333 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(06/20/07 11:12pm)
Two soldiers with Indiana ties were killed overseas – one in Iraq and one if Afghanistan.\nArmy Spc. David Wilkey Jr., 22, was in a Humvee convoy when he was killed by a roadside bomb Monday in Iraq, his family in Elkhart, Ind., said. Army Staff Sgt. Roy P. Lewsader Jr., 36, died Saturday in Afghanistan when his vehicle was struck by enemy fire, the Department of Defense announced in a Monday news release.\nThe department said in a news release that Lewsader, who died in Tarin Kowt, was from Belleville, Ill. But the soldier’s wife called to say he was from Clinton, Ind., said April Blackmon, a spokeswoman for Fort Riley, where Lewsader was based.\nWilkey, who spent his younger years in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, graduated from Elkhart’s Jimtown High School and worked with his father at Plastic Components in that city for several years before joining the military and being deployed to the Baghdad area, his family said.\nWilkey was married to Melinda Wilkey and had two children, stepson Christian, 4, and son Blayke, 1. A third child was due in October, Margaret Wilkey said. The soldier had been based out of Fort Riley, Kan., and nearby Clay Center was his most recent home.\nA memorial service is planned at Fort Riley, and Wilkey will be buried in the Upper Peninsula, where his mother lives.\nBlackmon said U.S. Army records showed Belleville as Lewsader’s “home of record,” but family said the soldier had no known ties to Illinois, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.\n“This hasn’t ever happened to us before,” Blackmon told the newspaper. “Right now, the Army is looking into it.”\nLewsader was assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley.
(03/28/07 4:00am)
PHILADELPHIA – Kumar is going from White Castle to the Ivy League.\nKal Penn, known for his role as Kumar Patel in the 2004 cult classic “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” will be a guest instructor at the University of Pennsylvania during the spring 2008 semester, the school announced Monday.\nPenn, 29, will teach two undergraduate courses, tentatively titled, “Images of Asian Americans in the Media” and “Contemporary American Teen Films.”\n“The Asian American Studies Program is delighted that Kalpen Modi, aka Kal Penn, chose our program to host his teaching engagement at Penn,” program director Grace Kao said. “Mr. Modi is one of the leading Asian American actors of his generation and is particularly aware of how his racial and ethnic identification has affected his professional experiences.”\nStudents can enroll in the courses as Asian American studies or cinema studies programs in the university’s School of Arts and Sciences, Kao said.\nPenn co-starred with John Cho, who played Harold Lee, in “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.” His screen credits also include “The Namesake,” “Epic Movie,” “Van Wilder” and “Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj.”\nHe recently finished shooting “Harold & Kumar 2” with Cho.\nThe university said Penn, a native of Montclair, N.J., received a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a specialization in theater, film and television from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is pursuing a graduate certificate in international security at Stanford University.
(12/11/06 4:24am)
Liquor stores will be closed this year on a day that is traditionally one of their busiest -- \nNew Year's Eve -- because the holiday falls on a Sunday.\nIndiana prohibits all take-out liquor sales on Sundays. This year both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve fall on Sundays, and liquor stores must also be closed for the Monday holidays of Christmas Day and New Year's Day.\nPaul Lukso, of Munster Liquors in Munster, Ind., said Christmas Eve is a big day for sales, but that New Year's Eve is the busiest day of the year.\n"I've got two stores in Illinois, and we never close," he said. "Here, we've got to close Sunday plus Monday. You'd think they'd give you one of the days."\nJohn Livengood, president and chief executive officer of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, said most members of his group generally favor the rule banning Sunday liquor sales.\n"This is just one of the unintended consequences of that decision," he said. "No one thought restricting Sunday sales would include New Year's Eve."\nThe legislature could have granted an exemption to allow sales on Sunday for New Year's Eve had the issue been brought up, said Rep. Robert Kuzman, D-Crown Point.\n"Someone should have considered it and asked us for an exception, and I think something like that would have passed," he said.\nInstead, liquor stores will be closed, and those hosting holiday parties will have to plan ahead. Lukso said he will put up signs and remind customers about the closings but predicted people wouldn't remember.\n"They'll go right across the border to Illinois," Lukso said.
