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2 I Monday, May 2, 2005 | The Red & Black
THE WIRE
In Brief
Heart patient dies
after bike ride
ANDERSON, Ind. — A man
who pedaled 2,400 miles across
the country after bypass sur
gery that had given him a sec
ond chance at life died of a
heart attack one day after
completing the trip.
Bicycling provided Broc
Bebout’s ticket to nearly 20
years of good health after
quadruple-bypass surgery at
age 39, and the cross-country
ride served as a testament to
his commitment to exercise,
said his wife, Patricia
Brinkman.
However, the day after
completing the ride from
Carlsbad, Calif., to Brunswick,
Ga., the 57-year-old retired
Delphi Corp. engineer died
about 8 a.m. Thursday near
Smyrna, Tenn., on the van
drive back to his home in
Anderson, about 25 miles
northeast of Indianapolis.
“Broc was a tech guy, he
had a lot of fancy heart rate
monitors and equipment, and
he was speaking with (another
man) about that,” said Janech
Davenport of Upland, director
of Wandering Wheels, the not-
for-profit, Christian-based
cycling group that organized
the trip.
After about 15 minutes, the
two men closed their eyes for
naps, she said. The driver
looked in the rearview mirror,
saw that Bebout’s eyes were
open, and said someone
should check on him.
“He was struggling, not
breathing,” Davenport said.
“His spirit was gone. Whatever
made Broc was gone.”
Jackson defense
case to begin
SANTA MARIA, Calif. —
Michael Jackson has sat silent
ly in court for nine weeks,
betraying little reaction as
prosecutors laid out their child
molestation and conspiracy
case against him.
Now, with the defense case
about to begin, trial watchers
wonder if the pop star can
resist the temptation to step
into the witness stand spot
light and tell the story as he
sees it.
Conventional legal wisdom
is that defendants should not
take the stand in criminal
trials, but lead defense lawyer
Thomas Mesereau Jr. has a
history of putting his clients on
the stand to speak for them
selves.
His close friend and associ
ate, attorney Dana Cole, said
Mesereau is leaning toward
doing the same in Jackson’s
case.
“Tom feels Michael would
make a very good witness,”
Cole said. “He feels it’s impor
tant for the client to look at the
jury and say ‘I did not commit
this crime.’”
“Obviously, he doesn’t need
to make that decision now. ...
But he does want an acquittal,
not a hung jury, and to get that
he may have to put Michael on
the stand.”
He noted that other lawyers
might shrink from opening up
their clients to cross-examina
tion by prosecutors.
— The Associated Press
CORRECTIONS
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N. Korea may be responsible for missile
A An aerial view shows hundreds of thousands of
people during a march for May day, in Havana,
Cuba, Sunday at the "Square of the Revolution".
SEOUL, South Korea —
North Korea apparently test
fired a missile into the Sea of
Japan on Sunday, raising new
fears about Pyongyang’s
nuclear intentions just days
after a U.S. intelligence official
said the secretive Stalinist
state had the ability in theoiy
to arm a missile with a
nuclear warhead.
News of the test launch
first appeared in Japanese
media reports, citing U.S. mil
itary officials as having
informed the Japanese and
South Korean governments of
the test launch which took
the missile about 65 miles off
the North Korean coast.
Later, the White House chief
of staff confirmed the incident
in an interview with CNN’s
“Late Edition.”
“It appears that there was
a test of a short-range missile
by the North Koreans and it
landed in the Sea of Japan.
We’re not surprised by this.
The North Koreans have test
ed their missiles before.
They’ve had some failures,”
WORLD NOTEBOOK
Andrew Card told the cable
network.
On Thursday, Vice Adm.
Lowell Jacoby, director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency,
told the U.S. Senate that the
North Koreans knew how to
arm a missile with a nuclear
weapon, a potentially signifi
cant advance for the commu
nist state.
He did not specify whether
he was talking about a short-
range or long-range missile,
the latter believed capable of
hitting the United States.
Two defense officials later
said that U.S. intelligence
analysts believe North Korea
is several years away from
being able to mount a nuclear
warhead on a missile that
could reach the United States
from the Korean Peninsula.
