Crime lab botches up DNA analyses
HOUSTON — The poor state of the Houston Police Department’s DNA crime lab has led the district attorney’s office to begin a massive review of cases involving work by police lab analysts.
So far, prosecutors have ordered retesting in the cases of 68 prisoners, 17 of whom are on Texas’ death row. According to the assistant district attorney, no inmate executed in the state was convicted using DNA processed by the lab.
Problems reported at the lab include a poorly trained staff and a ceiling leak in a stored evidence room that destroyed 34 DNA samples.
Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown has urged Gov. Rick Perry to place a moratorium on death penalty cases in which evidence from the lab was used.
Case reviews are expected to take four months. State lawmakers have asked the FBI to oversee the reviews and are working on legislation for state regulation of crime labs.
Muslim militants blamed for massacre
NADIMARG, India — Muslim militants are blamed for killing 24 townsfolk in the massacre at an isolated Hindu village last Sunday.
Gunmen ordered the 54 total villagers from their homes, gathered them beneath a tree and shot them at close range, sources said. Victims ranged in age from 2 to 65.
Hindus in Kashmir, the only majority Muslim state in India, worry that any remaining peace between Hindus and Muslims in the area will be threatened by the militants.
India blames the attack on Pakistan, which it accuses of being long-time supporters of the militants. Pakistan denies giving more than moral support to the guerillas and has denounced the massacre.
Over the last few days, the two countries have stepped up regular cross-border shelling and traded test-firings of missiles.
Scotland legislators settle land scores
GOLSPIE, Scotland — Using powers won when it received its own Parliament, Scotland passed dramatic legislation that will entitle crofters — small-scale tenant farmers — to buy the land they rent.
The legislation settles the score with the first duke of Sutherland and 19th-century aristocrats who drove tenants off their land during the Highland Clearances.
Scottish farmers said they are doing away with a feudal relic.
The legislation is expected to change the way Scotland is farmed. Crofters could also end up owning the land’s salmon fishing, hunting and mineral rights.
Some big landowners have threatened to appeal to the European Court of Human rights for the alleged violation of their property rights.
Crew calls for return of captured ship
FORT LUPTON, Colo. — The crew of the USS Pueblo, which remains docked in Nampo on North Korea’s West Coast, wants to bring the ship home.
Thirty-five years ago, the USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea and the crew aboard was taken into 11 months of captivity before their release.
Survivors and supporters of bringing the ship back to the United States have lobbied to the Bush Administration and Congress to make its return part of any negotiations with North Korea.
Last year, Donald P. Gregg, former ambassador to South Korea, delivered a letter to North Korean officials asking for the ship’s return.
Gregg said a deal for the return was hinted at in October by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan. However, when he met with Kim, he was told the climate between the United States and North Korea has changed and the deal is no longer an option.
Gregg said it was clear the North Koreans were referring to the U.S. allegations that North Korea is secretly persuing a nuclear weapons program.
Smoking bans effect all New York bars
NEW YORK — A city-wide ban on smoking in bars went into effect Sunday.
Fines starting at $200 and going as high as $1,000 will be issued in May, allowing bar owners a one-month grace period to get used to the ban in their businesses.
Smoking has been outlawed in New York restaurants since 1995, but allowed in bars.
However, the mayor pushed through the new, tougher legislation in December.
More than 14,000 city bars, restaurants, night clubs and other public facilities will face the smoking prohibitions.
Statistics show that 10,000 New Yorkers die every year from tobacco-related causes.
The governor also signed a similar law last week that will essentially outlaw smoking in all public areas statewide in less than four months.
‘Difficult choices’ face Israel for peace
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Colin Powell told a large group of American supporters of Israel Sunday that as terrorism by Palestinians subsided, Israel faced “difficult choices” in making peace.
Powell also spoke to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to defend the Bush administration’s support for a peace plan drafted over the past year by the United States, Russia, United Nations and European Union.
The plan, known as the road map, calls for Palestinians to end violence, change leadership and adopt a more accountable government. On the other hand, Israel is supposed to ease the economic hardship of Palestinians and end Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza.
Zimbabweans vote for representatives
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Amidst calls for the ouster of President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabweans voted over the weekend to elect representatives to their Parliament.
The voting began Saturday and ended Sunday night in the heavily populated suburbs of Harare. Officials estimates that more than one-third of the estimated 88,000 registered voters in the suburbs cast ballots.
Odds appeared to favor the opposition, which controls all 19 parliamentary seats from Harare.
Last year in the general elections, opposition votes outnumbered votes for Mugabe by more than three to one.
Opposition leaders accused the governing party Friday of fraud in the elections.
Reports of SARS rising in Hong Kong
HONG KONG — Five dozen more cases of sever acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, were announced by health officials in Hong Kong.
The additional cases bring the tally for the last four days to 204 — more than the rest of the world combined.
More and more people are wearing masks as part of the disease control.
The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Hong Kong Health Department have all said masks are mainly of value to health care workers in preventing the spread of illness. However, wider mask use may not be of use to help the healthy.
Of its 7 million people, 530 cases of SARS have been reported.
— Compiled from news
April 03, 2003