(11/30/06 3:04am)
A fire that forced a man to jump from a second-story window while carrying his 10-month-old daughter was arson, authorities said.\nInvestigators found an irregular burn pattern on the kitchen floor, indicating arson, said Andy Zirkle, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security's Division of Fire and Building Safety.\nDennis Sizemore, 47, remained in critical but stable condition in Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis after being severely injured Thursday, when he jumped from the window of his house near Martinsville, about 20 miles southwest of Indianapolis.\nSizemore's daughter, Maryann Sizemore, was not seriously injured.\nHer mother, Doreen Streeval, said she was at a loss to explain the fire.\n"I wonder who or why?" said Streeval, who was at work when the fire occurred. "I'm upset to think that somebody would try to take the life of a baby."\nBecause of his condition, investigators have not been able to interview Dennis Sizemore to get his account.\nNo suspects have been identified, said Morgan County Sheriff's Detective Larry Sanders.
(11/29/06 11:07pm)
Comedian Michael Richards said Sunday he did not consider himself a racist, and that he was "shattered" by the comments he made to two young black men during a tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club.\nRichards appeared on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's nationally syndicated radio program, "Keep Hope Alive," as part of a series of apologies for the incident. He said he knew his comments hurt the black community, and hoped to meet with the two men.\nHe told Jackson that he had not used the language before.\n"That's why I'm shattered by it. The way this came through me was like a freight train. After it was over, when I went to look for them, they had gone. And I've tried to meet them, to talk to them, to get some healing," he said.\nRichards, who played Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbor Kramer on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld," was performing at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory last week when he lashed out at hecklers with a string of racial obscenities and profane language. A cell phone video camera captured the outburst, and the incident later appeared on TMZ.com.\nRichards told Jackson the tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry. He said he wanted to hurt those who had hurt him.\n"I was in a place of humiliation," he said.\nRichards' publicist, Howard Rubenstein, said Saturday that Richards has begun psychiatric counseling in Los Angeles to learn how to manage his anger.\n"He acknowledged that his statements were harmful and opened a terrible racial wound in our nation," Rubenstein said. "He pledges never ever to say anything like that again. He's quite remorseful."\nJackson, who has called Richards' words "hateful," "sick," and "deep-seated," said the comedian's inclusion on the show was a chance for a broader discussion about "cultural isolation" in the entertainment industry.\nRichards noted that the racial epithet he used is frequent in the entertainment industry--- and acknowledged that it could have consequences.\n"I fear that young whites will think it's cool to go around and use that word because they see very cool people in the show business using that word so freely," he said. "Perhaps that's what came through in that ... the vernacular is so accessible."
(11/29/06 5:00am)
Comedian Michael Richards said Sunday he did not consider himself a racist, and that he was "shattered" by the comments he made to two young black men during a tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club.\nRichards appeared on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's nationally syndicated radio program, "Keep Hope Alive," as part of a series of apologies for the incident. He said he knew his comments hurt the black community, and hoped to meet with the two men.\nHe told Jackson that he had not used the language before.\n"That's why I'm shattered by it. The way this came through me was like a freight train. After it was over, when I went to look for them, they had gone. And I've tried to meet them, to talk to them, to get some healing," he said.\nRichards, who played Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbor Kramer on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld," was performing at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory last week when he lashed out at hecklers with a string of racial obscenities and profane language. A cell phone video camera captured the outburst, and the incident later appeared on TMZ.com.\nRichards told Jackson the tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry. He said he wanted to hurt those who had hurt him.\n"I was in a place of humiliation," he said.\nRichards' publicist, Howard Rubenstein, said Saturday that Richards has begun psychiatric counseling in Los Angeles to learn how to manage his anger.\n"He acknowledged that his statements were harmful and opened a terrible racial wound in our nation," Rubenstein said. "He pledges never ever to say anything like that again. He's quite remorseful."\nJackson, who has called Richards' words "hateful," "sick," and "deep-seated," said the comedian's inclusion on the show was a chance for a broader discussion about "cultural isolation" in the entertainment industry.\nRichards noted that the racial epithet he used is frequent in the entertainment industry--- and acknowledged that it could have consequences.\n"I fear that young whites will think it's cool to go around and use that word because they see very cool people in the show business using that word so freely," he said. "Perhaps that's what came through in that ... the vernacular is so accessible."
