to ransack all closets, cabinets and dressers. A warrant to seize a letter or other specific document was a green light to overturn desks and dig through all files and writings, no matter how personal.

But on a scale of intrusiveness, the threat to personal liberties posed by search warrants in the pre-digital era was trivial compared to the virtual strip-search that a warrant has become today.

This is illustrated by the ongoing investigation into Apple Computer's loss, and eventual recovery, of a supersecret prototype for the next-generation iPhone, which ended up in the hands of Gizmodo, a gadget blog, after the blog reportedly paid $5,000 to the person who found the missing phone.

Jason Chen, an editor-reporter for Gizmodo (which is owned by Gawker Media), returned home after dinner April 23 to find San Mateo County sheriff's deputies hauling away his computers, external hard drive, cell phones and digital camera -- all on the authority of a search warrant, requested by the San Mateo district attorney and approved by a Superior Court judge, for evidence of unspecified crimes related to the missing iPhone.

Imagine the disruption caused by this search and seizure of virtually every document, file and byte of data in Chen's possession, from e-mails to phone numbers to calendar entries and working files.

For you, me and most people, a loss of this magnitude would be crippling, essentially bringing one's work to a complete halt for the duration of a police examination in which government agents will have access, not only to business records, but also to one's most private files (medical and financial records, communications with family members, etc.). But for journalists, particularly investigative journalists, the loss would be catastrophic.

This is so because journalists obtain sensitive information -- about government, big corporations, other powerful institutions -- from inside sources who, for reasons good and bad, will disclose the information only if their role in releasing it is never revealed.

Journalists must be able to promise confidentiality to these sources. Equally important, journalists must be credible in these representations -- their sources must be persuaded that the journalists not only intend to keep their promise of confidentiality, but that they are able to keep it.

Use of search warrants against journalists is devastating because it demonstrates that they can't keep this crucial promise -- it is beyond their power. And the damage is not confined to the journalist who is the subject of a warrant, but extends, logically, to all reporters who have confidential sources.

In this sense the Apple iPhone case is not about Jason Chen and Gizmodo. Their ethical and legal calculations about paying a news source, or the importance of their "scoop" (relative to the harm to Apple's business), are beside the point. The iPhone investigators' use of a search warrant highlights a grave threat to independent journalism generally.

It didn't have to be this way. The DA could have, and should have, served Chen with a subpoena for records relating to the iPhone story. Use of a subpoena, unlike a warrant, gives the recipient an opportunity to hire a lawyer, to consider his options, and to assert any defenses or privileges that might be available.

Even if those arguments fail, and the reporter is ordered to produce records and information, the harms from a search conducted pursuant to a warrant -- including the jeopardy to journalists' access to confidential sources -- are avoided.

For these reasons, two laws, one federal and the other a California statute, require prosecutors' use of subpoenas, rather than warrants, to obtain information from journalists in criminal investigations.

Less clear, however, is whether this prohibition applies if Chen or Gizmodo are targets of the criminal probe, as some bloggers speculate they may be (although the DA has given no clues about their status, and criminal charges would seem to be a stretch under the circumstances).

The federal law, The Privacy Protection Act, may bar search warrants in this type of investigation even if the prosecutor is planning to charge journalists with crimes. That application, however, may be vulnerable to the constitutional argument that the privacy law exceeds federal power to dictate state judicial proceedings.

Perhaps there is a more mundane explanation for the failure to use a subpoena in this case: The DA may have been under intense pressure (from whom? Apple, which reported the phone was stolen?) to act even before he could convene a grand jury to issue a subpoena.

If so, the DA may come to regret his haste: If a court rules he shouldn't have used a warrant, the DA's possession of evidence seized from Chen's home may undermine any possible prosecution of other, more culpable, parties.

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Priest at his child abuse trial in Rome: 'I am not a monster'

Rome, Italy (News Terupdate) - A priest accused of child abuse denied the charges Tuesday in a high-profile trial taking place in the shadow of the Vatican.

"I am not a monster. I am innocent," the Rev. Ruggero Conti said in court.

Conti is accused of molesting seven young boys at the Nativita di Santa Maria Santissima parish in Rome. He faces charges of committing sexual violence and prostitution.

Two alleged victims told police that Conti masturbated them and forced them to perform oral sex on him in his home, where he often invited them to dinner and to watch movies, according to court documents.

Anti-abuse activists say Conti's superiors knew of allegations against him as early as 2006 but did not do enough to stop him.

Prosecutors say they will call Conti's bishop, Monsignor Gino Reali, to testify. Reali was interrogated by police as part of their investigation into Conti, the activists say.

Putting a bishop on the stand in Rome, the capital of deeply Catholic Italy, would be potentially explosive, particularly against the background of a European-wide scandal.

The Catholic Church has been rocked this year by allegations of child abuse by Catholic clergy in Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, following similar accusations in the United States in the past decade. A damning Irish government-backed report last year said the Dublin Archdiocese had systematically covered up the allegations.

Pope Benedict XVI met this month with a group of men in Malta who say they were abused. He prayed and cried with them.

He has repeatedly insisted the church will do everything in its power to prevent child abuse.

But the trial taking place on his doorstep may undercut such assurances, not least since the alleged abuse of boys took place well after the scandal came to light in the United States.

Conti, a former adviser to the mayor of Rome, was arrested in June 2008, more than a year after an anti-pedophilia organization says it brought accusations against him to Catholic Church officials.

Roberto Mirabile, the president of the organization, said his group was warned about Conti by another priest in the spring of 2007. The group, La Caramella Buona, met with the alleged victims and their families, Mirabile told reporters on Friday.

Mirabile himself went to top Vatican officials, including the man responsible for prosecuting alleged child abusers within the Catholic Church, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, he said.

Scicluna told the child-protection activist there was no Vatican record of complaints about Conti and advised him to go to the police with his concerns, Mirabile said.

Mirabile accused Scicluna of washing his hands of the matter.

Scicluna did not respond to CNN attempts to contact him about the case.

Caramella Buona officials did go to the police, who launched an investigation in November 2007.

Conti was arrested as he prepared to go to World Youth Day in Australia in June 2008. Police believe he continued abusing children until March 2008, Mirabile said.

