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HAVANA – A leading rights activist says most of Cuba's 200 or more political prisoners would rather serve out long terms on the island than be part of an exchange for five communist agents imprisoned in the U.S., as Cuban President Raul Castro has suggested.

President Barack Obama has said Cuba should make the next move as both leaders try to thaw relations — and that releasing political prisoners would be a significant step.

Castro responded in part by suggesting a prisoner swap — sending all of Cuba's political prisoners, and their families, to the United States in exchange for the five convicted Cuban spies.

The prisoners themselves? They want nothing of such a deal, Havana's leading dissident said Monday.

"It's nearly unanimous among the prisoners that they not be exchanged for military men arrested red-handed in espionage activities in the United States," said Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation. "They would rather stay in prison."

Most prefer to stay in their homeland with their families and culture and fight for changes to the political system of their own country. They consider themselves patriots, and having risked everything to speak out — their jobs, homes and family prospects — they are committed to working from within to improve life in Cuba.

Sanchez, the most veteran of the island's rights activists, talks to numerous political prisoners and their relatives by phone each day, and updates detailed lists of inmates that he releases every six months. His reports are a key source of information for international groups monitoring Cuba's human rights situation.

Castro's government has unilaterally released "prisoners of conscience" before without suffering any political consequences inside Cuba. In February, four political prisoners were set free and immediately exiled to Spain, following human rights talks in Madrid. It was at least the fifth known release of a group of political prisoners by Cuba since the mid-1980s that followed an international appeal or negotiations.

The U.S. has swapped prisoners before with other countries — notably in the case of KGB spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, traded to the Soviets in 1962 for imprisoned U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.

But Obama could suffer serious political fallout if he agreed to swap the so-called Cuban Five — communist agents who were convicted of espionage in Miami in 2001. The ringleader was implicated in the death of four exiles killed when Cuban military fighters shot their planes down off the island's coast in 1996.

Senior State Department officials in Washington said Monday they knew about Castro's statement but were unaware if Havana had made an official prisoner swap proposal.

There are several similar lists of Cuban political prisoners compiled by different rights groups, and Obama has not specified which inmates he is talking about.

Sanchez's list numbers 205 and includes three men sentenced to death for violent acts, including two Salvadorans convicted in Havana hotel bombings that killed an Italian tourist.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, said his group uses some of the Cuban commission's information, and also lists more than 200 political prisoners, but doesn't include anyone convicted of violent crimes.

Amnesty International says it has adopted 58 Cuban "prisoners of conscience," but it's unclear why its list is significantly shorter than the others or if it uses different criteria.

Castro clearly referred to the list Sanchez compiles during a passionate speech in Venezuela last week, offering to free political prisoners who include "confessed terrorists" when saying he would discuss "everything" with Obama.

Sanchez has suggested that the Salvadorans serve the rest of their terms in their own country.

"I would be happy if they released some or all, but our position is that we want the liberation of all, without conditions," he said.

Vivanco called Castro's proposal "an absurd proposition," equating five government agents with "more than 200 political prisoners serving time simply because they tried to exercise fundamental freedoms — free speech, the right to association."

Vivanco accompanied France Libertes, a French human rights group led by former first lady Danielle Mitterand, on a 1995 trip to Cuba that resulted in the release of six political prisoners, including two prominent dissidents.

As a congressman, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson secured the release of three Cuban political prisoners during talks with Raul Castro's older brother Fidel in Cuba in 1996, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson facilitated the liberation of 48 prisoners of conscience during a 1984 trip to Havana.

The Cuban government released 299 prisoners on humanitarian grounds, including dissidents but mostly common criminals, as a gesture to Pope John Paul II after his papal visit in January 1998.

Vivanco acknowledged these previous releases, but said the communist government has not changed its criminal code, which includes vague charges that presume guilt before the fact, such as "social dangerousness," or inhibit free speech as "enemy propaganda."

"Most of these are people who simply have a disagreement with the government, who then make their disagreement public," he said. "Any discussion of engagement with Cuba needs to take into account that Cuba is the last country in the hemisphere that represses nearly every form of political dissent."



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FROM NEVER-been-kissed to porn star?

Susan Boyle, the virginal wallflower whose blooming performance on "Britain's Got Talent" was e-mailed 'round the world last week, has been offered $1 million to make a porno.

"We want to get this movie shot and out while Susan has the world's attention," Mark Kulkis, of Los Angeles-based Kick Ass Films, said on NewYorkDailyNews.com.

"Besides, after 47 years of virginity, I'm sure Susan is also anxious to get something cracking as soon as possible."

After 47 years of virginity, she's probably feeling a lot more than anxious.

Should she decide to give it a go, Boyle would apparently have to lose her virginity on camera. What, no undress rehearsals? And Kick Ass would fly her to L.A. on - wait for it - Virgin Airlines.

Boyle's luminous April 11 performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables" has been viewed online more than 90 million times, by some calculations.

And the best offer she's gotten so far is to take her clothes off? Please, can somebody give this woman a record deal? Or a daytime talk show?

Not that she shouldn't consider the Kick Ass deal, so to speak, while she can.

Fame's fickle finger is already pointing toward a new "Britain's Got Talent" superstar, Shaheen Jafargholi. Like Boyle, he's lived most of his life with his mum and a cat. And he's probably as, uh, socially inexperienced as she is.

Difference being, he's only 12.

But he's got pipes, wowing the judges with his performance of the Jackson Five's "Who's Loving You."

In the doghouse

It's all porn, all the time in Tattleland today. But, please, this one's for a good cause. Penthouse Pet Mia Presley and about 70 magazine centerfolds and porn stars such as Ron Jeremy are doffing their duds to raise money for dog rescue efforts.

It being too late for them to cash in on their virginity, they'll host parties and sell autographed photos of themselves with their pets. Go to www.pornstars4pups.com to see some adorable photos of pups looking for good homes.

Oh, yeah, there are other pix there, too.

"Models love animals and most of us have warm hearts," Presley told FoxNews.com's Pop Tarts. "Everyone thinks we're divas but we're just nude models. We're high class, hard-working and giving sexy a smart voice."

And a remarkably melodious one, should Susan Boyle join the party.

Top down

Continuing today's theme (vacationing Howard Gensler, the things we do for you!) we turn once again to FoxNews.com for word that Lindsay Lohan, having burned through her serious-actress options and a lotta dough, is considering a star turn in a Las Vegas topless show.

That would be Spice Girl Mel B. and Kelly Monaco's "Peepshow." Lindsay attended the grand opening of the striptease extravaganza Saturday and apparently met with director Jerry Mitchell. Also in the premier audience were Charlie Sheen and wife Brooke Mueller, Chris Noth, Matthew Morrison, Perez Hilton and Donald Trump.

The show's designed to have rotating leads, and while Mel B. wants to stay on, Monaco doesn't.

"People forget that she [Lohan] is a 'triple threat,' " a source told FoxNews.com.

Well, we know she's had liaisons with boys and girls . . .

"She can act and sing and dance," said the source. "She feels that this would really revitalize her career and give her some serious theater cred."

Serious theater cred?

Maybe she should try "Britain's Got Talent."

Just folk

Daily News music writer Jonathan Takiff reports that while the area's other big folk fest (Appel Farm) is taking a year off, the Philadelphia Folk Festival is gearing up for another full weekend Aug. 14-16.

"We're focusing on newer faces with a folk sensibility, like the Low Anthem and an all-star L.A. collective called the Works Progress Administration [an eight-piece including members of Nickel Creek, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Toad the Wet Sprocket and Elvis Costello's Imposters]," talent booker Jesse Lundy announced yesterday. "And we're spending more on headliners than we ever have before."

