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DICKSON, Tom. (AP) — A van
carrying prisoners burst intp flames
along a highway Thursday, burning to
death six handcuffed, shackled in
mates locked in a wire cage.
The fire apparently was started by.
a broken drive shaft that pierced the
fuel tank, investigators said.
The driver burned his arms trying
to save the prisoners, all of whan were
in handcuffs and individual shackles.
“The driver could not get close to
the back of the vehicle to even open
the door,” Tennessee Highway Patrol
Lt. Mike Dover said. “The prisoners
were consumed in the fire ”
Dover said heat from the blaze
burned so hot it welded the back door
shut.
Another guard riding in the van
was not hurt. The van was operated
by Federal Extradition Agency, a
Memphis company that transports in
mates.
The prisoners had spent Wednes
day night in Memphis and were sched
uled to spend Thursday night in Chat
tanooga on their way to a Florida
prison, Dover said. The identities of
the state prisoners were not immedi
ately available.
The van had pulled over because
of mechanical problems on Interstate
40, about 45 miles west of Nashville,
before catching fire.
There was a fire extinguisher on
I ■- -;iK
board, but the guards could not reach
it because of the heat and fire, authori
ties said.
The van lay charred along the me
dian after the blaze. Glass blown out
by die heat littered the highway.
" . i >0 care,
..o.o hurt kids
LITTLE ROCK, Aik. (AP) —A
Baptist church board says it shut down
its day-care center to get mothers to
stay at home because working moth
ers “neglect their children, damage
their marriages and set a bad example.
Now 27 parents are without day
care, and state officials are rushing to
license another facility to replace the
center at the First Baptist Church of
Berryville — a small town in north
west Arkansas.
“This is not ‘Happy Days’ and we
are not living in the 1950s,” Katrena
Alexander, 44, who runs a manufac
turing company with her husband,
said Thursday.
Alexander ’s daughter Keanna was
enrolled at the church’s day care for a
year before it closed two weeks ago.
The girl cried when she heard the
news.
“I don’t know of too many people
here who can survive on one person’s
salary, especially if that salary is mini
mum wage,” she said. “This is just
something that shouldn’t have hap
pened in mis decade.”
On Feb. 14, members of the First
Baptist Qrarch’s Comer Stone Day
Care board sent a letter to parents stat
ing that the church would close the
center in the spring and reduce its tu
ition until its closure.
In a letter that followed, the church
said that while it was sensitive to the
plight of single parents, it could not
continue the center because its exist
ence encouraged mothers to work out
side the home.
K. ii5 :.>• •* Mil it
; i The letter added that families could
get by mi one salary if luxuries such
as “big TVs, a microwave, new
clothes, eating out and nice vacations”
were forfeited. ....
£
Matt Haney/DN
Pig on the lam eludes capture by fuzz
ANNISTON, Ala. — This town’s public enemy No. 1 is a 100
pound porker that refuses to give itself up.
For three weeks the rogue pig has run amok, eluding capture and
deftly taking the bait from the best-laid traps.
Capt. John Dryden nearly nabbed his nemesis Tuesday, scrambling
after it up a steep ravine. But the pig squeaked through die dragnet.
MI was trying to detain him for questioning, but he failed to yield to
my command to stop,” Dryden said. “Hey, I yelled Suey’ all I could.”
Although the pig is laughed about by many, police say it is a public
nuisance that could cause an accident if it darts out in traffic.
Police phones are ringing three times a day with tips of the pig’s
whereabouts and its latest capers. Members of the community have
been fairing the law into their own hands, organizing small posses.
“God intended for the home to be
the center of a mother’s world,” the
church said. “In Titus 2:5, women are
instructed to be ‘discreet, chaste, keep
ers at home, good and obedient to their
own husbands....’”
The day-care center closed March
14. The church’s pastor, Clyde Gray,
and the day care’s board members
could not be reached for comment;
Gray ’s phone rang unanswered T1&
day.
The closure infuriated parents.
“I don’t think any of us are trying
to copy a man’s role, whatever that
role may be,” Alexander said. “I still
don’t know what those roles are. My
husband does dishes just like I do.”
The Arkansas Department of Hu
man Sendees expedited a permit for
the First Christian Church, also in
Bepyville, so it could accept the 27
children.
Convicted drug dealer
gave cocaine money
to Democrats in “95
NEW YORK (AP)—A convicted
drug dealer wrote a $20,000 check to
the Democratic National Committee
from an account filled with cash from
cocaine sales, The New York limes
reported, quoting congressional inves
tigators.