Conti's superior, Bishop Reali, told police in December 2008 he knew of vague accusations against the priest two years before he was arrested but did not take action, according to court documents.

Nino Marazzita, a lawyer for La Caramella Buona, provided CNN with what he said were transcripts of the prosecutor's interrogation of the bishop.

"You know that there are so many 'rumors,' " Reali told investigators, according to the lawyer. "And I can't run after each one of them."

Conti accused La Caramella Buona of being ideologically opposed to him in his testimony Tuesday. The group denies it.

Reali did not respond to CNN attempts to contact him by phone and e-mail.

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Homicide suspect leads cops on interstate chase

(News Terupdate) - A homicide suspect led authorities from two states on a 130-mile chase Tuesday morning and then surrendered following an hours-long standoff that closed a North Carolina interstate during morning rush hour, police said.

Arthur Duval Mims, 45, of Duncan, South Carolina, was taken into custody after the incident, said Sgt. Jeff Gordon, spokesman for the North Carolina Highway Patrol.

Highway Patrol Trooper Kevin Hennelly said Mims went to his estranged wife's home and shot her along with a 16-year-old girl before setting the house on fire.

About 3:18 a.m. ET, authorities in Duncan responded to a report of a shooting at a Spartanburg County, South Carolina, residence, according to a statement issued by the sheriff's office.

Officers found that Mims' stepdaughter, who had been shot, had run to a neighbor's home to ask for help, and the neighbor called 911.

Authorities entered the home and saw smoke coming from an area near an upstairs bedroom, the statement said. A body was found in the bedroom.

Mims' estranged wife was the one killed, Hennelly said, but authorities do not know whether she died from the gunshot or in the fire. The teenager was hospitalized, authorities said. The motive for the incident was unknown.

Duncan is about 14 miles west of the city of Spartanburg. Mims fled the scene in a white pickup before authorities arrived, the statement said. It was unclear how the police chase began.

The suspect traveled north on Interstate 85 and entered North Carolina, where authorities from that state picked up the chase, Gordon said. At one point, authorities used spike strips on the interstate in an attempt to stop the suspect's vehicle. Two of the vehicle's tires deflated, but the suspect continued northbound, Gordon said.

The vehicle stopped at mile marker 91 near Lexington, more than 30 miles north of where the spike strips had been deployed, Gordon said. But the suspect refused to surrender, triggering a standoff that closed both sides of I-85 for a two-mile stretch starting just before 5 a.m. ET, authorities said.

The Davidson County Sheriff's Department deployed its special response team, and negotiators tried to talk the suspect out of the car, Gordon said. He surrendered about 8:30 a.m. ET. The interstate was reopened shortly afterward.

Mims was alone in the vehicle, Gordon said. He faces charges of murder, assault and battery with attempt to kill and arson, according to the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office.

The interstate closure "did back up traffic, there's no doubt," Hennelly said, but authorities diverted vehicles onto nearby U.S. 52.

"If it was going to happen, it happened in a place where we could detour it very easily," he said.

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High court accepts case over violent video games

Washington (News Terupdate) - A free speech dispute over a California law banning sale of violent video games to children will go to the Supreme Court for review.

The justices Monday accepted the state's appeal and will decide whether the law is too restrictive in denying access by minors to often-graphic material. Video-game makers say the ban goes too far. They say the existing nationwide, industry-imposed, voluntary ratings system is an adequate screen for parents to judge the appropriateness of computer games.

The state says it has a legal obligation to protect children when the industry has failed to do so.

At issue is how far constitutional protections of free speech and expression, as well as due process, can be applied to youngsters. Critics of the law say the government would in effect be engaged in the censorship business, using "community standards" to evaluate artistic and commercial content.

Oral arguments will be held in the fall.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco, California, tossed out the law before it took effect, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it in 2005. He applauded the high court's decision to intervene. "We have a responsibility to our kids and our communities to protect against the effects of games that depict ultraviolent actions, just as we already do with movies," the governor said.

The legislation was designed to strengthen the current rating system, and would have placed an outright ban on the sale or rental to those under 18 of games deemed excessively violent. As defined by California, such interactive games are those in which the player is given the choice of "killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being" in offensive ways.

Retailers could be fined up to $1,000 for any violation.

The gaming industry sued in federal court and won an injunction halting enforcement of the law until the courts sort out the constitutional questions.

In a written statement, Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, said he is hopeful his industry will prevail and "the court will reject California's invitation to break from these settled principles by treating depictions of violence, especially those in creative works, as unprotected by the First Amendment."

The motion picture industry has its own self-monitoring ratings system, imposed decades ago after complaints that some films were too explicit for general audiences in what was seen and heard. The gaming industry says its ratings system roughly follows the same self-imposed guidelines, and ratings are clearly labeled on the packaging.

The state argued it was responding to parents' complaints that too much violent material -- including gruesome battles to the death between on-screen competitors and adversaries -- was being viewed and played by minors. Officials claimed the current ratings system is not adequate in filtering out the controversial content, and that underage teens have been able to buy "M-rated" games designed only for mature, or adult, players.

Lawmakers also said there is a "causal connection" between access to such games and psychological or other harm to children. In their petition to the high court, state lawyers cited studies showing children who repeatedly watch on-screen games can become more aggressive, antisocial, and less able to distinguish the consequences of violence in real life.

Similar efforts in other states to restrict gaming content have been rejected by various courts.

The Supreme Court in recent years has thwarted repeated congressional attempts to protect children from pornography, saying legislation went too far in limiting adult access to explicit, but lawful, sexual content on the internet.

And the justices last week threw out a federal law limiting the sale of graphic videos of animal cruelty.

The court has also said in a variety of contexts that minors enjoy a variety of free-expression rights.

The case is Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants (08-1448).

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Randy Quaid, wife released from jail

Los Angeles, California (News Terupdate) - Actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi, spent several hours in the Santa Barbara County, California, jail Monday after they showed up for a hearing on accusations that they defrauded an innkeeper and failed to pay a hotel bill.

A judge set bail at $100,000 each for the actor and his wife, who missed several previous hearing dates, Santa Barbara District Attorney Arnie Tolks said.