Among the latter: Rebirth Jazz Band, the Del McCoury Band, Tony Trischka, Tom Rush, Sonny Landreth and two biggies "we can't announce until June 7th, after they've played other dates in the area." Hmmm, muses Jonathan, aren't the Decemberists in town on June 6? *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Tattle's Howard Gensler has the day off.




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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The army breached one of the last Tamil Tiger rebel fortifications yesterday and freed thousands of trapped civilians, some fleeing through the neck-high water of a lagoon while bleeding or carrying wounded relatives.
The government warned the rebels they had 24 hours to surrender or face a final assault to end a crumbling 25-year insurgency that sought to create a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils on this South Asian island.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa went on television to say that soldiers helped more than 35,000 civilians leave the battle zone in what he called the "largest-ever hostage rescue mission in history."

The Red Cross said its workers had tended to 4,000 people who crossed the front lines yesterday. Spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne said the organization was not in a position to "confirm or deny" the large number being quoted.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the civilians' escape but remained deeply concerned about thousands still trapped and "the potential for large-scale casualties," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in New York.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood called the humanitarian situation "dire" and asked both sides to "cease this violent activity."

The United Nations estimated 100,000 civilians were trapped in the zone where the rebels have been pinned down, an area that measures less than 8 square miles. U.N. officials say 4,500 noncombatants have been killed in the last three months amid fierce fighting during a government offensive that has driven the rebels from their strongholds.

The United Nations and others have called for a negotiated truce to allow civilians to leave.

But the government has rejected that, saying it is on the verge of crushing the rebels after an insurgency that caused 70,000 deaths since it began in 1983, fed by Tamil anger over decades of marginalization by the island's ethnic Sinhalese majority.

The military said the vast majority of those who fled yesterday - more than 25,000 - headed to an army-controlled area where they were being screened.



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The "Grey's Anatomy" cast has a future doctor in the making! Ellen Pompeo (aka Dr. Meredith Grey) is expecting her first child with music producer hubby Chris Ivery. No word yet on the due date, but Luxaholics found the perfect onesie for the little doctor-to-be! Makes you wonder: does this mean Meredith and McDreamy will be expecting as well?!















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Move over Osama bin Laden, because you have some terrifying competition from Daniel Andreas San Diego, who has become the first American to top the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list.

No, 31-year-old San Diego did not organize the mass murder of Americans, but he did bomb two California office buildings in 2003. Those buildings homed biotechnology firm Chiron Corp. and Shaklee Corp., a nutrition and cosmetics company, the Contra Costa Times reports. No one was injuried and the damage was minimal, but authorities are obviously concerned that San Diego, an animal rights activist, posed a clear and present danger to regular Americans.

It will be interesting to see how the announcement, which will likely be made today, will reverberate across the political world. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came under fire last week after the press reported on an internal document warning law enforcement agencies to beware of "right-wing extremists." San Diego’s politics definitely come from the left


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For the May issue of Interview magazine, Emma Watson was photographed by A-list photographer Nick Knight of ShowStudio who captured a side of Emma that Harry Potter fans aren't used to seeing. In the issue, she tells readers a little more about herself.

Emma Watson plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies and has been growing up before our eyes. She is now 19 years old and tells us a little more about life on the set of Harry Potter, living on her own for the first time, traveling and more. Here is an excerpt from the magazine:

Question: What was your first big splurge when the Potter money came in?

Emma: Hmm...I got myself a laptop. I took my dad to Tuscany. He works so hard, my dad, so I rang up his secretary and asked when he was free, and I booked us a holiday. What else? Oh, I got myself a car.

Emma: I got my license last year, and I love the Prius, even if my friends say it's ugly. They say I drive a brick. And, to be fair, it's not the prettiest car on the road, but it's good for the environment. It's sensible and boring-like me.

Question: Can you imagine that last day of shooting?

Emma: I can't. I will be . . . uncontrollable. It's been half of our lives. It's made us, it's formed us. It's such a big part of my life, so it will be really sad-and so much of the crew who have been there since the beginning are like my family.

For the full interview, pick up a copy of Interview magazine, on sale April 28




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The lone survivor of the Somali pirate crew that hijacked the Maersk Alabama arrived downtown Monday night, looking young, gaunt and clueless about the federal charges he faces.

Abduhl Wali-i-Musi is expected to be arraigned in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Tuesday morning. He arrived at 26 Federal Plaza in a driving rain, handcuffed and flanked by nearly a dozen FBI agents.

The youthful pirate held his head high atop his 5-foot-5 frame, and even smiled at photographers as he was hustled into the building.

"This hasn't happened for 100 years in the United States," said Michael Passman, a Chicago lawyer who has studied piracy law since his days at Brooklyn Law School.

Investigators have determined that Wali-i-Musi is at least 18 years old. That means prosecutors will not have to take extralegal steps to put him on trial in U.S. court.

His mother insists he is only 16, and she told The Associated Press "gangsters with money" coaxed her son into piracy.

"I appeal to President Obama to pardon my teenager," said Adar Abdirahman Hassan.

It's unclear what charges would be filed, but officials said he could face up to life in prison if convicted.

While his three cohorts held Capt. Richard Phillips hostage on a lifeboat, Wali-i-Musi was taken aboard a Navy ship. Some time later, Navy SEAL snipers killed the other pirates.

Piracy is one of the only crimes for which there is universal jurisdiction, Passman said. That means any country that captures a pirate can seek to prosecute them.

In 2006, the U.S. captured a Somali pirate, but the case was prosecuted in Kenya.

The difference for Wali-i-Musi is that he and his cohorts boarded a U.S. vessel more than 12 miles offshore in international waters.

Officials decided to try him in New York, partly because the Manhattan FBI office has handled cases in Africa involving crimes against Americans, including the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies.

Wali-i-Musi also may have trouble finding a lawyer familiar with piracy laws.

"Anyone who ever defended one of these cases has been dead for 100 years," Passman said.



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BOSTON – A medical student facing charges of murdering a masseuse he had lured to a hotel through Craigslist was linked to the slaying in part by surveillance video and computer evidence, authorities said.

Philip Markoff, 22, was due in court in Boston on Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of a New York woman at a luxury hotel in Boston on April 14 and the kidnapping and armed robbery of another masseuse April 10 who was tied up at another hotel.

Police say Markoff was the man seen on video surveillance using a hand-held texting device at hotels where the women were attacked.

But the stunned fiancee of the Boston University medical school student insists police have the wrong man and there is no way he could have done it.

"He could not hurt a fly," Megan McAllister said in an email to ABC's "Good Morning America. "All I have to say is Philip is a beautiful person, inside and out," she said in the email read on Tuesday's program.

Authorities say there could be more victims.

"Our top priority is holding Philip Markoff accountable. He's a predator," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said Monday night in announcing Markoff's arrest earlier in the day during a traffic stop south of Boston.

Conley said evidence from computer forensic experts and "old-fashioned shoe leather" linked Markoff to the two crimes. Conley's office refused any further comment Tuesday until after the arraignment, scheduled for noon.

Markoff's attorney, John Salsberg, did not immediately return a message left at his office on Tuesday morning.

An e-mail message sent to McAllister via her Facebook page was not immediately returned Tuesday. There was no published telephone listing for a Megan McAllister in the Boston area.

Michael Bernard, who lives in Markoff's building in Quincy, was shocked to recognize his neighbor on television reports of the killing.

"He was smart, he carried himself well, he was clean, a good looking guy," said Bernard, a retired electric company worker. "He seemed like the type that would have it all. It doesn't make sense."

Two of Markoff's neighbors told "Good Morning America" on Tuesday they were stunned by the accusations.

"I can't even put it into words, the disbelief I'm feeling right now," neighbor Jonathan Uva said. "This is a great guy ... Just a total disconnect from what we're hearing in the news."