(11/16/06 5:06am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- NCAA President Myles Brand aggressively defended the organization's tax-exempt status in a 25-page letter to Congress, arguing the primary goal of the NCAA is education.\nBrand pointed to recent academic reforms that increased eligibility standards and studies showing the average SAT scores of athletes are higher than those of the general student body as examples that the NCAA is committed first to educating athletes.\nThe response was sent Monday to Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., the outgoing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. It was released publicly Wednesday on the NCAA's Web site.\n"The lessons learned on the football field or men's basketball court are no less in value or importance to those student-athletes than the ones learned on the hockey rink or softball diamond -- nor, for that matter, than those learned in theater, dance, music, journalism or other non-classroom environments," Brand wrote.\nA spokesman for the committee said lawmakers did not plan to comment Wednesday on the NCAA's response.\nLast month, Thomas questioned whether the NCAA should retain its tax-exempt status given the amount of money it receives from TV contracts and championship events. He also questioned whether the federal government should subsidize college athletics when money helps pay for escalating coaching salaries, some of which reach seven figures.\nThomas told the NCAA to respond by late October, then extended the deadline to Monday.\nBrand argued that coaches' pay is commensurate with other highly recruited faculty members and said the NCAA should not be penalized because television networks are willing to pay millions or billions of dollars to air games since it does not change the NCAA's \nprimary purpose.\n"If the educational purpose of college basketball could be preserved only by denying the right to telecast the events, students, university faculty and staff, alumni, the institutions of higher education themselves and even the American taxpayer would ultimately lose," Brand wrote. "The scale of popularity and the media attention given to football and men's basketball do not forfeit for those two sports the educational purpose for which \nthey exist."\nBrand, the first ex-president of a university to lead the NCAA, has made academic reform his top priority since taking over in 2003.\nUnder his leadership, the NCAA has increased freshman eligibility standards, created stronger requirements to retain eligibility and enacted its own formula for determining graduation rates.\nMore recently, Brand has attempted to take on the growing expenses in college sports.\nHe has criticized high-priced coaches' salaries, and he has expressed growing concern over what he describes as the college "arms race" -- money being spent to upgrade or build new facilities so a school can remain \ncompetitive.\nIn the letter, Brand cited building expenses as an imperative reason for the NCAA to retain its tax exemption even as he said the organization is limited in how it can limit the costs.\n"Athletics facilities, state-of-the-art or otherwise, are necessary for the support of the activity for which there is a tax exemption," Brand wrote. "These facilities, often paid for through bonds or charitable contributions, also generate revenue that offsets the operational cost of athletics that might not otherwise be provided through institutional funds."\nIt's unclear how the committee's investigation might proceed since last week's midterm elections means committee chairmanships will change hands, with Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., in line to run Ways and Means.
(11/16/06 3:42am)
A high school basketball coach was charged with stealing nearly $3,000 from the proceeds of a football game, authorities said.\nColumbus North basketball coach Barry Huckeby, who had been suspended with pay from the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., told police he took some money but did not confess to stealing the whole amount, according to a probable cause affidavit filed this week.\nColumbus police officer Jay Frederick said Huckeby told him that he took two bills from the proceeds of the Oct. 20 game, and that the coach thought they were $50 bills.\nHuckeby, 33, a math teacher, told police that in his duties as assistant athletic director, he counted that night's ticket sales totaling more than $5,000, which he prepared for a bank deposit, the affidavit said.\nHuckeby's attorney, Richard Eynon, said he was disappointed the felony theft charge was filed and that his client maintains his innocence.\n"There's an explanation for everything that happened through the whole process," Eynon said.\nHuckeby was arrested Tuesday and released from the Bartholomew County Jail after posting $15,000 bond. If convicted, he could face a prison sentence of six months to three years.\nHuckeby was hired in May to coach the boys' basketball team, and school officials said they have begun the process of firing him.\nSuperintendent John Quick declined to comment on Huckeby's arrest.