The Sunday test-firing
occurred on the eve of a cru
cial gathering at the United
Nations to review global
progress on curbing nuclear
proliferation.
World workers put
on May Day rallies
HAVANA — Cuban
President Fidel Castro, leader
of one of the world’s last com
munist regimes, commemo
rated May Day on Sunday by
JAMAEL FRANCISCO | The Associated Pree
demanding the United States
expel a Cuban-born militant
accused of blowing up a
civilian jetliner. Elsewhere in
the world, millions of workers
staged largely peaceful rallies
to press for better conditions
or protest government poli
cies.
But in Moscow, celebra
tions of the international
workers’ holiday turned vio
lent when radical activists
from the National Bolshevik
Party and the Red Youth
Avant-Garde political group
clashed with riot police after
several activists were
detained.
In Zimbabwe, despite ear
lier fears of a ban on May Day
gatherings, the southern
African country’s umbrella
group of trade unions held 17
rallies to celebrate the work
ers’ day holiday with no police
interference.
China used the day to sin
gle out thousands of laborers
and a few athletes for recogni
tion, dubbing them ‘model
workers,’ while the weeklong
labor day holiday started with
visits to squares and parks for
kite flying and recreation.
Up to 5,000 Bangladeshis
demanded the country’s first
ever minimum wage — $50 a
month. The South Asian
country has 1.8 million work
ers in about 2,500 garment
factories, exporting more
than $5 billion in textiles each
year.
— The Associated Press
New data confirms that obesity can be fatal
CHICAGO — Now that the
government says fat might
not kill so many of us after all,
is it OK to be just a little
pudgy?
Maybe, but before cele
brating with a hot fudge sun
dae, keep in mind the overrid
ing message: Being too over
weight really is a serious
health risk.
The new data, released by
the government two weeks
ago, confirm that obesity can
kill, even if the numbers are
squishy, said Dr. David Katz,
a Yale University obesity
researcher. “Clearly it isn’t a
license to gorge yourself.”
The report from Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention scientists didn’t
challenge the long-held view
that being at least 50 pounds
overweight is risky. But it did
suggest that being even as
much as 40 pounds over
weight seems to protect
people more from an untimely
death than being at a normal
weight.
Experts say that seeming
contradiction has appeared in
smaller health studies and
again challenges the useful
ness of the body-mass index
— a formula using height and
weight to calculate how heavy
a person should be.
The new estimate that
NATIONAL NOTEBOOK
obesity kills 25,814 Americans
yearly conflicts with much
larger estimates from differ
ent CDC scientists last year.
CDC agency chief Dr. Julie
Gerberding co-authored a
report last year suggesting
obesity contributes to 400,000
deaths yearly and her agency
used that flawed data to warn
that obesity is becoming a top
killer.
Month-long border
patrol wraps up
NACO, Ariz. — Volunteers
recruited over the Internet to
monitor illegal immigrant
activity along a stretch of
Arizona’s border ended their
monthlong campaign this
weekend as they began —
peering through binoculars
along a dusty border road.
Members of the
Minuteman Project hailed the
program as a success, and
organizers said they plan to
expand the mission to the
other states bordering
Mexico, and parts of the
Canadian border.
“This could not have been
done without all of you. You
did this together — you the
people,” co-organizer Chris
Simcox told some 150
Minutemen and supporters
gathered Saturday outside a
church at Palominas.
Organizers said nearly 900
volunteers — some of them
armed — had spent at least
one eight-hour shift in the
field through Friday, working
mostly stationary patrols
along a 23-mile stretch of
border in Cochise County. The
final eight-hour shift was
scheduled to end at 6 a.m.
Sunday.
Organizers said volunteers’
calls to the Border Patrol
resulted in the arrests of 335
illegal immigrants. Project
organizers had ordered volun
teers not to detain any illegal
border crossers they encoun
tered, and no major incidents
were reported.
Pretrial hearing
closed for Marine
accused of murder
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A
Marine accused of murdering
two Iraqi detainees intended
to make an example of them
by shooting them 60 times
and hanging a sign over their
bodies, prosecutors said
Saturday during closing argu
ments in a pretrial hearing.