Jorge Cabrera wrote the check in
November 1995, the limes reported
in today's editions, after a prominent
Democratic fund-raiser met with him
at a Cuban hotel to solicit a campaign
contribution.
Three weeks after the DNC got the
money, Cabrera attended a Christmas
reception at the White House hosted
by Hillary Rodham Clinton and had
his photograph taken with the
Clintons and Vice President A1 Gore.
Congressional investigators told
the Times that Vivian Mannerud, a
businesswoman from Miami, had
promised Cabrera an invitation to a
Miami fund-raising dinner honoring
Gore if he gave the money.
The revelations about die location
of the solicitation of Cabrera’s gift,
plus the source of die money, emerged
from congressional investigators’ con
ducting interviews in Miami, the
Times said.
Mannerud said she could not re
call soliciting a contribution from
Cabrera in Cuba, although die vaguely
remembered meeting him there.
The Times said it is unclear
whether Mannerud or other Demo
cratic fund-raisers knew about
Cabrera’s criminal past. The donation
was returned last October.
“Once we found out about
Cabrera’s past, we immediately re
turned the money, and we fed we have
put this behind us,” said DNC spokes
woman Amy Weiss Tbbe.
1i8flon/Wortj|j^_
Israelis refuse to stop building until terrorism stops
JERUSALEM (AP) — Armed with slingshots, Palestinian youths
fired stones Thursday at Israeli soldiers guarding the tomb of a biblical
matriarch, and both sides hardened their positions over the resumption
of peace talks.
Palestinians said Israel must freeze building of Jewish settlements
before talks can resume. Israel refused, insisting that Yasser Arafat
halt a wave of terrorism. The statements indicated that neither side
planned to show flexibility before a summit Monday between Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Clinton.
Palestinians kept up daily protests that began when Israel began
construction of a Jewish housing project in disputed east Jerusalem,
where Palestinians want to establish their capital.
In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, youths fired stones at Israeli
soldiers guarding Rachel’s Tomb. Soldiers responded with tear gas and
rubber bullets.
Israeli media suggested Clinton will seek a compromise from
Netanyahu — a freeze on Jewish settlement activity in exchange for
adopting Israel’s proposal to speed up negotiations for a permanent
peace agreement.
Chicago man charged in rape and assault of 9-yearold
CHICAGO (AP) — A 25-year-old ex-convict was charged Thurs
day in the rape and beating of the 9-year-old child known as Girl X,
nearly three months after she was found unconscious in a filthy public
housing stairwell. -
Patrick Sykes allegedly raped, choked and poisoned Girl X for sexual
gratification, said Chicago police spokesman Paul Jenkins.
It was “a crime of opportunity. He saw the.victim walking alone and
went after her,” Jenkins said.
Sykes, who was in prison from 1991-93 for attempted criminal sexual
assault, confessed to the brutal attack of Girl X and revealed detail^ not
known to die general public, Jenkins said.
He was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, aggra
vated kidnapping, predatory sexual assault, heinous battery, unlawful
restraint and aggravated sexual assault of a minor, Jenkins said.
Sykes was visiting Girl X’s building in the Cabrini-Green apart
ment complex when he saw her walking up a stairwell, police said.
He pulled the 64-pound girl into a vacant apartment and choked
her into unconsciousness before sexually assaulting ha, Jenkins said.
n Sykes poured a gasoline-type substance down her throat and scrawled •
on her txxly with ajijarker for an “inane i'eason,”'Jenkins said.5'
Jenkins said police were led to Sykes by a tip phoned into police 10
days ago. He wouldn’t reveal details about the caller, but said police
~ had tJbtaifted physical evidence that supported Sykes’ confession.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Giggling and putting up a brave front,
youngsters lined up in two states for shots Thursday to protect them
against hepatitis from a contaminated, illegal shipment of frozen straw
berries.
“Needles don’t scare me. I’ve already taken a lot of shots,” said 9
y ear-old Lucy Kadzhikyan, a fourth-grader at Ramona Elementary in
iKdlywood.
About 2,000 children in California and Georgia received shots Thurs
day, and officials in four others states worked to prevent the spread of
the disease from tainted berries believed to have been served in school
lunches.
One inner-city Los Angeles school served the suspect dessert cups
on Monday after it was ieft off a list of schools warned last Friday.
More than 700 kids and teachers at Mount Vernon Middle School will
have to get shots next week.
So far, the only reported cases of hepatitis attributed to the frozen,
sliced strawberries have been in Michigan, with 175 children and adults
sickened. Children at schools in Iowa, Arizona and Tennessee may
also have eaten the tainted fruit.
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