Another neighbor, Mike Dye, told the show he had Markoff over to his apartment complex for parties including a Super Bowl party.

Dye said he seemed outgoing, but also rarely talked about himself.

Uva described "Just a nice, normal couple. I lived right next door to him, and I would never have expected this," Uva said. "We thought they were just regular guys ... just our neighbors, like anyone else."

Police on Monday arrested Markoff, of Quincy, during a traffic stop in Walpole, south of Boston, on charges of murder and unlawful possession of a firearm in the death of Julissa Brisman, 26, who was found dead at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The New York City woman advertised massage services on Craigslist and had a massage table set up in the room where she was shot, police said.

In addition, Markoff is charged with kidnapping and armed robbery days earlier at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston involving another woman who also advertised massage services on Craigslist.

Police said they had long suspected that Brisman's killer was connected to a robbery at the Westin.

Authorities believe Markoff also may be connected to the attempted robbery Thursday in Warwick, R.I., of a stripper who had posted an ad on Craigslist. She was held at gunpoint before her husband entered the room and her attacker fled.

Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney said investigators in Rhode Island are working with Massachusetts authorities.

"It is still believed that there is a strong connection between the Holiday Inn Express incident and the crimes that have been committed in the Boston jurisdiction," he said.

Authorities said Markoff is originally from upstate New York. A Facebook profile matching Markoff's identity, including his photograph, lists him as a 2007 graduate of State University of New York-Albany and in the 2011 class at BU.

A Boston University spokeswoman said Markoff was suspended from the medical school after his arrest


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WASHINGTON — In his first major speech as attorney general, Eric Holder tried to spur a conversation on race by bluntly describing America as "essentially a nation of cowards" and saying people "simply do not talk enough with each other about race."
Two months later, the issue of race is squarely before the Supreme Court, which begins hearing this week four cases that could dramatically alter the landscape of civil rights law. The cases also could provide a revealing look at how the administration of the nation's first African-American president will address racial matters before the Supreme Court, led by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.

The disputes come to the high court just months after the election of Barack Obama as president and the confirmation of Holder as the nation's first black attorney general. They also arise at a time when a majority of the nine justices have signaled they want to end government policies that favor racial minorities to remedy past bias or enhance diversity.

The cases encompass fundamental issues — voting rights, employment, housing and education — and will test the court's stance on civil rights more comprehensively than at any time in the past decade. Their outcomes will determine, for example, the Justice Department's authority to screen state election policies that might hurt minority candidates.

The justices also will examine the validity of tests that don't seem to discriminate against minorities, including written exams or strength requirements, but that end up disproportionately disqualifying minorities from jobs or promotions.



The new president is partly a reflection of the legacy of voting rights laws that help to ensure participation by minorities in the electoral process. And yet, his victory is fueling arguments before the Supreme Court that some voting rights protections aren't necessary anymore.

His "historic election … stands as a remarkable testament to the tremendous progress this country has made in terms of racial equality and voting," says the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation.

The foundation has signed one of six "friend of the court" briefs siding with a Texas utility district's challenge to Congress' 2006 renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The landmark law sought to end discrimination at the polls, in part by giving the U.S. Justice Department the power to oversee election laws in parts of the country with a history of bias.

Civil rights advocates, among the groups signing 18 such briefs on the other side, are battling any potential decrease in enforcement of federal civil rights laws, from those that protect voting rights to those that shield minorities from even indirect discrimination in the workplace.

"We still have a lot of work to do," says John Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, arguing the 2008 election that vaulted Obama to the presidency also included situations in which some black voters faced intimidation at the polls.

The Supreme Court has been deeply split over how to respond to racial disputes. Since the addition of Roberts in 2005 and Justice Samuel Alito in 2006, it has grown more resistant to policies intended to benefit minorities as a group.

Roberts wrote in a 2007 decision throwing out school integration plans in Seattle and the Louisville area that "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." The plans considered race in students' school assignments for district diversity.

A year earlier, in a voting-rights case, Roberts referred to "a sordid business, this divvying us up by race."

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a 1988 appointee of Ronald Reagan, has become the swing vote in this area. Kennedy generally opposes government policies that take account of an individual's race, either in the workplace or in schools. He has tried to chart a middle course. In 2007, he voted with the four more conservative justices to strike down school integration plans but objected to "an all-too-unyielding insistence that race cannot be a factor" in achieving diversity.

A measured approach

When Holder issued his call to arms on race in February as part of National Black History Month, he addressed recurring battles over race and broader realities of American life. He said blacks and whites still stick too much to their own, especially in their social lives. "(T)he year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago," he said. "This is truly sad."

Holder said discussions about race often disintegrate into finger-pointing and simplistic labels. "This debate can and should be nuanced, principled and spirited. But the conversation … is too often … left to those on the extremes who are not hesitant to use these issues to advance nothing more than their own, narrow self-interest."

His words — particularly his "nation of cowards" phrase — inspired a flood of political commentary on newspaper pages and cable TV.

Obama later told The New York Times: "I think it's fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language." Yet Obama said he agreed that people tend to shy from talking about race "until there's some sort of racial flare-up."

The administration's responses in the pending Supreme Court cases are more reflective of Obama's careful approach than the fiery rhetoric of Holder's speech.

An example is the administration's filing in a Connecticut case brought by 18 firefighters — 17 white and one Hispanic — who sued New Haven city officials for throwing out the results of a civil service exam for fire department promotions when blacks scored disproportionately low.

Justice Department lawyers say the city acted properly to avoid violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which restricts tests that don't appear to discriminate but have a disproportionate racial impact. Yet, the Justice Department also says the case should be sent back for more fact-finding. It says the white firefighters' claims that they were intentionally discriminated against when the results were thrown out were not fully aired in lower courts.

"They wrote a very careful brief," says Michael Rosman, general counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights, siding with the white firefighters. He predicts the administration will "take a case-by-case approach. They know the audience to whom they are speaking. They don't want to get slapped down by this Supreme Court."

Yale law professor Drew Days, a former U.S. solicitor general in the Clinton years and assistant attorney general for civil rights during the Carter administration, agrees the administration has tried to finesse its position in the firefighters' dispute, which could affect many public employers.

"There has been a kind of a push-back on the court with issues dealing with race," he adds. "But we have not dealt with all the problems that have to do with race, particularly in the electoral process." Days is one of seven former assistant attorneys general for civil rights from both Democratic and Republican administrations who urged the justices to uphold federal oversight on voting rights law.

'Reverse' discrimination

The two biggest race-related cases this term involve voting rights and claims of "reverse" discrimination:

• New Haven firefighters (to be heard Wednesday). No blacks and only two Hispanic applicants qualified for promotions based on their scores on exams that combined written and oral questions. The New Haven Civil Service Board, fearing bias lawsuits, set aside the test results and canceled the promotions.

Frank Ricci, the white lead challenger in the firefighters' lawsuit, says in court filings that he overcame dyslexia and paid to convert study materials to audio recordings to prepare for the test. His lawyers say canceling the promotions because of how blacks fared amounts to "overt racial balancing, de facto quotas and blunt race politics in government hiring."

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and other city officials say they wanted to avoid claims of indirect discrimination against minorities.

• Voting rights (to be heard April 29). This case arises from Congress' 2006 extension of the Voting Rights Act. A provision requires nine mostly Southern states with a history of voting bias to get Justice Department approval when they change election-related laws. President George W. Bush signed the law, and his administration defended it before a lower court, which upheld it.

The Texas challengers, citing Obama's election, claim in their brief that the nation has changed so dramatically since 1965 that Congress lacks the authority to require the Justice Department's involvement in state and local elections. If individual voters do face bias, the challengers say, they can sue. "Such voting discrimination as remains is isolated in time and place," they say.