The Quaids were handcuffed, taken from court Monday morning and escorted by sheriff's deputies for booking, Tolks said.

The judge did give them each $20,000 credit for a previous bond. After about four hours in jail, they posted the remaining $80,000 each and were freed from jail until another hearing Wednesday, according to the sheriff.

The couple were originally arrested in Presidio County, Texas, last September, accused of skipping out on a $10,000 hotel bill in Santa Barbara. Each faces felony charges of burglary, defrauding an innkeeper and conspiracy.

Quaid, 56, is known for his roles in several films, including the "National Lampoon's Vacation" movies, "Kingpin" and "Brokeback Mountain."

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Parents using smartphones to entertain bored kids

(News Terupdate) - When Julie Sidder's daughters were younger, her diaper bag was filled with coloring books, crayons, storybooks and little games in case one of them became restless.

Now that Sidder's kids are 4 and 7, the diaper bag is gone, but the need for entertainment -- especially in restaurants -- is not, which is why two-thirds of the apps on Sidder's iPhone are for her children.

"People have always brought toys, or something to entertain their child, into restaurants and stores," says the mom, who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan. "Now we just have better technology."

Harried parents for years have relied on glowing electronic screens -- TVs, video games, computers -- to entertain children in the home. Now more and more parents are discovering smartphones' similar ability to engage squirmy kids at restaurants, in the car and anywhere else where youngsters grow bored.

Almost half of the top 100-selling apps in the iTunes App Store were for preschool or elementary-aged children in November 2009, according to a content analysis by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, which promotes digital media technologies to advance children's learning.

Expert Carly Shuler says the reason for this -- assuming the majority of 3- to 10-year-olds don't own their own phones -- is because adults are taking advantage of the smartphone's ability to act as a mobile learning or entertainment device for their children.

Shuler, a fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (part of the Sesame Workshop) calls this phenomenon the "pass-back" effect -- as in parents passing their phones back to their bored kids.

Shortly after the iPhone came out, Shuler said she noticed children as young as 3 years old playing with the shiny devices.

"I saw it on the subway, at the grocery store -- anywhere you'd see a parent and child interacting, really," she said.

Even AT&T acknowledged this trend in the current commercial where Luke Wilson "passes back" a smartphone to a crying child in a restaurant, Shuler said.

App developers have noticed and are creating kids' games for phones, even though they don't think toddlers are buying smartphones, she said.

Almost all children in the U.S. have access to a mobile device, according to the Sesame Workshop. A 2007 study found that 93 percent of 6 to 9-year-olds had access to a cell phone in the home and more than 30 percent owned their own phone. Shuler said these number have only increased since the study was conducted.

So how do such young children come to understand this new touchscreen technology?

"A child is not as afraid that they're going to break something or do something wrong [as adults are]," Shuler said. "They're more likely to pick [the phone] up and just play with it, which is the best way to learn."

Toddler Teasers is one of the apps Sidder downloaded for her 4-year-old daughter, Ava. Sidder said the educational app, which asks Ava to pick out certain shapes, is a fun learning tool the pair can play together.

But Sidder says even the less educational apps on her iPhone, such as Disney Cover Styler, Red Carpet Dress Up and 7-year-old Ella's favorite, Shrek Cart, are teaching her kids hand-eye coordination and to be comfortable with technology.

"I don't use [the iPhone] to parent my child," she said. "I use it to entertain them ... if they're on it an hour a week, that's a lot. When we're sitting at home, they're not playing on my phone. It's just something that they do when we're out."

Sidder acknowledges that some people think letting young children play with your phone is a bad thing. But those are usually the same people who complain about children running around a restaurant kicking and screaming, she said.

The app market for kids has continued to grow at a rapid rate since the iLearn analysis was published six months ago, said Shuler.

Shuler said her research has found that children's educational apps tend to cost less than apps for older children or adults. But the kids' games and other apps are only one reason iPhones and other smartphones are a hit with children, she said.

"When you look at the design of the iPhone ... the interface is very tactile and well suited to what a child naturally does," Shuler said. "They think with their fingers. If they see something they like, they'll jab at it and touch it. And children love flipping things. If you flip the iPhone, something will happen. If you shake the iPhone, something will happen."

Take a look at some of the best-selling toys throughout the years, she said. Kids have always loved to play with toy telephones, toy lawn mowers, toy ovens and toy vacuum cleaners.

"They like to play with things their parents have," she said. "Considering how much time parents spend on [their phones], it makes sense that kids would want them, too."

And it's not just smartphones -- kids enjoy playing and learning on any mobile electronic gadget, Shuler said.

"Take pictures with your kids," she said. "Or pull out the calculator and ask your kid to help add up what the groceries are going to cost. These are really powerful devices."

Robin Orman of Waterford, Michigan, says her 1 year old entertains himself just by holding on to her cell phone, which is not a smartphone. Orman's 2-year-old daughter, on the other hand, already prefers a touchscreen device.

Orman said her older daughter enjoys playing educational flashcard games and listening to music on her mother-in-law's iPhone. She likes to slide the pictures around, she added.

"I'd love an iPhone," Orman said. But, for now, "it's just another one of those things [the kids] get to do at grandma's house."

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Cold case: 'Precious' girl vanished in '77

New York (News Terupdate) - Eva Debruhl, 15, was last seen nearly 33 years ago, cutting the front lawn of her family's home in Rock Hill, South Carolina, with a push mower.

"Eva loved to cut grass, as we both did,'' said her older sister, Tami Settlemyer, 49. "There was just something about cutting grass that we both enjoyed.''

But Debruhl wasn't at the door to greet her sister when she came home from her summer job at the local textile mill late in the afternoon of June 29, 1977. She had missed lunch with her grandmother, who lived in another house on the family's 9-acre spread. And Debruhl's best friend's family had not seen her, either.

Fear and panic quickly set in as the family realized that Debruhl was nowhere to be found.

Her sister describes Debruhl as "precious." She loved children and singing in the church choir, and she could recite from the Bible. "She was so sweet and innocent,'' her sister said.

Police searched the property, and Debruhl's family, friends and neighbors joined forces to look for her.