“There’s no other reason
why this stellar lieutenant
would have used such poor
judgment,” prosecutor Maj.
Stephen Keane said. “It is not
up to a 2nd lieutenant to vio
late the law of war and make
an example of people he
believes are bad.”
Prosecutors allege that 2nd
Lt. Ilario Pantano killed the
suspected insurgents in April
2004 after ordering a search of
their car. Pantano, a former
Wall Street trader who
rejoined the Marines after the
Sept. 11 attacks, says he acted
in self-defense after the men
moved toward him.
“Lt. Pantano has told this
to virtually every person who
asked him,” defense attorney
Charles Gittins said in his
closing statement. “He did
exactly what he was required
to do under the circum
stances.”
Pantano declined to make
a statement in court after
consulting with his lawyers.
The Article 32 hearing, the
military equivalent of a civil
ian grand jury, will determine
whether Pantano, 33, will face
a court-martial. If convicted of
murder, he could get the
SARA D. DAVIS | The Associated Press
A U.S. Marine 2nd Lt.
Ilario Pantano leaves the
Legal Support Services
Courtroom with his wife,
Jill Pantano, on the final
day of his Article 32
hearing Saturday, in
Camp Lejeune, N.C.
death penalty.
The investigating officer
has been given at least a week
to make his recommenda
tions.
— The Associated Press
Search volunteers angered by missing bride’s hoax
RIC FELD | The Associated Press
A John Mason reacts in front of his home in
Duluth, early Saturday to news that his bride-to-be,
Jennifer Wilbanks had been found alive.
DULUTH — The hunt for
Jennifer Wilbanks consumed
this tight-knit town when she
went missing four days before
her wedding.
Still, despite a safe return
welcomed by family and close
friends, some residents of this
Atlanta suburb feel betrayed
by what turned out to be an
elaborate hoax.
Volunteers searched
woods and alleys, crawled in
sewage drains and stayed up
late looking for the 32-year-
old local woman who initially
told authorities that she had
been abducted while jogging.
But Wilbanks was picked
up late Friday by police in
New Mexico after a cross
country bus trip that took her
through Las Vegas, Nev., to
Albuquerque, where she
eventually admitted her
kidnapping story was
fabricated.
When Duluth residents
learned that Wilbanks ran
away because she had cold
feet, they thanked God she
was safe — then shook their
heads at her act.
Abandoned rental
truck suspected to
contain bomb
ATLANTA — Baggage claim
and ticketing for
part of Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport were
closed for two hours Sunday
STATE NOTEBOOK
while airport police investigat
ed a suspicious rental truck
abandoned on an airport load
ing curb, authorities said.
The north terminal’s
baggage claim and ticketing
area were closed between 8:45
and 10:30 a.m. Sunday after a
bomb sniffing dog alerted
police to the possibility of
explosives inside an aban
doned U-Haul truck parked
on the curb next to the north
terminal area, said Maj.
Darryl Tolleson.
A bomb technician later
found the truck contained
some fireworks and nitroglyc
erin pills for heart medicine,
which is what the dog had
detected, Tolleson said.
Emory students play
prisoners in chess
BUFORD — The two teams
in this chess contest are each
dressed in blue and white.
Except one wears golf shirts
with “Emory University
Chess” embroidered on the
front, and the other has
“STATE PRISONER”
stamped on their backs.
Welcome to the Emory-
Phillips State Prison chess
showdown, where a handful of
competitive chess players
leave the wood-paneled halls
of their Atlanta campus to
take on killers and armed rob
bers in a cinderblock room lit
by fluorescent lights.
The idea came from Emory
chess club adviser David
Woolf, who along with his stu
dents wanted to find a way to
bring chess out into the com
munity. When they learned
that chess was popular in
prison, they called the state
for permission and started
making the half-hour drive
north to Phillips State.
The prisoners sign up to
play, and 35 of them were
seated at long folding tables
on a recent Friday afternoon.
Three members of Emory’s
chess team, patted down and
searched before going
through two metal gates and
into a recreation room, lay out
roll-up chess boards and plas
tic pieces.
Then the Emory students
go down the line, shaking
hands with each opponent
and starting a move.
— The Associated Press
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