(11/14/06 4:13pm)
LUBBOCK, Texas -- As Bob Knight moved one win closer to catching Dean Smith, his temper flared once again, when he used his hand to push a player's chin during a timeout, as if to make him look the coach in the eye.\nWith more than 4 minutes to go in Texas Tech's 86-74 victory over Gardner-Webb on Monday night, Red Raiders forward Michael Prince was called for a foul. During the ensuing timeout, Knight approached Prince, and as the player lowered his head, the coach made contact with his chin.\nKnight gave a brief statement at the postgame news conference then answered one question before exiting the room. The incident with Prince was never addressed.\nIt was win No. 871 for Knight, who is five away from passing Adolph Rupp for second place on the all-time list. He needs nine more victories to surpass Smith for the most wins in Division I history.\nKnight's career has featured three national championships, all at Indiana, and plenty of temper outbursts, including run-ins with players.\nIn 1992, Knight kicked a chair on the bench while son Pat, then a player for him at Indiana and now his assistant and successor-to-be at Texas Tech, was sitting in it. When fans behind the team bench booed, Knight turned and responded with an obscenity.\nHe was accused of grabbing a player by the throat during a practice in 1997, an episode that was caught on videotape and created the whirlwind that eventually led to his firing from Indiana in September 2000.\nKnight was fired for what Indiana officials called a violation of a zero-tolerance behavior policy shortly after he grabbed the arm of a student who greeted him on campus by saying "Hey, what's up, Knight?"\nHis most infamous moment came in a game against Purdue in 1985, when he threw a chair across the court after being assessed a technical foul.
(11/08/06 6:34am)
Democrats ousted Republican incumbents Tuesday in Indiana's 2nd, 7th and 8th Congressional Districts, giving the party three of the 15 seats it needed to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives.\nThe races for the 2nd and the 8th Districts were two of three congressional races in Indiana that were closely watched nationwide. The third race -- that for the 9th District -- ended in victory for Democrat Baron Hill over Republican Rep. Mike Sodrel.
(11/07/06 4:32am)
EVANSVILLE -- A hole collapsed around a man and killed him while he was trying to help his brother fix a broken sewer line in his backyard.\nJerrod Elmendorf, 29, of Mount Vernon was buried standing up in the dirt at his brother's home in Evansville on Saturday and apparently died of asphyxiation or suffocation, authorities said.\nElmendorf had been helping his brother dig the hole with a backhoe Saturday morning, and family members noticed he was missing after noon, said Evansville police spokesman Brian Talsma. When they couldn't find him, they called 911, and fire department rescuers found him in the hole at about 3 p.m.\nTalsma said the hole was about 20 feet by 8 feet and up to 14 feet deep. Police were not sure why the hole collapsed but said recent rain and the large pile of dirt beside the hole may have contributed to the accident.\n"Something caused it to collapse fairly substantially, and he didn't have a chance to even get out or get around the amount of dirt that fell in," Talsma said.\nRescuers had to widen and terrace the hole before they could remove the man's body, which took about five hours.
(11/07/06 4:31am)
GREENCASTLE, Ind. -- A body found in a central Indiana cornfield is that of a man wanted in a 2005 bank robbery, police said.\nA man and his son found the body of John Ryan Wood, 27, Sunday, facedown in a Morgan County field about 20 miles southwest of Indianapolis, police said.\nHe had been dead for several days. There was no obvious cause of death, but Morgan County Sheriff's deputies said they were treating the case as a possible homicide. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.\nWood was wanted on a warrant in Putnam County for the June 10, 2005, robbery of an Old National Bank branch in Greencastle.\nHe was charged with conspiracy to commit bank robbery, said Greencastle Police Det. Randy Seipel.\nAnother man pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to prison, Seipel said.