Justice Department lawyers say congressional hearings before the law's passage showed ongoing discrimination against minority voters. In one 2000 incident related at the hearings, a campaign worker for a black candidate in Wharton County, Texas, had her home set on fire.

The other two related cases involve English instruction in Arizona border schools (which the court heard Monday) and lending practices for home mortgages (to be heard April 28).

The English case from Nogales, Ariz., tests how far federal judges can go in directing state spending to public schools that might not be giving enough help to students who don't speak English. The Obama administration is siding with the students and their families who want the Supreme Court to uphold federal judges' authority in this dispute. In oral arguments Monday, the justices appeared closely divided over how far judges can go.

In the fair-lending dispute, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that banks in his state offered more high-interest loans to African-American and Hispanic borrowers than to whites. Cuomo sought more information from the banks, but the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and a consortium of national banks sued, saying federal regulators have exclusive authority to look into and regulate lending activities.

The justices' combined rulings in these cases could recast federal civil rights law.

Kennedy is key

Of the nine Supreme Court justices, four have made clear they believe there is still a need for government policies that take race into account: John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. The four dissented in 2007 when the majority rejected school integration plans, saying the promise of Brown v. Board of Education to end segregation in public schools had been betrayed.

"It is my firm conviction that no member of the court I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today's decision," Stevens, the most senior of the liberal justices, wrote at the time.

The four justices who most consistently oppose government policies that consider race are Roberts, Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. The latter two are most forceful in rejecting any group-based remedies for race discrimination.

Thomas, currently the only African American on the court, repeatedly has emphasized the stigma of programs intended to benefit blacks as a group, finding them as pernicious as Jim Crow laws. "If our history has taught us anything, it has taught us to beware of elites bearing racial theories," he wrote in the 2007 school case.

In the new disputes, Kennedy's pivotal vote could lead to the kind of incremental moves he has embraced in the past rather than an end to race-based programs.

"I'm not sure they're ready to make a big turn," says Rosman, of the Center for Individual Rights, which generally opposes racial policies, "because a big turn would rely on Kennedy. But I don't think he's ready to join Justice Thomas' club."


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After eight years in the political wilderness, civil libertarians didn't have to wait long for President Barack Obama to make them feel at home again. Within just one full day in office, the new President issued a blistering array of orders reversing the policies of George W. Bush — on harsh interrogation techniques, on access to government information and on Guantánamo, which he announced he would close. "A giant step forward," hailed Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Since then, however, the civil-liberties community has started to wonder if its celebration was premature. Though most still remain cautiously optimistic about the White House's leanings, they have watched with concern as the Obama Administration has filed papers in several court cases suggesting that it will side with the Bush Administration on key issues dealing with terror detainees, warrantless wiretapping and national security secrets. (Read "Taking the Bush Anti-Terror Legacy to Court.")

In three separate ongoing cases, the Obama Justice Department has invoked the so-called "state secrets" privilege, arguing that litigation cannot go forward because it would reveal classified information, a tactic of his predecessor's that Obama had no problem criticizing during the campaign. At the same time, Obama's advisers have declined to answer questions about whether or not they will support legislation, which was once supported by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, to give judges a greater ability to limit the use of the state-secrets privilege as a courtroom tactic. "It's disappointing that the Administration is throwing up the same legal argument," says Caroline Frederickson, the ACLU's top lobbyist.

In another case causing concern within the civil rights world, the Obama Administration has appealed the ruling of Federal District Judge John Bates that three detainees — two Yemenis and a Tunisian — who are being held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan have a legal right to challenge their imprisonment. If successful, the argument by Obama's Justice Department attorneys could create a loophole that would allow Obama to transfer prisoners to war zones for indefinite detention, a situation similar to the legal limbo that Bush established for Guantánamo.

Some civil rights lobbyists remain optimistic that the positions Justice Department lawyers have taken are little more than courtroom maneuvers that don't necessarily reflect the policy plans of the Administration. "The lawyers tend to approach every issue in terms of preserving maximum flexibility for the President," explained Elisa Massimino, a lobbyist at Human Rights First, who has been deeply involved in detainee issues. Nonetheless, she says she remains concerned. "Every Administration believes it is immune to the phenomenon of executive power creep," she added.

As it stands, the Obama Administration policies on these matters are still very much a work in progress. Several key policy posts at the Justice Department, including the crucial top position at the Office of Legal Counsel, have yet to be confirmed. The Obama Administration also continues to meet with civil libertarians to discuss these issues. The latest, a private gathering that took place on Friday, involved several civil-liberties groups that had spoken with the Obama transition office about the state-secrets issue late last year.

In the meantime, the White House's public comments on these issues have remained noticeably vague. Last week, before announcing the release of once classified interrogation-technique memos and reaffirming his opposition to prosecuting CIA agents for any harsh methods, Obama issued a statement saying he was determined to "protect information that is classified for purposes of national security." During an appearance at the CIA on Monday, Obama declared, "I have fought to protect the integrity of classified information in the past and I will do so in the future."

Two weeks earlier, however, Attorney General Eric Holder told CBS News that his agency was still reviewing the Bush Administration's use of state secrets as an argument to prevent litigation. He said that the Justice Department was considering reversing the citing of state secrets in one of the three cases that had been reviewed so far, though he did not describe which case. Last Wednesday, during a speech at West Point, Holder strongly condemned the behavior of the Bush Administration. "We must once again chart a course rooted in the rule of law and grounded in both the powers and the limitations it provides," he said.

Just what such statements mean in practice may not be known for months. After the initial flurry of executive orders, Obama delegated several areas of Administration policy to task forces for further study, including groups that are examining military detention policy, the closing of Guantánamo and the possibility of creating a new standard for CIA interrogation methods.

At the same time, the Department will soon face an entirely new array of issues that could create tensions with civil libertarians. Three key provisions of the controversial Patriot Act are set to expire at the end of this year, dealing with the government's ability to monitor the movements of so-called "lone wolves" (suspects who are not tied to a particular organization), handle roving wiretaps and obtain records with minimum court supervision. Congressional Democrats are also likely to push for a review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's use of so-called "national security letters," which allow the bureau to get information from private organizations without court supervision. And there is mounting concern about the National Security Agency's use of its spying powers on Americans. Just last week, the New York Times revealed that the agency had attempted earlier this decade to eavesdrop without a warrant on a member of Congress traveling overseas. Obama, who has frustrated some civil-liberties advocates with his stated preference to focus on the future rather than the past, is also likely to face continuing pressure from Congress to cooperate with investigations of CIA rendition, detention and interrogation programs.

With so many issues coming down the pike, activists say they continue to hold out hope that the recent Obama positions in court cases will prove to be an aberration that has more to do with courtroom maneuvering than governing philosophy. "That is my optimistic view," explains Frederickson of the ACLU. "And it could be proved wrong

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WASHINGTON – For the first time, an accused domestic terrorist is being added to the FBI's list of "Most Wanted" terror suspects.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California.

Authorities describe San Diego as an animal rights activist who turned to bomb attacks and say he has tattoo that proclaims, "It only takes a spark."

A law enforcement official said the FBI was to announce Tuesday that San Diego was being added to the "Most Wanted" terrorist list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the announcement ahead of time.

San Diego would be the 24th person on the list, and the only domestic terror suspect.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko declined to comment on the pending announcement.

The move to add a domestic, left-wing terrorist to the list comes only days after the Obama administration was criticized for internal reports suggesting some military veterans could be susceptible to right-wing extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans groups.

An arrest warrant was issued for San Diego after the 2003 bombings in northern California of the corporate offices of Chiron Corp., a biotechnology firm, and at Shaklee Corp., a nutrition and cosmetics company. The explosions caused minor damages and no injuries.