"Soon, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, but we never stopped looking,'' Settlemyer said.

Debruhl's father quit his job, devoting himself to the search. Her parents sold their house that fall to pay for a private investigator.

"Eva was the baby of our family, and we treated her like that," Settlemyer said. "My parents were just heartbroken.''

It was the family's second tragedy. Four years earlier, a drunken driver killed Debruhl's 11-year-old brother in front of the house as he and a friend walked to a church playground to play basketball.

To this day, police have had few clues to follow in Debruhl's disappearance.

There were no signs of forced entry, and police told the family that whoever may have taken Debruhl knew their home and their schedule.

Debruhl's grandmother said she recalled seeing a blue or green truck with a white top drive up to the property on the day the teen vanished.

A man got out and knocked on the door to Debruhl's house. She said she didn't get a good look at him because he had his back to her, according to the police report.

The vehicle drove off and returned about 10 minutes later, and the grandmother could not see who was in it. She didn't pay a lot of attention because Debruhl's father repaired autos, and strangers would often visit to have work done.

The truck and the man were never located.

Another potential clue was a Coke bottle Debruhl's father found in the yard, where the truck had pulled over.

The bottle was made in Georgia, indicating that whoever dropped it may have been from out of state. A Coca-Cola bottling plant in Rock Hill served South and North Carolina, Settlemyer said.

Yet the bottle was not dusted for fingerprints.

Over the years, Debruhl's family was approached by people who demanded money for information on the teen's whereabouts. In a sting operation, Debruhl's mother met one man who wanted $15,000. Police arrested him. He was convicted of extortion, Settlemyer said.

More than once, Debruhl's parents were called to the medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to view unidentified remains, but they weren't Debruhl's.

At one point in the investigation, it was believed that Henry Lee Lucas, a drifter who claimed to have killed hundreds of people in dozens of states, may have been in the area about the time Debruhl disappeared.

A sheriff's representative and Debruhl's father went to Texas in the 1980s when Lucas was arrested there. Lucas said he could not recall whether he killed anyone in the area or even whether he had been there, Settlemyer said.

Years ago, one sheriff's investigator was so involved in the case that he worked it on his days off, searching, digging and looking for hard-to-find clues.

The current lead investigator, Capt. Jerry Hoffman of the York County Sheriff's Office, has an Eva Debruhl case file the size of a banker's box.

Following up on a tip, police recently dug up a well and the property once owned by Debruhl's family. In other searches, cadaver dogs found nothing. A forensic psychologist was brought in to use hypnotism on one person who was interviewed.

"This one is a little more frustrating,'' Hoffman said.

Settlemyer says she knows that someone out there knows exactly what happened to Debruhl, who was 5'1'' and 105 pounds when she vanished. She was blonde, had blue eyes and wore glasses. She was last seen in blue shorts and yellow blouse.

Settlemyer believes that her sister is dead but still speaks of hope when asked about the case.

"All we want and all we have ever wanted is closure. We have already forgiven that person,'' she said. "We know that person will have another judge that will give them the punishment they need.''

Anyone with more information is asked to call the York County Sheriff's Office at 1-803-628-3059 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST.

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Thai protesters set terms for negotiations

Bangkok, Thailand (News Terupdate) - The leaders of anti-government protesters in Thailand offered Friday to return to the negotiating table -- but only if the government meets certain demands.

The demonstrators will resume negotiations if the government lifts a state of emergency and other measures and shows responsibility for the deaths of protesters on two days this month, said Weng Tojirakarn, a co-leader of the anti-government Red Shirt protesters.

His remarks come as tension remains high on the streets of Bangkok, where a political standoff has gripped the country for several weeks.

The Red Shirts have been clashing with the Thai military in a Bangkok area that serves as a financial hub.

iReport: Are you there? Share your story, images

Another co-leader of the Red Shirts, Veera Muskapong, met with foreign diplomats Friday and told them he might meet with the government if it meets certain conditions.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, meanwhile, huddled with the chiefs of the country's armed forces early Friday after a string of grenade attacks killed at least one person and wounded dozens of others.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said in a televised address that the grenades were launched from the area where the Red Shirts have been encamped for weeks, but the protesters denied any responsibility for the attacks.

Watch red shirt protests

Suthep told Thai television earlier that three people died in the attacks, but Bangkok's Erawan Emergency and Rescue Center later revised the number to one. At least 87 people were wounded, the center said.

The Thai Department of Special Investigation warned that people responsible for the grenade attacks could face the death penalty, the MCOT news agency reported.

The attacks prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a travel alert advising American citizens of the escalating violence in Bangkok.

Suthep said riot police and helicopters were deployed to join Thai troops in the area, which was still littered with glass amid the standoff.

Across the barricades, the Red Shirts were playing music and trying to encourage a festive atmosphere. Demonstrators told CNN late Thursday they wanted to drive home the point that their rallies are supposed to be peaceful.

Thrown into the volatile mix are a group of protesters who called themselves the Multicolored Shirts -- they oppose the anti-government Red Shirts. On Friday, they took to the streets in large numbers.

Explainer: What are the protests in Thailand about?

Thursday's five explosions took place near an elevated train station where the protesters are gathered, said Col. Sansern Kaewkumnerd, spokesman for the Center for Resolutions under Emergency Situation. Three of the grenades landed on the roof of the station, but at least one landed outside a nearby hotel, Sansern said.

The Red Shirts support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006. They want Abhisit to dissolve the government, hold new elections and leave the country.

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Judge removed from Ohio serial killings case

(News Terupdate) - The Ohio Supreme Court has removed a Cleveland judge from a case after attorneys for serial killer suspect Anthony Sowell accused her of bias as a result of postings about their client on a newspaper website.

Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold was removed from the case Thursday, and it has been turned over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for reassignment to another judge.

Sowell faces murder, attempted murder, rape and attempted rape charges in connection with the killings of 11 women and attacks on five other women. He was arrested after the bodies of the slain women were found at his house last fall, and he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Read the indictment (PDF)

Sowell's attorneys, John P. Parker and Rufus Sims, filed an affidavit Monday seeking Saffold's disqualification, according to court documents.