(11/07/06 4:31am)
SOUTH BEND -- A judge rejected the St. Joseph County prosecutor's request to stop a political ad the prosecutor claimed was false and defamatory.\nThe commercial for Republican candidate Greg Kauffman is protected speech and can remain on the air, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge David C. Chapleau ruled Saturday.\nDemocrat Michael Dvorak filed a lawsuit Friday asking for an injunction to halt the 30-second television spot, saying it falsely accuses him of violating the law by hiring his wife to work in his office. Dvorak has said the move is not illegal because he does not personally supervise her.\nThe validity of the allegation, however, was not Chapleau's main concern.\n"My concern is that political speech, even inaccurate, must be allowed unless it's so clear that it's a question of confusing the public," Chapleau said. He cited a Michigan case in which a judge pulled an ad that misidentified one of the candidates.\nIn the TV ad, Kauffman says Dvorak "contradicts state law" because he hired his wife, Kathleen Dvorak, to run the child support division in his office. Kauffman has repeatedly accused Dvorak of nepotism, a charge the prosecutor has denied.\nDvorak said the ad "crosses the line" of protected political free speech.\n"Certainly people have the right to free speech, but that free speech stops at the point they're making defamatory lies," Dvorak said.\nKauffman defended the ad and said the lawsuit was a desperate political maneuver. \n"We didn't say anything illegal was done; it's just a contradiction of the state laws," he said.\nChapleau said Dvorak was free to counter Kauffman's ad with one of his own. That way, the public could make its own determination through "the exchange of information by the candidates."\nThe suit was filed in circuit court, but a new judge was appointed because Circuit Judge Michael Gotsch worked in Dvorak's administration when the prosecutor's wife was hired.
(11/07/06 4:31am)
FOUNTAIN CITY, Ind. -- Authorities were awaiting toxicology tests to determine the cause of death for a Wayne County man who was found dead in a house fire.\nNo foul play was suspected in the death of Tony Lee Railsback, 31, said Wayne County Coroner Kevin Fouche.\n"It's probably going to be carbon monoxide poisoning," said Fouche. "We won't know until we get a toxicology report back, but that is what it's looking like."\nThe fire broke out about 4 a.m. Saturday in a home near Fountain City, about 65 miles east of Indianapolis.\nIt took firefighters from several area departments about 90 minutes to extinguish the flames, which could be seen about two miles away, Fountain City Fire Chief Jeff Himelick said.\n"Part of the house was actually gone when we got there," he said. "It had been burning for a while."\nThe cause of the fire remained under investigation.
(11/07/06 4:30am)
LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A Kentucky police officer trying to unload his gun accidentally shot himself while driving on an Indiana highway, police said.\nSullivan McCurdy, 41, an officer with the Radcliff Police Department, was driving south on Interstate 65 near Lafayette Sunday when the weapon discharged, Indiana State Police said. A bullet struck the 10-year police veteran in the right leg, police said.\nMcCurdy was listed Monday in satisfactory condition at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Lafayette, said hospital spokesman Matthew Oates.
(11/03/06 5:28am)
A 10-year-old girl who was being treated for the first confirmed case of rabies in Indiana since 1959 has died.\nShannon Carroll of Bourbon, Ind., died Thursday morning at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis hospital spokeswoman Jo Ann Klooz said.\nCarroll was hospitalized in early October after being bitten in June by a rabid bat, health officials said. More than 30 relatives, friends and classmates of the girl were offered injections to prevent the spread of the disease.\nSome parents whose children attend the girl's school in Bourbon, about 25 miles south of South Bend, worried about possible exposure since rabies can stay dormant for more than a year.\nHuman-to-human transmission of rabies is only possible through direct contact with saliva, health officials said.\nState records show Indiana's last human rabies case was in 1959, when a Sullivan County resident died from the disease.\nRabies is a viral disease transmitted to humans and other animals through saliva, usually in a bite. It attacks the brain and nervous system and typically leads to death once symptoms appear.