A group calling itself "Revolutionary Cells" took responsibility for the blasts, telling followers in a series of e-mails that Chiron and Shaklee had been targeted for their ties to a research company that conducted drug and chemical experiments on animals.

Officials have offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his capture, five times the reward amounts offered for other so-called eco-terrorists wanted in the U.S.

In February, the FBI announced San Diego may be living in Costa Rica, possibly working with Americans or people who speak English in the Central American country.

Law enforcement officials describe San Diego as a strict vegan who possesses a 9mm handgun. On his abdomen, he has images of burning and collapsing buildings.

The FBI's "Most Wanted" terrorist list is distinct from the much longer-running "Ten Most Wanted" list. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is on both.

There is another American already on the list, but he is wanted for his work overseas for al-Qaida. Adam Yahiye Gadahn grew up in California but moved to Pakistan and works as a translator and consultant to al-Qaida.



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THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The Dutch foreign minister announced Sunday he is boycotting a U.N. anti-racism conference because some nations are using it as a platform to attack the West.

The Obama administration has also said it would not attend the meeting scheduled to start Monday in Geneva.

There are fears in the West that the meeting will be marred by heated debate over Israel that cast a shadow over the last such anti-racism conference eight years ago in the South African city of Durban, especially as Iran's hardline president — who has called for Israel's destruction — is to attend.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said in a strongly worded statement that a proposed closing declaration for the April 20-25 meeting was "unacceptable."

In recent weeks, Dutch diplomats had worked feverishly behind the scenes to try to salvage a final statement that would be acceptable to all nations, proposing a number of alternative texts.

But Verhagen described negotiations over the declaration as "grim" and said Western nations were subjected to political attacks.

"The anti-racism conference is too important to abuse for political goals and attacks on the West," he said. "The Netherlands will not be a part of it."

Verhagen said some countries were planning to use the summit to put religion above human rights and rein in freedom of speech.

The U.S. pulled out of the conference "with regret" Saturday citing similar reasons, saying Israel could be singled out for criticism.

The U.S. and Israel walked out of the Durban meeting in 2001.

Verhagen said his boycott would in no way diminish Dutch commitments to fight all kinds of racism and discrimination around the world.





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COLUMBIANA, Ala. – Five men dead in an apartment.

In a county that might see five homicides in an entire year, the call over the sheriff's radio revealed little about what awaited law enforcement at a sprawling apartment complex.

A type of crime, and criminal, once foreign to this landscape of blooming dogwoods had arrived in Shelby County. Sheriff Chris Curry felt it even before he laid eyes on the grisly scene. He called the state. The FBI. The DEA. Anyone he could think of.

"I don't know what I've got," he warned them. "But I'm gonna need help."

The five dead men lay scattered about the living room of one apartment in a complex of hundreds.

Some of the men showed signs of torture: Burns seared into their earlobes revealed where modified jumper cables had been clamped as an improvised electrocution device. Adhesive from duct tape used to bind the victims still clung to wrists and faces, from mouths to noses.

As a final touch, throats were slashed open, post-mortem.

It didn't take long for Curry and federal agents to piece together clues: A murder scene, clean save for the crimson-turned-brown stains now spotting the carpet. Just a couple of mattresses tossed on the floor. It was a typical stash house.

But the cut throats? Some sort of ghastly warning.

Curry would soon find this was a retaliation hit over drug money with ties to Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel.

Curry also found out firsthand what federal drug enforcement agents have long understood. The drug war, with the savagery it brings, knows no bounds. It had landed in his back yard, in the foothills of the Appalachians, in Alabama's wealthiest county, around the corner from The Home Depot.

One thousand, twenty-four miles from the Mexico border.

___

Forget for a moment the phrase itself — "War on Drugs" — much-derided since President Richard Nixon coined it. Wars eventually end, after all. And many Americans wonder today, nearly four decades later, will this one ever be won?

In Mexico, the fight has become a real war. Some 45,000 Mexican army troops now patrol territories long ruled by narcotraffickers. Places like Tijuana, in the border state of Baja California. Reynosa, across the Rio Grande from Texas. Ciudad Juarez, next door to El Paso. But also the central state of Michoacan and resort cities like Acapulco, an hour south of the place where, months ago, the decapitated bodies of 12 soldiers were discovered with a sign that read:

"For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10."

Some 10,560 people have been killed since 2006, the year Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office and launched his campaign against the organized crime gangs that move cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin to a vast U.S. market. Consider that fewer than 4,300 American service members have died in the six-year war in Iraq.

The cartels are fighting each other for power, and the Calderon administration for their very survival. Never before has a Mexican president gone after these narco-networks with such force.

"He has deployed troops. He has deployed national police. He's trying to vet and create units ... that can effectively adjudicate and turn back the years of corruption," says John Walters, who directed the Office of National Drug Control Policy for seven years under President George W. Bush. "These groups got more powerful, and when there was less visible destruction, it was because they were in control; they were stable. Now, he has destabilized them."

Walters sees this as an "opportunity to change — for better, or worse — the history of our two countries fundamentally."

And now the cartels have brought the fight to us: In 230 U.S. cities, the Mexican organizations maintain distribution hubs or supply drugs to local distributors, according to the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center.

Places like Miami and other longtime transportation points along the California, Arizona and Texas borders. But also Twin Falls, Idaho. Billings, Mont. Wichita, Kan. Phoenix. St. Louis. Milwaukee.

Even Shelby County.

The quintuple homicide occurred just outside the Birmingham city limits and a half-hour's drive north of Columbiana, the county seat.

"We became a hub without knowing it," Sheriff Curry says. "We've got to wake people up because we're seeing it all over the place. It is now firmly located throughout this country."

The talk of the day is "spillover" violence — at once the stuff of sensationalism but also a very real concept.

In Phoenix, the nation's fifth-largest city, police report close to 1,000 kidnappings over the past three years tied to border smuggling, be it human or drugs or both. The rise parallels a shift in illegal immigrant crossings from California and Texas to the Arizona border, where many of the same gangs transporting people transport drugs. The perpetrators are often after ransom money, for a drug load lost or from a family that paid to have a relative brought over.

The problem has earned the city the unfortunate distinction of "America's kidnapping capital" in some media accounts, even though the incidents are mostly out of sight and out of mind for law-abiding residents and overall crime, including homicides, was down last year.

In Atlanta, which has grown into a major distribution hub for the Gulf Cartel, trafficker-on-trafficker violence has become more common as the cartels, in the face of Calderon's crackdown, impose tighter payment schedules and grow less tolerant of extending credit, says Rodney Benson, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration there.

Benson blames that, in part, for the much-publicized kidnapping last summer in the middle-class Atlanta suburb of Lilburn, not far from Stone Mountain Park. Acting on a tip, agents found a Dominican man chained to a wall in the basement of a house, severely dehydrated and badly beaten. He had been lured from Rhode Island because he apparently owed $300,000 in drug debts.

"Money wasn't paid," Benson says. "They were going to kill him."

Greg Borland heads the DEA office in Birmingham. Since the murders last August, he's seen the fear in his neighbors' eyes, and faced their questions: How did this happen? Why here? Why now?

"They're absolutely shocked. To me it's like: Why? It's everywhere. Unless you have a 50-foot wall around your town, no one should feel immune from this. The citizen in me says, `I can't believe this is happening in my town.' But the cop in me says, `Well, it's only a matter of time' ... because there are high-level drug traffickers in the area.

"Maybe," he says, "it was only by the grace of God that it hadn't happened already."

Those in the know understand that this kind of violence is nothing new. In border communities that have long been trafficking hubs it's uncommon not to hear of a drug-related crime on the evening news.