They alleged that Saffold had "improper," ex parte conversations with the former judge on the case, Timothy McGinty, and a newspaper reporter from The Cleveland Plain Dealer. They also said that e-mails from the judge's personal and office accounts allegedly were sources of information for a March 26 Plain Dealer article and that the judge has a financial interest in the case because she and her daughter have sued the newspaper over the apparent use of her e-mails as sourcing for that article.

The defense said someone using the moniker "lawmiss" posted derogatory comments on the newspaper's website about attorney Sims and Sowell.

Those comments were linked to Saffold's account, but she has denied posting them and has said her court computer was not used to make them.

Saffold could not be reached for comment Thursday.

However, she filed a response to the defense, insisting she harbors no bias in the case and denying she had any improper conversations about it with others. She also said her civil suit against the newspaper has nothing to do with the case against the defendant.

Still, acting Chief Justice Paul E. Pfeifer found the concerns over Saffold's e-mail accounts and the public postings particularly troubling.

"Although Judge Saffold denied that she was the source of these online comments, she has admitted that the comments originated from the online account shared by her and members of her family and that the comments were posted by her daughter," Pfeifer said in his ruling.

He said the "unfortunate postings" impede Saffold's ability to resolve legal issues in the case that would appear to be objective and fair.

While there's no evidence of Saffold's actual bias, Pfeifer said, "disqualification is appropriate where the public's confidence in the integrity of the judicial system is at stake."

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Case against Goldman is 'very weak'

New York (News Terupdate) - Federal regulators have filed a "very weak" case against the Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, relying on hindsight to bolster the charges at a politically sensitive time, says analyst Fareed Zakaria.

The complaint, filed last week, accuses Goldman of defrauding investors in a complex financial instrument that was designed to allow one of the firm's clients to bet against securities tied to mortgages for U.S. homes.

SEC officials, who denied any political motivation in bringing the case, filed the charges as Congress was debating new regulations to rein in Wall Street excesses. President Obama is speaking on the subject in New York on Thursday.

"I'm largely in favor of financial reform," Zakaria told CNN. "But I also believe in the rule of law, and I believe people should be innocent until proven guilty. And the government should not use the police power of the state to retroactively criminalize things that were considered fine when the market was going up.

"I just think that we have a tendency in this country -- every time there's a boom and bust -- we get embarrassed and ashamed and we feel guilty about the boom years and the people and institutions who we glorified and lionized, we then want to throw to the wolves, and we do that using courts and criminality. And I just think that that's not fair. And it also does have the effect of chilling business activity in a way that's not ultimately helpful for the economy."

Zakaria, author and host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," spoke to CNN on Wednesday. Here is an edited transcript:

CNN: What's did we learn about Wall Street from the SEC's complaint against Goldman Sachs?

Fareed Zakaria: I think what we really learned is that very large institutions were as involved in the very esoteric world of derivatives trading as were the hedge funds. ... I think there was a tendency to believe that these products distributed risk all over the place and therefore you actually made the system more stable. ... while that may have been one effect, another effect was actually to concentrate risk in some places, to have some institutions like Lehman Brothers with enormous amounts of risk on their balance sheet, which of course meant if they failed they would drag the whole system down with them.

CNN: What about Goldman's own behavior?

Zakaria: I think when you read the SEC's case carefully, frankly the civil case against Goldman is very weak, because what Goldman Sachs did was act as a bookie between two people who wanted to make bets.

[John] Paulson's hedge fund wanted to bet that the American housing market was going to go down. He said if you can find me someone who's willing to take the other side of that bet, I'll make the bet with you guys.

So Goldman goes out to try to find someone on the other side of that bet. ... That's why they're often called an intermediary in these things. The SEC alleges that John Paulson was deliberately putting stuff in that basket of securities that he wanted to bet against that he thought was crap. Goldman says he didn't have the final say in it but he was consulted.

What I'm not clear about is that even if Paulson did select the securities he wanted to bet against, why is that illegal? That happens in markets every day. Somebody comes to a bank like Goldman Sachs and says, "Hey, I want to bet against oil futures. I want to bet that oil is going to go down in value. Here's the instrument I want to bet against. Find me someone who wants to take the other side of this bet" -- and they go out and find that person.

The argument that Paulson was deliberately putting in securities that he thought were valueless makes no sense because, of course, that's why he was betting against them.

Now the key here is that on the other side of that bet were highly sophisticated investors with much larger funds than John Paulson's. They had seen every single security that they were betting on. So the idea that they were somehow fooled doesn't make any sense.

CNN: What about the argument that Goldman wasn't correctly describing Paulson's role?

Zakaria: There's a specific allegation that Goldman mischaracterized Paulson's involvement by saying that he was actually betting that the market would go up rather than down. Goldman denies that and Paulson's fund has also denied it. That is a case of "he said, she said."

That we'll find out in the course of a trial, if that's true, obviously it changes matters. But that does not seem to me to be the crux of the argument. ...

John Paulson in 2007 was a nobody, a midlevel hedge fund manager who had been wrong about the housing industry for the last year. So the idea that some big bank would quiver and immediately abandon all their own analysis because they realized that John Paulson was on the other side of the bet seems highly implausible. It only makes sense today because we now know that Paulson turned out to be right.

Had the bet been made six months earlier, had the same contract been drawn up, Paulson would have lost a billion dollars and the other guys would have made it because the market had been going up for years and years and all the people like Paulson who thought it was overvalued had been wrong. So the idea that this was a kind of a foolish bet that Goldman must have known would unravel was only true in hindsight.

CNN: Is there a political context to the SEC filing charges at this time?

Zakaria: Well it certainly seems pretty strange. One has to take at face value what administration officials are saying about the independence of the SEC, but to have the financial reform legislation proposed, to have the Senate committee hearings, to have the SEC called before the Senate and in the context of that to have them all happening within days of each other, the SEC slaps these charges on Goldman after a 3-2 vote, a very rare situation for the SEC to pursue charges despite a very divided commission, the whole thing certainly seems as though it is politically motivated.

CNN: What do you think the impact is going to be on the financial regulation debate in Washington?

Zakaria: It may be a spur that allows it to move forward, which is fine. By and large I think that many of these products should be more tightly regulated, these derivatives should be traded in a much more open and transparent way, there should be greater capital requirements, which means if you're going to take bets you should have the money to cover the bets. ...