(11/03/06 5:27am)
A man paroled in March after serving more than 26 years for killing a Kansas boy was expected to be charged with murder in the death of a 16-year-old northern Indiana girl, a prosecutor said Thursday.\nInvestigators found the body of Stephanie Wagner in a northwestern Cass County field Wednesday night. The suspect in her death, Danny R. Rouse, 51, a dishwasher at the same restaurant where she worked, told them where to look and confessed to killing her, police said. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday.\nRouse, who was living in Monterey, Ind., was arrested and held without bond at the Cass County jail. Cass County Prosecutor Kevin Enyeart said he expected to charge Rouse later Thursday.\nRouse and Wagner left the Indian Head Restaurant in Winamac Tuesday at about 10:30 p.m., police said. Her mother reported her missing about six hours later, and the Cass County Sheriff's Department Wednesday afternoon issued an Amber Alert, which said she was last seen with Rouse.\nHer body was found Wednesday night about a mile from where police discovered her abandoned car in her hometown of Royal Center, about 50 miles southwest of South Bend.\nCass County Sheriff's Detective Tom Wallace testified at a probable cause hearing Thursday that Rouse admitted strangling Wagner and then stabbing her.\nPolice took Rouse in for questioning when he showed up for work Wednesday. He told Cass County deputies he was driving along a highway when his vehicle began making funny sounds. He pulled over, and Wagner stopped to see if she could help, Wallace said. That is when "a feeling came over him," he told police.\nCass Superior Court Judge Thomas Perrone said the probable cause hearing would continue Friday morning, when bond was expected to be set.\nRouse was released in March from a Kansas prison, where he had been serving time for the 1979 murder of a 5-year-old boy.\nHe was convicted of first-degree murder in the slaying of Jason Learst at a Wichita, Kan., apartment, The Wichita Eagle reported Thursday. Rouse also was convicted of stabbing the boy's mother, Kathryn Crowley.\nWagner had withdrawn from Pioneer High School in 2005 and was being home-schooled, her friend Megan Mannies said while posting fliers with Wagner's picture Wednesday. Wagner had been pursuing a high school diploma and enjoyed her job at the restaurant, Mannies said.\n"She is a blast," Mannies told the Pharos-Tribune. "She is funny. She's hilarious. She's my best friend in the whole world."\nDuring Rouse's jury trial in Kansas, witnesses testified that Rouse and Crowley drank beer and smoked marijuana while watching television at Crowley's apartment. Crowley rejected a verbal sexual advance, after which he stabbed or cut her with a knife 12 times, according to court testimony.\nThe attack ended when Crowley collapsed and pretended to be dead. Kansas police said Rouse then went to Jason's bedroom and cut the boy's throat as he slept.\nRouse pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at his trial, but a jury convicted him of first-degree murder.
(10/26/06 2:34am)
A new statewide poll has found greater support for Democrats regaining control of the closely divided Indiana House, while also finding more people saying the state is heading in the right direction than in the wrong direction.\nRepublicans now hold a 52-48 majority in the House, but 45 percent of those surveyed said they wanted to see the Democrats win control, with the GOP picked by 39 percent in the WISH-TV Indiana Poll released Tuesday night. Sixteen percent were not sure.\nThe poll found strong majorities of both Republicans and Democrats backing their party winning control of the House. Among independents and those of other parties, however, Democrats were the preference by 49 percent to 28 percent.\nControl of the House is the top state-level priority for both parties going into the Nov. 7 election. Republicans hold a commanding 33-17 majority in the state Senate and hold all elected state offices.\nThe poll also found 47 percent saying they thought the state was heading in the right direction; 41 percent said the state was heading in the wrong direction, and 12 percent were not sure.\nRepublicans thought the state was going in the right direction by a 62 percent to 28 percent margin, while Democrats disagreed by a 56 percent to 31 percent margin. Independents were closely split — 43 percent saying right direction and 42 percent saying wrong.\nThe telephone poll of 800 likely voters has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points and was conducted Oct. 17-20 by Maryland-based Research 2000.