What's new is where that violence is erupting, where distribution cells and hubs and sub-hubs have surfaced. How an apartment in Alabama became the site of a drug hit in many ways tells the story of the narco-trade in America in 2009, and of the challenges we face in combatting a blight that has spread to big cities and small all across the land.

___

Before Aug. 20, 2008, when the five men were found, the assumption had been that the big drug hauls were passing through Shelby County and on to cities with larger markets.

Alabama had long had its share of street dealers. Homegrown pot passed hands. Then powder cocaine and crack. Soon meth labs cropped up here and there. "Just a local issue," says Curry.

"There weren't really any traffickers in our county. But over time it's escalated into a sophisticated transportation structure that moves marijuana, moves powder cocaine and now moves crystal meth."

First came the rise of the Mexican cartel, brought about in the late '80s and early '90s after authorities cracked down on Colombian traffickers and choked off routes along the Caribbean and in South Florida. The Colombians aligned with the Mexicans for transportation, then began paying their Mexican subcontractors in cocaine.

As more Colombian traffickers were brought down, the Mexicans took over both transportation and distribution. A decade ago, 60 percent of the cocaine entering the United States came through Mexico. Today that figure is 90 percent.

Texas and other border states become primary distribution hubs. Greg Bowden, who heads the FBI's violent crime task force in Birmingham, worked four years in the Texas border city of Brownsville. He remembers cases involving Alabama dealers who would fly into Houston, rent a car, pick up loads at a warehouse or mall parking lot and drive back home.

"(Distributors) felt comfortable in Texas. That was their home base, and has been for a long time. Now," says Bowden, "they're comfortable here, in Memphis, in Atlanta. They moved their home bases to these little pockets."

One reason for that shift is the ability these days to "blend in in plain sight," as the Atlanta DEA chief puts it. The flood of Hispanic immigrants into American communities to work construction and plant jobs helped provide cover for traffickers looking to expand into new markets or build hubs in quiet suburbs with fewer law officers than the big cities.

Shelby has long been Alabama's fastest-growing county, with its proximity to Birmingham, good schools and a growing corporate corridor along Highway 280. The number of Hispanics grew 126 percent from 2000 to 2007. It was once rare to see a Latino face at the local Wal-Mart or gas station. Now, dozens upon dozens of Hispanic day laborers line Lorna Road in the northern part of the county.

As Bowden says, "You don't stand out."

But there is another reason this area, and others, have become what some agents call "sub-hubs."

With some 4.9 million trucks crossing into the United States from Mexico every year, tractor-trailers have become a transportation mode of choice among traffickers. Drugs head north, but weapons and cash also head back south — like the $400,000 Border Patrol agents found on April 2 near Las Cruces, N.M., stashed in the refrigeration unit of a semi.

Shelby County is a trucking mecca, with highways 65, 20, 59 and 459 running east to Atlanta, north to Nashville, south to New Orleans, west to Dallas. Once reluctant to haul drug shipments too far beyond a border state, drivers are willing to take more chances now, because there are so many trucks on the road, Bowden says.

Since January, 27 people were sentenced in Alabama federal court in just one case for using tractor-trailers to transport cocaine and marijuana from Mexico across the border to Brownsville, then up through Birmingham on I-65 to northern Alabama for distribution. Investigators seized 77 pounds of cocaine during the investigation — more than the DEA seized in the entire state of Alabama in all of 1999. The scheme, according to an indictment, had operated since 2004.

Amid all of this, an operation moved into Shelby County, leading to the call on Aug. 20.

A simple welfare check brought deputies to the Cahaba Lakes Apartments off Highway 280, down the road from upscale Vestavia Hills, whose motto is "A Better Place to Live."

The victims were Hispanic, all illegal immigrants. Interviews with family members and associates helped investigators piece together a sketchy portrait of what happened.

Agents described it as friendly competition turned deadly among a group of distributors from Atlanta and Birmingham that often sold and shared drug loads when one or the other group was running low. At some point, about a half-million in drug money went missing. One group suspected the other of taking it, and went after the five men at Cahaba Lakes.

The money was never found.

Whether an order came directly from Mexico, or the decision was made down the food chain, investigators don't know.

The DEA's Borland notes that making a direct connection between the street level distributors charged in the killing and a specific cartel boss back in Mexico isn't easy in a business with so many players at various levels.

"We don't have canceled checks of their dues payments to the cartels. But we know that they were moving large quantities of drugs, which are probably brought in here under the supervision of the Gulf Cartel, because the Gulf Cartel is the dominant one here," he says.

"That money was supposed to be moving ... and it disappeared. So the attempt was to locate where was the money and who took it?" Curry says. "It was a contract hit, ordered to be carried out and paid for."

Since then, Curry has pushed aside concerns about resources and assigned one deputy to a DEA task force, another to work with the FBI. At the behest of the Department of Homeland Security, he joined in a conference call with police chiefs and sheriffs in border states to discuss what he now calls "a common problem."

And he answers, as candidly as possible, his citizens' questions when they ask him about this "new" threat.

"People want to have a comfort zone, and if they have to confront the realities of how rough life really is, that doesn't sit well," he says. "It scares them. And they don't want to be scared. South of our border: gunfights, violence — it is a normal, accepted, expected behavior. That has now moved into our borders."

___

Ask just about any DEA agent or expert who keeps a close watch on drug trafficking, and they'll cringe at the use of the word "war." They'll tell you, flat out, that no, it's not likely ever to be won. Just as there will always be robberies and rapes and homicides, there will always be narcotrafficking.

So they take their victories where they can. And there have been victories.

Heads of cartels have been toppled. Juan Garcia Abrego, former chief of the Gulf Cartel and once on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, is serving 11 life terms in a Colorado federal prison after his 1996 arrest in Mexico and extradition to the United States. His successor, Osiel Cardenas, awaits trial in Houston after his 2007 extradition from Mexico.

These handovers have become almost routine under Calderon, who reversed long-standing practice and allowed more Mexicans to be tried in the United States. Last year, he extradited a record 95 wanted criminals, including several high-ranking members of the Tijuana-based Arrellano-Felix cartel.

In February, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the arrest of more than 750 people as part of "Operation Xcellerator," which targeted Mexico's most powerful drug organization, the Sinaloa Cartel. Another 175 were arrested last fall as part of "Project Reckoning," an investigation into the Gulf Cartel.

President Barack Obama has promised to dispatch hundreds of additional agents to the border, along with more gear and drug-sniffing dogs. "If the steps that we've taken do not get the job done," he said, "then we will do more."

"More" may well come in the form of more direct aid to Mexico. In her first visit to Mexico as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton said the White House would seek $80 million to help Mexico buy Blackhawk helicopters. That's on top of a $1.3 billion Bush-era initiative providing drug-fighting aircraft and equipment to Mexico over the next three years.

But the answer to this problem is as complex as the problem itself. Enforcement, money and equipment alone aren't enough. In Mexico, the challenges run deep as corruption has infected almost every level of government. Here, the true remedy is just as daunting: Curbing the appetite that fuels all of this.

"We are still throwing the cops at a problem that is well beyond that," says George Friedman, who heads the global intelligence firm Stratfor. "It is a major geopolitical problem. We've been moving into a situation where the Mexican government is no longer the most powerful force in Mexico.

"It's a mess, not a war," says Friedman.

Many months after the Shelby County case, the Alabama sheriff still grapples with the ugly reality of what the mess means for him and his community.

He had his own victory, of sorts. Arrests were swift, and six suspects now are held without bond in the Shelby County Jail charged with capital murder. One owned a tire shop, another was a barber — more evidence to authorities of how bad guys can blend in.

Still, it is a victory without call for celebration, because Curry wonders when and where it will happen again.