The irony here is Goldman Sachs managed its risk better than probably every other bank on Wall Street. That's why they're still around. The ones that really managed their risk badly and imposed huge systemic costs on the taxpayer were Lehman Brothers. and Bear Stearns and AIG. Goldman is one of the places that managed its risk pretty well, precisely because it succeeded and it came out of this crisis fastest, there is a certain degree of envy and resentment that these firms all benefited from government action. And I get all that. ...

CNN: What about the issue that probably concerns the American taxpayer most -- how can people be sure they won't have to bail out Wall Street again?

Zakaria: Honestly it's a very difficult question because the financial system has become so complex. But my own view is that we were all asleep at the switch, and that government most particularly was asleep at the switch.

Look, Canada did not have a single bank failure or bailout. Canada did not have any of these elaborate new regulations that we're trying to put into place. They just had a more conservative banking culture and a more aggressive regulatory culture where the regulators using the powers that they had, which is about what the American regulators have, went into the banks and said you can't engage in so much risky behavior.

We just didn't do that in the United States. The only way to really ensure that it doesn't happen again is to have a certain kind of vigilance, for regulators to take their job seriously ... and try to make sure that these institutions are not taking on excessive risk.

We didn't do that. Everyone was asleep at the switch.

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Black farmers call on Congress to pay racial bias settlement

(News Terupdate) - African-American farmers hoping for government settlement money in a racial bias case met with lawmakers Wednesday and called on Congress to come up with a way to fund the $1 billion deal.

Litigation known as the Pigford Case established a longstanding pattern of discrimination at the U.S. Agriculture Department against African-American farmers who had applied for farm loans and support from federal programs.

Under the terms of an involved process overseen by a federal judge and dating to 1999, qualified farmers could receive $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias. In addition, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said those farmers may pursue a claim for actual damages from the bias and potentially receive up to $250,000.

Ralph Paige, executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, said Wednesday that he believed that Congress was "very close" to coming up with a way to pay the settlement, which covers as many as 80,000 African-American farmers.

"These farmers have suffered much, much too long, and it's time that this thing get behind us. We can settle Pigford once and for all and send a clear message to the country that we are on the right track as a nation," Paige said at news conference.

"We're talking about much more than the money. We are talking about remedying past discrimination," Paige said.

A March 31 deadline to appropriate the funds has passed, and farmers now may withdraw from the settlement and pursue independent litigation against the government. Congress now has a target date of the end of May to come up with a plan.

"We spend a billion dollars on a jet to go bomb somebody. We're talking about a billion dollars to help feed our country, and I just don't see why Congress and the president can't go ahead and find [the funds]. It is an emergency," said Gary Grant, with the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, said there is a "total commitment" from President Obama and the majority party in the House and Senate to make sure the settlement is taken care of. Butterfield represents his state's First Congressional District, which is home to Timothy Pigford, who filed the class-action lawsuit more than a decade ago.

Butterfield said lawmakers need to work out how to pay for the settlement under the PAYGO rule, meaning Congress must balance any increased spending with equal savings elsewhere. The other option would be to designate the settlement as an emergency, which would be exempt from PAYGO.

Lawmakers are looking for an appropriate piece of legislation in which to include the settlement to avoid adding to the deficit, Butterfield said.

"If we cannot find the appropriate vehicle, then I would certainly support declaring this settlement as a national emergency and adding it to the next supplemental that may be on the House floor," he said.

Farmers have until May 31 to withdraw from the pending class-action settlement and pursue an independent claim against the government if they feel their chances would be better for a payout. If they choose to stay in the class, they will wait as a group to apply for the promised monetary damages.

Vilsack has said there's no question the damages are due for African-American farmers. In a statement last week, he said, "I have met with and talked to key stakeholders and members of Congress reiterating the administration's ongoing efforts to close this chapter in the history of the department."

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Man identified in missing Ohio mother case

(News Terupdate) - Police have released the name of a man who may know something about an Ohio mother who went missing while on a weekend shopping trip.

The man police are looking for was identified by authorities Tuesday as Tre B. Hutcherson, who police said has also been missing for several days.

Police said Hutcherson was seen in surveillance video footage with Tiffany Tehan in March and April at a local convenience store.

Tehan, a 31-year-old mother of a 1-year-old girl, disappeared Saturday morning after leaving the family's home to go shopping for the day.

The Ford Explorer she was driving was found abandoned with a flat tire the next day near a skate park in Kettering, police said.

Hutcherson was not someone Tehan's family and friends know, police said. However, the video suggests Tehan may be familiar with him, said Xenia police Capt. Scott Anger.

"Those pictures would indicate that they know each and that they been seen on more than one occasion and the information that we received is that they've been seen at that location on multiple occasions," Anger said Tuesday.

Anger said Tehan's disappearance is "totally out of character by everybody's account."

Authorities have classified the investigation as suspicious and won't rule out the possibility that Tehan is in danger.

"These are unusual circumstances, and we do have some concerns for her safety," Anger said.

The Patterson Park Church, where Tehan and her husband are members, has been leading a volunteer search effort for the missing woman.

"We've actually been sending out people with flyers in the area in which she was last seen," said Pastor Joe Godwin. "We probably printed somewhere about the neighborhood of 4,000 flyers."

Godwin said Tehan attends a church class for married couples and is the daughter of a pastor.

"We, as a church, obviously are very concerned for one of our own family members," he said, "It's hit very close to home."

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Iraqi officials: Gunmen kill family of Awakening Council leader

(News Terupdate) - Gunmen stormed a house north of Baghdad, killing the family of a local Awakening Council leader, police officials said Tuesday.

The attackers killed the man's wife, their 22-year-old daughter and their three sons, who were beheaded, according to police. The father was not home when the attack took place Monday night in the Salaheddin province town of Tarmiya, about 30 miles (45 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police said.

The attack is the latest targeting Awakening Council or Sons of Iraq members and their families.

Earlier this month, gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed houses and killed 25 people in a Sunni village near Baghdad.