(10/24/06 2:23am)
The former minister Ali Allawi told CBS' "60 Minutes" that $1.2 billion had been allocated from the Iraqi treasury to the defense ministry to buy new weapons. About $400 million was spent on outdated equipment, while the rest of the money was simply stolen, he said.\nAllawi said the arms fraud is "one of the biggest thefts in history" and that corrupt former Iraqi officials are now "running around the world hiding and scurrying around."\nHe did not name the officials who allegedly stole the money during the CBS report. But Iraqi investigators are probing several weapons and equipment deals engineered by former procurement officer Ziad Cattan and other officials including former Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan.\nMost of the fraudulent arms purchases were allegedly made during the term of former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who took office after occupation authorities turned over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 28, 2004. When new Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi took office in May 2005, an investigation was opened into several alleged cases of corruption.\nAyad Allawi and Ali Allawi are cousins.\nTapes obtained by "60 Minutes" from a former associate of Cattan allegedly captured Cattan talking about paying large bribes to Iraqi officials.\nCattan, wanted by Iraqi authorities and now living in Paris, was interviewed in the same "60 Minutes" broadcast and said he can account for the hundreds of millions he used to purchase weapons.\n"I have documentation. I give it to you in your hands," Cattan said.\nHe said the tapes, excerpts of which were played on the broadcast, had been doctored and were not authentic.\nExperts at Jane's, a leading authority on military hardware, told "60 Minutes" the documentation Cattan provided did not prove whether any of the weapons he ordered -- paid for in advance -- had been delivered to Iraq.\nJudge Radhi al-Radhi, chief of Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, told "60 Minutes" he had obtained arrest warrants for some top defense ministry officials in October 2005, and almost all of the suspects fled the country.\nAl-Radhi said aside from the hundreds of millions of dollars believed to have been stolen by the officials, the arms that did make their way to Iraq -- Soviet-era helicopters, bulletproof vests and ammunition -- were in such poor shape they could not be used.\nAl-Radhi said those accused of the fraud are thought to be hiding mostly in Europe and the Middle East, but he is not receiving help from those countries in recovering any of the money or in apprehending the suspects.\nIraqi government officials could not immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press.\nBut Sheik Sabah al-Saadi, chairman of the Iraqi Parliament's Integrity Commission, told the AP he had written to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Sunday asking it to contact Interpol to detain all those involved in the defense corruption case, including former Defense Minister Shaalan.\nHe said he had documents that show the theft of $2.2 billion dollars from the time of Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003 until now.
(10/19/06 1:28am)
A Kurdish witness at Saddam Hussein's genocide trial testified Wednesday that he survived a massacre by running and falling into a ditch full of bodies as troops fired on his group of detainees.\nA second Kurd told of a separate massacre in which 35 detainees, knowing they were about to die, decided to attack their guards in the hope that if they struck first, at least one would live to tell the tale.\nSpeaking from behind a curtain to conceal his identity for fear of reprisal, the first witness said he was in a group of detainees who thought they were being taken to another detention center during the military offensive that Saddam's government waged against the Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988. But their convoy of trucks stopped in the desert.\n"It was dark when they brought a group of people (prisoners) in front of the vehicle. The drivers got out of our vehicles and turned on the headlights."\nSome prisoners tried to grab an automatic rifle from a guard, but they failed because they were "so weak," he said.\nHe said the soldiers opened fire, spraying the prisoners with bullets.\n"It was really unbelievable, the number of people being killed like this. A detainee called Anwar recited the Islamic prayers before death and asked for forgiveness," the man testified.\n"I ran and fell into a ditch. It was full of bodies. I fell on a body. It was still alive. It was his last breath," he said.\nHe was lightly wounded. He took off his clothes in the ditch, thinking he was more likely to blend into the color of the sand if he were naked. He then began running again.\n"As I was running, I saw many pits, I saw many mounds, and I saw lots of people who had been shot," he said. "The desert was full of mounds that had people buried underneath."\nThe second witness, who also testified from behind a curtain, said that after a few days in Tob Zawa detention camp in April 1988, he and other detainees were told they were being moved to another facility.