"This is not an isolated incident. It is a standard business practice with this group of people, and it is simply going to be repeated," he says. "I can't predict whether it's going to be repeated here or not, but it's going to be repeated in communities throughout the United States whenever these disagreements occur."



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HOUSTON – Five Houston children died Saturday after their sedan slid into a rain-swollen ditch when the driver lost control while trying to answer a cell phone, authorities said.

John Cannon, a Houston police spokesman, told several Houston television stations that the driver of the car was the father of four of the dead children, all 7 or younger. Cannon said the driver was taken for blood-alcohol testing.

The father was among two adults and a 10-year-old girl who escaped the fast-moving current that swept the car 100 feet from where it left the road and made the vehicle inaccessible to emergency workers for hours, Cannon said.

Houston television station KTRK reported that police said the dead children included 1- and 3-year-old girls and three boys, ages 4, 6 and 7.

Cannon said a passenger told police the driver's cell phone rang, and the driver lost control when he tried to answer it.

Houston Fire Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said in the online edition of the Houston Chronicle that rescue workers found the car in 9 feet of water about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 1/2 hours after the driver lost control.

The children's deaths brought the weekend death toll to six from massive storms that swept across southeast Texas.

A 76-year-old Fayette County man died Friday after his car got stuck in a flooded underpass in Schulenburg, midway between Houston and San Antonio. Frank Floyd, 76, of Hallettsville, drowned after he and his wife became trapped after driving into a flooded railroad underpass on U.S. 77, said Schulenburg Police Chief Randy Mican.

"It filled up with water pretty quick and the water kept rising," said Mican, who estimated the water depth reached 8 to 9 feet. "It's not common to flood that much."

Floyd's wife, Mary, 72, managed to escape and was taken to a hospital. Her injuries were not believed life-threatening, the chief said.

By 5 p.m. Saturday, nearly 5 inches of rain had fallen at Houston's Hobby Airport, a record for April 18.

The initial leg of an annual 150-mile charity bike ride involving more than 13,000 cyclists raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society was washed out Saturday by the second consecutive day of heavy rain.

The 25th annual MS 150 had been scheduled for Houston to La Grange. It was scrapped after Friday's torrential downpours flooded the Fayette County Fairgrounds, where tents were set up for overnight accommodations for participants. Saturday's continuing rains made riding treacherous.

"The safety of our participants and volunteers is the first priority," the Lone Star Chapter of the National MS Society said in a statement.

Organizers of one of the nation's largest such events hoped clearing weather forecast for Sunday would allow for the second half of the ride from La Grange to Austin.

It was the wettest April 17 on record in College Station, where 2.94 inches of rain Friday broke a mark set 30 years ago when 1.68 inches fell. Houston also set a record for the most rain for the day, with the 1.9 inches topping the old mark of 1.85 in 1992.

At least 10 inches of rain fell Friday in Colorado County, about 70 miles west of Houston, closing some roads. Hail measuring 1.75 inches in diameter was reported Friday night in Laredo, along with some street flooding in Zapata County in the Rio Grande Valley.

More heavy rain fell Saturday, and nearly all of East Texas and portions of South Texas were under some kind of threatening weather advisory with tornado warnings and watches and flash flood warnings and watches in place.

U.S. 87 south of Cuero, about 80 miles southeast of San Antonio, was closed by a flash flood Saturday. A tornado was spotted in a rural area near Marquez, about 60 miles southeast of Waco. Firefighters reported a barn was toppled by high winds near Rosebud in Milam County, about 35 miles southeast of Waco.

In Robertson County, between College Station and Waco, authorities said a possible tornado during a thunderstorm Saturday morning downed trees and power lines and left some windows broken in Franklin, the county seat.



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NAIROBI, Kenya – NATO forces rescued 20 fishermen from pirates who launched the latest attack in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, but let the Somali hijackers go because they had no authority to arrest them.

The release underscored the difficulties of stopping the skyrocketing piracy scourge in the Horn of Africa, where sea bandits also seized a Belgian-flagged ship carrying 10 foreign crew near the Seychelles islands and started hauling it toward Somalia.

"There isn't a silver bullet" to solve the problem, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at London-based think-tank Chatham House. He said it's common for patrolling warships to disarm then free brigands because they have rarely have jurisdiction to try them.

Pirate attacks have increased in recent weeks, with fishermen-turned-gunmen from Somalia searching for targets further out to sea as ships try to avoid the anarchic, clan-ruled nation.

Pirates have attacked more than 80 boats this year alone, nearly four times the number assaulted in 2003, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau. They now hold at least 18 ships and over 310 crew hostage, according to an Associated Press count.

The first attack Saturday occurred in the pre-dawn darkness, when pirates hijacked the Belgian-flagged Pompei a few hundred miles (kilometers) north of the Seychelles, said Portuguese Lt. Cmdr. Alexandre Santos Fernandes, who is traveling with a NATO fleet patrolling further north in the Gulf of Aden.

Belgium officials said the ship sounded three alarms indicating it was under attack as it headed toward the palm-fringed islands, a high-end tourist destination, with a cargo of concrete and stones. The dredging ship had 10 crew: two Belgians, one Dutch, three Filipinos and four Croatians, Fernandes said.

As pirates steered the ship slowly northwest toward Somalia, 430 miles (700 kilometers) away, a Spanish military ship, a French frigate and a French scout ship all steamed toward the area to try to intercept it.

In Brussels, government officials held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation and possible intervention.

"There is no contact with the pirates, not with the crew, not with any other parties," Jaak Raes, director general of the Belgian Crisis Center, told reporters. "We are sure that the ship now is heading to the coast of Somalia."

In a second attack later Saturday, pirates on a small white skiff fired small arms and rockets at a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker. Fernandes said the ship, the Handytankers Magic, issued a distress call shortly after dawn but escaped the pirates using "speed and maneuvers."

The attack occurred in the Gulf of Aden, a vital short cut between Europe and Asia and one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

A Dutch frigate from the NATO force responded immediately to the distress call and trailed the pirates to a Yemeni-flagged fishing dhow the brigands had seized Thursday, Fernandes said.

The bandits were using the Yemeni vessel as a "mother ship," a larger vessel that allows the pirates' tiny motorboats to hitch rides hundreds of kilometers (miles) off Somali coast, greatly expanding their range.

The pirates climbed into the dhow and Dutch marine commandos followed soon after, freeing 20 fishermen whose nationalities were not known. Fernandes said there was no exchange of fire and Dutch forces seized seven automatic weapons and one rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Seven Somali pirates were briefly detained, but they were soon released because "NATO does not have any detainment policy," Fernandes said. Another reason the pirates could not be arrested: they were seized by Dutch nationals and the pirates, the victims and the ship were not Dutch, he said.

Middleton, the U.K.-based piracy expert, said NATO sees its "main role as deterring and disrupting pirate activity" — not prosecuting brigands.

Pirates plucked from the sea by foreign militaries are being tried abroad. French soldiers take pirates who have attacked French citizens to Paris; pirates who have attacked other nations are hauled to Kenya, such as the 11 seized Wednesday when the French navy found them stalking a Lebanese-owned ship. India took 24 suspects to Yemen, since half were from there. The Dutch took five suspects to Rotterdam, where they probably will be tried next month under a 17th-century law against "sea robbery."

And Wal-i-Musi, the Somali teen who was one of four pirates who tried to hijack the Maersk Alabama this month, will be sent to New York to face trial. The three other pirates with Wal-i-Musi were shot dead by U.S. Navy snipers who freed the ship's 53-year-old captain, Richard Phillips, in a dramatic rescue a week ago.

But prosecutions are rare.