Five of the dead were women. Most of the victims were shot in the head, and all were found handcuffed, police officials in Baghdad said.

The attack, involving at least 20 gunmen, took place in a village in Arab Jabour, a predominantly Sunni region about 15 miles southeast of the capital, authorities said.

The area was once a hotbed of insurgents until the birth of Awakening Councils or the Sons of Iraq, which were established to reduce violence and provide security for residents in certain areas of the country.

Most of the victims in the April 2 attacks were local Sons of Iraq members.

Authorities said at the time that the mass shooting appeared to be the work of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Iraqi security forces initially arrested 25 suspects but released several due to insufficient evidence, police said.

Military uniforms are relatively easy to purchase in Iraq. In Baghdad, several shops sell police and army uniforms for less than $15.

Officials said Monday that the two most senior leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq had been killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation. The deaths of Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi deal "a potentially devastating blow" to the terrorist group, the U.S. military said.

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14 alleged members of Gambino crime family charged

(News Terupdate) - Fourteen alleged members of the Gambino crime family have been indicted on charges including murder, racketeering, prostitution of minors and trying to locate and intimidate a sequestered jury, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan, New York, said Tuesday.

"Today, the Gambino family has lost one of its leaders, and many of its rising stars have now fallen," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. "We will continue to work with our partners at the FBI to eradicate the mafia and to keep organized crime from victimizing the businesses and the people of this city."

Twelve people, including Daniel Marino, named by the U.S. attorney as the current boss of the Gambino crime family, were arrested Tuesday morning. One was arrested last week, and another was at large Tuesday afternoon, Bharara's office said.

Marino has been charged with murder in various cases, including the 1989 killing of Thomas Spinelli, a member of the family who testified before a federal grand jury about the mafia's members and activities.

The other defendants, who authorities say include some high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family, also have serious charges brought against them.

Onofrio Modica is charged with jury tampering, which stems from 1992, when then-boss John J. Gotti was on trial on federal racketeering and murder charges. According to the U.S. attorney, Modica and other members of the Gambino family tried to locate the anonymous, sequestered jurors sitting on the trial. Modica was able to penetrate security measures and locate the hotel where the jury was sequestered, but the plan was called off after Gotti decided that the jury would not convict him, authorities allege.

The U.S. attorney alleges several of the defendants also operated a prostitution business from 2008 to 2009, where young women and girls as young as 15 allegedly were recruited to be prostitutes and advertised on websites such as Craigslist. According to Bharara, the defendants drove the women to their appointments and kept approximately half the money paid to them. The women allegedly were made available for sex to gamblers at weekly high-stakes poker games that authorities say were run by the defendants.

A press release from Bharara's office detailed the other charges against the defendants, including extortion; assault; trafficking of narcotics, such as cocaine, OxyContin and marijuana; wire fraud, which includes the alleged defrauding of several high-end New York restaurants by inflating invoice costs; loansharking; and gambling.

"This case shows that it's still about making money illegally, by whatever means," FBI Special Agent-in-Charge George Venizelos said. "No crime seemed too depraved to be exploited if it was a money-maker, including the sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old."

According to the U.S. attorney's office, the fourteen defendants are Marino, Modica, Thomas Orefice, Dominick DiFiore, Anthony Manzella, Michael Scotto, Michael Scarpaci, Thomas Scarpaci, David Eisler, Salvatore Borgia, Steve Maiurro, Keith Dellitalia, Suzanne Porcelli and Anthony Vecchione.

Maiurro remains at large. The 13 arrested defendants are expected to appear in court Wednesday.

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Michael Douglas' son gets 5 years in drug case

New York (News Terupdate) - The son of actor Michael Douglas apologized to a federal judge before being sentenced to a five-year prison term Tuesday, promising to follow "the true right path" when released.

Cameron Douglas, 31, pleaded guilty to distributing large quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine in January.

"I apologize to the court for my decisions and actions that put me in front of you today," Douglas said in a trembling voice. He added, "I have developed, in my mind, the idea that I want to take the right path, the true right path."

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman rebuffed pleas by defense lawyers for a more lenient sentencing, telling the spectators that prison may be Douglas' "last chance."

Cameron Douglas is the son of the two-time Academy Award winner and his first wife, Diandra Luker, both of whom attended the sentencing. As Cameron Douglas spoke, his mother was crying and his father appeared to be fighting back tears.

Douglas, who was arrested in July 2009 at a Manhattan nightclub, asked Berman "for opportunity to be a role model to my younger brothers and sisters."

"I believe, your honor, things will be different this time," he added. If given a second chance, he said, "I will never squander that opportunity."

Berman acknowledged that numerous letters sent on the defendant's behalf by celebrities and others, but said some of the letters implied that he should not make an example of Douglas because he is the son of a famous actor.

"None acknowledged appropriately the numerous impacts to victims of society for dealing drugs," the judge said.

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10-year-old's pregnancy fuels Mexican abortion debate

Mexico City, Mexico (News Terupdate) - A pregnant 10-year-old, allegedly raped by her stepfather, has become the latest lightning rod in the country's heated abortion debate.

The girl's stepfather has been arrested. But advocates on both sides of the issue say their battle is just beginning.

"This girl is much more than an isolated case," said Adriana Ortiz-Ortega, a researcher at Mexico's National Autonomous University who has written two books on abortion in Mexico, "and there is much more influence now from conservative groups that are trying to prevent the legalization of abortion."

Read more at CNN Mexico

Abortion is legal in Mexico's capital city, but prohibited or significantly restricted in most of the country's states. The girl's home state of Quintana Roo, on the Yucatan peninsula, allows abortion in cases of rape during the first 90 days of the pregnancy. But the 10-year-old girl is at 17½ weeks, nearly a month past that limit.

Advocacy groups are calling for federal officials and the United Nations to investigate Quintana Roo's handling of the matter, claiming officials did not inform her of her abortion rights.

"We don't know what is happening, and the institution that is supposed to provide support and care for these minors hasn't been transparent. We're really asking for accountability," said Maria Luisa Sanchez Fuentes, director of the Information Group on Reproductive Choice.

State Attorney General Francisco Alor Quezada said he did not know whether officials had told the girl she had the option of pursuing an abortion, and he did not know how far the girl was into her pregnancy when her mother reported the assault to authorities last month.