The vast majority of detained pirates are set free to wreak havoc again because of legal barriers to prosecuting them. It can be difficult or impossible for prosecutors to assemble witnesses scattered across the globe and find translators. Many countries are wary of hauling in pirates for trial for fear of being saddled with them after they serve their prison terms.

And pirates have little incentive to stop: each ransom paid is worth millions of dollars.

"When you weigh up the benefits — the huge money they can make — against the risks, the benefits are still worth it," Middleton said.

AccuWeather.com says weather in the region also is likely to favor the pirates for the next several weeks.

Very small waves and light winds are making it easier for them to operate the small speedboats they use to attack ships. Unrestricted daytime visibility is helping lookouts on vessels watching for attacks, the weather service said.

Many Somali pirates began their careers guarding their lawless and ill-defended shores against foreign trawlers that took advantage of Somalia's relentless civil war to illegally fish its waters. Foreign ships poached valuable fish stocks, wiped out lobster populations and devastated the livelihoods of countless fishermen.

The international community did nothing, and fishermen, backed by wealthy warlords and Somali businessmen living abroad, evolved into pirates after they discovered taking hostages was so fruitful.

"Piracy has definitely pushed Somalia up the agenda to a place where it probably should have been 12 or 15 years ago," Middleton said. "People are beginning to see the consequences of letting the country get into such a mess."

___



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By Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 18, 2009

The tween girls of the Washington area have transcended differences of race, class and wealth to reach a single, resounding conclusion: They really, really, really, really want to be friends with Malia and Sasha Obama.

They lap up every shred of information about the first daughters, dream about meeting them and strategize ways to make it happen. Minivan rides and dinner table conversations are dominated by questions about the girls: What's their favorite food? What kind of dog did they get? Where can I get a coat like Malia's?

"Sometimes I go up to my room and I just think, 'I want to meet them, I want to meet them, I want to meet them,' " says a desperate Sophie Metee, a fourth-grader at Wood Acres Elementary in Bethesda.

Her mom, Kathy Lindert, just sighs: "Oh, Sophie."

Lindert has entertained hours of speculation on everything "Obama girls" -- what their bedrooms look like, if they like Ledo Pizza and whether they put whoopee cushions on the seats of visiting dignitaries. And this week there was the arrival of the Obamas' Portuguese water dog, Bo.

"All day long we've been looking at pictures of the dog," Lindert said Wednesday, the day after Bo was introduced to the world at the White House.

In poster-strewn bedrooms around the Beltway, other daughters have been doing the same thing. It struck Lindert as strange at first, but she knows her daughter's fixation isn't much different from that of adults across the region who earnestly hope that Barack and Michelle Obama will somehow land at their church or neighborhood dinner party.

Maya Catoe, a sixth-grader from Temple Hills, imagines a friendship blooming through the Girl Scouts.

Maya Laws, from Fort Washington, would rather meet Malia than Miley Cyrus and sleeps with a framed photo of the Obama family in her bedroom.


And Caprice Humphries, a fifth-grader at Beers Elementary in Southeast Washington, writes poems in honor of Sasha and Malia. "Malia inspires me to be proud of myself," starts a verse titled "My Inspiration."

Tween girls are expert obsessors, of course, and psychologists say this is a perfect storm to set their minds spinning. The Obama girls are hugely famous in a media-suffused culture that values nothing more than fame. They are adorable and touched with the glittering sheen that envelops their entire family, and yet, as Sophie Metee says, they still seem "like normal kids."

At the start of adolescence, almost all girls start "looking for role models outside of their own families," explains psychologist Michael Brody of Potomac. "Whether it's in terms of friendships or teachers or in terms of identification with certain celebrities -- which these kids are -- and a certain lifestyle, like living in the White House. It's a tremendous fantasy




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President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday, listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even reaching out to Venezuela's leftist leader.

While he worked to ease friction between the U.S. and their countries, Obama cautioned leaders at the Summit of the Americas to resist a temptation to blame all their problems on their behemoth neighbor to the north.

"I have a lot to learn and I very much look forward to listening and figuring out how we can work together more effectively," Obama said.

Obama said he was ready to accept Cuban President Raul Castro's proposal of talks on issues once off-limits for Cuba, including political prisoners held by the communist government.

While praising America's initial effort to thaw relations with Havana, the leaders pushed the U.S. to go further and lift the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

To Latin American nations reeling from a sudden plunge in exports, Obama promised a new hemispheric growth fund, an initiative to increase Caribbean security and a partnership to develop alternative energy sources and fight global warming.

As the first full day of meetings began on the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago Saturday, Obama exchanged handshakes and pats on the back with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who once likened Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, to the devil.

In front of photographers, Chavez gave Obama a copy of "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent," a book by Eduardo Galeano that chronicles U.S. and European economic and political interference in the region.

When a reporter asked Obama what he thought of the book, the president replied: "I thought it was one of Chavez's books. I was going to give him one of mine." White House advisers said they didn't know if Obama would read it or not.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs made a joke about it, noting the president doesn't speak or read Spanish: "I think it's in Spanish, so that might be a tad on the difficult side."

The book, reportedly to previously be ranked at 6,000-plus on Amazon.com, was the 7th top selling book Saturday on the Web site.

Later, during a group photo, Obama reached behind several leaders at the summit to shake Chavez's hand for the third time. Obama summoned a translator and the two smiled and spoke briefly.

Those two exchanges followed a brief grip-and-grin for cameras on Friday night when Obama greeted Chavez in Spanish.

"I think it was a good moment," Chavez said about their initial encounter. "I think President Obama is an intelligent man, compared to the previous U.S. president."

At a luncheon speech to fellow leaders, Chavez said the spirit of respect is encouraging and he proposed that Havana host the next summit.

"I'm not going to speak for Cuba. It's not up to me ... (but) all of us here are friends of Cuba, and we hope the United States will be, too," Chavez said.

U.S. aides said that Chavez later spoke during a summit session on democratic governance; Obama chose not to speak.

The White House said Chavez was civil in his criticism of the U.S. during a summit meeting, but that there was no discussion of reinstating ambassadors who were kicked out of each other's countries last year. "Relationships depend on more than smiles and handshakes," Obama economic adviser Larry Summers told reporters later.

The State Department welcomed Chavez's outreach.

"Earlier today at the Summit of the Americas President Chavez approached Secretary (Hillary Rodham) Clinton, and they discussed returning ambassadors to their respective posts in Caracas and Washington," said State spokesman Robert Wood. "This is a positive development that will help advance U.S. interests, and the State Department will now work to further this shared goal."

Bolivia President Evo Morales, a close ally of Chavez, said Obama's pledge of a new era of mutual respect toward Latin America rings hollow.

"Obama said three things: There are neither senior or junior partners. He said relations should be of mutual respect, and he spoke of change," Morales said. "In Bolivia ... one doesn't feel any change. The policy of conspiracy continues."

Morales expelled U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg in September and kicked out the Drug Enforcement Administration the next month for allegedly conspiring with the political opposition to incite violence. Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassador in Venezuela in solidarity. The Bush administration subsequently suspended trade preferences to Bolivia that Bolivian business leaders say could cost 20,000 jobs.

But as the summit neared its close, Chavez said he soon expects to send an ambassador back to Washington.

Obama also extended a hand to Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, whom President Ronald Reagan spent years trying to drive from power. Ortega was ousted in 1990 elections that ended Nicaragua's civil war, but was returned to power by voters in 2006.

Ortega stepped up and introduced himself to Obama, U.S. officials said. But a short time later, Ortega delivered a blistering 50-minute speech that denounced capitalism and U.S. imperialism as the root of much hemispheric mischief. The address even recalled the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, though Ortega said the new U.S. president could not be held to account for that.

"I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old," Obama said, to laughter and applause from the other leaders.


(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)







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