He said the girl is in the custody of state protective services, and officials are closely monitoring her physical and psychological care.

"I do not think there is another instance in which the girl could be in better hands," he said Monday.

Child protective services officials in Quintana Roo said in a statement last week that the girl and the fetus were in good health.

But Quintana Roo state legislator Maria Hadad said the girl's doctors aren't telling the whole story. She said continuing the pregnancy could cause severe mental and physical health problems for the girl.

"It's not just a high-risk pregnancy. It's a pregnancy that puts the girl at risk," Hadad told Mexican broadcaster Channel 10 in Chetumal, Mexico.

The Roman Catholic Church vocally opposes abortion in Mexico, and the topic has long been controversial there. The debate has been particularly heated since 2007, when the nation's more liberal capital city approved a law legalizing abortion during the first three months of pregnancy with no restrictions. That decision was challenged and ultimately upheld by the country's Supreme Court in 2008.

Since 2007, 17 states have passed laws "protecting life beginning at conception," according to the Information Group on Reproductive Choice. Legislators in Quintana Roo, which is also is home to the popular resort city of Cancun, approved such changes to its constitution last year

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Long Island man guilty in hate crime case

New York (News Terupdate) - Jurors on Monday convicted a Long Island man of manslaughter as a hate crime in the death of an immigrant from Ecuador.

Jeffrey Conroy was on trial for the death of Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old native of Ecuador who was fatally stabbed in the chest on November 8, 2008, in Patchogue, New York.

Conroy was also found guilty Monday of gang assault and conspiracy as well as of assaulting three other Latino men on Long Island.

He was found not guilty of murder as a hate crime, the most serious charge he faced.

"He will live prisoner in his conscience for what he did," the victim's mother Maria Rosario Lucero told reporters in Spanish. "May God forgive him for the acts he committed."

She was planning to travel Monday to view the location in Patchogue where her son was killed.

Prosecutors say Conroy and six friends in 2008 targeted Latinos for assaults -- part of a sport they called "beaner-hopping."

Several of the seven defendants pleaded guilty to various charges.

Family members expressed gratitude to Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota for his efforts.

But Ecuadorian government representatives said they would have preferred a conviction for murder in the second degree.

"We are not satisfied with the decision," said Pablo Calle, the New York spokesman for the Ecuadorian National Secretariat of Migrants. "There is no happy ending in a situation like this."

"Everyone has lost," said Jorge Lopez, consul general of Ecuador in New York. "We are very unsatisfied with the result."

He beseeched the Ecuadorian community on Long Island not to be afraid of approaching authorities for help.

Walter Sinche, executive director of the International Ecuadorian Alliance, called the verdict "a green light to hate crimes."

"What Long Island is doing is sending the wrong message to the country," Sinche said. "These crimes have to stop and they have the power to do it, and they didn't do it."

Spota expressed satisfaction with the jurors' verdict. "I think that they arrived at a fair verdict based upon the evidence that we have presented," he told reporters.

"The verdict this jury announced will forever be a part of the legacy of Marcelo Lucero and that legacy is simply that the law protects everyone, no matter who they are, where they came from, what language they speak, and no matter what their immigration status may be," he said.

The indictment had charged Conroy with both murder and manslaughter, a rare move, Spota said.

"We felt and, obviously, the grand jury felt that this was the proper decision: let a trial jury make that determination."

Manslaughter in the first degree carries a sentence of eight years to 25 years. Sentencing is set for May 26.

Conroy's lawyer said he would appeal.

A recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center found that Latinos in Suffolk County, which occupies about two-thirds of Long Island, have lived in an environment of intolerance and violence directed at them. The atmosphere of intolerance was stoked in part by anti-immigrant groups and some county leaders, along with an indifferent police department, according to the report.

The law center, which researches and keeps tabs on hate groups, became interested in the Long Island county after Lucero's death.

After four months of research in Suffolk County that included interviews with more than 70 Latino immigrants, 30 local religious leaders and other community leaders, the law center said it found a pattern of ethnic intolerance going back 10 years.

Low-level harassment of Latinos in Suffolk County is common, the report said. "They are regularly taunted, spit upon and pelted with apples, full soda cans, beer bottles and other projectiles," the report said.

Latino residents riding bikes have been run off the road, and others have been beaten with baseball bats or shot at with BB guns, the report said.

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Market blast kills 22 in Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan (News Terupdate) - At least 22 people were killed Monday and 27 were injured when an explosion ripped through a crowded market in northwestern Pakistan, police and hospital officials told CNN.

The blast occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET) in Qizza Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar, said Peshawar police official Akhtar Ali.

A suicide bomber approached the market on foot and detonated his explosives, said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formerly known as North West Frontier Province.

Dr. Abdul Hamid Afridi, an official at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, said the death toll stood at 22.

Muhammad Iqbal, spokesman for the Muslim religious party Jamaat-e-Islami, said in an appearance on Pakistan's GEO-TV that the blast took place near a demonstration by party members who were protesting increases in load shedding -- the practice of creating intentional power outages aimed at saving electricity. The country is experiencing an energy shortage.

The deputy regional chief of the party, Haji Dost Muhammad, was among those killed in the explosion, Iqbal said.

Peshawar police chief Liaqat Ali said on Pakistani TV that militants in the city "were dormant" for roughly four months.

"Now they have reorganized and regrouped and they will try to hurt us and hit us," he said. "Nonetheless we are ready and we will put in our best."

The blast at the market came after another explosion in Peshawar killed a 7-year-old and injured seven other students outside a school on Monday, authorities said.

A suicide bomber also killed three people on Sunday at a police station in Kohat -- the same northwest Pakistani town where attackers targeted a camp for displaced people and killed at least 41 a day earlier.

Kohat is a town in the North West Frontier Province where the Pakistan military has stepped up its offensive against the Taliban in recent weeks.

The fighting has caused a flood of displaced people to pour into camps. More than 250,000 people are registered as internally displaced people in the towns of Kohat and Hangu after fleeing the fighting between government troops and the Taliban in Orakzai and Kurram, two districts in the country's tribal region.

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